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Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainlandancient Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is commonly used in archaeology and art history. It was intended to complement two parallel terms, "Cycladic", identifying approximately the same sequence with reference to the Aegean Bronze Age, and "Minoan", with reference to the civilization of Crete.

The scheme applies primarily to pottery and is a relative dating system. The pottery at any given site typically can be ordered into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" on the basis of style and technique. The total time window allowed for the site is then divided into these periods proportionately. As it turns out, there is a correspondence between "Early" over all Greece, etc. Also, some "absolute dates", or dates obtained by non-comparative methods, can be used to date the periods and are preferable whenever they can be obtained. However, the relative structure was devised before the age of carbon-dating (most of the excavations were performed then as well). Typically, only relative dates are obtainable and form a structure for the characterization of Greek prehistory. Objects are generally dated by the pottery of the site found in associative contexts. Other objects can be arranged into early, middle and late as well, but pottery is used as a marker.

The three terms "Helladic", "Cycladic", and "Minoan" refer to location of origin. Thus "Middle Minoan" objects might be found in the Cyclades, but they are not on that account Middle Cycladic. The scheme tends to be less applicable in areas on the periphery of the Aegean, such as the Levant. Pottery there might imitate Helladic or Minoan cultural models and yet be locally manufactured.

Helladic society and culture have antecedents in the Neolithic period in Greece with many innovations being developed and manifesting during the second and third phases of the Early Helladic period (2650–2050/2000 BC) such as bronze metallurgy, monumental architecture and fortifications, a hierarchical social organization, and vigorous contacts with other areas of the Aegean. These innovations would undergo further changes during the Middle Helladic period (2000/1900–1550 BC), marked by the spread of Minyan ware, and the Late Helladic period (1550–1050 BC), which was the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished.

Grave Circle A, Mycenae Late Helladic 16th century BC.

Contents

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• 1 Periodization
• 2 Early Helladic (EH)
  • 2.1 Early Helladic I (EHI)
  • 2.2 Early Helladic II (EHII)
  • 2.3 Early Helladic III (EHIII)
• 3 Middle Helladic (MH)
• 4 Late Helladic (LH)
  • 4.1 Late Helladic I (LHI)
  • 4.2 Late Helladic II (LHII)
  • 4.3 Late Helladic III (LHIII)
• 5 Fortified settlements
• 6 Population
• 7 See also
• 8 References
  • 8.1 Citations
  • 8.2 Sources
• 9 External links

Periodization[edit]

Stirrup vase with octopus decor, Rhodes, Late Helladic III C1, ca. 1200–1100 BC (Louvre).

The "Early", "Middle" and "Late" scheme can be applied at different levels. Rather than use such cumbersome terms as "Early Early", archaeologists by convention use I, II, III for the second level, A, B, C for the third level, 1, 2, 3 for the fourth level and A, B, C for the fifth. Not all levels are present at every site. If additional levels are required, another "Early", "Middle" or "Late" can be appended. The Helladic period is subdivided as:

Period	Approximate Date
Early Helladic I	3200/3100–2650 BC[1]
Early Helladic II	2650–2200/2150 BC[2]
Early Helladic III	2200/2150–2050/2000 BC[3]
Middle Helladic	2000/1900–1550 BC[3][4]
Late Helladic I	1550–1500 BC
Late Helladic II	1500–1400 BC
Late Helladic III	1400–1050 BC

Early Helladic (EH)[edit]

Further information: Aegean civilization and Proto-Greek

The Early Helladic period (or EH) of Bronze Age Greece is generally characterized by the Neolithic agricultural population importing bronze and copper, as well as using rudimentary bronze-working techniques first developed in Anatolia with which they had cultural contacts.^[5] The EH period corresponds in time to the Old Kingdom in Egypt. Important EH sites are clustered on the Aegean shores of the mainland in Boeotia and Argolid (Manika, Lerna, Pefkakia, Thebes, Tiryns) or coastal islands such as Aegina(Kolonna) and Euboea (Lefkandi) and are marked by pottery showing influences from western Anatolia and the introduction of the fast-spinning version of the potter's wheel. The large "longhouse" called a megaron is introduced in EH II. The infiltration of Anatolian cultural models (i.e. "Lefkandi I") was not accompanied by widespread site destruction.

Early Helladic I (EHI)[edit]

The Early Helladic I period (or EHI), also known as the "Eutresis culture", is characterized by the presence of unslipped and burnished or red slipped and burnished pottery at Korakou and other sites (metal objects, however, were extremely rare during this period).^[6] In terms of ceramics and settlement patterns, there is considerable continuity between the EHI period and the preceding Final Neolithic period (or FN); changes in settlement location during the EHI period are attributed to alterations in economic practices.^[6]

Early Helladic II (EHII)[edit]

The transition from Early Helladic I to the Early Helladic II period (or EHII) occurred rapidly and without disruption where multiple socio-cultural innovations were developed such as metallurgy (i.e. bronze-working), a hierarchical social organization, and monumental architecture and fortifications.^[7] Changes in settlement during the EHII period were accompanied with alterations in agricultural practices (i.e. oxen-driven plow).^[8]

Early Helladic III (EHIII)[edit]

Remains of a building fromOlympia, Greece Early Helladic III 2150-2000 BC.

The Early Helladic II period came to an end at Lerna with the destruction of the "House of Tiles", a corridor house.^[9] The nature of the destruction of EHII sites was at first attributed to an invasion of Greeks and/or Indo-Europeans during the Early Helladic III period (or EHIII);^[10] however, this is no longer maintained given the lack of uniformity in the destruction of EHII sites and the presence of EHII–EHIII/MH continuity in settlements such as Lithares, Phlius, Manika, etc.^[11] Furthermore, the presence of "new/intrusive" cultural elements such as apsidal houses, terracotta anchors, shaft-hole hammer-axes, ritual tumuli, and intramural burials precede the EHIII period in Greece and are in actuality attributed to indigenous developments (i.e. terracotta anchors from Boeotia; ritual tumuli from Ayia Sophia in Neolithic Thessaly), as well as continuous contacts during the EHII–MH period between mainland Greece and various areas such as western Asia Minor, the Cyclades, Albania, and Dalmatia.^[12] Changes in climate also appear to have contributed to the significant cultural transformations that occurred in Greece between the EHII period and the EHIII period (ca. 2200 BCE).^[13]

Middle Helladic (MH)[edit]

Further information: Minyans and Minyan ware

In Greece, the Middle Helladic period (or MH) was a period of cultural retrogression, which first manifested in the preceding EHIII period.^[3][4] The MH period is characterized by the wide-scale emergence of Minyan ware, which may be directly related to the people whom ancient Greek historians called Minyans; a group of monochrome burnished pottery from Middle Helladic sites was conventionally dubbed "Minyan" ware by Troy's discoverer Heinrich Schliemann.

Gray Minyan ware was first identified as the pottery introduced by a Middle Bronze Age migration;^[14] the theory, however, is outdated as excavations at Lerna in the 1950s revealed the development of pottery styles to have been continuous (i.e. the fine gray burnished pottery of the EHIII Tiryns culture was the direct progenitor of Minyan ware).^[15] In general, painted pottery decors are rectilinear and abstract until Middle Helladic III, when Cycladic and Minoan influences inspired a variety of curvilinear and even representational motifs.

The Middle Helladic period corresponds in time to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Settlements draw more closely together and tend to be sited on hilltops. Middle Helladic sites are located throughout the Peloponnese and central Greece (including sites in the interior of Aetolia such as Thermon) as far north as the Spercheios River valley. Malthi in Messenia and Lerna V are the only Middle Helladic sites to have been thoroughly excavated.

Late Helladic (LH)[edit]

Gold Mask of Agamemnon, Late Helladic 16th century BC.

The Late Helladic period (or LH) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished, under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work with a syllabic script, Linear B, which has been deciphered as Greek. LH is divided into I, II, and III; of which I and II overlap Late Minoan ware and III overtakes it. LH III is further subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. The table below provides the approximate dates of the Late Helladic phases (LH) on the Greek mainland.

Period	Approximate Date
LHI	1550–1500 BC
LHIIA	1500–1450 BC
LHIIB	1450–1400 BC
LHIIIA1	1400–1350 BC
LHIIIA2	1350–1300 BC
LHIIIB1	1300–1230 BC
LHIIIB2	1230–1190 BC
LHIIIC (Early)	1190–1130 BC
LHIIIC (Middle)	1130–1090 BC
LHIIIC (Late)	1090–1060 BC
Sub-Mycenean	1060–1000 BC
Proto-Geometric	1000 BC

Late Helladic I (LHI)[edit]

Mycenaean armour, 1400 BC.

The LHI pottery is known from the fill of the Shaft Graves of Lerna and the settlements of Voroulia and Nichoria (Messenia), Ayios Stephanos, (Laconia) and Korakou. Furumark divided the LH in phases A and B, but Furumark's LHIB has been reassigned to LHIIA by Oliver Dickinson. Some recent C-14 dates from the Tsoungiza site north of Mycenae indicate LHI there was dated to between 1675/1650 and 1600/1550 BCE, which is earlier than the assigned pottery dates by about 100 years. The Thera eruption also occurred during LHI (and LCI and LMIA), variously dated within the 1650–1625 BCE span.

Not found at Thera, but extant in late LHI from Messenia, and therefore likely commencing after the eruption, is a material culture known as "Peloponnesian LHI".^[16] This is characterised by "tall funnel-like Keftiu cups of Type III"; "small closed shapes such as squat jugs decorated with hatched loops ('rackets') or simplified spirals"; "dark-on-light lustrous-painted motifs", which "include small neat types of simple linked spiral such as varieties of hook-spiral or wave-spiral (with or without small dots in the field), forms of the hatched loop and double-axe, and accessorial rows of small dots and single or double wavy lines"; also, the "ripple pattern" on "Keftiu" cups. These local innovations continued into the LHIIA styles throughout the mainland.

Late Helladic II (LHII)[edit]

The description of the LHIIA is mainly based on the material from Kourakou East Alley. Domestic and Palatial shapes are distinguished. There are strong links between LHIIA and LMIB. LHIIB began before the end of LMIB, and sees a lessening of Cretan influences. Pure LHIIB assemblages are rare and originate from Tiryns, Asine and Korakou. C-14 dates from Tsoungiza indicate LHII was dated to between 1600/1550 and 1435/1405 BCE, the start of which is earlier than the assigned pottery date by about 100 years, but the end of which nearly corresponds to the pottery phase. In Egypt, both periods of LHII correspond with the beginning of its "Imperial" period, fromHatshepsut to Tuthmosis III (r. 1479–1425 BCE).

Late Helladic III (LHIII)[edit]

Ivory head, Late Helladic 1250–1180 BC.

LHIII and LMIII are contemporary. Toward LMIIIB, non-Helladic ware from the Aegean ceases to be homogeneous; insofar as LMIIIB differs from Helladic, it should at most be considered a "sub-Minoan" variant of LHIIIB.

The uniform and widely spread LHIIIA:1 pottery was originally defined by the material from the Ramp house at Mycenae, the palace atThebes (now dated to LHIIIA:2 or LHIIIB by most researchers) and Triada at Rhodes. There is material from Asine, Athens (wells),Sparta (Menelaion), Nichoria and the 'Atreus Bothros', rubbish sealed under the Dromos of the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae as well. C-14 dates from Tsoungiza indicate LHIIIA:1 should be more nearly 1435/1406 to 1390/1370 BCE, slightly earlier than the pottery phase, but by less than 50 years. LHIIIA:1 ware has also been found in Maşat Höyük in Hittite Anatolia.^[17]

The LHIIIA:2 pottery marks a Mycenaean expansion covering most of the Eastern Mediterranean. There are many new shapes. The motifs of the painted pottery continue from LHIIIA:1 but show a great deal of standardization. In Egypt, the Amarna site contains LHIIIA:1 ware during the reign of Amenhotep III and LHIIIA:2 ware during that of his son Akhenaten; it also has the barest beginnings of LHIIIB. LHIIIA:2 ware is in the Uluburun shipwreck, which sank in the 14th century BCE. Again, Tsoungiza dates are earlier, 1390/1370 to 1360/1325 BCE; but LHIIIA:2 ware also exists in a burn layer of Miletus which likely occurred early in Mursilis II's reign and therefore some years prior to Mursili's eclipse in 1312 BCE. The transition period between IIIA and IIIB begins after 1320 BCE, but not long after (Cemal Pulak thinks before 1295 BCE).

The definition of the LHIIIB by Furumark was mainly based on grave finds and the settlement material from Zygouries. It has been divided into two sub-phases by Elizabeth B. French, based on the finds from Mycenae and the West wall at Tiryns. LHIIIB:2 assemblages are sparse, as painted pottery is rare in tombs and many settlements of this period ended by destruction, leaving few complete pots behind.

LHIIIB pottery is associated in the Greek mainland palaces with the Linear B archives. (Linear B had been in use in Crete since Late Minoan II.) Pulak's proposed LHIIIA/B boundary would make LHIIIB contemporary in Anatolia with the resurgent Hittites following Mursili's eclipse; in Egypt with the 19th Dynasty, also known as the Ramessides; and in northern Mesopotamia with Assyria's ascendancy over Mitanni. The end of LHIIIB is associated with the destruction of Ugarit, whose ruins contain the last of that pottery. The Tsoungiza date for the end of LHIIIB is 1200/1190 BCE. The beginning of LHIIIC, therefore, is now commonly set into the reign of Queen Twosret. The LHIIIChas been divided into LHIIIC:1 and LHIIIC:2 by Furumark, based on materials from tombs in Mycenae, Asine, Kephalonia, and Rhodes. In the 1960s, the excavations of the citadel at Mycenae and of Lefkandi in Euboea yielded stratified material revealing significant regional variation in LHIIIC, especially in the later phases. Late LHIIIC pottery is found in Troy VIIa and a few pieces in Tarsus. It was also made locally in the Philistine settlements of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza.

Fortified settlements[edit]

Mycenae, citadel ruins from the Late Helladic period 14th century BC.

During the Helladic period, a number of major advances were developed including fortified urban settlements with monumental buildings such as corridor houses, which may prove the existence of complex societies organized by an elite or at least achieving corporate, proto-city state form.^[18][19] One of these settlements was Manika, located in Euboea, dated to the Early Helladic period II (2800–2200 BC). The settlement covered an area of 70-80 hectares, was inhabited by 6,000–13,500 people, and was one of the largest settlements of the Bronze Age in Greece.^[18][20]

Remains of stairway in the proto-palaceHouse of the Tiles, 2500–2300 BC.

Another settlement was Lerna in the Argolid region, which was perhaps the most important and wealthiest of Early Helladic sites.^[21] The settlement has a monumental building known as the House of the Tiles, a "corridor house",^[22] notable for several architectural features that were advanced for its time, such as its roof being covered by baked tiles, which gave the building its name.^[23] The structure dates to the Early Helladic II period (2500–2300 BC) and is sometimes interpreted as the dwelling of an elite member of the community, a proto-palace, or an administrative center. Alternatively, it has also been considered to be a communal structure or the common property of the townspeople.^[24] The exact functions of the building remain unknown due to a lack of small finds indicating the specific uses of the building.^[24] The house had a stairway leading to a second story, and was protected by a tiled roof.^[25] Debris found at the site contained thousands of terracotta tiles having fallen from the roof.^[26]Although such roofs were also found in the Early Helladic site of Akovitika,^[27] and later in the Mycenaean towns of Gla andMidea,^[28] they only became common in Greek architecture in the 7th century BC.^[29] The walls of the House of the Tiles were constructed with sun-dried bricks on stone socles.^[23]

Tiryns, ruins from the Late Helladic period 14th century BC.

Other fortified settlements include Tiryns, which covered an area of 5.9 hectares sustaining 1,180–1,770 people,^[20] and had an large tiled two-storeyed "round house" (or Rundbau) with a diameter of 28 m on the upper citadel. It may have served as a palace or temple or perhaps it was a communal granary.^[30][31] Other sites include Ayia Irini, which covered an area of 1 hectare and had a population of perhaps up to 1,250,^[32] Eutresis covering 8 hectares with an estimated population of 1,600–2,400, Thebes covering 20 hectares with a population of 4,000–6,000,^[20] Lefkandi (unknown in size and population), and Kolonna (or Aegina), a densely populated settlement with impressive fortifications, monumental stone buildings and sophisticated town planning.

