Mycenaean Sites | Early European History And Religion

MYCENAE

Mycenaean ruins

Mycenae (50 kilometers southwest of Corinth) is an ancient city, whose name means "rich in gold,” that was the center of the Mycenaean civilization. Founded in 1500 A.D., making a 1000 years older than Golden Age Greece, it is laid are on a small knoll next to a barren hill and features ruins of great fortess that includes a Lion's Gate constructed of huge stones piled on top of one another and a grey mound of rock which is said to bear the marks of the Cyclops, a mythological beast that is Mycenaean in origin.

The Mycenaean civilization (1650- 1200 B.C.) flourished in mainland Greece and on Crete. The Mycenaean people built massive palaces and developed a writing system that archaeologists call Linear B. This civilization flourished until around 3,200 years ago, when it collapsed. According to UNESCO: “The archaeological sites of Mycenae and Tiryns, located in the Regional unit of Argolis in the North-East Peloponnese, are the imposing ruins of the two greatest cities of the Mycenaean civilization, which dominated the eastern Mediterranean world from the 15th to the 12th century B.C. and played a vital role in the development of classical Greek culture. These two cities are indissolubly linked to the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey , which have influenced European art and literature for more than three millennia. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

Mycenae most famous native son is Agamemnon, the Greek commander who lead the attack against Troy and returned from his conquest only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. It is not clear whether he was a real person or fictional character. Inside the walls of Mycenae is the royal palace where Agamemnon reportedly lived and was murdered as well as courtier houses, sanctuaries and important buildings.

According to legend the 10-foot-thick walls that surround Mycenae and the nearby cities of Tirin and Midea were built by a tribe of men that descended from the Cyclops. When you see the size of the stones you'll understand why people believed this. The Lion Gate is composed of 10-foot-high posts with 15-foot-long lintels placed on top of them. Around the gate you can see ruts left by ancient chariots. At the center of the palace is the royal audience hall, the only room in the palace whose function has been ascertained.

Good Archaeology Websites Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology sites.dartmouth.edu; Archaeology News Report archaeologynewsreport.blogspot.com ; Archaeology magazine archaeology.org ; HeritageDaily heritagedaily.com; Livescience livescience.com/ ; Websites on Ancient Greece: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org; British Museum ancientgreece.co.uk; Illustrated Greek History, Dr. Janice Siegel, Hampden–Sydney College hsc.edu/drjclassics ; The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization pbs.org/empires/thegreeks ; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org/web; Ancient Greek Sites on the Web from Medea showgate.com/medea ; Greek History Course from Reed web.archive.org

Archaeological Site of Mycenae

The massive walls of Mycenae surround palatial administrative complex, houses, sanctuaries, storerooms and royal courts with colorful frescoes and sculpted stone. Visitors to the citadel pass through the Lion Gate and reach the an ancient grave circle, where ancient Mycenaean rulers were laid to rest.

According to UNESCO: “The citadel of Mycenae, with its strategic position for the control of the Argolid Plain, is the kingdom of the mythical Agamemnon and the most important and richest palatial centre of the Late Bronze Age in Greece. Its name was given to one of the greatest civilizations of Greek prehistory, the Mycenaean civilization, while the myths related to its history, its rulers and their family members (such as Klytaimnestra, Ifigeneia, Elektra, Orestes) have inspired poets, writers and artists over many centuries, from the ancient to the contemporary times. Significant stages in monumental architecture are still visible in the property, such as the massive defensive walls, the corbelled tholos tombs and the Lions Gate. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

The discovery of “Agamemnon's beehive tomb on a nearby hill was one of the great finds of Greek archeology and most of the treasures found inside it are now displayed in the Athens Museum. Thirteen other royal tombs and 12 tombs of normal citizens were uncovered in the same area. Several kilometers away from Mycenaea are the remains of a Mycenaean acropolis in Midea and the ruins of Heria built on an outcropping on Mt. Evvia.

