Mainland Greece — The Mycenaeans

The Mycenaeans were located on the mainland of Greece.  Today we will be discussing two sites — Mycenae and Tiryns (although, as your book mentions, there are others).

Lion Gate at Mycenae, ca. 1300-1250 B.C., limestone

This gate is part of the fortification at Mycenae.  Note!! The fact that this culture is making fortifications is an important distinction from the Minoan palace.  Mycenaean palaces were heavily fortified by massive stone walls.  The Mycenaeans were more aggressive and more defensive than the Minoans. They were part of a more military culture.  

The structure of this gate is post and lintel construction with the lintel supporting a triangular pediment. Here, in the triangular pediment, we see a relief sculpture of two lions flanking a column.  The two lions are a motif that we have seen before.  It is motif that must have had specific significance.  It may have also been a coat of arms for the royal family.  There are dowel marks that suggest that the heads of the lions (now missing) were crafted from different material.  It is also possible that these were sphinxes or some composite creature.

Who were the Mycenaeans?

Note that Homer lived in the 8th century B.C.  The Iliad was written in 750 B.C. and the Odyssey in 725 B.C.  That is, they record events that had happened 500 years earlier.   So Homer was not describing a contemporary event.

At the same time, it should be remembered that Greek tribes, like the Dorians and Ionians, had a tradition of oral poetry.  Homer was the first to translate these epic poems into the written word.  Recall that Homer was described as “the blind poet who can see everything.”  He may have been blind -- or this may have been an imaginary portrait or metaphor appropriate for one who writes what he "sees with his mind’s eye.”

For almost two thousand years, the Myceneans were lost to history except for their central position in Greek literature and mythology.

In the late 19th century, Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman with a deep love of the Greeks in general and Homer in particular, sought to prove the Iliad was not just a story.  He believed that it must have had an historical basis. His first major effort was to discover Troy, which he did -- in northwest Anatolia (Turkey). Schliemann, however, found a site with numerous levels of habitation, and initially incorrectly identified the Troy of Homer's time. Further, his methods were such that significant portions of the site were destroyed in his efforts to dig down to the Troy of the Trojan War.

Schliemann next sought Mycenae. The Lions Gate had been uncovered in 1841 (shortly after Greek independence.)  In 1874 Schliemann's excavations of the area uncovered the enormous booty of the shaft graves -- which Schliemann mistook for the burial place of Homer's heroes. The graves were actually from a period about 2 centuries earlier. Other excavations have continued at Mycenae through the 1950s.

Palace at Tiryns, ca. 1400-1200 B.C. (~10 miles from Mycenae)

Schliemann was also the first to explore Tiryns, in 1876.  Later, in the 1880s, the excavations were continued by the German Archaeological Institute.  Excavations at Tiryns continue to the present day.

The photographs and illustrations above all relate to the palace at Tiryns.  It had was heavily fortified with a massive stone wall that was approximately 20 feet thick and as high as 60 feet in some place.  Note the interior gallery of these walls. Again the structure emphasizes that the Mycenaeans aggressive and defensive -- very much part of a military culture.  These palaces also represented regional power.

I would also like to emphasize the term “cyclopean masonry.”  These were the huge blocks of rough-cut stone that were said to have been assembled by the Cyclops, a mythological, one-eyed giant.

Controversies surrounding Schliemann's methods abound. Though he sparked much on-site investigation and began the process by which the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece have become better known, his techniques have also led to the loss of much that would have been valuable to later investigators. Whether Schliemann is to blame for such a result or whether one might have expected such losses in the period in which archaeological techniques were first being developed is still hotly debated.

Palace at Tiryns, ca. 1400-1200 B.C. (plan)

 

At the center of the palace was the megaron or reception hall of the king (14 on the plan above).  Note that this served as the throne room, the king’s room, a feasting room, and served religious function.  The megaron was the religious and political center of the Mycenaean culture.

Mycenean society had a king who ruled over a large administration as a kind of head bureaucrat. Unlike the Minoans, though, the Mycenean kings accumulated vast wealth in concentrated form; the rest of society did not share in the prosperity as did the Minoans. The king was also primarily a warlord, and Mycenean society was constantly geared for battle and invasion.

Inlaid dagger, Mycenae

What we can tell from their ruined cities, their art, and their records (which we can read) is that the Myceneans derived much of their culture from the Minoans, but with some differences.  The similarity in subject matter amd style has been of great interest and great debate.  It seems that the Minoans and Mycenaeans were in contact with each other, that they may have shared some of the same beliefs, and that they may have engaged in trade.  This dagger blade has Minoan type figures and it is believed that a Minoan craftsmen may have made this piece for a Mycenaen patron.

These dagger blades made of bronze, inlaid with gold, silver, and niello (a black silver alloy).  The subject matter is the royal lion hunt (akin to the Assyrians).  It is a violent, propagandistic, symbolic of personal power.  

