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Lecture 6 Aegean Bronze Age
HIST 332 Spring 2012
Timeline of Greece
• homo erectus 1.7 mill. BP
• homo sapiens 35,000 BP
• Stone Age 9500-5000 BCE
• Neolithic 5000-3000 BCE
• EBA 3000-2300 BCE
• MBA 2300-1800 BCE
• LBA (1800-1150 BCE)
• Dark Age (1150-800 BCE)
• Archaic (800-480 BCE)
• Classical (480-338 BCE)
• Hellenistic (338-146 BCE)
• Roman (146 BCE-330 CE)
• Byzantine (330-1204 CE)
• Crusader (1204-1261 CE)
• Byzantine (1261-1453 CE)
• Ottoman (1453-1921 CE)
• Nation of Greece (1921- 1981)
• European Union (1981- )
Natural Geography of “Greece”
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Middle Bronze Age 2300-1800 BCE
~2300 BCE
• Cycladic sites are wiped out
– never return and revert to simple village existence for 500 years
• absence of “Mother Goddess” figures
– replaced by male figurines
Possible causes
• Indo-European invasion?
Bronze Age Aegean Civilizations
Minoan Culture
Oldest in Mediterranean (Neolithic)
Vast sea-trading network
Ethnographically unique
• not Indo-European
• not Semitic
• autochthonous
– auto = self
– chthonos = “spring up from the ground”
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Plan of the Palace of Knossos
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Thalassocracy = Ocean rule
Sir Arthur Evans argued for pax Minoica "Minoan peace”
• Many argue that there is little evidence for ancient Minoan fortifications
– Minoans frequently show 'weapons' in their art, but only in ritual contexts
• no evidence exists for a Minoan army, or for Minoan domination of peoples outside Crete
New Evidence of Minoan Fortifications
In May 2010 archaeologists from the University of Buffalo unearthed a system of beach fortifications from the town of Gournia
• Seems to cast doubt on the idea that the Minoans were a peaceful civilization
• Tombs uncovered by Hawes and other excavators have shown people buried with swords.
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Thera explodes ~1648 BCE
Akrotiri in Crete
Mycenaean Timeline
3000-2000 BCE Early Helladic
2000-1675 BCE Middle Helladic
1650 Explosion of Thera
1675-1450 BCE Late Helladic I and II • Grave Circle A and B
1425- 1340 BCE LH IIIA • Minoan Palaces occupied by Mycenaeans
1340-1190 BCE LH IIIB • tholos tomb of Clytemnestra • Treasury of Atreus • Linear B Tablets
1190-1020 BCE LH III C (Sub-Mycenaean) • “Warrior Vase”
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Mycenaean Civilization
• Indo-European
– spoke a form of proto-Greek
• Palace kings controlled land within a day’s ride of palace
• highly stratified society
– nobles
– workers
– slaves
Palaces:
took on a more militaristic profile
• Mycenae
• Tiryns
• Pylos
• Knossos
• Lerna
• Orchomenos
• Corinth
• Athens
• Miletus
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Linear B related to Greek Economic tablets recorded production and storage of the palace centers
Army organization
• Each citadel organized manpower for combat
• General 2nd highest ranking official in Mycenaean society
• Palace organized the centralized production of arms, armor and chariots
• Chariot tablets
Mycenaean Conquest of Crete 1450-1400 BCE
Mainland Greeks move into former Minoan territory
• Reestablish trade networks and rebuild palaces
• Frescos depict warfare
• Develop writing system from Minoans called Linear B
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seal from Padiasos Crete ~1460 BCE
fresco from Pylos dated LH IIIA/B (1350 BCE)
Mycenaean Chariots
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small ivory representation of boar tusks helmet LH IIIB.
fresco fragment from Orchomenos LH IIIB.
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Hittite fragment of clay vessel from Bogazkoy dated around 1350 BC. Interpreted by the scholars as one of the Ahhiyawa (Achaeans)
A complete bronze armor in the tomb n. 12 of Dendra dated between LH II and LH IIB (1450-1400 BCE)
bronze greaves are from the warrior grave A in Kallithea dated about LH IIIC Pylos dated around 1300 BCE