LO-1 the European barbarians

the European barbarians

• 3,000 years ago, civilization spread from its Sumerian and Egyptian homelands right across southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa
• in other areas, people were still living the prehistoric village life of the agricultural revolution 

the earliest Europeans

• by 4000 B.C., farming and village life had spread throughout the continent
• the affect of this was an increase in population and wealth 
• by 3500 B.C., people in western Europe were well educated and organized enough to construct ceremonial monuments 
• one of the most impressive monuments built by the early Europeans was the Stonehenge    ------>

the barbarian way of life

• indo-European people moved into Europe, and under the influence of newcomers, the settled people began to form into ethnic groups 
• the earliest people of this region began to speak a language of a mixture of Greek and Latin
• the elite warriors lives centered around strength and courage, comradeship and loyalty, contests and battle
• among all Europeans, all the main business around life was farming 
• they lived in villages or in big farmsteads that housed several related families
• from those, formed tribes
• Europe became inhabited by people who were skilled in farming, metal working, trade, and warfare; who all spoke mostly Ind-European languages
• over a period of 3000 years, the European barbarian peoples came into contact with civilization
• the contacts were sometimes peaceful, and sometimes warlike
• each visit, the barbarians adopted the ways of life of the civilizations they visited
• the first European barbarian people to make contact with civilization were the Greeks
• from this visit, the Greeks developed there own distinctive civilization of their own, the first in Europe, and the first that is "Western"