Another group of people come from the south of Anatolia. They settle in the Peloponnesus. Slowly, culture begins to develop and then a civilization. These people are closely related to the Minoans, However,, they develop a different society and culture. As they trade in the East Mediterranean, they develop the Mycenaean Civilization.

The Mycenaeans lived in small city states. Each city state had a walled citadel with in a walled city.

It is here, within the walled fortress that the king lived and held his court. The small, but wealthy aristocracy were warriors. Their wealth went toward armor, horses, chariots, and weapons. Their job in life was to fight wars.

Most of these Mycenaean Greeks worked providing food. Food was difficult to come by in Greece with so little useful farmland. This meant that the various Mycenenean city states were often at war with one another. They were also a sea going people. They also used the islands of the Aegean to allow them to hop their way to upper and central Anatolia.

The Mycenaeans were warlike. They would struggle to control the Aegean. They would not hesitate to force trade on those who had goods they wanted. They fiercely protected their lines of trade and their profits. They took over Crete and ended the Minoan Civilization after it was weakened by environmental disasters.

Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans lived during what we now call the Bronze Age. It is called the Bronze Age because bronze is the best metal known to men during that time. Bronze is one tenth tin and nine tenths copper.

Mycenaean copper came from Cyprus. The tin for all the Eastern Mediterranean World came from Afghanistan. This made tin very expensive.

What did the Mycenaeans have to trade for copper and especially tin? Make a quick bullet list of items you think the Greeks could have traded.

Let's check our thinking.