World Prehistory: Class 13
Mycenae and Minoan Crete
© Copyright Bruce Owen 2000
- Regional and temporal setting
- refer to the chronology chart in Fagan to put this in perspective
- We've seen complex society emerge in Mesopotamia and Egypt
- and you have read about similar processes in the Indus
- And you've gotten some hints about how these regions were actually somewhat interrelated
- Now let's go back to the southwest Asia and Eastern Mediterranean areas and see what happened a little later
- As time passed, Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas went through a series of developments, periods of unification and division
- Egypt did, too, although the changes were less profound
- The entire area came to be more interrelated by trade and communication, even though there were many different languages and cultures
- Today we will look very briefly at two of these cultures
- The Minoans of Crete
- The Mycenaeans of Greece
- These were much later in time than early Sumer or Egypt
- they were part of a clearly documented system of trade, politics, and warfare: a small "world"
- but one in which writing was still so limited that we know it mostly through archaeology
- We are considering these two cultures only because they are interesting and are ones you will often come across references to
- But there are others that we could look at
- Hittites (Hatti)
- Babylon
- Assyrian Empire(s)
- Mitanni Kingdom
- Troy (Hissarlik) (prior to the Mycenaeans)
- and others...
- Minoan culture
- Setting: Island of Crete
- conveniently midway between Egypt, Greece, Anatolia, Levant
- 250 km X 57 km (150 mi X 34 mi)
- mountainous, fertile, pockets of flat farmland
- First excavations by Sir Arthur Evans
- he simply bought the site of Knossos and began excavating it
- Long, continuous, local development with some Egyptian influence
- Neolithic period: 6000 - 3000 BC
- farming and herding, small villages
- wheat in places
- olives for oil; grapes for wine
- sheep; wool textiles assumed
- apparently a long tradition of craft production for exchange by sea
- ceramics, seals (stone, bone, and ivory), stone sculpture, stone jewelry
- Pre-palatial Bronze Age 3000 - 1900 BC
- this was contemporary with
- Egyptian Early Dynastic, Old Kingdom, and First Intermediate period
- Sumerian Jemdet Nasr, Early Dynastic, Agade, and Ur III
- dense agricultural towns developed
- late in this period, about 2200-1900, some of these towns started to grow larger than others, perhaps controlling larger territories
- none were particularly defensible, however
- began making bronze, silver, gold tools, weapons, jewelry for exchange
- Old Palace period 1930-1700 BC
- Roughly contemporary with Middle Kingdom Egypt
- when Egypt expanded trade with the eastern Mediterranean
- several "palaces" were built at different places around the island, all at about the same time
- all near the coast; at least one was only easily accessible by sea
- four known, and there may have been more
- also smaller versions called "villas"
- minor palaces?
- estates of nobles?
- secondary centers serving a palace?
- writing appeared near the end of this period
- A "hieroglyphic" script (1750-1600 BC)
- mostly known from seals and sealings
- undeciphered, language unknown
- not many examples
- Also Linear A (1800-1450 BC)
- probably derived from or related to the hieroglyphic script
- mostly on clay tablets
- undeciphered, language unknown
- but similarities to the later Linear B, which recorded Greek and can be read, give us some clues
- apparently mostly accounting texts
- one appears to list amounts of wine associated with what are probably personal names
- probably payments to or by these people
- with a total at the bottom
- annother seems to be similar, but totaling men rather than wine...
- also few examples
- not much known about the architecture, etc. of this period, because:
- widespread destruction of palaces and villas around 1700
- walls collapsed, major fires
- often attributed to earthquake(s)
- New Palace period 1700-1450 BC
- the palaces were rebuilt in the same tradition, but even more elaborately
- Central courtyard, rectangular and paved
- at Knossos, 49 X 27 m (160 X 88 feet)
- palace buildings
- three stories tall in places, maybe even more
- Post and lintel construction
- in dressed stone and mud brick
- lots of wooden beams in walls as well as ceilings
- also wooden columns, doorjambs, moldings, etc.
- luxurious design
- but not particularly oriented for public show
- upper parts of walls were plastered and often painted in elaborate designs and scenes, lower parts were left as stone or painted as faux stone
- toilet rooms relatively common; wooden seat over vertical drain
- complexes of long, narrow storerooms with stone chambers in the floor and ceramic storage jars lined up along the walls
- these apparently were also the basement of large, highly decorated rooms in a second story, maybe banquet halls or...?