Already before 2500–2400 BC, Kolonna experienced remarkable economic growth and had its own administrative "Corridor House", the so-called "Haus am Felsrand".^[33] During the phase Aegina III 2400–2300 BC, which corresponds to the transition phase Lefkandi I-Kastri, the evidence of the economic structure and administrative and social organization of the community become more clear.^[33] The "White House" (Weisses Haus; 165 square metres) constitutes the monumental community building that succeeds the "Haus am Felsrand", which had the same function.^[33] Kolonna may constitute the Aegean's first state as it appears to be the earliest ranked society in the area outside Minoan Crete and perhaps a political center in the Middle Helladic period where it achieved state-level after the Minoans but before the Mycenaeans.^[34]

Population[edit]

Multivariate analyses of craniometric data derived from Helladic skeletal material indicate a strong morphological homogeneity in the Bronze Age osteological record, disproving the influx of foreign populations between the Early Helladic and Middle Helladic periods; ultimately, the Bronze Age inhabitants of mainland Greece (including the Mycenaeans) represent a single and homogeneous population of Mediterranean provenance.^[35]

See also[edit]

• Aegean civilization
• Cyclades
• History of Greece
• Linear B
• Minoan civilization
• Mycenaean Greece
• Mycenaean language
• Pelasgians

Cycladic civilization (also known as Cycladic culture or The Cycladic period) is an Early Bronze Age culture of theCyclades, Greece, in the Aegean Sea, spanning the period from approximately 3200 BC-2000 BC.^[1]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 History
• 2 Archaeology
• 3 References
• 4 See also

History[edit]

Map of the Cycladic islands, Greece

The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the islands' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age ("Minoan") culture arose in Crete, to the south. These figures have been stolen from burials to satisfy the Cycladic antiquities market since the early 20th century. Only about 40% of the 1,400 figurines found are of known origin, since looters destroyed evidence of the rest.

Cycladic idol, parian marble; 1,5 m high (largest known example of cycladic sculpture. 2800-2300 BC

A distinctive Neolithic culture amalgamating Anatolian and mainland Greek elements arose in the western Aegean before 4000 BC, based on emmer wheat and wild-type barley, sheep and goats, pigs, and tuna that were apparently speared from small boats (Rutter). Excavated sites include Saliagos and Kephala (on Keos), which showed signs of copper-working. Each of the small Cycladic islands could support no more than a few thousand people, though Late Cycladic boat models show that fifty oarsmen could be assembled from the scattered communities (Rutter). When the highly organized palace-culture of Crete arose, the islands faded into insignificance, with the exception of Delos, which retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary through the period of Classical Greek civilization (see Delian League).

The chronology of Cycladic civilization is divided into three major sequences: Early, Middle and Late Cycladic. The early period, beginning c. 3000 BC segued into the archaeologically murkier Middle Cycladic c. 2500 BC. By the end of the Late Cycladic sequence (c. 2000 BC) there was essential convergence between Cycladic and Minoan civilization.

There is some tension between the dating systems used for Cycladic civilization, one "cultural" and one "chronological". Attempts to link them lead to varying combinations; the most common are outlined below:

Cycladic chronology [2]
Phase	Date	Culture	Contemporary mainland culture
Early Cycladic I (ECI)		Grotta-Pelos
Early Cycladic II (ECII)		Keros-Syros culture
Early Cycladic III (ECIII)		Kastri
Middle Cycladic I (MCI)		Phylakopi
Middle Cycladic II (MCII)
Middle Cycladic III (MCIII)
Late Cycladic I
Late Cycladic II
Late Cycladic II

Archaeology[edit]

frying-pan with incised decoration of a ship. Early Cycladic II, Chalandriani,Syros 2800-2300 BC)

The first archaeological excavations of the 1880s were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by Christos Tsountas, who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898-99 and coined the term "Cycladic civilization". Interest then lagged, but picked up in the mid-20th century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantin Brâncuși. Sites were looted and a brisk trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic Figurines has thus been mostly destroyed; their meaning may never be completely understood. Another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans.

Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between ca. 3300 - 2000 BC, when it was increasingly submerged in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. Excavations at Knossos on Crete reveal an influence of Cycladic civilization upon Knossos in the period 3400 BC to 2000 BC as evidenced from pottery finds at Knossos.^[3]

The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately 2700 to 1450 BC.^[1] It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to it as "the first link in the European chain."^[2]

The early inhabitants of Crete settled as early as 128,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic age.^[3][4] It was not until 5000 BC that the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared, marking the beginning of civilization. The Minoan culture was established by the 27th century BC.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Overview
• 2 The term Minoan
• 3 Chronology and history
  • 3.1 History
• 4 Geography
  • 4.1 Minoans beyond Crete
• 5 Society and culture
• 6 Language and writing
• 7 Art
  • 7.1 Pottery
• 8 Religion
• 9 Warfare and the "Minoan Peace"
• 10 Architecture
  • 10.1 Palaces
  • 10.2 Columns
  • 10.3 Villas
• 11 Agriculture and subsistence
  • 11.1 Evolution of agricultural tools in Minoan Crete
• 12 Minoan demise theories
• 13 Population genetics studies
• 14 See also
• 15 Notes
• 16 References
• 17 External links

Overview[edit]

Palaces (anaktora) are the best-known Minoan building types excavated on the island. They are monumental buildings servingadministrative purposes, as evidenced by the large archives unearthed by archaeologists. Each of the palaces excavated to date has its own unique features, but they also share features that set them apart from other structures. The palaces are often multi-storeyed, with interior and exterior staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines, and courtyards.

The term Minoan[edit]

The term "Minoan" refers to the mythic "king" Minos and was first used by Arthur Evans in archaeological contexts.^[5] Minos was associated in Greek myth with the labyrinth, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos. It has sometimes been argued that theEgyptian place name "Keftiu" (*Káftiu kftiw) and the Semitic "Kaftor" or "Caphtor" and "Kaptara" in the Mari archives refer to the island of Crete, but John Strange states that, "On the other hand, some acknowledged facts about Caphtor/Keftiu can only with difficulty be reconciled with Crete."^[6] In the Odyssey, composed centuries after the destruction of the Minoan civilization, Homer calls the natives of Crete Eteocretans ("true Cretans"); these may have been descendants of the Minoans.

In 1825, Karl Hoeck used the name Das Minoische Kretas for Volume II of his major work, Kreta. This is currently the first known use of the term Minoan to mean ancient Cretan. Arthur Evans read the book, continuing the use of the term for his own writings and findings. The term, however, is often erroneously attributed to Evans, sometimes by noted scholars.^[7] Evans said:^[8]

"To this early civilization of Crete as a whole I have proposed — and the suggestion has been generally adopted by the archaeologists of this and other countries — to apply the name 'Minoan.'"

He claims to have applied it, but not to have devised it. Hoeck had in mind the Crete of mythology. He had no idea that the archaeological Crete had existed. Similarly, "Minoan" had been in use since ancient times as an adjective meaning "associated with Minos."^[9] Evans' 1931 claim that the term was "unminted" before his use of it has been tagged a "brazen suggestion" by Karadimas and Momigliano.^[7] However, Evans' statement applies to archaeological contexts. Since he was the one who discovered the civilization, and the term could not have been in use to mean it previously, he did coin that specific meaning.

Chronology and history[edit]

Further information: Minoan chronology and Minoan pottery

Rather than associate absolute calendar dates for the Minoan period, archaeologists use two systems of relative chronology. The first, created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists, is based on pottery styles and the presence of imported Egyptian artefacts, which can be correlated with the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Evans's scheme divides the Minoan period into three main eras: Early Minoan (EM), Middle Minoan (MM), and Late Minoan (LM). These eras are further subdivided, for instance into Early Minoan I, II, III (EMI, EMII, EMIII).

Another dating system, proposed by the Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, is based on the development of the architectural complexes known as "palaces" at Knossos,Phaistos, Malia and Kato Zakros. He divides the Minoan period into Pre-palatial, Proto-palatial, Neo-palatial and Post-palatial subperiods. The relationship between these two systems is given in the accompanying table, with approximate calendar dates drawn from Warren and Hankey (1989).

The Thera eruption occurred during a mature phase of the LM IA period. Efforts to establish the calendar date of the volcanic eruption have been extremely controversial.Radiocarbon dating has indicated a date in the late 17th century BC;^[10][11] those radiocarbon dates, however, conflict with the estimates of archaeologists, who synchronize the eruption with the Conventional Egyptian chronology and obtain a date of around 1525–1500 BC.^[12][13][14] See the article on dating the Thera eruption for more discussion. The eruption often is identified as a natural event catastrophic for the culture, leading to its rapid collapse.

History[edit]

Minoan chronology
3650–3000 BC	EMI	Prepalatial
2900–2300 BC	EMII
2300–2160 BC	EMIII
2160–1900 BC	MMIA
1900–1800 BC	MMIB	Protopalatial (Old Palace Period)
1800–1700 BC	MMII
1700–1640 BC	MMIIIA	Neopalatial (New Palace Period)
1640–1600 BC	MMIIIB
1600–1480 BC	LMIA
1480–1425 BC	LMIB
1425–1390 BC	LMII	Postpalatial (At Knossos, Final Palace Period)
1390–1370 BC	LMIIIA1
1370–1340 BC	LMIIIA2
1340–1190 BC	LMIIIB
1190–1170 BC	LMIIIC
1100 BC	Subminoan

The oldest evidence of inhabitants on Crete are preceramic Neolithic farming community remains that date to approximately 7000 BC.^[15] A comparative study of DNA haplogroups of modern Cretan men showed that a male founder group, from Anatolia or the Levant, is shared with the Greeks.^[16] The neolithic population dwelt in open villages. Fishermen's huts were built on the shores, while the fertile Mesara Plain was used for agriculture.^[17]

The Bronze Age began in Crete around 2700 BC.^[18] In the late 3rd millennium BC, several localities on the island developed into centers of commerce and handwork. This enabled the upper classes to continuously practice leadership activities and to expand their influence. It is likely that the original hierarchies of the local elites were replaced by monarchist power structures – a precondition for the creation of the great palaces.^[19]From the Early Bronze Age (3500 BC to 2600 BC), the Minoan civilization on Crete showed a promise of greatness.^[20]

At the end of the MMII period (1700 BC), there was a large disturbance in Crete, probably an earthquake, or possibly an invasion from Anatolia.^[21] The palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros were destroyed. But with the start of the Neopalatial period, population increased again,^[22] the palaces were rebuilt on a larger scale and new settlements were built all over the island. This period (the 17th and 16th centuries BC, MM III / Neopalatial) represents the apex of the Minoan civilization. There was another natural catastrophe around 1600 BC, possibly an eruption of the Thera volcano. The Minoans rebuilt the palaces, making them greater than before.^[19]

The influence of the Minoan civilization outside Crete has been seen in the evidence of valuable Minoan handicraft items on the Greek mainland. It is likely that the ruling house of Mycene was connected to the Minoan trade network. After around 1700 BC, the material culture on the Greek mainland achieved a new level due to Minoan influence.^[19] Connections between Egypt and Crete are prominent. Minoan ceramics are found in Egyptian cities and the Minoans imported several items from Egypt, especially papyrus, as well as architectural and artistic ideas. The Egyptian hieroglyphs served as a model for the Minoan pictographic writing, from which the famous Linear A and Linear B writing systems later developed.^[17] Bengtson has also demonstrated Minoan influence among Canaanite artifacts.

Around 1450 BC, Minoan culture experienced a turning point due to a natural catastrophe, possibly an earthquake. Another eruption of the Thera volcano has been linked to this downfall, but its dating and implications remain controversial. Several important palaces in locations such as Mallia, Tylissos, Phaistos, Hagia Triade as well as the living quarters of Knossos were destroyed. The palace in Knossos seems to have remained largely intact. This resulted in the Dynasty in Knossos being able to spread its influence over large parts of Crete, until it was overrun by Mycenaean Greeks.^[19]

The Minoan palace sites were occupied by the Mycenaeans around 1420 BC^[23] (1375 BC according to other sources),^[19] who adapted the Linear A Minoan script to the needs of their own Mycenaean language. It was a form of Greek, which was written in Linear B. The first such archive anywhere is in the LMII-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets". The Mycenaeans generally tended to adapt, rather than destroy, Minoan culture, religion and art.^[24] They continued to operate the economic system and bureaucracy of the Minoans.^[19]

During LMIIIA:1, Amenhotep III at Kom el-Hatan took note of k-f-t-w (Kaftor) as one of the "Secret Lands of the North of Asia". Also mentioned are Cretan cities, such asἈμνισός (Amnisos), Φαιστός (Phaistos), Κυδωνία (Kydonia) and Kνωσσός (Knossos) and some toponyms reconstructed as belonging to the Cyclades or the Greek mainland. If the values of these Egyptian names are accurate, then this Pharaoh did not privilege LMIII Knossos above the other states in the region.

After about a century of partial recovery, most Cretan cities and palaces went into decline in the 13th century BC (LHIIIB/LMIIIB). The last Linear A archives date to LMIIIA (contemporary with LHIIIA).

Knossos remained an administrative center until 1200 BC. The last of the Minoan sites was the defensive mountain site of Karfi, a refuge site which displays vestiges of Minoan civilization almost into the Iron Age.^[25]

Geography[edit]

Crete is a mountainous island with natural harbours. There are signs of earthquake damage at many Minoan sites and clear signs of both uplifting of land and submersion of coastal sites due to tectonic processes all along the coasts.^[26]

Homer recorded a tradition that Crete had 90 cities.^[27] To judge from the palace sites, the island was probably divided into at least eight political units during the height of the Minoan period. The north is thought to have been governed from Knossos, the south from Phaistos, the central eastern part from Malia, the eastern tip from Kato Zakros, and the west from Chania. Smaller palaces have been found in other places.

Some of the major Minoan archaeological sites are:

• Palaces
  • Knossos – the largest^[28] Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete; was purchased for excavations by Evans on March 16, 1900.
  • Phaistos – the second largest^[28] palatial building on the island, excavated by the Italian school shortly after Knossos
  • Malia – the subject of French excavations, a palatial centre which affords a look into the development of the palaces in the protopalatial period
  • Kato Zakros – a palatial site excavated by Greek archaeologists in the far east of the island. This is also referred to as "Zakro" in archaeological literature.
  • Galatas – the most recently^[when?] confirmed palatial site
• Agia Triada – an administrative centre close to Phaistos
• Gournia – a town site excavated in the first quarter of the 20th century by the American School
• Pyrgos – an early Minoan site on the south of the island
• Vasiliki – an early Minoan site towards the east of the island which gives its name to a distinctive ceramic ware
• Fournu Korfi – a site on the south of the island
• Pseira – island town with ritual sites
• Mount Juktas – the greatest^{[citation needed]} of the Minoan peak sanctuaries because of its association with the palace of Knossos
• Arkalochori – the find site of the famous Arkalochori Axe
• Karfi – a refuge site from the late Minoan period, one of the last of the Minoan sites
• Akrotiri – settlement on the island of Santorini (Thera), near the site of the Thera Eruption
• Zominthos – a mountainous city in the northern foothills of Mount Ida

Minoans beyond Crete[edit]

Minoan copper ingot.

Minoans were traders, and their cultural contacts reached far beyond the island of Crete — to Egypt's Old Kingdom, to copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan, and the Levantine coasts beyond, and to Anatolia. In late 2009, Minoan-style frescoes and other Minoan-style artifacts were discovered during excavations of the Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri,Israel, leading archaeologists to conclude that the Minoan influence was the strongest foreign influence on thatCaananite city state. These are the only Minoan remains ever found in Israel.^[29]

Minoan techniques and styles in ceramics also provided models, of fluctuating influence, for Helladic Greece. Along with the familiar example of Thera, Minoan "colonies" can be found first at Kastri on Cythera, an island close to the Greek mainland that came under Minoan influence in the mid-third millennium (EMII) and remained Minoan in culture for a thousand years, until Mycenaean occupation in the 13th century. The use of the term "colony", however, like "thalassocracy", has been criticized in recent years.^[30] The Minoan strata there replace a mainland-derived culture in the Early Bronze Age, the earliest Minoan settlement outside Crete.^[31]

The Cyclades were in the Minoan cultural orbit, and, closer to Crete, the islands of Karpathos, Saria and Kasos, also contained Minoan colonies, or settlements of Minoan traders, from the Middle Bronze Age (MMI-II). Most of them were abandoned in LMI, but Minoan Karpathos recovered and continued with a Minoan culture until the end of the Bronze Age.^[32] Other supposed Minoan colonies, such as that hypothesised by Adolf Furtwängler for Aegina, were later dismissed by scholars.^[33] There was a Minoan colony at Ialysos on Rhodes.^[34]

Minoan cultural influence indicates an orbit that extended not only throughout the Cyclades (so-called Minoanisation), but in locations such as Egypt and Cyprus. Paintings from the 15th century BC in Thebes, Egypt depict a number of individuals, who are Minoan in appearance, bearing gifts. Inscriptions record these people as coming fromKeftiu, or the "islands in the midst of the sea", and may refer to gift-bringing merchants or officials from Crete.^[35]

Certain locations within Crete emphasize it as an "outward looking"^{[citation needed]} society. The Neopalatial site of Kato Zakros, for instance, is located within 100 metres of the modern shore-line, situated within a bay. Its large number of workshops and the richness of its site materials indicate a potential 'entrepôt' for import and export. Such activities are elaborated in artistic representations of the sea, including the 'Flotilla' fresco from room 5, in the west house at Akrotiri.

Society and culture[edit]

Fresco showing three women who were possiblyqueens.^{[citation needed]}

The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from 1700 BC onward, shows a high degree of organization.

