Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interactions

“I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon.”

~Heinrich Schliemann

Dating Scheme after J.-B. Bury (following Evans)

Early Minoan I II III

2800-2500 BCE 2500-2200 BCE 2200-2000 BCE

Early Helladic I

II (arrival of Greeks?) III

Middle Minoan I II III

2000-1900 BCE 1900-1700 BCE 1700-1550 BCE

Middle Helladic I II III

Late Minoan IA

IB (mainland takeover?)

II IIIA IIIB IIIC

1550-1500 BCE 1500-1450 BCE 1450-1400 BCE 1400-1300 BCE 1300-1200 BCE 1200-1050 BCE

Late Helladic IA IB II

IIIA IIIB IIIC

Thera and Crete

Thera (Santorini)-Satellite Image

Minoans and Mycenaeans

Thera explosion ca. 1600 BCE Trading empora: Minoan pottery replaced by Mycenaean

by ca. 1450 BCE Struggle for Mediterranean hegemony between Minoans

and Mycenaeans, ca. 1600-1400 BCE Mycenaean takeover of Crete ca. 1450 BCE Final destruction of Knossos ca. 1380 BCE (Linear B)

Flotilla Mural from Thera

Excursus: Heinrich Schliemann

Excavator of Mycenaean civilization Autodidact; early fascination with Homeric poems “Outsider” to academic establishment

W. Doerpfeld and credibility Entrepreneur and Treasure Hunter Modern Assessments

Heinrich Schliemann

Mycenaean Argolid

Mycenaean Death Mask

Mycenaean Trading Contacts from Minoan Crete

Height of Mycenaean Greece: ca. 1400-1200 BCE (LH II-IIIB)

Cultural Influences (palace architecture, frescoes, seal stones, fine gold work)

Trading Emporia in the Near East and West (Taranto)

General Characteristics

Centralized Administration (king or wanax); Palace as Redistributive Economy

Highly Organized Bureaucracy (Linear B Palace Inventories)

Complex Social Structure Royal Family (wanax: military, legislative, judicial, religious

functions) Nobility (priests and scribes) Merchants (?), Agricultural Workers, and Craftsmen Slaves

Mycenae: Shaft Graves (circles A and B): ca. 1650-1550 BCE; tholos (“beehive”) tombs: ca. 1500 BCE; “Treasury of Atreus”: ca. 1300 BCE

Royal Grave Circle Acirca 1600 BCE

Entrance to “Treasury of Atreus”

Cross-Section of Tholos

Interior of “Treasury of Atreus”Corbeled Arch (ca. 1300-1250 BCE)

Mycenaeans and Minoans

Significant Differences Mycenaean Palaces are closed; strongly fortified Mycenaean art: war motifs predominate

“Warrior Vase”circa 1200 BCE

Vapheio Cup (ca. 1400-1300 BCE)

Citadel of Mycenae

Aerial View of Citadel at Mycenae

Lioness Gate at Mycenae

Writing: Linear B Script

Monopoly of the Elites Linear B script virtually unchanged

destruction at Knossos, ca. 1380 BCE (following Biers)

destruction at Pylos, ca. 1250 BCE

Linear B Tablets

End of Mycenaean Civilization and Trojan War

Back to Lecture One Thirteenth and twelfth-century Mediterranean BCE context:

Turmoil in the Mediterranean basin and the Near East (“Sea Peoples”). ca. 1200 BCE--Egypt weakened; Hittite empire collapses; destruction at Mycenaean centers (Tiryns, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes; ca. 1150 BCE: final destruction at Mycenae)

Greece--lines of trade disrupted (e.g. contact with Cyprus, a source of copper, is broken) Fortifications strengthened at Mycenae; secret passageway to

underground cistern Secret passageways to water sources at Athens and Tiryns Isthmian Wall Archaeological Evidence of Troy VII A--a last gasp Mycenaean

expedition?

Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization

Explanations: Intruder, Environmental, Class Conflict

Tradition: return of Heracleidae and the Dorian invasion (Sparta)

Problem: tradition dates invasion to ca. 1100 BCE; archaeological evidence indicates a date closer to 1200 BCE

Identifying the Dorians? Invaders or Subject Population within Mycenaean society?

Alternatives: climatic--famine leads to internal social revolutions; inter-city wars

Trojan War; Nostoi; Egyptian records and Achaeans (Sea Peoples)