- elaborate drain system
- sectors for
- storage
- workshops (olive oil production, stone carving, pottery making, furniture inlaying)
- archives
- shrines / ritual areas
- administrative / court rooms
- luxurious residential areas
- the palaces were surrounded by large towns
- Knossos:
- 2.5 hectares covered by the palace buildings alone
- surrounded by 75 hectares of dense occupation
- houses both near the palaces and far from them had similar features
- Settlement hierarchy
- Knossos was 2.5 times bigger than the other major palaces
- maybe it was just the biggest among equals
- or maybe it was the capital, and the others were secondary administrative centers or estates
- three or more smaller palaces; either smaller equivalents or lower-level centers
- then "villas" or manors; secondary/tertiary centers, or small competitors?
- also towns of rural people
- agglutinated rectangular rooms
- hamlets
- isolated farms
- also Minoan-influenced sites on other islands
- Social organization
- records and massive storage capacity suggest major control of production and distribution by the palaces
- maybe formal redistribution
- clearly must have been great social status variation and hierarchy
- rulers, courtiers, scribes, many artists and craft specialists, farmers, etc.
- but lack of isolation, walls, defenses between town and palace suggests hierarchy may have been harmonious...?
- high status of some women: priestesses? rulers?
- in wall paintings
- in figurines
- other evidence?
- ideology
- shrines in various places throughout the palaces
- but no large, centralized temples
- varying interpretations
- "horns of consecration" and double-bladed axe symbols
- female deity, bulls, specific trees, birds, etc. probably involved
- bull jumping: ritual, sport, or ???
- apparently little or no warfare in the New Palace period
- palaces were not walled nor in defensible positions
- not even sharply separated from the towns around them
- lots of representational art, but none shows warfare
- there is violence, though, with "boxing" children
- no weapons in graves
- economics and trade
- production and storage activities were important at the palaces
- they were clearly economic powers
- Cretans were depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings
- implying significant contact, presumably exchange
- seals and writing suggest that they needed to keep track of the flow of lots of goods
- imports
- copper from Cyprus and Anatolia
- amethyst, carnelian, gold from Egypt
- lapis from Afghanistan
- amber from North Sea
- silver, tin
- ivory
- imports found not only in palaces, but also in elite houses
- maybe suggesting a non-government trading class?
- the Mycenaeans, a contemporary and quite different culture on the Greek mainland, were among their trading contacts
- destruction around 1450 BC
- palaces on Crete, as well as Minoan sites throughout the Aegean, were destroyed in a short period around 1450 BC
- villas and towns destroyed as well
- lots of burning
- maybe by explosive volcanic eruption of Thera (Santorini)
- but the dating is in doubt; looks like the eruption was closer to 1500 BC
- still debated
- maybe by some human events
- internal revolution?
- attacks by Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland?
- a combination, maybe involving Mycenaeans already resident at Knossos?
- Mycenaean reoccupation of Knossos 1450-1380 BC
- Knossos was damaged less than the other palaces
- it continued to be occupied for another 70 years or so until 1380 BC
- but under strong Mycenaean influence
- probably having been taken over by Mycenaean conquest
- or opportunism after disaster had toppled the Minoan leadership
- Mycenaeanization
- mostly at Knossos
- new, Greek mainland style of pottery
- new, military themes in artwork
- graves began to contain weapons (1400 BC)
- Linear B writing: 1450-1375 BC at Knossos
- appeared at Knossos under the Mycenaeans
- only known from Knossos and the Greek mainland
- Deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952
- it was a system for writing archaic Greek, the language of the Mycenaeans
- all that have been translated are accounting records
- lists of goods dedicated, palace stores, military supplies, etc.
- at least one relates to a land dispute
- mostly scratched with a stylus on clay tablets
- also on clay pressed onto a basket as a label
- or on lumps of clay squeezed around knots on string and stamped with a seal (sealing)
- a few texts were painted on pots (some from sites on other islands), identifying the source
- the tablets were not normally fired
- and there are no dates, just references to "this year" and "last year"
- suggests that they were intended as temporary records
- maybe transcribed onto more "permanent" or easily stored media like cloth or wood that has not preserved?
- we have them only in cases where a building burned and accidentally baked the lot in current use at that moment
- aftermath of destruction of 1450 BC
- recent work suggests the destruction of the palaces was not as big a blow as was thought
- smaller settlements continued with a mixed Minoan-Mycenaean tradition
- Post-palatial period 1380-1150 BC
- Knossos was finally destroyed around 1380 BC by fire, possible earthquake, maybe uprising?
- Crete probably ceased to be an organized Mycenaean kingdom
- but it continued to be occupied by Mycenaeans
- Mycenaean culture
- So who were these Mycenaeans lurking around Crete, anyway?
- the early stages of Greek civilization
- Setting: Greek mainland
- cereal grains, olives, grapes
- Unlike Crete, a very patchy, localized development with many breaks, destruction, etc.
- the term "Helladic" is used to distinguish mainland culture from that on Crete
- Early Helladic 3000-2000 BC
- contemporary with pre-palatial Bronze Age on Crete
- new pottery, architecture, and other features on the Greek mainland may suggest immigrants or influence from Anatolia
- walled towns
- note that Cretan towns were never walled
- maybe protected by being on a distant island?