The Minoan trade in saffron, the stigma of a mutated crocus which originated in the Aegean basin as a natural chromosome mutation, has left fewer material remains: a fresco of saffron-gatherers at Santorini is well-known. This inherited trade pre-dated Minoan civilization: a sense of its rewards may be gained by comparing its value tofrankincense, or later, to pepper. Archaeologists^[who?] tend to emphasize the more durable items of trade: ceramics, copper, and tin, and dramatic luxury finds of gold and silver.

Objects of Minoan manufacture suggest there was a network of trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae),Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and westward as far as the coast of Spain.

Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts. Women wore robes that had short sleeves and layered flounced skirts. The robes were open to the navel, allowing their breasts to be left exposed.^[36] Women also had the option of wearing a strapless fitted bodice. The patterns on clothes emphasized symmetrical geometric designs. Given the fragility of organic materials, other forms of dress may have been worn of which no archeological evidence exists.

The Minoan religion focused on female deities, with females officiating.^[37] The frescos include many depictions of people, with the genders distinguished by colour: the men's skin is reddish-brown, the women's white.^{[citation needed]}

Language and writing[edit]

Unknown signs on the Phaistos Disc.

Knowledge of the spoken and written language of the Minoans is scant, due to the small number of records found. Clay tablets dating to around 3000 BC were found with the various Cretan scripts.^[38] Clay tablets seem to have been in use from around 3000 BC or earlier. Two clay cups from Knossos have been found to have remnants of ink, and inkwells similar to the animal-shaped inkstands from Mesopotamia have also been found.^[39]

Sometimes the Minoan language is referred to as Eteocretan, but this confuses the language written in Linear A scriptsand the language written in a Euboean-derived alphabet after the Greek Dark Ages. While the Eteocretan language is believed to be a descendant of Minoan, there is not enough source material in either language to allow conclusions to be made.

The earliest dated writing found on Crete is the Cretan hieroglyphs. It is not known whether this language is Minoan or not and its origin is still a topic of debate. These hieroglyphs are often associated with the Egyptians, but they also show relation to several other writings from the region of Mesopotamia.^[39] The hieroglyphs came into use from MMI; they were used at the same time as the emerging Linear A from the 18th century BC (MM II). The hieroglyphs disappeared at some point during the 17th century BC (MM III).

In the Mycenean period, Linear A was replaced by Linear B, recording a very archaic version of the Greek language. Linear B was successfully deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, but the earlier scripts remain a mystery. The overwhelming majority of tablets are written in the Linear B script, apparently being inventories of goods or resources. Others are inscriptions on religious objects associated with a cult.^[which?] Because most of these inscriptions are concise economic records rather than dedicatory inscriptions, the translation of Minoan remains a challenge.

Unless Eteocretan truly is its descendant, the Minoan language may have become extinct during the Greek Dark Ages, a time of economic and socio-political collapse.^{[citation needed]}

Art[edit]

A fresco found at the Minoan site of Knossos, indicating a sport or ritual of "bull leaping"; the red-skinned figure is a man and the two light-skinned figures are women.

The greatest collection of Minoan art is in the museum at Heraklion, near Knossos on the north shore of Crete. Minoan art, with other remains of material culture, especially the sequence of ceramic styles, has been used by archaeologists to define the three phases of Minoan culture (EM, MM, LM) discussed above.

Since wood and textiles have vanished through decomposition, the best preserved, and so most easily learned from, surviving examples of Minoan art are its pottery, the palace architecture with frescos that include landscapes, stone carvings, and intricately carved seal stones.

Pottery[edit]

Main article: Minoan pottery

In the Early Minoan period ceramics were characterised by linear patterns of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses,fishbone motifs, and such. In the Middle Minoan period, naturalistic designs such as fish, squid, birds, and lilies were common. In the Late Minoan period, flowers and animals were still the most characteristic, but the variability had increased. The 'palace style' of the region around Knossos is characterised by a strong geometric simplification of naturalistic shapes and monochromatic paintings. Notable are the similarities between Late Minoan and Mycenaean art. Frescoes were the main form of art during these times of the Minoan culture.

Minoan Decorated Jug, ca. 1575-1500 B.C.E. Brooklyn Museum

This jug on the left is dated from the Late Minoan IB, or sixteenth century B.C.E. On Crete, the Minoans led an apparently peaceful and prosperous existence that thrived on their sea-girt island. That contacts between the island inhabitants and their neighbors in the Eastern Mediterranean were widespread is attested to the fact that this jug was found in Egypt. Minoan knowledge of the sea was continued by the Mycenaean's in their frequent use of marine forms among the many natural motifs employed in the decoration of beautifully designed utilitarian and decorative objects. The four large creatures on this spouted pitcher are nautiluses (sometimes called Argonauts) which jauntily wave their tentacles in a rhythmic in unrealistic fashion. Corals, algae, and other sea life fill every space in an underwater composition bursting with vitality.

Religion[edit]

Main article: Minoan religion

"Snake Goddess" or a priestess performing a ritual.

The bull leaper from Knossos (Heraklion Archaeological Museum)

The Minoans seem to have worshipped primarily goddesses, and their culture has been described as being based on a "matriarchal religion."^[40][41]Professor Nanno Marinatos stated: "The hierarchy and relationship of gods within the pantheon is difficult to decode from the images alone." She denies earlier descriptions of Minoan religion as primitive, saying that it "was the religion of a sophisticated and urbanized palatial culture with a complex social hierarchy. It was not dominated by fertility any more than any religion of the past or present has been, and it addressed gender identity, rites of passage, and death. It is reasonable to assume that both the organization and the rituals, even the mythology, resembled the religions of Near Eastern palatial civilizations."^[41] Although there is some evidence of male gods, depictions of Minoan goddesses vastly outnumber depictions of anything that could be considered a Minoan god.^{[citation needed]} While some of these depictions of women may be images of worshippers and priestesses officiating at religious ceremonies, as opposed to deities, several goddesses appear to be portrayed. These include aMother Goddess of fertility, a Mistress of the Animals, a protectress of cities, the household, the harvest, and theunderworld, and more. They are often represented by serpents, birds, poppies, and a somewhat vague shape of an animal upon the head.

A major festive celebration was exemplified in the famous athletic Minoan bull dance, represented at large in the frescoes of Knossos^[42] and inscribed in miniature seals.^[43]

The Minoan horn-topped altars, conventionally called "Horns of Consecration" ever since since Evans coined the term, are represented in seal impressions, and survive in examples as far afield as Cyprus. Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and its horns of consecration, the labrys (double-headed axe), the pillar, the serpent, the sun-disk, and thetree.

Haralampos V. and Anastasios V. Harissis have suggested a completely different interpretation of these symbols. They argue that they were based on apiculture rather than religion.^[44]

Evidence of human sacrifice by the Minoans has been found at three sites: (1) Anemospilia, in a MMII building near Mt. Juktas, interpreted as a temple, (2) an EMII sanctuary complex at Fournou Korifi in south central Crete, and (3)Knossos, in an LMIB building known as the "North House." (explanation of abbreviations)

Similar to archaeological finds of the Bronze Age, burial remains constitute much of the material and archaeological evidence for the period. By the end of the Second Palace Period, Minoan burial practice was dominated by two broad forms: 'Circular Tombs', or Tholoi, (located in South Crete) and 'House Tombs', (located in the north and the east). Many trends and patterns within Minoan mortuary practice do not conform to this simple breakdown. Over all, inhumation was the most popular form of burial; cremation does not seem to have been a popular.^[45] Throughout this period the trend was towards individual burials, with some distinguished exceptions. These include the much-debated Chrysolakkos complex, Mallia, consisting of a number of buildings forming a complex. This is located in the centre of Mallia's burial area and may have been the focus for burial rituals, or the 'crypt' for a notable family.

Warfare and the "Minoan Peace"[edit]

Children boxing in a fresco on the island ofSantorini.

Though the vision created by Arthur Evans of a Pax Minoica, a "Minoan peace", has been criticised in recent years,^[46]it is generally assumed there was little internal armed conflict in Minoan Crete itself, until the following Mycenaean period.^[47] As with much of Minoan Crete, however, it is hard to draw any obvious conclusions from the evidence. New excavations sustain scholarly interest and document the culture's influence around the Aegean.^[48]

Despite having found ruined watchtowers and fortification walls,^[49] Evans argued that there was little evidence for ancient Minoan fortifications. But as S. Alexiou has pointed out (in Kretologia 8), a number of sites, especially Early and Middle Minoan sites such as Aghia Photia, are built on hilltops or are otherwise fortified. As Lucia Nixon said, "...we may have been over-influenced by the lack of what we might think of as solid fortifications to assess the archaeological evidence properly. As in so many other instances, we may not have been looking for evidence in the right places, and therefore we may not end with a correct assessment of the Minoans and their ability to avoid war.".^[50]

Chester Starr points out in "Minoan Flower Lovers" (Hagg-Marinatos eds. Minoan Thalassocracy) that Shang Chinaand the Maya both had unfortified centers and yet engaged in frontier struggles, so the lack of fortifications alone cannot be enough to conclude that the Minoans were a peaceful civilization unparalleled in history.

In 1998, however, when Minoan archaeologists met in a conference in Belgium to discuss the possibility that the idea of Pax Minoica was outdated, the evidence for Minoan war still proved to be scanty. Archaeologist Jan Driessen, for example, said the Minoans frequently show 'weapons' in their art, but only in ritual contexts. He said,

"The construction of fortified sites is often assumed to reflect a threat of warfare, but such fortified centres were multifunctional; they were also often the embodiment or material expression of the central places of the territories at the same time as being monuments glorifying and merging leading power" (Driessen 1999, p. 16).

On the other hand, Stella Chryssoulaki's work on the small outposts or 'guard-houses' in the east of the island represent possible elements of a defensive system. Claims that they produced no weapons are erroneous; type A Minoan swords (as found in palaces of Mallia and Zarkos) were the finest in all of the Aegean (See Sanders, AJA 65, 67, Hoeckmann, JRGZM 27, or Rehak and Younger, AJA 102).

Keith Branigan claimed that 95% of so-called Minoan weapons possessed hafting (hilts, handles) that would have prevented their use as weapons (Branigan, 1999). But, recent experimental testing of accurate replicas has shown this to be incorrect; these weapons were capable of cutting flesh down to the bone (and scoring the bone's surface) without any damage to the weapons themselves.^[51] Archaeologist Paul Rehak maintains that Minoan figure-eight shields could not have been used for fighting or hunting, since they were too cumbersome (Rehak, 1999). And archaeologist Jan Driessen says the Minoans frequently show 'weapons' in their art, but only in ritual contexts (Driessen 1999). Finally, archaeologist Cheryl Floyd concludes that Minoan "weapons" were tools used for mundane tasks such as meat-processing (Floyd, 1999). But, this theory is questionable given the evidence of "rapiers nearly three feet in length"^[52] dated to the Middle Minoan period.

About Minoan warfare, Branigan concludes that "The quantity of weaponry, the impressive fortifications, and the aggressive looking long-boats all suggested an era of intensified hostilities. But on closer inspection there are grounds for thinking that all three key elements are bound up as much with status statements, display, and fashion as with aggression.... Warfare such as there was in the southern Aegean EBA early Bronze Age was either personalized and perhaps ritualized (in Crete) or small-scale, intermittent and essentially an economic activity (in the Cyclades and the Argolid/Attica) " (1999, p. 92). Archaeologist Krzyszkowska concurs: "The stark fact is that for the prehistoric Aegean we have no direct evidence for war and warfare per se" (Krzyszkowska, 1999).

No evidence has been found of a Minoan army, or for Minoan domination of peoples outside Crete. Few signs of warfare appear in Minoan art. "Although a few archaeologists see war scenes in a few pieces of Minoan art, others interpret even these scenes as festivals, sacred dance, or sports events" (Studebaker, 2004, p. 27). Although armed warriors are depicted being stabbed in the throat with swords, violence may occur in the context of ritual or blood sport.

On the Mainland of Greece at the time of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, there is little evidence for major fortifications among the Mycenaeans there. (The famous citadels post-date the destruction of almost all Neopalatial Cretan sites.) The constant warmongering of other contemporaries of the ancient Minoans – the Egyptians and Hittites, for example – is well documented.

Architecture[edit]

The Minoan cities were connected with stone-paved roads, formed from blocks cut with bronze saws. Streets were drained and water and sewer facilities were available to the upper class, through clay pipes.^[53]

Minoan buildings often had flat tiled roofs; plaster, wood, or flagstone floors, and stood two to three storeys high. Typically the lower walls were constructed of stone andrubble, and the upper walls of mudbrick. Ceiling timbers held up the roofs.

The materials used in constructing the villas and palaces varied, and could include sandstone, gypsum, or limestone. Equally, building techniques could also vary between different constructions; some palaces used ashlar masonry while others used roughly hewn megalithic blocks.

Palaces[edit]

Ruins of the palace at Knossos.

Fresco from the "Palace of Minos", Knossos, Crete.

Storage jars in Knossos.

The first palaces were constructed at the end of the Early Minoan period in the third millennium BC (Malia). While it was formerly believed that the foundation of the first palaces was synchronous and dated to the Middle Minoan at around 2000 BC (the date of the first palace at Knossos), scholars now think that palaces were built over a longer period in different locations, in response to local developments. The main older palaces are Knossos, Malia, and Phaistos. Some of the elements recorded in the Middle Minoan 'palaces' (Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia, for example) have precedents in earlier styles of construction in the Early Minoan period.^[54] These include the indented western court, and the special treatment given to the western façade. An example of this is seen at the "House on the Hill" at Vasiliki, dated to the Early Minoan II period.

The palaces fulfilled a plethora of functions: they served as centres of government, administrative offices, shrines, workshops, and storage spaces (e.g., for grain). These distinctions might have seemed artificial to Minoans.

The use of the term 'palace' for the older palaces, meaning a dynastic residence and seat of power, has recently come under criticism (see Palace), and the term 'court building' has been proposed instead. However, the original term is probably too well entrenched to be replaced. Architectural features such as ashlar masonry, orthostats, columns, open courts, staircases (implying upper stories), and the presence of diverse basins have been used to define palatial architecture.

Often the conventions of the better-known, younger palaces have been used to reconstruct older ones, but this practice may be obscuring fundamental functional differences. Most older palaces had only one story and no representative facades. They were U-shaped, with a big central court, and generally were smaller than later palaces.

Late palaces are characterised by multi-story buildings. The west facades had sandstone ashlar masonry. Knossos is the best-known example. See Knossos. Further building conventions could include storage magazines, a north-south orientation, a pillar room, a Minoan Hall system, a western court, and pier-and-door entrance ways. Palatial architecture in the First Palace Period is identified by its 'square within a square' style, whilst later, Second Palace Period constructions incorporated more internal divisions and corridors.^[55]

A common architectural standard among the Middle Minoan 'palaces' was that they are aligned with their surrounding topography. The MM palatial structure of Phaistos appears to align with Mount Ida, whilst Knossos is aligned with Juktas.^[56] These are oriented along a north-south axis. Scholars suggest the alignment was related to the sacred or ritual significance of the mountain, where a number of Peak Sanctuaries (spaces for public ritual) have been excavated (i.e., Petsophas). The material record for these sites show clusters of clay figurines and evidence of animal sacrifice.

Columns[edit]

One of the most notable contributions of Minoans to architecture is their unique column, which was wider at the top than the bottom. It is called an 'inverted' column because most Greek columns are wider at the bottom, creating an illusion of greater height. The columns were also made of wood as opposed to stone, and were generally painted red. They were mounted on a simple stone base and were topped with a pillow-like, round piece as a capital.^[57][58]

Villas[edit]

A number of compounds interpreted as 'Villas' have been excavated in Crete. These structures share many features with the central Palaces (i.e., a conspicuous western facade, storage facilities, and a 'Minoan Hall') of the Neopalatial era. These features may indicate either that they performed a similar role, or that the structures were artistic imitations, suggesting that their occupants were familiar with palatial culture. These villas are often richly decorated (see the frescos of Haghia Triadha Villa A).

Agriculture and subsistence[edit]

The Minoans raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats, and grew wheat, barley, vetch, and chickpeas, they also cultivated grapes, figs, and olives, and grew poppies, for poppyseed and, perhaps, opium. The Minoans also domesticated bees.^[59]

Crops including lettuce, celery, asparagus and carrots grow wild in Crete. Pear, quince, and olive trees were also native. The people imported date palm trees, and cats (used for hunting purposes) from Egypt.^[60] They adopted pomegranates from the Near East, although not lemons and oranges, as is often thought.

They developed Mediterranean polyculture,^[61] the practice of growing more than one crop at a time. Their more varied and healthy diet resulted in the growth of population. Theoretically this method of farming would maintain the fertility of the soil, as well as offer protection against low yields in any single crop. Linear B tablets indicate the importance of orchard farming (i.e., figs, olives and grapes) in processing crops for "secondary products".^[62] Olive oil in the Cretan diet (or more widely, the Mediterranean diet) is comparable to butter in the Northern diet.^[63] The process of fermenting wine from grapes is likely to have been a concern of the "Palace" economies, whereby such prestige goods would have been both important trade commodities as well as culturally meaningful items of consumption.^[64] Equally, it is likely that the consumption of exotic or expensive products would have played a role in the presentation and articulation of political and economic power.

