Pomeroy, Chapter 1: Early Greece and the Bronze Age

What is the Mediterranean Triad?

Wheat, grapes, and olives

Bread, wine and olive oil

Heinrich Schliemann's excavation: where and when?

Turkey

1871

When was the Late Bronze Age in Greece and what was it called?

1600-1200 BC

Mycenaean period

Who was Sir Arthur Evans and what did he discover?

English Archaeologist and pioneer in the study of aegean civilisation in the Bronze Age.

In 1900 he discovered a huge complex at Knossos

What did the huge complex at Knossos give credence to?

The legend that Knossos had once been the center of a powerful naval state.

What did Sir Arthur Evans call the first civilisation and who after?

"First Aegean Civilisation Minoan" after Minos, a mythical king of Knossos, who according to Homer lived 3 generations before the Trojan War.

How long ago did Greek history begin (written history)?

c. 40,000 years ago, Middle Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age (this is widely accepted by historans and archaeologists).

How did the early inhabitants live and what tools did they use in the Middle Paleolithic Age?

They hunted and gathered wild plants mainly, using tools and weapons made of stone, wood and bone.

What happened in the Neolithic (New Stone) Age and when was it?

c. 7000 - 3000 BC

- Cultivation of domesticated plants and animals

- Weave cloth on a loom

- Artisans created clay figurines and elegantly shaped and decorated pottery

- Small farming villages sprang up as agriculture allowed people to settle permanently

- Most likely egalitarian society, no inequality outside sex, age and skills. Families cooperated and shared with neighbours.

(One-room, mud-brick houses and domesticated animals/plants were influence from the Near East).

Leadership in a Stone Age village

In the beginning it was likely temporary assumed by one, then another.

With population growth a lasting leadership role emerge given to the man who is better at "getting things done". The role goes to the next man who proves he is better suited than other would-be leaders - the old one retires, dies, or is pushed out.

When was the Middle Bronze Age and which metal arrived to Greece?

c. 2100-1600 BC. -- Bronze arrived at this time and was a momentous technical advance for tools and weapons, as bronze was more efficient than stone, bone and copper.

Leadership by 2500 BC

As settlements and economies grew larger with trade (copper + tin + other metals) throughout the mediterranean region, so did wealth, power and authority of the leaders, who were probably established as hereditary chiefs ruling for life.

When was the Early Bronze Age?

c. 3000-2100 BC

What does the "corridor house" indicate?

Functions: dwelling of the chief and his family, as a feasting hall, and communal storage.

Sign of: Sociopolitical hierarchy = larger towns came to dominate surrounding villages.

1) What were the new comers (from the lengthy ancient migration of peoples) called?

2) What language did they speak?

3) When/what effect is it likely their migration caused?

1) Indo-Europeans

2) An early form of greek (first Greek speakers)

3) c. 2100 BC. Destruction of sites in Lerna and other places in southern and central Greece + cultural stagnation.

What does the remains in Lerna in Argolis show and what was the largest building called?

Large town with stone fortification walls and monumental buildings, the largest was the House of Tiles.

What was assumed about the Indo-Europeans and why?

They were a superior race of horse-riding "aryan" warriors, who obliterated the cultures of the weak, unwarlike, agrarian natives.

The Greek language eventually completely submerged the non-Indo-European "Aegean" languages.

(No scholar accepts this myth today)

What DOES the imposition of the Greek language suggest?

They were conquerors and that they dominated the indigenous people initially. Possible that by the end of the Middle Bronze Age the two cultures had merged into a single Hellenic culture that contained elements of both. Like the indigenous people, the new people subsisted as herders and farmers and practiced metallurgy and crafts, such as pottery.

Kings and palaces

Farming villages grew into large towns, the chiefs emerged as leaders over other chiefs and their people = Crete became a land of small kingdoms.

Earliest multiroom complex with a central courtyard (Evans called Palace of Minos) was built c. 1900 BC at Knossos (by then a town with several thousand inhabitants, at peak est. 17,000 persons).

Other major palaces followed at Phaistos, Zakro and Mallia.

Palaces was the political, economic and administrative center, and the focal point of state ceremony and religious ritual for the entire kingdom.

Palace economy (tax and wages)

Storage and redistribution:

- food/products from palace land and private farmers/herds collected and stored in the palace.

- income sustained the palace and its crafts workers, and redistributed back to the village as rations and wages.

- reserves of grain and olive oil could be distributed during famines

- Use for surplus was trade = exchange for metal and luxury items from foreign countries.

Linear A (named by Evans)

Cretans developed a writing to administer their complicated economies (main purpose was keeping administrative and economic records).

Specific signs that stood for the sounds of the spoken word, preserved on small clay tablets.

King and his people

Cretan farmers paid for the opulent lifestyle of the few with their labor and taxes. In return they got protection from famine and outside aggressors. They lived very modestly in small mud-brick houses, suggesting that there was something more to the king =

The king was the embodiment of the state: supreme war leader, lawgiver, and judge and, most important, the intermediary between gods, the land, and the people.

What happened to Akrotiri?

On the island of Thera, the town of Akrotiri with several thousand inhabitants was destroyed by a volcanic eruption c. 1628 BC.

In 1967 the town was discovered, it was preserved under a deep layer of volcanic ash. Its remains show how Therans absorbed much of Cretan art, architecture, religion, dress and lifestyles into their own island culture.

Distinctly "local" features in architecture, pottery and urban layout suggest Thera and the other Cycladic islands were independent societies, trading partners, not colonial outpost to the Cretan empire.

