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Lecture 6
Aegean Bronze Age
HIST 332
Spring 2012
Timeline of Greece
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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)
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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
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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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Mycenaean Chariots
seal from Padiasos Crete ~1460 BCE
fresco from Pylos dated LH IIIA/B (1350 BCE)
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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)
Pylos dated around 1300 BCE
bronze greaves are from the warrior grave A in
Kallithea dated about LH IIIC
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New
helmets
Long spears
New shield
shapes
grieves
Change in Mycenaean arms and weaponry c. 1200
Invasions/Migrations
1200-1000 BCE
Ammorites
Collapse of the Bronze Age
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