Geography of the Myceneans and Minoans

Many people like to look at the art, war, and religion of the Minoans and Mycenaean. I however like to look at the role geography plays in the lives of these people.

As you can see on the map, there are places of- high and low altitude. This gives them the opportunity the farm both kinds of plants that require low or high altitude.

Also their most important resource, the ocean.
This was important for trade, waging wars on other counties, and food.

The way the Balkan peninsula was formed allowed many natural harbors and bays. This helped them trade and have a huge navy.
As you can see the pic at the left shows just some of the main bay ports.

The islands surrounding the mainland of Greece are volcanic. This influenced their religion , believing that these volcanoes were the entrances to the underworld. And that when the volcanoes erupted the gods were mad with man.

-Countryside on the peninsulas' shores often on consisted of hills and high slopes which a vantage point to them because they could build their buildings and houses like look outs. this gave them maximum visibility to oncoming enemies.
-The Minoan architecture usually consisted of a building that was open to the front. today that would seem like a bad idea, but since they lived on the coast, the openness allowed that warm oceanic breeze to past though the house. this was economical and allowed for the design to be set apart from the rest of the worlds architecture. reason for being economical was that they did not have to spend money on heating there houses.

Minoans

On the ancient island of Crete, in the Aegean sea, there was once a civilization that flourished. they called themselves the "Minoans". They specialized in trading at sea and being a peaceful people with a small army or no army at all. Their reason for this is that since they were on an island, they were not raided or attacked as the mainland of Greece was. It seems that the only problem for the Minoan society was space, since they did not engage in warfare they were most likely over populated. All though we do not exactly know, we can predict that these people moved to other parts of Crete and other parts of the Mediterranean islands. which was a good thing because it ultimately resulted in the spreading of their language, religion, and technologies, to the rest of the world.
* this portrays the value of trade to the Minoans*

Mycenaeans

The Mycenaean were a group of people that in the mainland of Greece around 1600-1200 b.c. They were named after their capital Mycenae. They inhabited the land that they took over from the Minoans. This civilization is most likely know for the conquering of troy in the Odyssey, but controversy remains if it is just a myth or actual history. What we do know is actual history is that the Mycenaean were a people familiar and associated with war. They used war to raid other kingdoms. since they always raided other countries, they were always on defense, making sure the other countries did not raid them. This brings other questions. How did a kingdom so advanced in warfare and wealth, come to end, and be as though swept off the earth? Many believe another group know as the "Dorians".
*In the photo above you can see a Mycenaean . . . warrior on a war chariot*