Mycenae and Bronze Age GreeceGRK 102, 3/23/2010

Questions/CommentsMask of Agamemnonauthenticity: debateddate: too early/lateMycenaes end...Who?Why?Myths...Who created?Why?When?

Iliad 2.569, 576-7 [ . . . ]

Time Line: Prehistoric Greecebased on Ancient Greece, 1999, Oxford

PeriodEvents3000-2100 Early Bronze AgeVillage organization2100-1600 Middle Bronze Age2100-1900 Arrival of proto-Greeks from Northwest? Anatolia?1600-1150 Late Bronze Age1600 Palace cultures emerge (Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes, etc.)1500-1450 Mycenaeans occupy Crete1250-1225 Trojan War (??)1200-1100 Palace systems collapse

Lion Gate, Mycenae

Megaron (great hall), Pylos

Women (fresco), Pylos, 1200s BCE

Armor from Dendra (Argolid). Boars tusk helmet. Late 1400s BCE

Praying psi goddess figurine. Mycenae.

Tholos tomb, Mycenae.

Tholos tomb entrance (reconstructed), Mycenae.

Mask of Agamemnon, Mycenae, 1500s BCE

palace wanax (king)demos (village) basileus (chieftain)demos (village) basileus (chieftain)demos (village) basileus (chieftain)Palace Society: Redistributive EconomyProduce to palace, where stored; then redistributed back to villages.

Linear-B clay tablet. Prehistoric Greek writing.

Note use of for . (kwe) = (and). - = fem. gen. plur. = (not prays but claims). = possession-holding (as if possession + to have). : later = useful, so that on which use is paid.A Linear-B Inscription

Fall of Palace Societiesinvasion by Dorians??Sea Peoples (Mediterranean marauders)?systems collapse (economic/political)?combination?

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