Farmers used wooden plows, bound by leather to wooden handles, and pulled by pairs of donkeys or oxen.

Marine resources were also important in the Cretan diet. The prevalence of edible molluscs in site material,^[65] and artistic representations of marine fish and animals, including the distinctive "Octopus" stirrup jar (LM IIIC), indicate an appreciation and occasional use of fish within the economy. But scholars believe these resources were not as significant in relation to grain, olives and animal produce. The intensification of agricultural activity is indicated by the construction of terraces and dams at Pseira in the Late Minoan period.

The Cretan diet included wild game. Cretans hunted and ate wild deer and boar along with the meats made available to them by their livestock. Wild game can no longer be found on Crete.^[66]

Not all plants and flora would have a purely functional or economic utility. Artistic depictions often show scenes of lily gathering and performances within 'green' spaces. The fresco known as the Sacred Grove at Knossos, for instance, depicts a number of female figures facing towards the left-hand-side of the scene, flanked by a copse of trees. Some scholars have suggested that these depictions represent the performance of 'harvest festivals' or ceremonies, as a means to honour the continued fertility of the soil. Artistic depictions of farming scenes also appear on the Second Palace Period "Harvester Vase" (an egg-shaped rhyton, or pouring vessel), where 27 male figures, led by another, each carry hoes. This suggests the importance of farming as an artistic motif.

The discovery of storage magazines within the palace compounds has prompted much debate. At the second 'palace' at Phaistos, for instance, a range of rooms in the western side of the structure have been identified as a magazine block. Within these storage areas, numerous jars, jugs and vessels have been recovered, indicating the role of the complex as a potential re-distribution centre of agricultural produce. Several possibilities may be suggested, including a model where all economic and agricultural produce was controlled by the Palace and re-distributed by it. At sites such as Knossos, where the town had developed to a considerable size, there is evidence of craft specialisation, indicating workshops. The Palace of Kato Zakro, for instance, indicates workshops that were integrated into the structure of the palace. Such evidence contributes to the theory that the Minoan palatial system developed through economic intensification, where greater agricultural surplus could support a population of administrators, craftsmen and religious practitioners. The number of domestic, or sleeping, chambers at the Palaces indicate that they could have supported a large population of individuals who were removed from manual labour.

Evolution of agricultural tools in Minoan Crete[edit]

Originally the tools were made of wood or bone, and bound to the handle with leather straps. During the Bronze Age, the tools were upgraded to bronze, with wooden handles. Due to its circular hole, the tool head would spin around on the handle. The Minoans developed oval- shaped holes in their tools to fit oval-shaped handles. This stopped the spinning.^[59]

Tools List:

• Double Adze
• Double Axe
• Single-Bladed Axe
• Axe-Adze
• Sickle
• Chisel

Minoan demise theories[edit]

Main article: Minoan eruption

Between 1935 and 1939, a Greek archeologist named Spyridon Marinatos came up with the theory of the Minoan Eruption. The Minoan eruption on the island of Thera(present-day Santorini about 100 km distant from Crete) occurred during the LM IA period. This eruption was among the largest volcanic explosions in the history of civilization, ejecting approximately 60 km³ of material and rating a 6 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index.^[67][68][69] The eruption devastated the nearby Minoan settlement atAkrotiri on Santorini, which was entombed in a layer of pumice.^[70] Also, scholars suggest that the eruption and its effect on the Minoan civilization may have been the origin of the Atlantis myth, via Egyptian historical accounts.^{[citation needed]}

The eruption is believed to have severely affected the Minoan culture on Crete, although the extent of the effects has been debated. Early theories proposed that ashfall from Thera on the eastern half of Crete choked off plant life, causing starvation of the local population.^[71] More thorough field examinations have determined that no more than 5 millimetres (0.20 in) of ash fell anywhere on Crete.^[72] Based on archaeological evidence found on Crete, 21st century studies indicate that a massive tsunami, generated by the Theran eruption, devastated the coastal areas of Crete and destroyed many Minoan settlements.^{[73][74][75][76][77]}

The LM IIIA (Late Minoan) period is marked by its affluence (i.e., wealthy tombs, burials and art) and the ubiquity of Knossian ceramic styles.^[78] But, by LM IIIB the importance of Knossos as a regional centre, and its material 'wealth', seem to have declined.

Significant Minoan remains have been found above the Late Minoan I era Thera ash layer, implying that the Thera eruption did not cause the immediate downfall of the Minoans. As the Minoans were a sea power and depended on naval and merchant ships for their livelihood, the Thera eruption likely caused significant economic hardship to the Minoans. Whether these effects were enough to trigger the downfall of the civilization is intensely debated. The Mycenaean conquest of the Minoans occurred in Late Minoan II period. The Mycenaeans were a military civilization. Using their functional navy and a well-equipped army they were capable of an invasion. Mycenaean weaponry has been found in burials on Crete. This demonstrates Mycenaean military influence not many years after the eruption.^[79] Many archaeologists speculate that the eruption caused a crisis in Minoan civilization, making them vulnerable to conquest by the Mycenaeans.^[75]

Sinclair Hood writes that the destruction of the Minoans was most likely due to an invading force. Although the demise of the flourishing civilization was aided by the erupting volcano on Thera, the ultimate end came from outside conquerors. Archaeological evidence suggests that the destruction of the island was due to fire damage. Hood notes that the palace at Knossos appears to have experienced less damage than other sites along the island of Crete. As natural disasters do not choose targets, the uneven destruction was likely caused by invaders. They would have seen the usefulness of preserving a palace center like Knossos for their own use.^[80]

Several authors have noted evidence that the Minoan civilization had exceeded the environmental carrying capacity. For example, archaeological recovery at Knossosshows deforestation of this part of Crete near the late stages of Minoan development.^[81][82]

Population genetics studies[edit]

A 2013 mtDNA study was conducted by a research team that analyzed DNA from ancient Minoan skeletons that were sealed in a cave in Crete's Lassithi Plateau between 3,700 and 4,400 years ago, as well as other Greek, Anatolian, western and northern European samples, while being distant from North African and Egyptian samples.^[83][84]

They then compared the skeletal mitochondrial DNA, which is stored in the energy powerhouses of cells and passed on through the maternal line, with that found in a sample of 135 modern and ancient populations from around Europe and Africa. The researchers found that the Minoan skeletons were genetically very similar to modern-day Europeans — and especially close to modern-day Cretans, particularly those from the Lassithi Plateau. They were also genetically similar to Neolithic Europeans, but distinct from Egyptian or Libyan populations.^[85] According to the authors, these results are consistent with the hypothesis of an indigenous development of the Minoan civilization from the descendants of the first Neolithic settlers to the island (who arrived through the sea from Anatolia approximately 9,000 years ago,^[86][87]), as opposed to a North African or Egyptian origin, as originally hypothesized by Evans.^[83] "We now know that the founders of the first advanced European civilization were European," said study co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, a human geneticist at the University of Washington. "They were very similar to Neolithic Europeans and very similar to present day-Cretans."^[84]

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minoan civilization.

• Linear A
• Linear B
• Peak sanctuaries
• Sacred caves
• Minoa
• Philistines
• Atlantis
• Phaistos Disc
• Hyksos
• Herakleion Archaeological Museum
• Cretan diet
• Bull-Leaping Fresco

Mycenaean Greece refers to the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece (ca. 1600–1100 BC). It takes its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in Argolis, Peloponnese, southern Greece. Other major sites included Tiryns in Argolis,Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly, while Crete and the site ofKnossos also became a part of the Mycenaean world. Mycenaean influenced settlement sites also appeared in Epirus,^[1][2]Macedonia,^[3][4] on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant,^[5] Cyprus,^[6] and Italy.^[7]

Mycenaean civilization perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean, which is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although alternative theories propose also natural disasters and climatic changes. This period of Greek history is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer.^[8]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Mycenaean civilization
• 2 Historical correlations
• 3 Identity
• 4 Political organization
  • 4.1 Mycenaean world
  • 4.2 States of Pylos and Knossos
• 5 Society
• 6 Mycenaean contacts
• 7 Economy
  • 7.1 Agriculture
  • 7.2 Industry
  • 7.3 Commerce
• 8 Religion
• 9 Architecture
  • 9.1 Fortresses
  • 9.2 Habitations
  • 9.3 Palaces
  • 9.4 Architectural elements
    • 9.4.1 Roof tiles
• 10 Art and craftwork
  • 10.1 Vessels
  • 10.2 Figures and figurines
  • 10.3 Frescoes
  • 10.4 Arms
• 11 Funerary practices
• 12 Destruction
• 13 See also
• 14 References
  • 14.1 Citations
  • 14.2 Sources
• 15 Further reading
• 16 External links

Mycenaean civilization[edit]

Mycenaean Greece, ca. 1400–1100 BC.

Mycenaean civilization originated and evolved from the society and culture of the Early and Middle Helladic periods in mainland Greece.^[9] It emerged in circa 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete.

Mycenaean artifacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenaean world: namely Mycenaean swords are known from as far away as Georgia in the Caucasus,^[10] an amber object inscribed with Linear B symbols has been found in Bavaria, Germany^[11] and Mycenaean bronze double axes and other objects dating from the 13th century BC have been found in Ireland and in Wessex and Cornwall in England.^[12][13]

Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization (which may have been crippled by the Minoan eruption of the Santorini/Thera volcano), and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.

A Mycenaean funeral mask assumed as the "Mask of Agamemnon" byHeinrich Schliemann.

Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans, but according to later Hellenic legend they defeated Troy, presented in epic as a city-state that rivaled Mycenae in power. Because the only evidence for the conquests is Homer's Iliad and other texts steeped in mythology, the existence of Troy and the historicity of the Trojan War is uncertain. In 1876, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann uncovered ruins at Hissarlik in western Asia Minor (modern-dayTurkey) that he claimed were those of Troy. Some sources claim these ruins do not match well with Homer's account of Troy,^[14] but others disagree.^[15]

The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholos tombs), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and a straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification, whereas Homer's Achilles and Patroclus were not buried but cremated, in Iron-Age fashion, and honoured with a gold urn, instead of gold masks.

Historical correlations[edit]

Example of Linear B script.

From a chronological perspective, the Late Helladic period (LH, 1550–1060 BC) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work in Linear B, a syllabic script recognizable as a form of Greek. LH is divided into I, II, and III; of which I and II overlap Late Minoan ware and III overtakes it. LH III is further subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC.

Late Helladic pottery typically stored such goods as olive oil and wine. LHI ware had reached Santorini just before the Thera eruption. LHIIB began during LMIB, and has been found in Egypt during the reign of Tuthmosis III. LHIIB spanned the LMIB/LMII destruction on Crete, which is associated with the Greek takeover of the island.

Fresco: the "Lady of Mycenae" accepts a gift of a necklace.

LHIIIA:1 corresponds with the reign of Amenhotep III, who recorded with the heading ti-n3-y'Danaans' (Mycenaean *Danawoi, later Greek loses w, the digamma ϝ, before a vowel) the apparently equal cities d-y-q-e-i-s 'Thebes' (Mycenaean *T^hegʷais, the gʷ develops into b in later Greek) and m-w-k-i-n-u 'Mycenae' (Mycenaean *Mukanai). LHIIIA:1 also corresponds with the time of Attarsiya, the Man of Ahhiya, who alternately attacked and aided the rebel Madduwatta of Zippasla.^[16] Ahhiya and its LHIIIA:2-B derivative, Ahhiyawa, can be linked to Greece only indirectly. The Hittites did not use any term approximating ti-n3-y; and they did not link Ahhiya, with these cities, or any other projected LBA names of known Greek cities. Also, no "Attarsiyas layer" of LHIIIA:1 has yet been found in western Anatolia. Still, Ahhiya must refer to a powerful people off the coast of Miletus, and Greece is the best available option at this time.

LHIIIA:1-period ti-n3-y/"Ahhiya" (and for that matter LHIIIA:1 Greece) did not feature otherwise in the inscriptions of the great kings of the Bronze Age, and certainly not as a coherent state.

LHIIIA:2 ware was in the Uluburun shipwreck, and was in use at Miletus before Mursili II burned it in circa 1320 BC. At this time, actual maritime trade was the specialty of the Cypriots and Phoenicians (so the presence of LH ware does not necessarily mean the presence of Mycenaeans).

During the LHIIIA:2 period, kings of "Ahhiyawa" began to come to the attention of the Hittites, possibly as rulers of the "Achaean" states. In LHIIIB, they rose almost to the status of the Great Kings in Egypt and Assyria. LHIIIB is also the period of Linear B script at the mainland palaces; prior to then, Linear B was in use primarily in the Cyclades and Crete. The term "Submycenaean" was introduced in 1934 by T. C. Skeat,^[17] but this is now regarded as a pottery style rather than a distinct period. Current opinion sees this style as the final stage of Late Helladic IIIC (and perhaps not even a very significant one).^[18] Arne Furumark already termed it LHIIIC:2 in his monumental "Mycenaean Pottery: Analysis and Classification" (Stockholm 1941). This pottery is best known from the cemeteries of Kerameikos in Athens, the island of Salamis located in the Saronic Gulf off Attica, Skoubris in Lefkandi (Euboea), and the markets of Athens (Agora), Tiryns, and Mycenae.

Identity[edit]

Since the decipherment of the somewhat younger Linear B tablets, it is thought that the people we call Mycenaeans might have been Achaeans or later subjected by them. No written source found at a Mycenaean site reveals what they called themselves. Upon a reading of the Iliad, where the residents of the Peloponnesus and adjacent islands are often called Achaeans, and taking into account mention of the Ahhiyawa in Hittite sources from the Late Bronze Age,^[19] the theory suggests itself that the Mycenaeans could possibly even be Achaeans.^[20] The Tawagalawa Letter written by an unnamed Hittite king of the empire period (14th–13th century BC) to the king ofAhhiyawa, treating him as an equal, suggests that Miletus (Millawanda) was under his control and refers to an earlier "Wilusa episode" involving hostility on the part ofAhhiyawa.^[21] Ahhiya(wa) has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy. However, the exact relationship of the term Ahhiyawa to the Achaeans beyond a similarity in pronunciation is hotly debated by scholars, even following the discovery that Mycenaean Linear B is an early form of Greek; the earlier debate was summed up in 1984 by Hans G. Güterbock of the Oriental Institute.^[22]

Political organization[edit]

Mycenaean world[edit]

Given the absence of direct sources, the political organization of the Mycenaean world cannot be determined with absolute certainty; however, it was the Neolithic agrarian village (6000 BC) that constituted the foundation of Bronze Age political culture in Greece.^[23] In the tradition recorded centuries later in Homer, there were several states, the cities of the Iliad: Mycenae, Pylos, Orchomenos—which are known to archaeology—and perhaps also unconfirmed Sparta or Ithaca. Only the states of Pylos and Knossos are clearly attested in the Linear B texts. Even so, it is impossible to know which was the dominant political center in Greece, if there indeed was one. Possible candidates are Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes, and Orchomenus. In Argolis, Mycenae seems to have enjoyed a hegemonial position for some time, while in Boiotia the rulers of Thebes or Orchomenus, who presumably constructed the great non-palatial citadel at Gla, probably played a leading role. The existence of a unified state in Greece during the Mycenaean era is unlikely, especially as there are indications of inter-state competition through the construction of great Cyclopean fortification systems and the lack of any bureaucratic Linear B documents suggesting a dominant centre

States of Pylos and Knossos[edit]

On a smaller scale, some uncertain information about the internal organization of the best-known kingdoms, Pylos and Knossos, can be gleaned from Linear B texts.