While the Minoans surrounded themselves with delicate art of everyday life, Mycenean art was about warfare and hunting. Not only did the Myceneans stay on the defensive, they actively went looking for trouble. There are Hittite records in Asia Minor and the Middle East chronicling Mycenean invasions, and the Egyptians list them among groups of raiders. And, after Minoan civilization had been weakened in a series of earthquakes, the Myceneans conquered Crete and other Aegean civilizations, establishing themselves over the culture that so deeply influenced their own.

So-called Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece

The Mycenaeans were also merchants, trading raw goods such as oil and animal skins for jewelry and other goods from Crete, Asia Minor, and Egypt.  All of this activity concentrated a great deal of wealth in the hands of the kings and a few officials. Most of the wealth, of course, was spent on warfare and defense; a large part of it, though, went into other activities: crafts, jewelry, and expensive burials.

Initially, the most powerful Myceneans were buried in deep shaft graves, but sometime around 1500 BC, they began burying their most powerful people in bee-hive shaped tombs which were large chambers cut into the side of a hill (Singular = tholos; Plural = tholoi).   The passageway to the tomb was known as a dromos.  These structures were then covered by large mounds of dirt.  Like most monumental architecture, their principle purpose was probably a display of power.

This particular site is known to us today as the "Treasury of Atreus" (Atreus was a Mycenaean king and the father of Menelaus and Agamemnon).  The name is another misnomer — this was not the king’s treasury, but rather a tomb.  Moreover, by the time it was rediscovered by Schliemann, it was robbed of its contents.

So-called Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece  

The view above is of the dromos leading to the portal.

Thus far, our emphasis has been on post and lintel architecture.  With this example, we will examine a corbelled arch.  This is not a true, self-supporting arch — we will see that when we study the architecture of the Romans.  The corbelled arch is comprised of a series of cantilevered blocks that are staggered inward and which require a counterweight of other stones, bricks, or dirt.

Illustration of a Corbelled Arch

So-called Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece

The above is an interior view of the tholos of the "Treasury of Atreus."  It's approximately 43 feet high and was created through the used of corbelled stones. This is the largest vaulted space in antiquity until the building of the Roman Pantheon.

Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece

Although the Treasury of Atreus had been emptied of its contents by the time Schliemann arrived, the explorer did discover some other graves that had not been disrupted and robbed.  These were shaft graves in an area of Mycenae that archeologists call “Grave Circle A.”  Schliemann found men and women laid out on the floor.  The women were adorned jewelry; the men had their weapons (including the dagger shown earlier).

Funerary Mask, from Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece

Perhaps the most exciting discovery that Schliemann made in Grave Circle A is this death mask made from beaten gold or repoussé.  This can be compared to the death mask of Tutankhamen, but it is not as formulaic and is not based on a long tradition.  There are a number of these that survive — we do not know if they were intended as portraits or as generalized types.  This was clearly an older, bearded man — but it could not have been a portrait of Agamemnon because it was made about 300 years before Agamemnon was born. 

The Head of a Woman

Aside from the Lion’s Gate at Mycenae, I have not shown you any large Mycenaean sculpture.  It would be tempting to speculate that large sculpture was not part of the Mycenaean tradition.  However, some fragments have been found which suggest that sculpture may have been made — including this plaster head, which is approximately 6 ½ inches high.  It probably had a body at one point — but plaster is less durable than stone or even fired clay and other examples may simply have deteriorated. The white face suggests that this is a woman.  Very deep blue paint, almost black, was used for the hair and eyes.  The lips, decoration on cheeks and fillet were executed in red. 

Warrior Vase, from Mycenae, ca. 1200 B.C. 

 

The Warrior Vase is actually a krater, a large bowl used for mixing wine and water. At the left, a woman bids a procession of soldiers farewell.  This is consistent with military imagery.  The soldiers are presented in a repetitive fashion and the subject is not related to daily life.  Again, this contrasts sharply with the naturalism and marine scenes found on Minoan pottery.

At the very peak of their power, shortly after the destruction of Troy, the Myceneans suddenly disappear from history. Around 1200 BC, the populations of the cities dramatically decrease until they are completely abandoned by 1100 BC.

Some scholars think that Myceneans were overrun by another Greek-speaking people, the Dorians, and there is some evidence that invasions may have taken place. If that were the case, the Dorians were uninterested in the Mycenean cities but chose to live in small, tribal, agricultural groups.

Others think the Myceanaens may have disappeared owing to Civil War.

It may be that no invasions took place, but that economic collapse drove people from the cities out into the countryside.

Whatever happened, the great Mycenean cities were abandoned to their fates.  The people of south Greece once again became a non-urbanized, tribal culture. The Greeks also stopped writing, so the history of this period is lost to us forever; for this reason it's called the "Greek Dark Ages."