empires of the near east - kathleen moore of the near east . overview of greek culture ... people of...
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Overview of Greek Culture
• Minoans, center in Knossos on Crete, 2900-1150 BCE. Linear A.
• Bronze Age: Mycenean Era, 1600-1200. Age of Trojan War. Linear B.
• Dark Ages: 1200-800. Writing lost. • Geometric period 800-600. Age of
Homer.
Schliemann’s Excavations • 1870-73: Nine “Troys”: Homer’s Troy=Troy
II. Treasure of Priam, many small finds • Spends years digging at other Mycenean
sites • 1878-79: Homer’s Troy=Troy III • 1882: Circuit wall of Troy II found. • 1889-90: At edge of mound, found grey “Minyan” ware, ceramics and structures like other Mycenean sites. At Troy VI, 1000 years later than Troy II.
• Schliemann dies in 1891.
Post-Schliemann discoveries • 1891-92: Flinders Petrie cross dates
Mycenean pottery found in Egypt in a secure chronological context
• 1893: Dörpfeld finds great walls of Troy VI encircling the Early Bronze Age city (Troy II). Destruction layer.
• 1932-38: Blegen. Troy has 50 strata in 9 cities. Troy VI destroyed by earthquake: foundation walls shaken
• Troy VIIa: Rebuilt on these foundations, small, no imported ceramics. Also destroyed but by fire.
“For my part, I have always firmly believed in the Trojan war; my full faith in the tradition has never been shaken by mode and criticism, and to this faith of mine I am indebted for the discovery of Troy and its treasure.”
-Heinrich Schliemann
“A fortress was found to have stood on the very spot where Homeric tradition placed it . . . . From it follows the historical reality of the Trojan War. . . . We shall therefore not hesitate, starting from the fact that the Trojan war was a real war fought out in the place . . . described in Homer, to draw the further conclusion that some at least of the heroes whom Homer names . . . were real persons . . . who did actually fight in that war.” -Walter Leaf