The state appears to have been ruled by a king, the wa-na-ka (ϝάναξ, wánax), whose role was no doubt religious and perhaps also military and judicial. He is identifiable in the Homeric anax (ἄναξ, "divine lord", "sovereign", "host"). Nine occurrences of the word in texts having to do with offerings suggest that the sovereigns of Pylos and Knossos were probably worshipped, but the term "for the king" is usually accompanied by another name. The term qa-si-re-u (cf. βασιλεύς, "basileús"), which was later used in Greece for "king" , seems that was used for the "chief" of any group of people. (Later Homer mentions many basilees in Ithaca).^[24]

The land possessed by the king is usually the te-me-no (τέμενος / "témenos"). Other important land owners were the ra-wa-ke-ta ("lāwāgetas"), the leader of the people, and the te-re-ta ("telestai"), the officials. Lawagetas could be the leader of the army, but it is not confirmed by the inscriptions. The e-qe-ta ("equetai"), literally, "the companions" or "followers", were a group of nobles (aristocrats), who followed the king in peace and war.^[24] There is also at least one instance of a person, Enkhelyawon (Linear B:𐀁𐀐𐁈𐀺) at Pylos, who appears titleless in the written record but whom modern scholars regard as being probably a king.^[25]

Besides the members of the court, there were other dignitaries in charge of local territorial administration. The kingdom of Pylos was divided into two great provinces, thede-we-ra ka-ra-i-ja, the near province, and the pe-ra-ko-ra-i-ja, the far province, around the town of re-u-ko-to-ro. The kingdom was further subdivided into sixteen districts. To manage these districts, the king named a ko-re-te (koreter, '"governor") and a po-ro-ko-re-te (prokoreter, "deputy"). A da-mo-ko-ro (damokoros, "one who takes care of a damos"), was an official appointment probably in charge of the commune. The communal land was held at the hands of da-mo (literally, "people", cf. δῆμος, dễmos), or "plot holders" that probably expressed the voice of the district.^[24] A council of elders was chaired, the ke-ro-si-ja (cf. γερουσία, gerousía). It is, incidentally, interesting to note that in Classical Greece, the basileus is the king, the monarch, as if between the disintegration of Mycenaean society and the Classical Age no higher authority survived — de facto, and then, over the generations, de jure — than the communal official.^[24]

Society[edit]

Mycenaean society appears to have been divided into two groups of free men: the king's entourage, who conducted administrative duties at the palace, and the people, 𐀅𐀗,da-mo,^[26] who lived at the commune level; these last were watched over by royal agents and were obliged to perform duties for and pay taxes to the palace.^[24]

Among those who evolved in the palace setting could be found well-to-do high officials who probably lived in the vast residences found in proximity to Mycenaean palaces, but also others, tied by their work to the palace and not necessarily better off than the members of the da-mo: craftsmen, farmers, and perhaps merchants, to name a few. On a lower rung of the social ladder were found the slaves, 𐀈𐀁𐀫, do-e-ro, "male slave" and 𐀈𐀁𐀨, do-e-ra, "female slave" (cf. δοῦλος, doúlos).^[27] These are recorded in the texts as working either for the palace or for specific deities.^[24]

Mycenaean contacts[edit]

By the close of the Bronze Age (up to Late Helladic IIIC) contacts between the Aegean and its neighbours were well established. Mycenaean connections extended as far as Sardinia,^[28] Southern Italy and Sicily,^[29] Asia Minor^[30] (i.e. Milawatta or Miletus, Iasus and Ephesus^[31][32][33] where high-quality Palace style and Mycenaean ceramics have been recovered^[34]). While Mycenaean pottery has been found as far as Cyprus,^[35] the Levant,^[36] Egypt (especially Tell el Amarna^[37]) and even southern Spain.^[38]The circulation of goods and produce between centres are attested in Linear B records, though evidence of direct exchange is not.

Economy[edit]

The economic organization of the Mycenaean kingdoms known from the texts seems to have been bipartite: a first group worked in the orbit of the palace, while another was self-employed. This reflects the societal structure seen above. However, there was nothing to prevent a person working for the palace from running his own business. The economy was supervised by scribes, who made note of incoming and outgoing products, assigned work, and were in charge of the distribution of rations. The du-ma-teseems to have been a sort of supervising quartermaster.

Agriculture[edit]

The territory of the Mycenaean kingdoms of Pylos and Knossos was divided into two parts: the ki-ti-me-na, the palace land, and the ke-ke-me-na, the communal land, cultivated by those the texts call ka-ma-na-e-we, undoubtedly the da-mo. The palace lands are those attested in the texts. One part makes up the te-me-no of the wa-ka-naand of the ra-wa-ge-ta, as seen above. The other part was granted as a perquisite to members of the palace administration. These lands might be worked by slaves or by free men to whom the land had been leased.

Agricultural production in these kingdoms reflected the traditional "Mediterranean trilogy": grain, olives, and grapes. The grains cultivated were wheat and barley. Oliveorchards were planted for the production of olive oil. This was not only a foodstuff, it was much used as a body oil and in perfume. Grapes were also cultivated, and several varieties of wine were produced. Besides these, flax was grown for linen clothing and sesame for its oil, and trees were planted, such as the fig.

Livestock consisted primarily of sheep and goats. Cows and pigs were less common. Horses were kept chiefly for the pulling of chariots in battle.

Industry[edit]

Gold earring, ca. 1600 BC, Louvre Museum.

The organization of artisanal labor is especially well known in the case of the palace. The archives of Pylos show a specialized workforce, each worker belonging to a precise category and assigned to a specific place in the stages of production, notably in textiles.

The textile industry was one of the principal sectors of the Mycenaean economy. The tablets of Knossos reveal the entire chain of production, from the flocks of sheep to the stocking of the palace storerooms with the finished product, through the shearing and the sorting of the wool in the workshops, as well as working conditions in those workshops. The palace of Pylos employed around 550 textile workers. At Knossos, there were some 900. Fifteen different textile specialties have been identified. Next to wool, flax was the fiber most used.

The metallurgical industry is well attested at Pylos, where 400 workers were employed. It is known from the sources that metal was distributed to them, that they might carry out the required work: on average, 3.5 kilograms (7.7 lb) of bronze per smith. On the other hand, it is not known how they were paid — they are mysteriously absent in the ration distribution lists. At Knossos, several tablets testify to the making of swords, but with no mention of the true industry of metallurgy.

The industry of perfumery is attested as well. Tablets describe the making of perfumed oil. It is known, too, from the archaeology that the workers attached to the palace included other kinds of artisans: goldsmiths, ivory-carvers, stonecarvers, and potters, for example. Olive oil was also made there. Certain areas of endeavor were turned toward export.

Commerce[edit]

Commerce remains curiously absent from the written sources. Thus, once the perfumed oil of Pylos has been stored in its little jars, the inscriptions do not reveal what became of it. Large stirrup jars that once contained oil have been found at Thebes in Boeotia. They carry inscriptions in Linear B indicating their place of origin, western Crete. However, Cretan tablets say nothing about the exportation of oil. There is little information about the distribution route of textiles. It is known that the Minoans exported fine fabrics to Egypt; the Mycenaeans no doubt did the same. Indeed, it is probable that they borrowed knowledge of navigational matters from the Minoans, as is evidenced by the fact that their maritime commerce did not take off until after the founding of the Minoan civilization. Despite the lack of sources, it is probable that certain products, notably fabrics and oil, even metal objects, were meant to be sold outside the kingdom, for they were made in quantities too great to be consumed solely at home.

Mycenaean stirrup vase found in the acropolis of Ras Shamra (Ugarit), ca. 1400–1300 BC.

Archaeology can, however, shed some light on the matter of the exportation of Mycenaean products outside of Greece. A number of vases have been found in the Aegean, in Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt and farther west in Sicily, even in Central Europe and as far away as Great Britain.^[39] In a general way, the circulation of Mycenaean goods is traceable thanks to nodules, ancestors of the modern label. They consisted of small balls of clay, molded with the fingers around a lanyard (probably of leather) with which they were attached to the object. The nodule displayed the imprint of a seal and an ideogram representing the object. Other information was sometimes added: quality, origin, destination, etc.

Fifty-six nodules found at Thebes in 1982 carry an ideogram representing an ox. Thanks to them, the itinerary of these bovines can be reconstructed. From all over Boeotia, even from Euboea, they were taken to Thebes to be sacrificed. The nodules served to prove that they were not stolen animals and to prove their origin. Once the animals arrived at their destination, the nodules were removed and gathered to create a book-keeping tablet. The nodules were used for all sorts of objects and explain how Mycenaean book-keeping could have been so rigorous. The scribe did not have to count the objects themselves, he could base his tables upon the nodules.

Religion[edit]

See also: Figures and figurines and § Figures and figurines

The religious element is difficult to identify in Mycenaean civilization, especially as regards archaeological sites, where it remains problematic to pick out a place of worship with certainty. John Chadwick points out that at least six centuries lie between the earliest presence of proto-Greek speakers in Hellas and the earliest Linear B inscriptions, during which concepts and practices will have fused with indigenous beliefs, and—if cultural influences in material culture reflect influences in religious beliefs—with Minoan religion.^[40] As for these texts, the few lists of offerings that give names of gods as recipients of goods reveal nothing about religious practices, and there is no surviving literature. John Chadwick rejected a confusion of Minoan and Mycenaean religion derived from archaeological correlations^[41] and cautioned against "the attempt to uncover the prehistory of classical Greek religion by conjecturing its origins and guessing the meaning of its myths"^[42] above all through treacherous etymologies.^[43] Moses I. Finley detected very few authentic Mycenaean reflections in the eighth-century Homeric world, in spite of its "Mycenaean" setting.^[44] However, Nilsson asserts, based not on uncertain etymologies but on religious elements and on the representations and general function of the gods, that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenaean religion. From the existing evidence, it seems that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the Greek religion.^[45] The Mycenaean pantheon already included many divinities that can be found in Classical Greece.^[46]

Poseidon (Po-se-da-o) seems to have occupied a place of privilege. He was a chthonic deity, connected with the earthquakes (E-ne-si-da-o-ne: earth shaker), but it seems that he also represented the river spirit of the underworld as it often happens in Northern European folklore.^[47] Also to be found are a collection of "Ladies". On a number of tablets from Pylos, we find Po-ti-ni-ja (Potnia, "lady" or "mistress") without any accompanying word. It seems that she had an important shrine at the site Pakijanes near Pylos.^[48] In an inscription at Knossos in Crete, we find the "mistress of the Labyrinth" (da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja), who calls to mind the myth of the Minoan labyrinth.^[49] The title was applied to many goddesses. In a Linear B tablet found at Pylos, the "two queens and the king" (wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te) are mentioned, and John Chadwick relates these with the precursor goddesses of Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.^[50][51]

Demeter and her daughter Persephone, the goddesses of the Eleusinian mysteries, were usually referred to as "the two goddesses" or "the mistresses" in historical times.^[52] Inscriptions in Linear B found at Pylos, mention the goddesses Pe-re-swa, who may be related with Persephone, and Si-to po-ti-ni-ja,^[53] who is an agricultural goddess.^[48] A cult title of Demeter is "Sito" (σίτος: wheat).^[54] The mysteries were established during the Mycenean period (1500 BC) at the city of Eleusis^[55] and it seems that they were based on a pre-Greek vegetation cult with Minoan elements.^[56] The cult was originally private and there is no information about it, but certain elements suggest that it could have similarities with the cult of Despoina ("the mistress") - the precursor goddess of Persephone - in isolated Arcadia that survived up to classical times. In the primitive Arcadian myth, Poseidon, the river spirit of the underworld, appears as a horse (Poseidon Hippios). He pursues Demeter who becomes a mare and from the union she bears the fabulous horse Arion and a daughter, "Despoina", who obviously originally had the shape or the head of a mare. Pausanias mentions animal-headed statues of Demeter and of other gods in Arcadia.^[57] At Lycosura on a marble relief, appear figures of women with the heads of different animals, obviously in a ritual dance.^[58] This could explain a Mycenaean fresco from 1400 BC that represents a procession with animal masks^[59] and the procession of "daemons" in front of a goddess on a goldring from Tiryns.^[60] The Greek myth of the Minotaur probably originated from a similar "daemon".^[61] In the cult of Despoina at Lycosura, the two goddesses are closely connected with the springs and the animals, and especially with Poseidon and Artemis, the "mistress of the animals" who was the first nymph. The existence of the nymphs was bound to the trees or the waters which they haunted.

Artemis appears as a daughter of Demeter in the Arcadian cults and she became the most popular goddess in Greece.^[62] The earliest attested forms of the name Artemisare the Mycenaean Greek a-te-mi-to and a-ti-mi-te, written in Linear B at Pylos.^[63] Her precursor goddess (probably the Minoan Britomartis) is represented between two lions on a Minoan seal and also on some goldrings from Mycenae.^[64] The representations are quite similar with those of "Artemis Orthia" at Sparta. In her temple at Sparta, wooden masks representing human faces have been found that were used by dancers in the vegetation-cult.^[65] Artemis was also connected with the Minoan "cult of the tree," an ecstatic and orgiastic cult, which is represented on Minoan seals and Mycenaean gold rings.^[66]

Paean (Pa-ja-wo) is probably the precursor of the Greek physician of the gods in Homer's Iliad. He was the personification of the magic-song which was supposed to "heal" the patient. Later it became also a song of victory (παιάν). The magicians was also called "seer- doctors" (ιατρομάντεις), a function which was also applied later to Apollo.^[67]

Athena (A-ta-na) appears in a Linear B inscription at Knossos from the Late Minoan II-era. The form A-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja (mistress Athena) is similar with the later Homericform.^[68] She was probably the goddess of the palace who is represented in the famous "Procession-fresco" at Knossos.^[69] In a Mycenaean fresco, there is a composition of two women extending their hands towards a central figure who is covered by an enormous figure-eight shield. The central figure is the war-goddess with her palladium (classical antiquity), or her palladium in an aniconic representation.^[48]

Dionysos (Di-wo-nu-so^[70]) also appears in some inscriptions. His name is interpreted as "son of Zeus" and probably has a Thraco-Phrygian origin. Later his cult is related with Boeotia and Phocis, where it seems that was introduced before the end of the Mycenean age. This may explain why his myths and cult were centered in Thebes, and why the mountain Parnassos in Phocis was the place of his orgies. However, in the Homeric poems he is the consort of the Minoan vegetation goddess Ariadne.^[71] He is the only Greek god other than Attis who dies in order to be reborn, as it often appears in the religions of the Orient.^[72] His myth is related with the Minoan myth of the "divine child" who was abandoned by his mother and then brought up by the powers of nature. Similar myths appear in the cults of Hyakinthos (Amyklai), Erichthonios (Athens), and Ploutos (Eleusis).^[73]

Other divinities who can be found in later periods have been identified, such as the couple Zeus–Hera, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes, Eileithyia, and Erinya. Hephaestus, for example, is likely associated with A-pa-i-ti-jo at Knossos whereas Apollo is mentioned only if he is identified with Paiāwōn; Aphrodite, however, is entirely absent.^[74] Qo-wi-ja ("cow-eyed") is a standard Homeric ephithet of Hera.^[53] Ares has appeared under the name Enyalios (assuming that Enyalios is not a separate god) and though the importance of Areias is unknown, it does resemble the name of the god of war.^[75] Eleuthia is associated with Eileithuia, the Homeric goddess of child-birth.^[76]

There were some sites of importance for cults, such as Lerna, typically in the form of house sanctuaries since the free-standing temple containing a cult image in its cellawith an open-air altar before it was a later development. Certain buildings found in citadels having a central room, the megaron, of oblong shape surrounded by small rooms may have served as places of worship. Aside from that, the existence of a domestic cult may be supposed. Some shrines have been located, as at Phylakopi on Melos, where a considerable number of statuettes discovered there were undoubtedly fashioned to serve as offerings, and it can be supposed from archaeological strata that sites such as Delphi, Dodona, Delos, Eleusis, Lerna, and Abae were already important shrines, and in Crete several Minoan shrines show continuity into LMIII, a period of Minoan-Mycenaean culture.

Architecture[edit]

Fortresses[edit]

The Lion Gate at Mycenae.

The principal Mycenaean towns were well fortified. The town could be situated on an acropolis as in Athens or Tiryns, against a large hill as in Mycenae, or on the coastal plain, like Gla or Pylos. Besides the citadels, there are also isolated forts that undoubtedly served to militarily control territory. Mycenaean walls were often made in a fashion called cyclopean, which means that they were constructed of large, unworked boulders up to eight meters (26 ft.) thick, loosely fitted without the clay mortar of the day. Different types of entrances or exits can be seen: monumental gates, access ramps, hidden doors, and vaulted galleries for escaping in case of a siege. Fear of attack meant that the chosen site must have a cisternor well at its disposal.

Habitations[edit]

The Mycenaean sites are composed of different types of residences. The smallest are rectangular in form and measure between 5 and 20 metres (16–66 ft.) on a side. These were the houses of the lowest classes. They could have one or several rooms; the latter become more widespread in more recent periods. On a more developed level are found larger residences, measuring about 20 to 35 meters (66 to 115 ft.) on a side, made up of many rooms and central courtyards. Their layout resembles that of a palace. It is not, however, certain that these were indeed the residences of the Mycenaean aristocrats; another theory is that they were palace annexes, being often situated next to them.

Palaces[edit]

Tiryns, map of castle.

The best examples of the Mycenaean palace are seen in the excavations at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos. That these were administrative centers is shown by the records found there. From an architectural point of view, they were the heirs of the Minoan palaces and also of other palaces built on the Greek mainland during the Bronze Age. They were ranged around a group of courtyards each opening upon several rooms of different dimensions, such as storerooms and workshops, as well as reception halls and living quarters. The heart of the palace was the megaron. This was the throne room, laid out around a circular hearth surrounded by four columns, the throne generally being found on the right-hand side upon entering the room. The staircases found in the palace of Pylos indicate palaces had two stories. Located on the top floor were probably the private quarters of the royal family and some storerooms. These palaces have yielded a wealth of artifacts and fragmentary frescoes.

The most recent find is a Mycenaean palace near the village of Xirokambi, in Laconia. As of early 2009, the excavation is at its first stages and artifacts uncovered so far include clay vessels and figurines, frescoes and three Linear B tablets. Preliminary findings indicate that one of the tablets contains an inventory of about 500 daggers and another is an inventory for textiles. The discovery was announced at the Athens Archaeological Society on April 28, 2009.^[77]

Architectural elements[edit]

Roof tiles[edit]

Contrary to an often held view, some Mycenaean representative buildings already featured roofs made of fired tiles, as in Gla and Midea.^[78]

Art and craftwork[edit]

Silver repoussé rhyton with gold horns, from Grave Circle A at Mycenae, 16th century BC (Archaeological Museum, Athens).