- foreign trade
- increasing use of metals
- lots of destruction at the end of this period, both on the mainland and in the Aegean
- Middle Helladic 2000-1550 BC
- contemporary with Old Palace period and first part of New Palace period: the fluorescence of Minoan Crete
- this is the direct predecessor of Mycenaean culture
- a change from Early Helladic
- again due to foreign influence?
- some claim an "invasion" or "migration" of Greek tribes into mainland Greece
- late in the period
- increasing influence of Minoan and Aegean pottery, metalworking, and art styles
- Late Helladic I&II (Early Mycenaean) 1550-1380 BC
- this period started just as Minoan civilization peaked and went into decline...hmm.
- Early Mycenaean period started with a sudden, dramatic Minoan influence on the mainland
- the mainlanders become "Minoanized"
- why might early Mycenaean elites have wanted to adopt Minoan styles?
- the beginning of the period was marked by the shaft graves at Mycenae
- vertical shafts 6-8 m deep with several grave chambers branching off
- roofed and reopened to add new chambers and bodies
- at Mycenae, six shafts in grave circle A, 19 people total
- 9 men, 8 women, 2 children
- unparalleled wealth
- gold and silver vessels
- gold masks, gold sheet leaves and flowers over bodies
- gold and precious stone jewelry
- large bronze vessels
- lots of weapons (esp. swords and daggers)
- 90 swords with three individuals
- lots of Minoan imports
- in fact, most of the best Minoan art comes from Mycenae!
- also glass from Egypt, amber from northern Europe, ivory from Africa, etc.
- suggests the rise of a wealthy leadership class
- looted booty?
- mercenary pay?
- wealth from trade?
- also royal "tholos" tombs (aka "beehive" tombs)
- similarly impressive grave goods
- and monumental architecture, too
- possibility that Minoan craftsmen may have gone to work for Mycenaeans as attached specialists (voluntarily?)
- Palaces analogous to the Minoan ones appeared around the Greek mainland
- they were major storage/redistribution centers
- based on local agriculture and trade
- they contain written accounting records in Linear B
- But most were heavily fortified
- and were smaller than Minoan palaces
- Mycenaeans occupied Knossos after Crete's destruction around 1450 BC
- military conquest?
- alliance or marriage between ruling families?
- Late Helladic III A&B (Mycenaean Empire) 1380-1190 BC
- contemporary with the post-palatial period on Crete
- the capital at Mycenae was a major storage/redistribution center based on local agriculture and trade
- as on Crete but smaller scale
- written records show standardized taxation system
- surrounding farmers had to pay tribute to the rulers in the citadels
- they provided laborers, meat, other goods
- rather than a central court, Mycenaean palaces had a central hall (megaron) with pillars supporting the ceiling and a central, built-in, round hearth
- emphasis on massive "cyclopean" (big stones) masonry
- palaces contained workshops making inlaid furniture, bronzework, jewelry...
- also shrines marked by the "horns of consecration"
- wall paintings similar to the Minoan ones
- but including scenes of war
- similar, but less developed, water supply and drain systems
- elite houses outside and around the citadels
- included storage rooms and workshops
- apparently functioned as part of the palace system
- some specialized, i.e. one with oil-making facilities
- now two "temples" known
- two-room structures with large pottery female figures in the rear rooms
- settlement hierarchy
- apparently several kingdoms, probably independent, maybe with one dominant
- each had a fortified capital
- surrounded by towns, hamlets, and forts
- but no villas (or "manors") as on Crete
- Trade
- lots of Mycenaean pottery reached Anatolia, Cyprus, Levant, and Egypt
- Mycenaeans got cylinder seals, Egyptian faience vessels, scarabs, ceramics from the Levant, etc.
- also traded to the west with Italy
- Crafts
- fantastic metalwork
- gold masks, disks, vessels, rings
- bronze weapons inlayed with etched gold and silver
- ivory
- warfare (and booty) may have been much more important than on Crete
- lots of weapons in burials
- fortified citadels
- with their own water supplies ("secret springs") to allow resistance to prolonged sieges
- the Lion Gate at Mycenae had a door that pivoted in the center, holes to bar it shut on the sides
- impressive road network, with massive stone bridges
- Massive canal (north bank of Lake Copais)
- embankments 30 m wide, 2 m high
- massive stone facing
- both for shipping and irrigation
- Sub-Mycenaean period 1190-1050 BC
- marked by lots of destruction, abandonment, rebuilding, population movements
- leading to the final abandonment or destruction of all the citadels
- revivals with smaller, fewer, more diverse settlements
- due to
- foreign invasion?
- internal disputes?
- climate change?
- highly debated