mycenaean greece and cross-cultural interaction “i have gazed on the face of agamemnon”...
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Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interaction
“I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon” ~Heinrich Schliemann
Mycenaean Death Mask
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
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 Redistribution Center
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, “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
The “Warrior Vase”circa 1200 BCE
Vapheio Cup (ca. 1400-1300 BCE)
The Citadel of Mycenae
Aerial View of Citadel at Mycenae
The Lioness Gate at Mycenae
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
The Mycenaean Argolid
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
The End of Mycenaean Civilization and the Trojan War
Thirteenth and twelfth century Mediterranean 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 rebuilt at Mycenae; secret passageway to underground cistern
Secret passageways to water sources at Athens and Tiryns The 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
Problem: tradition dates invasion to ca. 1100 BCE; archaeological evidence indicates a date closer to 1200 BCE
Identifying the Dorians? Alternatives: climatic--famine leads to
internal social revolutions; inter-city wars Joseph Tainter’s theory of complexity and
collapse