LO-1 Summary

In the Introduction to chapter 3, the first important word appears.  The word is barbarian.  Barbarian means that they had a distinctive way of life, based on farming and warfare.  In about 2000 B.C., the barbarian peoples started to migrate into Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Egypt.  The Greeks were the first people to have ideas, art forms, and types of government that are still used today. 

 In the first heading, under the first paragraph of LO-1, we learn about the earliest Europeans.  By 4000 B.C., farming and village life had spread throughout the continent of Europe.  In 3500 B.C., there were large groups of people that were organized enough to construct megaliths.  Megaliths are massive rough-cut stones used to construct monuments and tombs.  One of these megaliths is called Stonehenge.  Nobody really knows how the megaliths were created.  They were used for religious ceremonies, especially on the summer and winter solstices.  Megalith in Greek means “large boulder.” 

                The second heading in LO is “The Barbarian Way of Life.”  The barbarians that moved into Europe started speaking Indo-European.  This later turned into Latin and Greek, which is where we get most of our words from today.  Many people in Europe were warriors, charioteers, or horsemen.  These people’s lives were centered on strength, courage, comradeship, loyalty, contests, and battle.   When a leading warrior died, his horses, chariot, bronze/iron swards and daggers, and his gold and silver drinking cups were buried with him. 

The barbarians traveled in tribes.  A tribe is a social and political unit consisting of a group of communities held together by common interests, traditions, and real or mythical ties of kinship.  The word barbarian comes from the Greek word, “barbarous,” meaning “non-Greek.”  During the years 2000 B.C. to 1000 A.D., the European barbarians came into contact with the other civilizations.