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Lecture 6 Aegean Bronze Age

HIST 332 Spring 2012

Timeline of Greece

• homo erectus 1.7 mill. BP

• homo sapiens 35,000 BP

• Stone Age 9500-5000 BCE

• Neolithic 5000-3000 BCE

• EBA 3000-2300 BCE

• MBA 2300-1800 BCE

• LBA (1800-1150 BCE)

• Dark Age (1150-800 BCE)

• Archaic (800-480 BCE)

• Classical (480-338 BCE)

• Hellenistic (338-146 BCE)

• Roman (146 BCE-330 CE)

• Byzantine (330-1204 CE)

• Crusader (1204-1261 CE)

• Byzantine (1261-1453 CE)

• Ottoman (1453-1921 CE)

• Nation of Greece (1921- 1981)

• European Union (1981- )

Natural Geography of “Greece”

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Middle Bronze Age 2300-1800 BCE

~2300 BCE

• Cycladic sites are wiped out

– never return and revert to simple village existence for 500 years

• absence of “Mother Goddess” figures

– replaced by male figurines

Possible causes

• Indo-European invasion?

Bronze Age Aegean Civilizations

Minoan Culture

Oldest in Mediterranean (Neolithic)

Vast sea-trading network

Ethnographically unique

• not Indo-European

• not Semitic

• autochthonous

– auto = self

– chthonos = “spring up from the ground”

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Plan of the Palace of Knossos

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Thalassocracy = Ocean rule

Sir Arthur Evans argued for pax Minoica "Minoan peace”

• Many argue that there is little evidence for ancient Minoan fortifications

– Minoans frequently show 'weapons' in their art, but only in ritual contexts

• no evidence exists for a Minoan army, or for Minoan domination of peoples outside Crete

New Evidence of Minoan Fortifications

In May 2010 archaeologists from the University of Buffalo unearthed a system of beach fortifications from the town of Gournia

• Seems to cast doubt on the idea that the Minoans were a peaceful civilization

• Tombs uncovered by Hawes and other excavators have shown people buried with swords.

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Thera explodes ~1648 BCE

Akrotiri in Crete

Mycenaean Timeline

3000-2000 BCE Early Helladic

2000-1675 BCE Middle Helladic

1650 Explosion of Thera

1675-1450 BCE Late Helladic I and II • Grave Circle A and B

1425- 1340 BCE LH IIIA • Minoan Palaces occupied by Mycenaeans

1340-1190 BCE LH IIIB • tholos tomb of Clytemnestra • Treasury of Atreus • Linear B Tablets

1190-1020 BCE LH III C (Sub-Mycenaean) • “Warrior Vase”

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Mycenaean Civilization

• Indo-European

– spoke a form of proto-Greek

• Palace kings controlled land within a day’s ride of palace

• highly stratified society

– nobles

– workers

– slaves

Palaces:

took on a more militaristic profile

• Mycenae

• Tiryns

• Pylos

• Knossos

• Lerna

• Orchomenos

• Corinth

• Athens

• Miletus

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Linear B related to Greek Economic tablets recorded production and storage of the palace centers

Army organization

• Each citadel organized manpower for combat

• General 2nd highest ranking official in Mycenaean society

• Palace organized the centralized production of arms, armor and chariots

• Chariot tablets

Mycenaean Conquest of Crete 1450-1400 BCE

Mainland Greeks move into former Minoan territory

• Reestablish trade networks and rebuild palaces

• Frescos depict warfare

• Develop writing system from Minoans called Linear B

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seal from Padiasos Crete ~1460 BCE

fresco from Pylos dated LH IIIA/B (1350 BCE)

Mycenaean Chariots

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small ivory representation of boar tusks helmet LH IIIB.

fresco fragment from Orchomenos LH IIIB.

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Hittite fragment of clay vessel from Bogazkoy dated around 1350 BC. Interpreted by the scholars as one of the Ahhiyawa (Achaeans)

A complete bronze armor in the tomb n. 12 of Dendra dated between LH II and LH IIB (1450-1400 BCE)

bronze greaves are from the warrior grave A in Kallithea dated about LH IIIC Pylos dated around 1300 BCE

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Change in Mycenaean arms and weaponry c. 1200

New helmets Long spears New shield shapes grieves

Collapse of the Bronze Age

Invasions/Migrations

1200-1000 BCE Ammorites