How far did Cretan influence extend in the Late Bronze Age?

Which people was this a major role in development for?

Sounthern and central Greece by trading contacts by as early as 2000 BC.

Mycenaean Greek civilisation adopted the model of the Cretan state from the Minoans, incl. the writing system.

Crete was repaid by the Mycenaean when they invaded Crete and took over Cretan palace centers. Cretan civilisation came crushing down in the Late Bronze Age.

When was the Early Mycenaean civilisation?

c. 1600-1400 BC

What is shaft graves

deep rectangular pits, in which the bodies were lowered (1600-1500 BC)

Early graves yielded many weapons (swords, daggers, etc.) and pottery, but little gold or jewellery.

Comparison: One later grave of 5 persons contained 43 weapons and expensive objects and jewellery adorning the corpses = growth of trade of luxury objects.

What is a tholos tomb?

By 1500 BC noble families begin to inter their dead in impressive tholos tombs, a large stone chamber shaped like a beehive with a long stone entrance.

When did the Mycenaean take over Crete?

c. 1490 BC. Many palace centers were destroyed except for the one at Knossos.

Life for the Cretans probably did not change dramatically, except that now they paid taxes to kings who spoke Greek.

c. 1325 BC Knossos was burned and looted = Mycenaean Crete sank in importance as other mainland centers reached their zenith of prosperity and influence in the Aegean.

Who was Michael Ventris?

An amateur linguist who served as a cryptographer during WW2. He discovered that it was Greeks who took over Crete in 1490 BC from Linear B tablets.

What is Linear B?

A more elaborate version of Linear A, Evans named it Linear B.

In 1939 a room full of Linear B tablets were found in an Mycenaean palace near Pylos (mainland), which seem to strengthen Evans theory that mainland Greece had been controlled by Minoans throughout the Late Bronze Age.

When and what did Michael Ventris discover?

1950s Ventris broke the code of the Linear B tablets.

He demonstrated that the tablets were not Cretan but an early form of Greek.

Decipherment of Linear B tablets has illuminated the relationship between Greece and Crete.

It has also confirmed that the Mycenaean palaces were ruled by kings.

When was the Later Mycenaean civilisation?

c. 1400-1200 BC

Palaces: Minoan vs Later Mycenaean civilisation

Mycenaean palaces were smaller and located on a hill encircled by high walls, unlike the big unfortified Minoan palaces.

The walls served as protection for the rulers and the people from the unfortified town below the hill.

Megaron (Mycenaean) instead of open central courtyard (Minoan)

What is a megaron?

A large rectangular hall and served as the ceremonial center, ceremonies, councils, receptions for visitors, etc.

Hittite empire

Had a vast population that covered Anatolia, Syria and Egypt during its New Kingdom period from c. 1575-1087 BC

Mycenaean Kingdom

Not unified politically, but split up into separate small kingdoms.

Despite the fragmented state the Mycenaeans appear to have been a significant presence in the Mediterranean world. Archaeology points to the existence of Mycenaean colonies on a number of Aegean islands, even in Miletus in Anatolia.

The closest contacts were with the Hittite empire in Anatolia.

Who was the Ahhiyawa?

phonetically it resembles "Achaeans" the most frequent name in Homers poetry to describe the Greeks who conquered Troy against the Hittite empire. If true this event would have occurred in the later 13th century.

Who is the wanax?

The Mycenaean king

What did Carl Blegen find and when?

In 1939 American archaeologist found Palace of Nestor in Pylos and confirmed that Pylos had been the Bronze Age center.

The Linear B tablets found in the palace tells a lot about the economy and society of Mycenaean greece.

The administration of Mycenaean kingdom (p31-34)

King (wanax) on top, next comes leader of the army, next a large bureaucracy of military and administrative officers and minor officials who oversaw the functioning of the palace and the outlying areas.

Majority of people lived modestly as farmers, herders, craftmen, etc. Production was strictly supervised by the palace.

Women performed domestic tasks, cleaning, cooking, childcare and spinning. Some were textile workers at the palace.

Mycenaean warrior aristocrats were active in the slavery business. Tablets from Pylos record more than 600 slave women + children, who laboured as bath attendants, grain grinders etc.

Mycenaean warfare

The wanax was the warrior king, and fought in battles along with his soldiers, often costing the king his life on the battlefield.

Officers were heavily armored: helmets, corselets of bronze plates, shins and knee protection.

Weapons: light-throwing spears, bronze swords and daggers. Everyone carried long shields made of ox hide.

Significance of the chariot

Most impressive weapon, though probably only used to transport soldiers to and from the battlefield, due to uneven terrain.

Chariots were the fastest transport, and had prestige value.

Like the grand palaces, tholos tombs and material borrowing, the chariot proclaimed the Mycenaean rulers to be equals of the great kings of Asia and Egypt.

The End of the Mycenaean civilisation

Around c. 1200 BC at the height of Mycenaean prosperity, almost all palace centers and many outlying villages were attacked and destroyed or abandoned. By 1100 BC the Mycenaean kingdoms and the complex systems that had supported them no longer existed.

The entire eastern Mediterranean region suffered, the Hittite empire fell apart c. 1200 BC. Egypt was attacked several times

What caused the end to the Mycenaean civilisation?

A web of negative socioeconomic agents:

- marauding bands of sea people could have stopped external trade, ending the production of bronze.

- natural disasters: prolonged drought, soil exhaustion and earth quakes = pressure on food-distribution subsystem.

- now weak system gave way to slave revolts, uprisings, internecine warfare, which might have precipitated the final collapse.