• Learning Target:

– I clearly understand how the Minoans

influenced the Greeks!

Could it all be just a legend

with no place to base it out

of??

King Minos

Zeus & Europa = Minos’s Parents

What was the name of the

civilization that lived here?

• Minoans - named

after King Minos who

received his name

from Minos

Kalokarinos the first

archaeologist to

excavate in Crete.

• 2800BCE

King Minos

Deal with

Poseidon helps

create the

Minotaur

Death of the

Minotaur

(Theseus –

Thebes)

Thanks for the cool story, but

what were they really about?

•Main Idea – The

Minoans earned their

living by building

ships and trading!

The Minoans

• Minoan Civilization begins on the island of

Crete around 2800 B.C.E.

– Knossos was their capital and a very rich

city

• 1st civilization in the region that later

became Greece.

A Back in the Day Song

&

Knossos

The Minoans

• 2000BCE-

– Drove off the pirates

• Used a long wooden beam and prow to fight

& slimmer ships that were faster with three sails

– Minoans controlled the Mediterranean Sea!!

Minoan Ship Recreation

Minoan Cities

• No Walls!

• Famous for their grand palaces!

– Center of the city palace instead of ziggurat

– 5 stories high

– Running hot and cold water

– Heated rooms

– Flushing toilets

Minoan Cities

– Near the center/palace – sea captains,

merchants and shipbuilders

– Farther away – artisans

• Houses

– Entrance on the roof (like the

Mesopotamians)

– Later they added wooden doors and

windows with parchment (thin oiled animal

skin)

Rulers & Religion

• Priest –kings

– Ruled by talking to gods and representing

them on earth

• Polytheistic

• Main God/Goddess

– Mother Earth

Mother Earth

Minoan Sports

• Minoans loved sports

• Built world’s first arena

– Could seat 500!!!

• Boxing Matches – Men

• Chariot hunts - Women

• Bull Leaping – Men and Women

Bull Leaping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1L-8xLI_5c

• Around 1450 B.C.E. Minoan civilization

disappears!

• Most likely a cataclysmic event.

– Tsunami & a Volcano

– Mycenaeans took them over

• The Greeks claim it was the fault of the

MINOTAUR!

Fall of the Minoans