mycenaean collapse

8/22/2019 Mycenaean Collapse

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The Collapse of MycenaeanCivilization


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LHIIIB-LHIIIC:

1320/1300-1050/1030 2 centuries ofdisasters:

1250-1050 bc

Multiple destructionsacross Mycenaeanworld


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LHIIIB1:

Signs ofTrouble? Mycenae

Zygouries Thebes Gla

Tiryns Athens Isthmus Wall


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Destruction at Mycenae

Housesoutside

citadel(south ofGraveCircle B)destroyedby fire


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Fire

Accidentalor

Deliberate? Oil from stirrup

jars poured

over floor ofHouse of theOil Merchant


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Cistern &

Expanded,StrengthenedFortifications


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GlaMassive engineering

project to drainCopaic Basin Fortified granary? Drainage channels

destroyed


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Tiryns Enclosure of lower citadel Syringes

(underground water supply)


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Pylos: Watchers by the Sea


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Further Disasters in LHIIIB2

Earthquake & Fire atTiryns, Mycenae & Midea

Mycenaean Collapse dueto Natural Disasters?

But Fire (not earthquake)destroys Menelaion,Nichoria & palace at Pylos


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Population Movements

in/before LHIIIC Massive

depopulation ofMessenia Depopulation of

Argolid, Lakonia

Influx in Achaia


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Mapping the Movement

Influx in Attica,Ionian Islands,Crete, Cyprus

North-Southline ofdepopulation

East-West

populationincrease


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What is Happening


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Social Unrest

Neo-MarxistTheory

Peasant revolt

against elite? Thersites in

Iliad But why

abandonfertile land?


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Mycenaean States

at War? New fortifications due to threat fromoutside orinside Mycenaean World?

Watchers by the Sea => fear of

piratic neighboring Mycenaeans?

Myths of Conflict post Trojan War=> Internecine Strife?

Eteocles and Polyneices: Theban vs.Argos?


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Splits within the Elites? Mycenae Atreus vs.

Thyestes

Agamemnon vs.Aegisthus& Clytemnestra


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Climate Change

across EasternMediterranean?

Dendrochronology saysdrought in Anatolia mayhave destroyed HittiteEmpire

Possible but Unprovenfor GreeceBut why so manypalaces destroyed at thesame time?


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Historic

Evidence? In the seventh book of his

History Herodotus

recounts that Crete wasso beset by famine andpestilence after theTrojan War that it

became virtuallyuninhabited until itsresettlement by laterinhabitants.


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Invasion of

the SeaPeoples Egyptian Sources

of C13th-C12thBC Attacked Levant,

Cyprus, Anatolia,Egypt But Cycladic islands

seem unscathed


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Origins of Sea Peoples?

R III B C


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Ramses III: 1176 B.C.Medinet Habu Inscription

"No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti,Qode, Carchemish, Arzawa and Alasiya on, beingcut off at one time. A camp was set up in one place in

Amurru. They desolated its people, and its land waslike that which has never come into being. They werecoming toward Egypt, while the flame was preparedbefore them. Their confederation was the Peleset,Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen, and Weshesh, landsunited. They laid their hands upon the land as far asthe circuit of the earth, their hearts confident andtrusting: 'Our plans will succeed!'

h


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Cut-and-thrust swords asevidence of Northern

invaders?


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Good Evidence for Sea Peoples in

Egypt but swords in Greece in goodMycenaean contexts: graves, etc.


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Evidence for Barbarian

Invaders? Handmade BurnishedWare (HMBW) =Barbarian or DorianWare found at sites incentral & southernGreece, Achaea, TroyVIIb

Intrusive population ofsmall bands of piratesfrom Central Europe?


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Evidence from

Myth? Tradition of Dorian

Invasion

Spartans claim decentfrom Dorians Athenians claim to have

repulsed Dorians

Who are the Dorians? The Heracleidae? Multiple waves of

invasions fits fits evidence& myth


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Disruption of

Trade Fragile palaceeconomies pushed

over the edge bycollapse of traderoutes

But, again, why

abandon fertile land?


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Change in Warfare

Light-armed, swift-moving Infantry withJavelin replacesChariot-based warfare

Mycenaean, Hittite, &other Near Easternempires collapse

But War Chariotdepiction more popularthan ever


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Confusing Possibilities

(a) Internal Social Upheaval (b) Mycenaean States at war

(c) Climate Change (d) Invasion from Outside theAegean World

(e) Changes in the Nature of

Warfare Economic Factors


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Film time?

Topics & Questions

Opportunity to boost

grade in discussionclass

mycenaean collapse

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