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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The <OpenstaxTerm>Greek Dark Ages</OpenstaxTerm> (1100–800 BCE) persisted after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization but began to recede around 800 BCE. From this point and for the next few centuries, Greece experienced a revival in which a unique and vibrant culture emerged and evolved into what we recognize today as Classical Greek civilization. This era, from 800 to 500 BCE, is called <OpenstaxTerm>Archaic Greece</OpenstaxTerm> after <OpenstaxEm>arche</OpenstaxEm>, Greek for “beginning.”
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Greek renaissance was marked by rapid population growth and the organization of valleys and islands into independent city-states, each known as a <OpenstaxTerm>polis</OpenstaxTerm> (Greek for city-state). Towns arose around a hill fortress or <OpenstaxEm>acropolis</OpenstaxEm> to which inhabitants could flee in times of danger. Each polis had its own government and religious cults, and each built monumental temples for the gods, such as the temple of Hera, wife of Zeus and protector of marriage and the home, at the city-state of Argos. Though politically disunited, the Greeks, who began to refer to themselves as <OpenstaxTerm>Hellenes</OpenstaxTerm> after the mythical king Hellen, did share a common language and religion. The most famous of their sacred sites were <OpenstaxTerm>Delphi</OpenstaxTerm>, near <OpenstaxTerm>Mount Parnassus</OpenstaxTerm> in central Greece and seat of the oracle of <OpenstaxTerm>Apollo</OpenstaxTerm>, the god of prophecy, and <OpenstaxTerm>Olympia</OpenstaxTerm> in southern Greece, sacred to Zeus, who ruled the pantheon of gods at Mount Olympus (<a href="#fig-00001">Figure 6.9</a>). Beginning in 776 BCE, according to <OpenstaxTerm>Aristotle</OpenstaxTerm>, Greeks traveled to Olympia every four years to compete in athletic contests in Zeus’s honor, the origin of the <OpenstaxTerm>Olympic Games</OpenstaxTerm>.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00001" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/6b706da479572f53c90851eda0ed9299889127fd" alt="An image of a stone bust of a man is shown on a gray and black marble draped background and pedestal with the letters “GIOVL” carved at the bottom. The man shows shoulder length curly hair and full beard in a light brown color. His eyes are almond shaped and he has a large nose. Over his naked lighter beige left shoulder a cloth is draped." mediaType="image/jpg" width="500" height="761" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="500">
	Figure 6.9 This larger-than-life marble bust of the Greek god Zeus is believed to be a Roman copy of a fourth-century BCE Greek original. It was found in Otricoli, Italy, in 1775. (credit: “So-called “Zeus of Otricoli”. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century” by “Jastrow”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> The Past Meets the Present </OpenstaxNoteTitle> <OpenstaxH3> The Olympic Games </OpenstaxH3>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Japan included more than three hundred events in thirty-three sports, including new entries like skateboarding, rock climbing, and surfing. Modern games have been held since 1896, when the new International Olympic Committee started the tradition, but as the name suggests, the inspiration came from Ancient Greece.
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	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Athletic events in Ancient Greece were important displays of strength and endurance. There were contests at the sanctuaries at Delphi and Nemea (near Argos), but none was as renowned as the Olympic Games, held at the sanctuary in Olympia that was dedicated to Zeus. Contestants came from all over the Greek world, including Sicily and southern Italy.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Unlike the skateboarding and surfing of modern games, the ancient games focused on skills necessary for war: running, jumping, throwing, and wrestling. Over time, sports that included horses, like chariot racing, were also incorporated. Such events were referenced in Homer’s <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Iliad</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm>, when the hero Achilles held athletic contests to honor his fallen comrade Patroclus and awarded prizes or <OpenstaxEm>athla</OpenstaxEm> (from which the word “athlete” is derived). The centerpiece of the ancient games was the two-hundred-yard sprint, or <OpenstaxEm>stadion</OpenstaxEm>, from which comes the modern word “stadium” (<a href="#fig-00002">Figure 6.10</a>).
	</OpenstaxParagraph><OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00002" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/98a213bd43a3058cb6e76850c784c3d648041866" alt="An image of a rectangle section of clay in the middle of a field of green and brown grass is shown. Green trees line the backdrop and a blue sky is seen in the top left section of the image." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1650" height="1239" />
	<OpenstaxFigureText width="1650">
		Figure 6.10 These are the ruins of the original Olympic stadion at Olympia. The track was made of hard-packed clay for a race to be won by the fastest athlete in the Greek world. (credit: “Olympic Race Track in modern Olympia, Greece” by “Dwaipayanc”/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
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		Unlike the modern games, where attendees pay great sums to watch athletes compete, admission to the ancient games was free—for men. Women were forbidden from watching and, if they dared to attend, could pay with their lives. Competitors were likely locals with proven abilities, though over time professional athletes came to dominate the sport. They could earn a good living from prizes and other rewards gained through their talent and celebrity, and their statues adorned the sanctuary at Olympia. The poet <OpenstaxTerm>Pindar</OpenstaxTerm> in the early fifth century BCE was renowned for composing songs to honor them when they returned home as victors. The Olympic Games continued to be celebrated until 393 CE, when they were halted during the reign of the Christian Roman emperor <OpenstaxTerm>Theodosius</OpenstaxTerm>.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxUl>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			Why might the organizers of the modern Olympic Games have named their contest after the ancient Greek version?
