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Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interactions

Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interactions. “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon. ” ~ Heinrich Schliemann. Dating Scheme after J.-B. Bury (following Evans). Thera and Crete. Thera (Santorini)-Satellite Image. Minoans and Mycenaeans. Thera explosion ca . 1600 BCE

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Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interactions

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  1. Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interactions “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon.” ~Heinrich Schliemann

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

  3. Thera and Crete

  4. Thera (Santorini)-Satellite Image

  5. 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 Knossosca. 1380 BCE (Linear B)

  6. Flotilla Mural from Thera

  7. 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

  8. Heinrich Schliemann

  9. Mycenaean Argolid

  10. Mycenaean Death Mask

  11. 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)

  12. 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

  13. Royal Grave Circle Acirca 1600 BCE

  14. Entrance to “Treasury of Atreus”

  15. Cross-Section of Tholos

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

  17. Mycenaeans and Minoans • Significant Differences • Mycenaean Palaces are closed; strongly fortified • Mycenaean art: war motifs predominate

  18. “Warrior Vase”circa 1200 BCE

  19. Vapheio Cup (ca. 1400-1300 BCE)

  20. Citadel of Mycenae

  21. Aerial View of Citadel at Mycenae

  22. Lioness Gate at Mycenae

  23. 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

  24. Linear B Tablets

  25. 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?

  26. Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization

  27. 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)

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