End of the Bronze Age/Homer/Iron Age

Iliad

• Epic composed through oral tradition

  • not a history book

• Presents a collection of cultures from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age

  • Equipment: boar-tusk velvets , tower-shields , silver-studded swords , and weapons belong to the Bronze Age (2nd millennium)

  • Catalogue of ships (books 2) lists Mycenaean ships/many which

    are unattested later)

  • Rock-cut ditches are talked about in the epic 

  • No reference to Hilties or Meletus (Achean stronghold)

  • Acreans united in language (Panhellenism) → reflects the 8th century → Iron Age, Trojans speak different languages (8th cent .= Luwian ,Greek , Lydian , Phrygian) in the Iron Age

Bronze Age Collaspe

• The end of Troy VIIA occurred roughly at the time when Mycenaean palaces

and Hattusa were destroyed in c. 1200 BC -> identity of the attackers is unknown

• The only place to survive the collapse was Egypt

  • were attacked these times: 1208, 1178, 1175 BC

    • were attacked by the “sea people”

Evidence of Bronze Age Collaspe

• widespread destructions
  - Earthquake
  - Palaces destroyed (many sacked and burned down)
  - Never rebuilt
  - abandonment of settlements
  - migrations
  - collapse of trade
  - economic depression
  - depopulation of certain regions

Explanations

• natural disasters: Earthquake? Drought?
  - attack by outsiders
  • Dorians? “Sea Peoples”? Warrior bands from the Danube?
  - internal strife; civil war?

Large Bowl from Mycenae

• 1200BC → around the type the fortifications were built

• image of ranked soldiers

• shows that militarism was on the rise

Image - Lion Gate

• Cyclopean masonry

• c. 1250 BC

Akkadian Cuneiform Letters

• found in the ruins of Uganit, destroyed in c. 1180 BC

• letter between the King of Cyprus to Ammurapi, King of Uganit

  • asking for reinforcement against a force that came from the sea

Myth-history of the Bronze Age

• setting for Homeric epics and heroic ancestry

  • Trojan War

• Age of heroes and gods

• Model of virtue (ideal behavior)

  • texts like the Homeric epic are used as guides for virtuous behavior

  • warrior ethos → glory in war, being courageous in battle

  • Arete

Arete 

• excellence, being the best 

• part of the warrior ethos

Iron Age

• 1100 - 900 BC

  • c. 1050: smelting and working of Iron develops

  • by c. 950: most tools and weapons made of iron

  • they started to use iron for jewelry, then tools, and lastly weapons

• Bronze was still around 

• They were making steel by alloying iron with carbon 

Iron Age Pottery

• Submycenaean, c 1100 - 1000 BC

  • bands around the base and shoulder

  • very simple

• Protogeometric , c. 1050-950 BC

  • geometric designs

    • ex. concentric circles

  • beginning of the use of black slip → a different diluted clay that was painted onto the original clay 

• There is new equipment that is made to make pottery with more consistent designs

Submyceanean Pottery

• 1100 - 1000 BC

• bands around the base and shoulder

• very simple 

• The designs were done with freehand

Protogeometric Pottery

• c. 1050-950 BC

  • geometric designs

    • ex. concentric circles

  • beginning of the use of black slip → a different diluted clay that was painted onto the original clay 

  • Designs would be done with technology, like a compass

Black Slip

• a different diluted clay that was painted onto the original clay 

• is a very complex process

Belly Handled Amphora

• used for female cremation

• refers to the handle being on the “belly” of the amphora 

• were used as cinerary urns 

  • With the Iron Age came a new form of burial → cremation

Karphi

• 1100-1000 BC

  • Iron Age site

  • located on the island of Crete 

  • is on a mountain-side

  • has a shrine and a potential “big house”

• Karphi goddess

Karphi goddess

• 1100-1000 BC

• seems to have horns of consecration on her headress

• is potentially wearing a flounced dress

• was 2ft tall

• was something that was worshipped 

• has exposed breasts 

• is definently more simple and rudimentary than statues from the Bronze Age 

Gazi goddess

• Post-Palatial Phase → LMIIIC

• Crete 

• also has the horns of consecration and raised hands 

Phoenician “Temple” at Kommos

• 925-600 BC

• a bit iffy to called it a temple 

  • has a block with three stones on it, some think it represents deities

    • But that isn’t how deities are typically represented

      • unless it’s a meteorite

Phoenicians

• peoples from the Levant

• Were traders and merchants

• They thrive from the Iron Age onwards

Lefkandi

• on the island of Euboea

• Toumba building at Lefkandi

• 10th century (900s) BC

Toumba at Lefkandi 

• tumulus over the chief’s “house”

• was a heroon

• home of the basileos → would have been someone who attempted to live up to the heroic ideal

• There’s no evidence that toumba building was used as a house

  • There was no kitchen 

  • the idea that the Chief house would be dismantled is problematic

    • is potentially just a burial chamber in a tumulus that collapsed

      · at the time they were made of perishable material

Heroon

• the burial place of a hero

Heroon at Lefkandi

• There were two shaft graves in the middle of the building

• The chief (basileos) was in a cinerary urn → a bronze urn → an heirloom form the Bronze Age

• The chief’s wife was also buried there

  • She was in her 30s

• Four horses 

• There is a cemetery near the Heroon → 9th century BC (800s)

  • 69 tombs 

  • 23 pyres 

Heroon Grave Goods

• Cremation (Chief)

  • Amphora w/sword , wooden scabbard, razor, and whetstone

• Inhumation (Wife)

  • gold earrings ,gold necklace , faience and crystal , gold pendant, gold disks over breasts ,bronze and iron fibulae = pins

Bronze cremation urn

• 12th cent . BC

• Found in the heroon

• was from Cyrus

• bowl decoration on rims and handles → Hunting lions and bulls

Phoenician Bowl 

• 10th cent. BC

• decorated with panthers, griffins, palm trees, and concentric circles

• demonstrates that there was contact with the Levant and the near east.

Fibulae

• pins used for clothing

Centaur from Lefkandi

• 900 BC

• Could be an image of Cheiron

-Was the mentor of Achilles

-Has a notch on the knee

• is painted with a geometric design → everything was painted and with geometric patterns

Diagnostic pottery

• pottery that are able to be dated

Euboian Sub-Protogeometric Skyphos

• 10th-8th century BC

• Is black glazed

• Pendant semicircles

• Is an example of diagnostic pottery

• Are found in the Levant, the Cycladic islands, islands off of Italy

• Was manufactured around the same time the Tumba was built

Skyphos

• a cup