		</OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			How are the ancient games similar to the modern Olympic Games? How are they different?
		</OpenstaxLi>
	</OpenstaxUl>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The start of the Archaic period also witnessed the reemergence of specialization in Greek society. Greek artists became more sophisticated and skilled in their work. They often copied artistic styles from <OpenstaxTerm>Egypt</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>Phoenicia</OpenstaxTerm>, where Greek merchants were engaging in long-distance trade. At the site of <OpenstaxTerm>Al-Mina</OpenstaxTerm>, along the Mediterranean coast in Syria where historians believe the Phoenician <OpenstaxTerm>alphabet</OpenstaxTerm> was first transmitted to the Greeks, Greek and Phoenician merchants exchanged goods. Far to the west, on the island of <OpenstaxTerm>Ischia</OpenstaxTerm> off the west coast of Italy, Greeks were competing with Phoenician merchants for trade with local peoples, whose iron ore was in strong demand. Thanks to their contact and trade with the Phoenicians, Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their own language, making an important innovation by adding vowels (a, e, i, o, u). The eighth century BCE thus witnessed the return of literacy and the end of the Aegean world’s relative isolation after the interlude of the <OpenstaxTerm>Greek Dark Ages</OpenstaxTerm>.
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	The eighth century BCE was also the period in which the epic poems the <OpenstaxEm>Iliad</OpenstaxEm> and the <OpenstaxEm>Odyssey</OpenstaxEm> were composed, traditionally attributed to the blind poet <OpenstaxTerm>Homer</OpenstaxTerm>. While historians debate whether Homer was a historical or a legendary figure, they agree the epics originated in the songs of oral poets in the Greek Dark Ages. In the eighth century BCE, using the Greek alphabet, scribes wrote these stories down for the first time.
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	As the population expanded during the Archaic period, a shortage of farmland brought dramatic changes. Many Greeks in search of land to farm left their homes and founded colonies along the shores of the Black Sea and the northern Aegean, in North Africa at <OpenstaxTerm>Cyrene</OpenstaxTerm> in Libya, and in southern Gaul (modern France) at <OpenstaxTerm>Massalia</OpenstaxTerm> (Marseille). The largest number were on the island of <OpenstaxTerm>Sicily</OpenstaxTerm> and in southern Italy, the region the Greeks referred to as <OpenstaxTerm>Magna Graecia</OpenstaxTerm> or “Greater Greece.” When Greeks established a colony, it became an independent <OpenstaxTerm>polis</OpenstaxTerm> with its own laws. The free adult males of the community divided the colony’s land into equal lots. Thus, a new idea developed in the colonies that citizenship in a community was associated with equality and participation in the governing of the state.
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<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In the society of <OpenstaxTerm>Archaic Greece</OpenstaxTerm>, the elite landowners, or <OpenstaxEm>aristoi</OpenstaxEm>, traditionally controlled the government and the priesthoods in the city-states. But thanks to the new ideas from the colonies, the common people, or <OpenstaxEm>kakoi</OpenstaxEm>, began demanding land and a voice in the governing of the polis. They were able to gain leverage in these negotiations because <OpenstaxTerm>city-state</OpenstaxTerm>s needed troops in their wars for control of farmland. The nobility relied on the wealthier commoners, who could afford to equip themselves with iron weapons and armor. In some city-states, the <OpenstaxEm>aristoi</OpenstaxEm> and the <OpenstaxEm>kakoi</OpenstaxEm> were not able to resolve their differences peaceably. In such cases, a man who had strong popular support in the city would seize power and rule over the city. The Greeks referred to such populist leaders as <OpenstaxTerm>tyrant</OpenstaxTerm>s.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In the sixth century BCE, the difficulties caused by the land shortage were relieved by the invention of <OpenstaxTerm>coinage</OpenstaxTerm>. A century before, adopting a practice of the kings of <OpenstaxTerm>Lydia</OpenstaxTerm> in western Asia Minor (Turkey), Athens stamped silver pieces with the image of an owl, a symbol of wisdom often associated with the goddess <OpenstaxTerm>Athena</OpenstaxTerm> (See <a href="#fig-00003">Figure 6.11</a>). Instead of weighing precious metals to use as currency or arguing over the value of bartered goods to trade, merchants could use coins as a simple medium of exchange. The <OpenstaxEm>agora</OpenstaxEm>, or place of assembly in each city-state, thus became a marketplace to buy and sell goods. In the sixth century BCE, this rise of a market economy stimulated economic growth as farmers, artisans, and merchants discovered stronger incentives to produce and procure more goods for profit. For example, farmers learned how to produce more food with the land they already possessed rather than always seeking more land. The economic growth of this period is reflected in the many new temples the Greek city-states constructed then.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/bebdf479df0215ee3bb881da768f092ef61e29c6" alt="Two deep silver round coins are seen on a dark black background. Both coins edges are bumpy and the images on both are raised. The coin on the left shows a woman facing to the right with large almond-shaped eyes, a large nose, and full parted lips. She wears adornments in her hair and a thick necklace collar around her neck. The coin on the right shows an owl with large round eyes, a pointed beak, legs with talons and feathers. The letters “AOE” are on the right side of the coin." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1100" height="541" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1100">
	Figure 6.11 This Athenian silver coin from the fifth century BCE depicts Athena on one side and an owl, Athena’s symbol, on the other. (credit: “Athens owl coin” by “yuichi”/Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire