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Mycenaean Greece
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Greece
Before and after
In the Aegean:Came before: Minoan civilization Came after: Ancient Greece
From about 1450 BCE mainland Mycenaean Greeks dominated Crete; whether by conquest is debated.
The Greek Dark Ages, about 1180 to 800 BCE, came in between.
Meanwhile…
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The first Greek-speaking civilization to write, a network of fortified palace citadels such as Mycenae, Pylos and Tiryns ruled by warrior kings who wrote in Linear B, an early form of Greek. Later Greeks remembered them as the heroes of the Trojan War, in stories written down centuries after their palaces burned.
Also alive at the same time
Key events
– Rulers at Mycenae are buried in shaft graves with gold death masks and bronze weapons
Sources
- Dickinson, O. (1977). The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation. Paul Åströms Förlag.
- Mylonas, George E. (1966). Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age. Princeton University Press.
– Palace scribes write Linear B, the earliest known form of the Greek language, mostly for tracking stores and taxes
Sources
- Chadwick, J. (1958). The Decipherment of Linear B. Cambridge University Press.
- Driessen, J. (2011). "Chronology of the Linear B Texts." In A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World, vol. 2. Peeters.
– Fortified palace citadels are built at Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns and Thebes
Sources
- Shelmerdine, C.W. (ed.) (2008). The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press.
- Wright, J.C. (2006). "The Formation of the Mycenaean Palace." In Sparkes & Deger-Jalkotzy (eds), Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer, 7-52.
The Lion Gate, the main entrance to Mycenae, is built with a relief of two lions flanking a column
Sources
- Mylonas, G.E. (1966). Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age. Princeton University Press.
- Wright, J.C. (2006). "The Formation of the Mycenaean Palace." In Sparkes & Deger-Jalkotzy (eds), Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer, 7-52.
– Nearly all Mycenaean palaces are destroyed by fire within a few decades, part of the wider Late Bronze Age collapseDisputed
No single cause is agreed: proposed triggers include earthquakes, drought, internal revolt and the disruption known from Egyptian records as the "Sea Peoples".
Sources
- Cline, E.H. (2014). 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton University Press.
- Middleton, G.D. (2010). The Collapse of Palatial Society in LBA Greece and the Postpalatial Period. Archaeopress.
The palace at Pylos burns; its archive room's clay tablets survive only because the fire baked them hard
Sources
- Davis, J.L. (ed.) (1998). Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino. University of Texas Press.
- Palaima, T.G. (2004). "Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B Documents." Hesperia 73(2): 217-246.