Vessels[edit]

The Mycenaeans made a great deal of pottery. Archaeologists have found a great quantity of pottery from the Mycenaean age, of widely diverse styles — stirrup jars, pitchers, kraters, chalices sometimes called "champagne coupes" after their shape, etc. The vessels vary in size. Their conformations remained quite consistent throughout the Mycenaean period, up through LHIIIB, when production increased considerably, notably in Argolis whence came great numbers exported outside Greece. The products destined for export were generally more luxurious and featured heavily worked painted decorations incorporating mythic, warrior, or animal motifs. Another type of vessel, in metal (normally bronze), has been found in sizeable quantities at Mycenaean sites. The forms of these were tripods, basins, or lamps. A few examples of vessels in faience and ivory are also known. Fuck me.

Figures and figurines[edit]

The Mycenaean period has not yielded sculpture of any great size. The statuary of the period consists for the most part of small terracotta figurines found at almost every Mycenaean site in mainland Greece, in tombs, in settlement debris, and occasionally in cult contexts (Tiryns, Agios Konstantinos on Methana). The majority of these figurines are female and anthropomorphic or zoomorphic. The female figurines can be subdivided into three groups which were popular at different periods: the earliest are the Phi-type, which look like the Greek letter phi and their arms give the upper body of the figurine a rounded shape. The Psi-type looks like the letter Greek psi: these have outstretched upraised arms. The latest (12th century BC) are the Tau-type: these figurines look like the Greek letter tau with folded(?) arms at right angles to the body. Most figurines wear a large 'polos' hat.^[79] They are painted with stripes or zigzags in the same manner as the contemporary pottery and presumably made by the same potters. Their purpose is uncertain, but they may have served as both votive objects and toys: some are found in children's graves but the vast majority of fragments are from domestic rubbish deposits.^[80] The presence of many these figurines on sites where worship took place in the Archaic and Classical periods (circa 200 below the sanctuary of Athena at Delphi, others at the temple of Aphaia on Aegina, at the sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas above Epidauros and at Amyklae near Sparta), suggests both that many were indeed religious in nature, perhaps as votives, but also that later places of worship may well have first been used in the Mycenaean period.^[81]

Larger male, female or bovine terracotta wheelmade figures are much rarer. An important group was found in the Temple at Mycenae together with coiled clay snakes,^[82]while others have been found at Tiryns and in the East and West Shrines at Phylakopi on the island of Melos.^[83]

Frescoes[edit]

Fresco of a Mycenaean woman.

The painting of the Mycenaean age was much influenced by that of the Minoan age. Fragments of wall paintings have been found in or around the palaces (Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns) and in domestic contexts (Zygouries).^[84] The largest complete wall painting depicting three female figures, probably goddesses, was found in the so-called Cult Centre at Mycenae.^[85] Various themes are represented: hunting, bull leaping (tauromachy), battle scenes, processions, etc. Some scenes may be part of mythological narratives, but if so their meaning eludes us. Other frescoes include geometric or stylised motifs, also used on painted pottery (see above).

Arms[edit]

Mycenaean swords and cups.

Military items have been found among the treasures of the Mycenaean age. The most impressive work is that of the Dendra panoply, a complete suit of Mycenaean armor and the oldest form of metal armor.^[86] The cuirass is made up of bronze plates sewn to a leather garment. The weight of this armor must have hindered the mobility of a warrior, and it is for this reason it is supposed that it was worn by a warrior riding in a chariot.

The typical Mycenaean helmet, in use from the 17th to the 10th centuries BC,^[87] was made of cut segments of boar's tusk sewn to a leather or cloth backing.^[88] This type is illustrated in ivory relief plaques found in the shaft graves of the 17th and 16th centuries BC and in wall paintings of that era from Akrotiri on Thera (Santorini) and of the 13th century BC in the so-called Palace of Nestor at Pylos. Groups of boar's tusk plates from the helmets themselves have been found at many sites, including Mycenae, Prosymna, Thermon and Elateia, as well as in southern Italy. This is the type of helmet which is described by Homer several hundred years later.^[89]

Two types of shields were used: the "figure eight" or "fiddle" shield, and a rectangular type, the "tower" shield, rounded on the top.^[90]They were made of wood and leather, and were of such a large size that if he wished to a warrior could crouch behind his shield and have his whole body covered.

Offensive arms were made of bronze. Spears and javelins have been found, and also an assortment of swords of different sizes, designed for striking with the point and with the edge.^[91] Daggers and arrows, attesting to the existence of archery, compose the remainder of the armament found from this period.^[92]

Funerary practices[edit]

The usual form of burial in the Late Helladic was inhumation.^[93] The dead were almost always buried in cemeteries outside the residential zones and only exceptionally within the settlements (the most famous burials in Grave Circle A originally lay outside the citadel and were only brought within it when the citadel wall was extended circa 1250 BC).

Dagger blade with intricate gold dolphin decoration, found in the Prosymna grave site, circa 1500 BC.

The earliest Mycenaean burials were mostly in individual graves in the form of a pit or a stone lined cist and offerings were limited to pottery and occasional items of jewellery. A large cemetery with burials of this kind spread around the northern and western slopes of the citadel at Mycenae.^[94] Groups of pit or cist graves containing elite members of the community were sometimes covered by a tumulus (mound) in the manner established since the Middle Helladic period.^[95] It has been argued that this form dates back to the oldest periods of Indo-European settlement in Greece, and that its roots are to be found in the Balkan cultures of the 3rd millennium BC, and even the Kurgan culture;^[96] however, Mycenaean burials are in actuality an indigenous phenomenon/development of mainland Greece with the Shaft Graves housing native rulers.^[97] Pit and cist graves remained in use for single burials throughout the Mycenaean period alongside more elaborate family graves (see below).^[98]

The Shaft Graves at Mycenae within Grave Circles A and B belong to the same period and seem to represent an alternative manner of grouping elite or royal burials – and isolating them from those of the majority. Grave Circle B is the earlier of the two groups, already in use in the MH period, and contains lavish grave goods – gold and silver, jewellery, weapons and pottery. Circle A, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann, enclosed fewer but extraordinarily well provided graves.

Beginning also in the Late Helladic are to be seen communal tombs of rectangular form.^[99] It is difficult to establish whether the different forms of burial represent a social hierarchization, as was formerly thought, with the tholoi being the tombs of the elite rulers, the individual tombs those of the leisure class, and the communal tombs those of the people. Cremations increased in number over the course of the period, becoming quite numerous in LHIIIC. The most impressive tombs of the Mycenaean era are the monumental royal tombs of Mycenae, undoubtedly intended for the royal family of the city. The most famous is the Tomb of Agamemnon (the Treasury of Atreus), which is in the form of a tholos. Nearby are other tombs (known as "Circle A"), popularly identified with Clytemnestra and Aigisthos. All contained impressive treasures, exhumed by Schliemann during the excavation of Mycenae. It has been argued that different dynasties or factions may have competed through conspicuous burial, whereby grave circle A represents a new faction in the ascendancy (at this time, LHI, the relative wealth and consistency of 'B' burials declines).^[100] The Mycenaean "tholoi" may, again, represent another factional grouping, or a further formalization in burial practices by the faction previously buried in A. Nevertheless, there is a demonstrably apparent expansion in relative size, wealth/cost expenditure, and visibility in the construction of these graves over this period, coinciding with increased foreign/trading contacts and the further entrenchment of the palatial economy.

Destruction[edit]

See also: Bronze Age collapse

Invasions, destructions and possible population movements during the collapse of the Bronze Age, ca. 1200.

The timing and interpretation of the end Mycenaean period poses an array of questions that have yet to be answered. The end of LHIIIB1 was marked by some destruction, in particular at Mycenae. By LHIIIB2, an augmentation of the Mycenaean systems of defense can be seen, a sign of increasing insecurity. But this does not seem to have been a period of crisis, because these levels have yielded archaeological material that shows a degree of wealth in no way inferior to that of previous periods. The end of this period is nevertheless marked by a number of destructions in the greater part of the Mycenaean sites on mainland Greece.

LHIIIC saw a decrease in the number of sites in Greece, which might have been considerable in certain regions (nine-tenths of the sites in Boeotia disappeared, and two-thirds in Argolis). Moreover, populations movements, with some Mycenaeans fleeing to Cyprus, as well as other Greek islands and coastal parts of Anatolia have been noted. Yet certain sites such as Mycenae and Tiryns continued to be inhabited, and the material culture found there continues to exhibit Mycenaean traits, such that LHIIIC is considered to be a level of Mycenaean civilization. However, a new type of ceramic appeared, called "Barbarian Ware" because it was formerly attributed to foreign invaders, and there was also a continuing increase in the practice of cremation.

Several explanations have been advanced for the causes of the decline of Mycenaean civilization in this period. Those concerning natural factors (climate change, earthquakes) are considered more controversial. The two most common theories are population movement and internal conflict. The first attributes the destruction of Mycenaean sites to invaders; sometimes the Dorians or the Sea People are invoked.

Some scholars believe that the destruction of the Mycenaean centres, was caused by the wandering of northern people. They destroyed the palace of Iolcos (LHIIIC-1), the palace of Thebes (late LHIIIB), then they crossed Isthmus of Corinth (end of LHIIIB) they destroyed Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos, and finally returned northward. However, Pylos was destroyed by a sea-attack, probably by the Sea People.^[101] The invaders didn't leave behind traces of weapons or graves, and it cannot be proved that all the sites were destroyed about the same time.^[102]

The movements of people to the Middle East at this period, are mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions calling the invaders by the name of the Sea People, are quite real. It is known that these people were responsible for numerous destructions in Anatolia and the Levant, and finally they attacked Egypt in several phases (circa 1301-1164 BC). Mention of a people called Eqwesh who attacked Egypt during the reign of Merneptah, in an Egyptian text of the 12th century BC has caused specialists to suppose that the Mycenaeans had taken part in these invasions (this is not certain).^[103] A country Danaja (Danaans) with a city Mukana (probably: Mycenea) is mentioned in inscriptions from Egypt.^[104]

Emily Vermeule suggests that the breaking-up of the commercial networks at the end of the 13th century BC, was disastrous for Greece, and it was followed by the attack of the Sea People who were searching for new lands.^[105] However, most of the destroyed Mycenaean sites are far from the sea, and the expedition against Troy at the end of this period shows that the sea was safe. Desborough believes that the sea was safe in central and south Aegean in this period.^[106]

There is the second theory, which has the Mycenaean civilization falling in the course of internal societal conflicts brought on by a rejection of the palatial system by the most underprivileged strata of society, who were impoverished at the end of the Late Helladic. This hypothesis is sometimes joined with the preceding one, mingling social divisions with ethnic divisions. However, social revolutions couldn't break out almost simultaneously throughout Greece.^[107] Mylonas believes that some developments in Argolis and attempts for recovery after 1200 BC, can be explained by internal fighting, and by pressure created by the Dorians. Even if the Dorians were one of the causes of the Bronze age collapse, there is evidence that they brought with them some new elements of culture, a cist grave completely different from the Mycenaean "tholos", and a new dialect of Greek, Doric. It seems that the Doric tribes moved southward gradually over a number of years, and they devastated the territory, until they managed to establish themselves in the Mycenaean centres.^[108]

In this context, it has to be stressed that the beginning of the Iron Age made large numbers of comparatively cheap weapons accessible. This economic factor is also seen as a root cause of the appearance of the "Sea Peoples" in Egypt and the destruction of Ugarit and the Hittite Empire.

Whatever were the causes, the Mycenaean civilization had definitely disappeared after LHIIIC, when the sites of Mycenae and Tiryns were again destroyed and lost their importance. This end, during the last years of the 12th century BC, occurs after a slow decline of the Mycenaean civilization, which lasted many years before dying out. The beginning of the 11th century BC opens a new context, that of the protogeometric, the beginning of the geometric period, the Greek Dark Ages of traditional historiography.

See also[edit]

• Mycenae
• Mycenaean language
• Linear B
• Achaeans (Homer)
• Helladic
• Bronze Age
• Aegean civilizations
• Greek Dark Ages
• List of Mycenaean deities

The Greek Dark Age or Ages and Geometric or Homeric Age (ca. 1100–800 BC)^[1][2] are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian invasion and end of the Mycenaean palatial civilizationaround 1100 BC, to the first signs of the Greek poleis in the 9th century BC.

The archaeological evidence shows a widespread collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean world at the outset of the period, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. Around this time, theHittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation. In Greece the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceased. The decoration on Greek pottery after ca 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler, generally geometric styles (1000–700 BC). It was previously thought that all contact was lost between mainland Hellenes and foreign powers during this period, yielding little cultural progress or growth; however, artifacts from excavations at Lefkandi on the Lelantine Plain in Euboea show that significant cultural and trade links with the east, particularly the Levant coast, developed from c. 900 BC onwards, and evidence has emerged of the new presence of Hellenes in sub-Mycenaean Cyprus and on the Syrian coast at Al Mina.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Fall of the Mycenaeans
• 2 Mediterranean warfare and the Sea Peoples
• 3 Dark Age culture
• 4 Post-Mycenaean Cyprus
• 5 Society
• 6 Lefkandi Burial
• 7 End
• 8 New writing system
• 9 Continuity Thesis
• 10 See also
• 11 References
  • 11.1 Bibliography

Fall of the Mycenaeans[edit]

From around 1200 BC, the palace centres and outlying settlements of the Mycenaeans' highly organized culture began to be abandoned or destroyed, and by 1050 BC, the recognizable features of Mycenaean culture had disappeared. Many explanations attribute the fall of the Mycenaean civilization and the Bronze Age collapse to climatic or environmental catastrophe combined with an invasion by Dorians or by the Sea Peoples or the widespread availability of edged weapons of iron, but no single explanation fits the available archaeological evidence.

Mediterranean warfare and the Sea Peoples[edit]

Around this time large-scale revolts took place in several parts of the Eastern Mediterranean, and attempts to overthrow existing kingdoms were made as a result of economic and political instability by surrounding people who were already plagued with famine and hardship. Part of the Hittite kingdom was invaded and conquered by the so-called Sea Peoples whose origins – perhaps from different parts of the Mediterranean, such as the Black Sea, the Aegean and Anatolian regions – remain obscure. The thirteenth and twelfth-century inscriptions and carvings at Karnak and Luxor are the only sources for "Sea Peoples", a term invented by the Egyptians themselves and recorded in the boastful accounts of Egyptian military successes:^[3]

The foreign countries ... made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were on the move, scattered in war. No country could stand before their arms… Their league was Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh.^[4]

A similar assemblage of peoples may have attempted to invade Egypt twice, once during the reign of Merneptah about 1208 BC, and then again during the reign ofRamesses III about 1178 BC.

Dark Age culture[edit]

With the collapse of the palatial centres, no more monumental stone buildings were built and the practice of wall painting may have ceased; writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and towns and villages were abandoned. The population of Greece was reduced,^[5] and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, and redistributive systems disappeared. Most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained within them. To what extent the earliest Greek literary sources, the Homeric epics (8th–7th century) and Hesiod's Works and Days (8th–7th century), describe life in the 9th–8th centuries remains a matter of considerable debate.

Map of Dark Age Greece.

The fragmented, localized and autonomous cultures of reduced complexity are noted for such diversity of their material cultures in pottery styles (conservative in Athens, eclectic at Knossos), burial practices and settlement structures, that generalizations about a"Dark Age society" are misleading.^[6] Tholos tombs are found in early Iron Age Thessaly and in Crete but not in general elsewhere, and cremation is the dominant rite in Attica, but nearby in the Argolid it was inhumation.^[7] Some former sites of Mycenaean palaces, such as Argos or Knossos, continued to be occupied; the fact that other sites experienced an expansive "boom time" of a generation or two before they were abandoned has been associated by James Whitley with the "Big-man social organization", which is based on personal charisma and inherently unstable: he interprets Lefkandi in this light.^[8]

Some regions in Greece, such as Attica, Euboea and central Crete, recovered economically from these events faster than others, but life for the poorest Greeks would have remained relatively unchanged as it had done for centuries. There was still farming, weaving, metalworking and potting in this time, albeit at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles. Some technical innovations were introduced around 1050 BC with the start of the Proto-geometric style (1050–900 BC), such as the superior pottery technology, which resulted in a faster potter's wheel for superior vase shapes and the use of a compass to draw perfect circles and semicircles for decoration. Better glazes were achieved by higher temperature firing of clay. However, the overall trend was toward simpler, less intricate pieces and fewer resources being devoted to the creation of beautiful art.

During this time the smelting of iron was learnt from Cyprus and the Levant, exploited and improved upon, using local deposits of iron ore previously ignored by the Mycenaeans: edged weapons were now within reach of less elite warriors. Though the universal use of iron was one shared feature among Dark Age settlements,^[9] it is still uncertain when the forged iron weapons and armour achieved superior strength to those that had been previously cast and hammered from bronze. From 1050 BC many small local iron industries appeared, and by 900 almost all weapons in grave goods were made of iron.

The distribution of the Ionic Greek dialect in historic times indicates early movement from the mainland of Greece to the Anatolian coast to such sites as Miletus, Ephesus, and Colophon, perhaps as early as 1000 BC, though the contemporaneous evidence is scant. In Cyprus some archaeological sites begin to show identifiably Greek ceramics,^[10] a colony of Euboean Greeks was established at Al Mina on the Syrian coast, and a reviving Aegean Greek network of exchange can be detected from 10th century Attic Proto-geometic pottery found in Crete and at Samos, off the coast of Asia Minor.^[11]

Post-Mycenaean Cyprus[edit]

Cyprus was inhabited by a mix of "Pelasgians" and Phoenicians, joined during this period by the first Greek settlements. Potters in Cyprus initiated the most elegant new pottery style of the 10th and 9th centuries, the 'Cypro-Phoenician' 'black on red' style^[12] of small flasks and jugs which held precious contents, probably scented oil. Together with distinctively Greek Euboean ceramic wares it was widely exported and is found in Levantine sites, including Tyre and far inland in the late 11th and 10th centuries. Cypriot metalwork was exchanged in Crete.

Society[edit]

It is likely that Greece during this period was divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins of the later poleis. Excavations of Dark Age communities such as Nichoria in the Peloponnese have shown how a Bronze Age town was abandoned in 1150 BC but then reemerged as a small village cluster by 1075 BC. At this time there were only around forty families living there with plenty of good farming land and grazing for cattle. The remains of a 10th century building, including a megaron, on the top of the ridge have led to speculation that this was the chieftain’s house. This was a larger structure than those surrounding it but it was still made from the same materials (mud brick and thatched roof). It was perhaps also a place of communal storage of food and of religious significance. High status individuals did in fact exist in the Dark Age, but their standard of living was not significantly higher than others of their village.^[13] Most Greeks did not live in isolated farmsteads but in small settlements. It is likely that, as at the dawn of the historical period two or three hundred years later, the main economic resources for each family was the ancestral plot of land of the oikos, the kleros or allotment; without this a man could not marry.^[14]

Lefkandi Burial[edit]

The Protogeometric building and the cemetery at Toumba Lefkandi.

Lefkandi on the island of Euboea was a prosperous settlement in the Late Bronze Age,^[15] possibly to be identified with oldEretria.^[16] It recovered quickly from the collapse of Mycenaean culture, and in 1981 excavators of a burial ground found the largest 10th century building yet known from Greece.^[17] Sometimes called 'the heroon, this long narrow building, (30 metres by 10 metres - 150 feet by 30 feet) contained two burial shafts. In one were placed four horses and the other contained a cremated male buried with his iron weapons and an inhumed woman, heavily adorned with gold jewellery.^[18] The man's bones were placed in a bronze jar from Cyprus, with hunting scenes on the cast rim. The woman was clad with gold coils in her hair, rings, gold breast plates, an heirloom necklace (an elaborate Cypriot or Near Eastern necklace made some 200–300 years before her burial) and an ivory handled dagger at her head. The horses appeared to have been sacrificed, some appearing to have iron bits in their mouths. No evidence survives to show whether the building was erected to house the burial, or whether the 'hero' or local chieftain in the grave was cremated and then buried in his grand house; whichever is true, the house was soon demolished and the debris used to form a roughly circular mound over the wall stumps.

Within the next few years and down to c 820 BC, rich members of the community were cremated and buried close to the eastern end of the building, in much the same way as Christians might seek to be buried close to a saint's grave; the presence of imported objects, notable throughout more than eighty further burials, contrast with other nearby cemeteries at Lefkandi and attest to a lasting elite tradition.

End[edit]

The archaeological record of many sites demonstrates that the economic recovery of Greece was well advanced by the beginning of the 8th century BC. Both cemeteries such as the Kerameikos in Athens or Lefkandi and sanctuaries such as Olympia, recently founded Delphi or the Heraion of Samos, first of the colossal free-standing temples, are richly provided with offerings including items from the Near East, from Egypt and from Italy made of exotic materials such as amber or ivory, while exports of Greek pottery demonstrate contact with the Levant coast at such sites as Al Mina and with the region of the Villanovan culture to the north of Rome. The decoration of pottery becomes more and more elaborate and includes figured scenes which parallel the stories of Homeric Epic. Iron tools and weapons become better in quality, while renewed Mediterranean trade must have brought new supplies of copper and tin to make a wide range of elaborate bronze objects such as tripod stands like those offered as prizes in the funeral games celebrated by Achilles for Patroclus.^[19] Other coastal regions of Greece besides Euboea were once again full participants in the commercial and cultural exchanges of the eastern and central Mediterranean, while communities developed which were governed by an elite group of aristocrats rather than by the single basileus or chieftain of earlier periods.^[20]

New writing system[edit]

By the mid- to late eighth century a new alphabet system was adopted from the Phoenicians by a Greek with first-hand experience of it. The Greeks adapted the Phoenician writing system, notably introducing characters for vowel sounds and thereby creating the first truly alphabetic (as opposed to abjad) writing system. The new alphabet quickly spread throughout the Mediterranean and was used to write not only the Greek language, but also Phrygian and other languages in the eastern Mediterranean. As Greece sent out colonies west towards Sicily and Italy (Pithekoussae, Cumae), the influence of their new alphabet extended further. The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a few lines written in the Greek alphabet referring to "Nestor's cup", discovered in a grave at Pithekoussae (Ischia) dates from c. 730 BC; it seems to be the oldest written reference to the Iliad. The Etruscans benefited from the innovation: Old Italic variants spread throughout Italy from the 8th century. Other variants of the alphabet appear on the Lemnos Stele and in the alphabets of Asia Minor. The previous Linear scripts were not completely abandoned: the Cypriot syllabary, descended from Linear A, remained in use on Cyprus in Arcadocypriot Greek and Eteocypriot inscriptions until the Hellenistic era

Continuity Thesis[edit]

Some scholars have argued against the concept of a Greek Dark Age, on grounds that the former lack of archaeological evidence in a period that was mute in its lack of inscriptions (thus "dark") has been shown to be an accident of discovery rather than a fact of history.^[21]

Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cyclades converge with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From ca. 1450 BC (Late Helladic, Late Minoan), the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Periodization
  • 1.1 Mainland
  • 1.2 Crete
  • 1.3 Cyclades
• 2 Commerce
• 3 Evidence
  • 3.1 Internal evidence
  • 3.2 External evidence
• 4 Discovery
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Periodization[edit]

Mainland[edit]

Main article: Helladic period

• Early Helladic (EH): 3200/3100–2050/2000 BCE
• Middle Helladic (MH): 2000/1900–1550 BCE
• Late Helladic (LH): 1550–1050 BCE

Crete[edit]

Main article: Minoan civilization

• Early Minoan (EM): 3650–2160 BCE
• Middle Minoan (MM): 2160–1600 BCE
• Late Minoan (LM): 1600–1170 BCE

Cyclades[edit]

Main article: Cycladic civilization

• Early Cycladic (EC): 3300–2000 BCE
• Kastri (EH II–EH III): ca. 2500–2100 BCE
• Convergence with MM from ca. 2000 BCE

Commerce[edit]

Commerce was practiced to some extent in very early times, as is proved by the distribution of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area. We find Cretan vessels exported toMelos, Egypt and the Greek mainland. Melian vases came in their turn to Crete. After 1600 B.C. there is very close commerce with Egypt, and Aegean things find their way to all coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of currency have come to light, unless certain axeheads, too slight for practical use, had that character. Standard weights have been found, as well as representations of ingots. The Aegean written documents have not yet proved (by being found outside the area) to be epistolary (letter writing) correspondence with other countries. Representations of ships are not common, but several have been observed on Aegean gems, gem-sealings, frying pans and vases. They are vessels of low free-board, with masts and oars. Familiarity with the sea is proved by the free use of marine motifs in decoration. The most detailed illustrations are to be found on the 'ship fresco' at Akrotiri on the island of Thera (Santorini) preserved by the ash fall from the volcanic eruption which destroyed the town there.

Discoveries, later in the 20th century, of sunken trading vessels such as those at Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya off the south coast of Turkey have brought forth an enormous amount of new information about that culture.

Evidence[edit]

For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted. The most representative site explored up to now isKnossos (see Crete) which has yielded not only the most various but the most continuous evidence from the Neolithic age to the twilight of classical civilization. Next in importance come Hissarlik, Mycenae, Phaestus, Hagia Triada, Tiryns, Phylakope, Palaikastro and Gournia.

Internal evidence[edit]

• Structures; Ruins of palaces, palatial villas, houses, built dome- or cist-graves and fortifications (Aegean islands, Greek mainland and northwestern Anatolia), but not distinct temples; small shrines, however, and temene (religious enclosures, remains of one of which were probably found at Petsofa near Palaikastro by J. L. Myres in 1904) are represented on intaglios and frescoes. From the sources and from inlay-work we have also representations of palaces and houses.
• Structural Decoration; Architectural features, such as columns, friezes and various mouldings; mural decoration, such as fresco-paintings, coloured reliefs and mosaicinlay. Roof tiles were also occasionally employed, as at early Helladic Lerna and Akovitika,^[1] and later in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea.^[2]
• Furniture; (a) Domestic furniture, such as vessels of all sorts and in many materials, from huge store jars down to tiny unguent pots; culinary and other implements;thrones, seats, tables, etc., these all in stone or plastered terracotta. (b) Sacred furniture, such as models or actual examples of ritual objects; of these we have also numerous pictorial representations. (c) Funerary furniture, for example, coffins in painted terracotta.
• Art products; for example, plastic objects, carved in stone or ivory, cast or beaten in metals (gold, silver, copper and bronze), or modelled in clay, faience, paste, etc. Very little trace has yet been found of large free-standing sculpture, but many examples exist of sculptors' smaller work. Vases of all kinds, carved in marble or other stones, cast or beaten in metals or fashioned in clay, the latter in enormous number and variety, richly ornamented with coloured schemes, and sometimes bearing moulded decoration. Examples of painting on stone, opaque and transparent. Engraved objects in great number for example, ring-bezels and gems; and an immense quantity of clay impressions, taken from these.
• Weapons, tools and implements; In stone, clay and bronze, and at the last iron, sometimes richly ornamented or inlaid. Numerous representations also of the same. No actual body-armour, except such as was ceremonial and buried with the dead, like the gold breastplates in the circle-graves at Mycenae or the full length bodyarmour from Dendra.
• Articles of personal use; for example, brooches (fibulae), pins, razors, tweezers, etc., often found as dedications to a deity, for example, in the Dictaean Cavern of Crete. No textiles have survived other than impressions in clay.
• Written documents; for example, clay tablets and discs (so far in Crete only), but nothing of more perishable nature, such as skin, papyrus, etc.; engraved gems and gem impressions; legends written with pigment on pottery (rare); characters incised on stone or pottery. These show a number of systems of script employing eitherideograms or syllabograms (see Linear B).
• Excavated tombs; Of either the pit, chamber or the tholos kind, in which the dead were laid, together with various objects of use and luxury, without cremation, and in either coffins or loculi or simple wrappings.
• Public works; Such as paved and stepped roadways, bridges, systems of drainage, etc.

External evidence[edit]

• Monuments and records of other contemporary civilizations; for example, representations of alien peoples in Egyptian frescoes; imitation of Aegean fabrics and style in non-Aegean lands; allusions to Mediterranean peoples in Egyptian, Semitic or Babylonian records.
• Literary traditions of subsequent civilizations; Especially the Hellenic; such as, for example, those embodied in the Homeric poems, the legends concerning Crete, Mycenae, etc.; statements as to the origin of gods, cults and so forth, transmitted to us by Hellenic antiquarians such as Strabo, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, etc.
• Traces of customs, creeds, rituals, etc.; In the Aegean area at a later time, discordant with the civilization in which they were practiced and indicating survival from earlier systems. There are also possible linguistic and even physical survivals to be considered.

Mycenae and Tiryns are the two principal sites on which evidence of a prehistoric civilization was remarked long ago by the classical Greeks.

Discovery[edit]

The curtain-wall and towers of the Mycenaean citadel, its gate with heraldic lions, and the great "Treasury of Atreus" had borne silent witness for ages before Heinrich Schliemann's time; but they were supposed only to speak to the Homeric, or, at farthest, a rude Heroic beginning of purely Hellenic civilization. It was not until Schliemann exposed the contents of the graves which lay just inside the gate, that scholars recognized the advanced stage of art which prehistoric dwellers in the Mycenaean citadel had attained.

There had been, however, a good deal of other evidence available before 1876, which, had it been collated and seriously studied, might have discounted the sensation that the discovery of the citadel graves eventually made. Although it was recognized that certain tributaries, represented for example, in the XVIIIth Dynasty tomb of Rekhmara at Egyptian Thebes as bearing vases of peculiar forms, were of some Mediterranean race, neither their precise habitat nor the degree of their civilization could be determined while so few actual prehistoric remains were known in the Mediterranean lands. Nor did the Aegean objects which were lying obscurely in museums in 1870, or thereabouts, provide a sufficient test of the real basis underlying the Hellenic myths of the Argolid, the Troad and Crete, to cause these to be taken seriously. Aegean vases have been exhibited both at Sèvres and Neuchatel since about 1840, the provenance (i.e. source or origin) being in the one case Phylakope in Melos, in the otherCephalonia.

Ludwig Ross, the German archaeologist appointed Curator of the Antiquities of Athens at the time of the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece, by his explorations in the Greek islands from 1835 onwards, called attention to certain early intaglios, since known as Inselsteine; but it was not until 1878 that C. T. Newton demonstrated these to be no strayed Phoenician products. In 1866 primitive structures were discovered on the island of Therasia by quarrymen extracting pozzolana, a siliceous volcanic ash, for theSuez Canal works. When this discovery was followed up in 1870, on the neighbouring Santorin (Thera), by representatives of the French School at Athens, much pottery of a class now known immediately to precede the typical late Aegean ware, and many stone and metal objects, were found. These were dated by the geologist Ferdinand A. Fouqué, somewhat arbitrarily, to 2000 B.C., by consideration of the superincumbent eruptive stratum.

Meanwhile, in 1868, tombs at Ialysus in Rhodes had yielded to Alfred Biliotti many fine painted vases of styles which were called later the third and fourth "Mycenaean"; but these, bought by John Ruskin, and presented to the British Museum, excited less attention than they deserved, being supposed to be of some local Asiatic fabric of uncertain date. Nor was a connection immediately detected between them and the objects found four years later in a tomb at Menidi in Attica and a rock-cut "bee-hive" grave near the Argive Heraeum.

Even Schliemann's first excavations at Hissarlik in the Troad did not excite surprise. But the "Burnt City" of his second stratum, revealed in 1873, with its fortifications and vases, and a hoard of gold, silver and bronze objects, which the discoverer connected with it, began to arouse a curiosity which was destined presently to spread far outside the narrow circle of scholars. As soon as Schliemann came on the Mycenae graves three years later, light poured from all sides on the prehistoric period of Greece. It was recognized that the character of both the fabric and the decoration of the Mycenaean objects was not that of any well-known art. A wide range in space was proved by the identification of the Inselsteine and the Ialysus vases with the new style, and a wide range in time by collation of the earlier Theraean and Hissarlik discoveries. A relationship between objects of art described by Homer and the Mycenaean treasure was generally allowed, and a correct opinion prevailed that, while certainly posterior, the civilization of the Iliad was reminiscent of the Mycenaean.

Schliemann got to work again at Hissarlik in 1878, and greatly increased our knowledge of the lower strata, but did not recognize the Aegean remains in his "Lydian" city of the sixth stratum. These were not to be fully revealed until Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who had become Schliemann's assistant in 1879, resumed the work at Hissarlik in 1892 after the first explorer's death. But by laying bare in 1884 the upper stratum of remains on the rock of Tiryns, Schliemann made a contribution to our knowledge of prehistoric domestic life which was amplified two years later by Christos Tsountas's discovery of the palace at Mycenae. Schliemann's work at Tiryns was not resumed till 1905, when it was proved, as had long been suspected, that an earlier palace underlies the one he had exposed.

From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenaean sepulchres outside the Argolid, from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas's exploration of the buildings and lesser graves at Mycenae, a large treasure, independent of Schliemann's princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at Athens. In that year tholos-tombs, most already pillaged but retaining some of their furniture, were excavated at Arkina and Eleusis in Attica, at Dimini near Volos in Thessaly, at Kampos on the west of MountTaygetus, and at Maskarata in Cephalonia. The richest grave of all was explored at Vaphio in Laconia in 1889, and yielded, besides many gems and miscellaneous goldsmiths' work, two golden goblets chased with scenes of bull-hunting, and certain broken vases painted in a large bold style which remained an enigma until the excavation of Knossos.

In 1890 and 1893, Staes cleared out certain less rich tholos-tombs at Thoricus in Attica; and other graves, either rock-cut "bee-hives" or chambers, were found at Spata and Aphidna in Attica, in Aegina and Salamis, at the Argive Heraeum and Nauplia in the Argolid, near Thebes and Delphi, and not far from the Thessalian Larissa. During theAcropolis excavations in Athens, which terminated in 1888, many potsherds of the Mycenaean style were found; but Olympia had yielded either none, or such as had not been recognized before being thrown away, and the temple site at Delphi produced nothing distinctively Aegean (in dating). The American explorations of the Argive Heraeum, concluded in 1895, also failed to prove that site to have been important in the prehistoric time, though, as was to be expected from its neighbourhood to Mycenae itself, there were traces of occupation in the later Aegean periods.

Prehistoric research had now begun to extend beyond the Greek mainland. Certain central Aegean islands, Antiparos, Ios, Amorgos, Syros and Siphnos, were all found to be singularly rich in evidence of the Middle-Aegean period. The series of Syran-built graves, containing crouching corpses, is the best and most representative that is known in the Aegean. Melos, long marked as a source of early objects but not systematically excavated until taken in hand by the British School at Athens in 1896, yielded at Phylakope remains of all the Aegean periods, except the Neolithic.

A map of Cyprus in the later Bronze Age (such as is given by J. L. Myres and M. O. Richter in Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum) shows more than 25 settlements in and about the Mesaorea district alone, of which one, that at Enkomi, near the site of Salamis, has yielded the richest Aegean treasure in precious metal found outside Mycenae. E. Chantre in 1894 picked up lustreless ware, like that of Hissariik, in central Phtygia and at Pteria, and the English archaeological expeditions, sent subsequently into north-western Anatolia, have never failed to bring back ceramic specimens of Aegean appearance from the valleys of the Rhyndncus, Sangarius and Halys.

In Egypt in 1887, W. M. F. Petrie found painted sherds of Cretan style at Kahun in the Fayum, and farther up the Nile, at Tell el-Amarna, chanced on bits of no fewer than 800 Aegean vases in 1889. There have now been recognized in the collections at Cairo, Florence, London, Paris and Bologna several Egyptian imitations of the Aegean style which can be set off against the many debts which the centres of Aegean culture owed to Egypt. Two Aegean vases were found at Sidon in 1885, and many fragments of Aegean and especially Cypriot pottery have been found during recent excavations of sites in Philistia by the Palestine Fund.

Sicily, ever since P. Orsi excavated the Sicel cemetery near Lentini in 1877, has proved a mine of early remains, among which appear in regular succession Aegean fabrics and motives of decoration from the period of the second stratum at Hissarlik. Sardinia has Aegean sites, for example, at Abini near Teti; and Spain has yielded objects recognized as Aegean from tombs near Cadiz and from Saragossa.

One land, however, has eclipsed all others in the Aegean by the wealth of its remains of all the prehistoric ages— Crete; and so much so that, for the present, we must regard it as the fountainhead of Aegean civilization, and probably for long its political and social centre. The island first attracted the notice of archaeologists by the remarkable archaic Greek bronzes found in a cave on Mount Ida in 1885, as well as by epigraphic monuments such as the famous law of Gortyna (also called Gortyn). But the first undoubted Aegean remains reported from it were a few objects extracted from Cnossus by Minos Kalokhairinos of Candia in 1878. These were followed by certain discoveries made in the S. plain Messara by F. Halbherr. Unsuccessful attempts at Cnossus were made by both W. J. Stillman and H. Schliemann, and A. J. Evans, coming on the scene in 1893, travelled in succeeding years about the island picking up trifles of unconsidered evidence, which gradually convinced him that greater things would eventually be found. He obtained enough to enable him to forecast the discovery of written characters, till then not suspected in Aegean civilization. The revolution of 1897-1898 opened the door to wider knowledge, and much exploration has ensued, for which see Crete.

Thus the "Aegean Area" has now come to mean the Archipelago with Crete and Cyprus, the Hellenic peninsula with the Ionian islands, and Western Anatolia. Evidence is still wanting for the Macedonian and Thracian coasts. Offshoots are found in the western Mediterranean area, in Sicily, Italy, Sardinia and Spain, and in the eastern Mediterranean area in Syria and Egypt. Regarding the Cyrenaica, we are still insufficiently informed.

See also[edit]

Part of a series on the
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This is a timeline of Ancient Greece from 800 BC to 146 BC.

For earlier times, see Greek Dark Ages, Aegean civilizations and Mycenaean Greece. For later times see Roman Greece,Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Greece.

For Modern Greece after 1820, see Timeline of modern Greek history.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Archaic Greece
  • 1.1 Late Archaic Period
• 2 Classical Greece
• 3 Hellenistic Greece
• 4 Notes

Archaic Greece[edit]

Archaic Period (800 BC - 480 BC).

• 776 Traditional date for the first historic Olympic games.
• 757 The First Messenian War starts. (Date disputed by Jerome, Pausanias and Diodorus; this estimate is based on a reading of Diodorus' Spartan king lists and Pausanias' description of the war).
• 757 Athens: Office of Archon reduced to 10 years. Members of the ruling family to possess the office starting with Charops. (Dating based on Pausanias).
• 754 Polydorus becomes king of Sparta.
• 738 Alternate date for the end of the first Messenian war.
• 735 Perdiccas I of Macedon flees from Argos to Macedonia and conquers the land.
• 734 Polydorus sends colonists to Italy.
• 727-717 Hippomenes, archon of Athens, kills his daughter's adulterer by yoking him to his chariot and then locks his daughter in with a horse until she dies. (Pausanias and Aristotle).
• c. 725 Lelantine War between Chalcis and Eretria. Many Greek cities are allied with one or the other. Dates before this time uncertain.
• 719 Polydorus, king of Sparta, is murdered by Polymarchus.
• 716 According to legend: The reign of the Heraklids over Lydia is ended when Candaules, known as Myrsilus to the Greeks, is murdered by Gyges because of his wife’s anger.
• 690 Pheidon becomes tyrant of Argos.
• 687 Annual office of Archon established in Athens. Any Athenian citizen can be elected to the office if they have the qualifications. Creon elected first annual archon. (Dating based on Pausanias).
• 685 The second Messenian war begins.
• 665 The second Messenian war ends.
• 656 Cypselus subjects Corinth to tyranny.
• 645-560 Spartan wars with Tegea all unsuccessful.
• 642 or 634 Battus establishes a Greek colony in Cyrene in Libya.
• 632 Cylon, Athenian noble, seizes Acropolis and tries to make himself king, fails.
• 630 Formal pederasty is introduced, first in Crete, as a means of population control and an educational modality.
• 621 Draco, Athenian lawgiver, issues code of laws, with many crimes punishable by death.
• 594 Solon, Athenian statesman, becomes Archon pre-582BC (cf. ML6 (death of Kypselos 585BC) and Plutarch Sol. 14), captures Salamis from Megarians- later, when member of the Areopagus is appointed to effect social reforms in order to preserve order in Athens, which include the abolition of the security of debts on a debtor's person (Aristotle Ath. Pol. 6), returning exiled Athenian slaves (Solon fr. 4 in Ath. Pol. 12), changing the value of weights and measures to the Korinthian standard, prohibiting the export of grain from Attica and encouraging the planting of olives (Plut. Sol. 22-4), established the property classes (Ar. Ath. Pol. 7) and the council of 400 (Ar. Ath. Pol. 8).
• 590 Sappho, Greek poet and priestess, flourishes on island of Lesbos.
• 585 The philosopher Thales of Miletus predicts a solar eclipse that occurs during the Battle of Halys.
• 569 Pythagoras is born.
• 565 Peisistratos, Athenian general, organizes Diakrioi, party of poor people.
• 510 Pythagoras establishes his own school.
• 500 Pythagoras dies in Crotona, Italy, when he was in Metapontum.

Late Archaic Period[edit]

• 561 Peisistratos takes power in Athens for first time.
• 555 Peisistratos driven out by Lycurgus who is commander of nobles.
• 549 Peisistratos restored by help of Megacles.
• 546 Croesus, rich king of Lydia, captured at Sardis by Persians.
• 542 Peisistratos expelled, makes fortune from Thracian mines.
• 532 Peisistratos restored by Thessaly and Lygdamis of Naxos.
• 527 Peisistratos dies, succeeded by sons Hippias and Hipparchus.
• 525 Persian Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the Great takes Egypt.
• 515 Hippias becomes sole ruler after the death of Hipparchus.
• 508 Hippias is forced to leave Athens.
• 507 Cleisthenes, Greek reformer, takes power, increases democracy.
• 490 Themistocles and Miltiades, Athenians, defeat Darius at Marathon, Phidippides runs with news.
• 484 Aeschylus, Athenian playwright wins his first victory at the City Dionysia.

Classical Greece[edit]

Classical period (500 BC - 323 BC).

• 480 Leonidas, Spartan, sacrifices 300 Spartan soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae so main force can escape; Xerxes son of Darius is commanding the Persians.
• 480 Simultaneous with Thermopylae, the Greeks and Persians fight to a draw in the naval Battle of Artemisium.
• 480 Battle of Salamis - Themistocles, Athenian general, lures Persians into Bay of Salamis, Xerxes loses and goes home, leaves behind Mardonius.
• 479 Pausanias, Greek general routs Mardonius at the Battle of Plataea.
• 479 Battle of Mycale frees Greek colonies in Asia. After the Battle of Salamis, Athens initiated the Delian League, with treasury initially on island of Delos, a confederacy of cities around the Aegean Sea. It was intended as a military defense association against Persia but became controlled by the Athenians, who collected tribute and decided policy. Sparta formed rival Peloponnesian League.
• 476-462 Cimon elected general each year, he was victorious over Persia and then enforced military power on Delian League.
• 474 Pindar, Greek poet relocates to Thebes (in Greece) from court at Syracuse.
• 471 Themistocles ostracized.
• 468 Sophocles, Greek playwright, defeats Aeschylus for Athenian Prize for drama.
• 461 Cimon ostracized.
• 457 Pericles, Athenian statesman begins Golden Age, he was taught by Anaxagoras, who believed in dualistic Universe and atoms.
• 456 Aeschylus dies.
• 449 Herodotus, Greek Historian, writes History of Greco-Persian War from 490-479.
• 448 Ictinus and Callicrates, Greek architects rebuild Acropolis from Persian destruction.
• 441 Euripides, Greek playwright, wins Athenian prize.
• 440 Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, teaches that everything is mutable.
• 435 Phidias, Greek sculptor, completes statue of Zeus at Elis, 1 of 7 wonders of the world.
• 433 Corinth, Sparta, Megara and Aegina ally against Corfu, Athens, Rhegium, and Leontini.
• 432 End of "Golden Age", Athens under Pericles blockades Potidaea (Battle of Potidaea), Corfu declares war on Corinth (Battle of Sybota).
• 431 Sparta commanded by King Archidamus II prepares to destroy Athens thus starting the Peloponnesian War.
• 431 Empedocles, Greek doctor, believes body has Four Temperaments.
• 430 Failed peace mission by Athens, bubonic plague year, Sparta takes no prisoners.
• 430 Leucippus, Greek philosopher, believes every natural event has natural cause. Athenian Plague begins in Athens.
• 429 Phormio, Athenian admiral, wins the Battle of Chalcis.
• 429 Pericles dies of Athenian Plague, possibly typhus or bubonic plague.
• 429 Hippocrates, Greek doctor, believes diseases have physical cause.
• 428 Plato born.
• 428 Mytilene rebels, chief city of Lesbos.
• 427 Archidamus II dies, Alcidas, Greek admiral sent to help Lesbos, raids Ionia and flees after seeing Athenian might. Athenian Plague returns.
• 427 Mytilene surrenders to Athens, Plataeans surrender to Athens.
• 427 Aristophanes, Greek playwright, wins Athenian Prize.
• 426 Corfu secures island for Athens.
• 426 Demosthenes, Athenian general, and Cleon, Athenian demagogue, revitalizes Athenian forces, makes bold plans opposed by Nicias, his first military campaign barely succeeds.
• 425 Athenian fleet bottles up Spartan navy at Navarino Bay, Nicias resigns.
• 424 Syracuse sends Athenians home.
• 424 Pagondas of Thebes (in Greece) crushes Athenian army at the Battle of Delium, Brasidas a Spartan general makes a successful campaign, Cleon exilesThucydides for 20 years for arriving late.
• 423 Truce of Laches supposed to stop Brasidas but doesn't, Nicias commands Athenian forces in retaking Mende.
• 422 Cleon meets Brasidas outside of Amphipolis, both are killed (Battle of Amphipolis).
• 421 Peace of Nicias brings temporary end to war, but Alcibiades, a nephew of Pericles, makes anti-Sparta alliance.
• 420 Quadruple alliance of Athens, Argos, Mantinea, and Elis confronts Spartan-Boeotian alliance.
• 419 King Agis II of Sparta attacks Argos, makes treaty.
• 418 Battle of Mantinea, greatest land battle of war, gives Sparta victory over Argos, which violated treaty, Alcibiades thrown out, alliance ended.
• 416 Alcibiades makes plans, is restored to power.
• 416 Massacre of the Melians.
• 415 Hermai statues are mutilated in Athens, Alcibiades accused, asks for inquiry, told to set sail for battle (Sicilian Expedition), is condemned to death in absentia, he defects to Sparta.
• 414 Lamachus, Athenian commander killed at Syracuse.
• 413 Nicias and Demosthenes killed at Syracuse.
• 412 Alcibiades is expelled from Sparta, conspires to come back to Athens.
• 411 Democracy ends in Athens by Antiphon, Peisander, and Phrynichus (oligarch), overthrown by Theramenes, Constitution of the 5000, Athenian navy recallsAlcibiades, confirmed by Athenians.
• 410 After several successes, Athenian demagogue Cleophon rejects Spartan peace offers.
• 409 Byzantium recaptured by Alcibiades for Athens.
• 408 Alcibiades reenters Athens in triumph, Lysander, a Spartan commander, has fleet built at Ephesus.
• 407 Lysander begins destruction of Athenian fleet, Alcibiades stripped of power.
• 406 Callicratides, Spartan naval commander, loses Battle of Arginusae over blockade of Mitylene harbor, Sparta sues for peace, rejected by Cleophon.
• 405 Lysander captures Athenian fleet, Spartan king Pausanias besieges Athens, Cleophon executed, Corinth and Thebes demand destruction of Athens.
• 404 Athens capitulates April 25. Theramenes secures terms, prevents total destruction of Athens, Theramenes and Alcibiades are killed.
• 401 Thucydides, Greek historian, leaves account of "Golden Age of Pericles" and Peloponnesian War at his death (History of the Peloponnesian War).
• 399 Socrates, Greek philosopher, condemned to death for corrupting youth.
• 387 Peace of Antalcidas concluded between the Greeks and the Persians.
• 347 Plato, Greek philosopher, founder of Academy, dies.
• 342 Aristotle, Greek philosopher, begins teaching Alexander, son of Philip of Macedon.
• 338 King Philip II of Macedon defeats Athens and Thebes at Battle of Chaeronea August 2 and establishes League of Corinth during winter of 338 BC/337 BC.
• 336 Alexander succeeds father Philip II, who was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis.
• 333 Alexander defeats Persians at Battle of Issus, Oct, but Darius III escapes.
• 332 Alexander conquers Egypt.
• 331 at Battle of Gaugamela October 1, Alexander ends Achaemenid Dynasty and conquers Persian Empire.
• 330 Democritus, Greek philosopher, develops Atomic theory, believes cause and necessity, nothing comes out of nothing.
• 329 Alexander conquers Samarkand.
• 327 Alexander invades northern India, but his army is despondent and refuses to march further eastwards.

Hellenistic Greece[edit]

Hellenistic period (323 BC - 146 BC).

• 323 King Alexander dies, his generals vie for power in Wars of the Diadochi:Antigonus- Macedon, Antipater- Macedon, Seleucus- Babylonia and Syria, Ptolemy- Egypt,Eumenes- Macedon, Lysimachus, later Antipater's son Cassander also vies for power.
• 323 - 322 Lamian War.
• 322 - 320 First War of the Diadochi.
• 320 Partition of Triparadisus.
• 320 - 311 Second War of the Diadochi.
• 316 Menander, Greek playwright, wins Athenian prize.
• 310 Zeno of Citium founds his stoic school in Athens.
• 307 Epicurus founds his philosophic school in Athens.
• 301 Battle of Ipsus.
• 300 Euclid, Greek mathematician, publishes Elements, treating both geometry and number theory (see also Euclidean algorithm).
• 295 Athens falls to Demetrius, Lachares killed.
• 281 Creation of the Achaean League.
• 280 - 275 Pyrrhic War.
• 279 Gallic invasion of the Balkans.
• 274 - 271 First Syrian War.
• 267 - 262 Chremonidean War.
• 265 Archimedes, Greek mathematician, develops Archimedes' screw, specific gravity, center of gravity; anticipates discoveries of integral calculus.
• 260 - 253 Second Syrian War.
• 246 - 241 Third Syrian War.
• 219 - 217 Fourth Syrian War.
• 214 - 205 First Macedonian War.
• 203 - 200 Fifth Syrian War.
• 200 - 196 Second Macedonian War.
• 192 - 188 Roman–Syrian War.
• 172 - 167 Third Macedonian War.
• 170 - 168 Sixth Syrian War.
• 150 - 148 Fourth Macedonian War.