Tiryns

Mycenaean ruins
Tiryns (20 kilometers south of Mycenaea) was one of the great Mycenaean cities. Atop a limestone hill, the city-state's king built a palace with walls so thick they were called Cyclopean, because only the one-eyed monster could have carried the massive limestone blocks. The walls were about 10 meters (30 feet) high and eight meters (26 feet) wide.

Tiryns predates Mycenae. The largest boulders in the wall weigh 13 tons, so big it is said only descendants of the Cyclops were strong enough to lift them into place. In the middle of the acropolis is a ruined palace with a royal throne room. Below it are a series of secret cisterns, or tunnels, that are among the most interesting archeological achievements of the period.

According to UNESCO: “Tiryns, situated 20 km north-east of Mycenae on a low hill near the inlet of the Argolic Gulf, is another excellent example of the Mycenaean civilization. The fortification of the hill, completed at the end of the 13th century B.C. surrounds the citadel with a total perimeter of approximately 750 meters. The impressive walls, built of stones even larger than those of Mycenae, are up to 8 meters thick and 13 meters high. They can rightly be regarded as a creation that goes beyond the human scale, as reveals the word “cyclopean” – built by Cyclops, the mythical giants from Lycia – which was attributed to them in the Homeric epics. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

“The Mycenaean civilisation, as exemplified by Mycenae and Tiryns, had a profound effect on the development of classical Greek architecture and urban design, and consequently also on contemporary cultural forms. The architecture and design of Mycenae and Tiryns, such as the Lion Gate and the Treasury of Atreus and the walls of Tiryns, are outstanding examples of human creative genius. Both sites illustrate in a unique manner the achievements of Mycenaean civilization in arts, architecture and technology, which laid the foundations for the evolution of later European cultures.” =

Pylos

So-called Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Plan of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Greece, Description: 1-Entrance, 2-Court, 3-Anchamber, 4-Megaron(main hall), 5-Storerooms with olive oil, 6-Storerooms with wine, 7-Archives, 8-Propylon, 9-Bath, 10-Small megaron

Pylos is an ancient Mycenaean site, discovered in 1939, that is said to have been where King Nestor of the Iliad was from. It is also where the Linear B tablets were found. When these tablets were translated they revealed that the Greek language evolved out of the Mycenaean language. The small Archeological museum there houses Mycenaean pottery, lovely Hellenistic glass vases; and two small bronze figures of youths.

Pylos is located of southwestern coast of the Peloponnese in Greece in a region known today as Messenia. Homer spoke of 'sandy Pylos,' in his epic “The Odyssey.” Archaeological sites include the famed Palace of Nestor, a large administrative center that was destroyed in 1180 B.C., about the same time as Homer’s Troy. The palace at Pylos was first excavated by Carl Blegen of the University of Cincinnati. On his first day of digging in 1939 he discovered a large cache of tablets written in the script known as Linear B, later deciphered as the earliest written form of Greek.

Archeologist at the site have also found jars of herb-scented olive oil, kraters with honeyed wine and 2,853 wine cups in a single room, which has led scholars to believe that the Mycenaeans were pretty hard core partiers or they smashed these cups after each toast. In another room archeologist found the bones of 10 cattle, which have provided enough meat for 6,000 people, far more than lived around the citadel. The presence of outdoor banqueting courtyards and storerooms and pantries filled with a variety of foodstuffs and gear such as ladles, mixing bowls, wine storage jars appears to indicate that place was a huge banqueting hall that could accommodate thousands of people form all over the kingdom at one time. Status could have beeen determined by where people sat---based in the kinds of foodstuffs found in each place--- with low status people sitting n courtyards and the elite sitting with the king in a special room called the megaron.

Nestor’s Palace

The Palace of Nestor was originally a sprawling two-story compound that covered a 164-by-104-foot area. Situated on a strategic ridge with views of Navarino Bay and the heart of the kingdom to the north, it was destroyed by a fire in 1200 B.C., heralding the collapse of the Mycenaean culture. The fire also baked and preserved some clay tablets with writing that led to the decipherment of Linear B.

Jo Marchant wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Nestor’s palace is surrounded by flowering oleander trees and is covered with an impressive new metal roof, completed just in time for the site’s reopening to the public in June 2016 after a three-year, multimillion-euro restoration. The roof’s graceful white curves protect the ruins from the elements, while a raised walkway allows visitors to admire the floor plan. The stone walls of the palace now rise just a meter from the ground, but it was originally a vast two-story complex, built around 1450 B.C., that covered more than 15,000 square feet and was visible for miles. Visitors would have passed through an open courtyard into a large throne room, Davis explains, with a central hearth for offerings and decorated with elaborately painted scenes including lions, griffins and a bard playing a lyre. [Source: Jo Marchant, Smithsonian magazine, January-February 2017]

“The Linear B tablets found by Blegen, deciphered in the 1950s, revealed that the palace was an administrative center that supported more than 50,000 people in an area covering all of modern-day Messenia in western Greece. Davis points out storerooms and pantries in which thousands of unused ceramic wine cups were found, as well as workshops for the production of leather and perfumed oils.

“Echoes of Homer are everywhere. In The Odyssey, when Odysseus’ son Telemachus visits Pylos, he finds the inhabitants on the shore sacrificing bulls to the god Poseidon, before traveling to the palace to receive a bath from one of Nestor’s daughters. Tablets and animal bones that Blegen found in the archives room recall a feast in which 11 cattle were sacrificed to Poseidon, while on the other side of the building is a perfectly preserved terra-cotta bathtub, its interior painted with a repeating spiral motif. The palace was destroyed in a fire around 1200 B.C., part of a wave of destruction that brought down the entire Mycenaean society,

Iklaina Site at Pylos

Iklaina

In 1954, famed Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos round what he believed to be were the ruins of a palace near the small town of Iklaina. Professor Michael Cosmopoulos from University of Missouri - St. Louis has been excavating the site since 1998. Amanda Summer wrote in Odyssey magazine: ““Initially Cosmopoulos had anticipated the mound might be hiding a tholos tomb, as segments of ancient walls were still vis ible on the surface, a portion of which seemed to extend into the rising slope. What he found instead was a giant "Cyclopean" wall with offsets typical of Mycenaean architecture; massive blocks of stone roughly cut but rectangular in shape, placed in horizontal rows, similar to architectural features found at Tiryns, the palace of Nestor, Mycenae, and Gla. This wall formed a terrace, on which once stood an impressive building complex. [Source: Amanda Summer, Odyssey, September, October 2012 ]

Cosmopoulos refrains from calling the structure a palace. Instead he refers to it as a 'seat of power' and believes it was a district capital in Nestor's domain. Within the site he found “multiple storage rooms for foodstuffs, plaster offering tables, a rich pottery assemblage and was decorated with elaborate figural frescoes painted in blue and red, which are stylistically reminiscent of Minoan frescoes found on the islands ofThira and Keos.

“According to Cosmopoulos, lklaina is mentioned in the clay tablets excavated at the Palace of Nestor.Iit was recorded that the state was divided into two provinces: the Hither and the Further, of which Iklaina is a member. Each region was further divided into districts, Hither into nine and Further into seven. The tablets refer to nine major capitals, and in The Odyssey, Homer also refers to the Nine Cities of Nestor: one of them-Aipymay have sounded similar to the name of the Iklaina site in the Linear B record (Aphy or As- 30). "It would be extraordinary if it turned out that our excavation has brought to light a site recorded in both Greek myths and ancient texts." phy) where it is written as a-pu2.”

Mycenaean Spartan Palace

Tia Ghose wrote in Live Science: An ancient Greek palace filled with cultic objects and clay tablets written in a lost script may be the long-lost palace of Mycenaean Sparta, one of the most famous civilizations of ancient Greece. The 10-room complex, called Ayios Vassileios, was filled with striking artifacts, including fragments of ornate murals, a cultic cup with a bull's head, a seal emblazoned with a nautilus and several bronze swords. The palace, which burnt to the ground in the 14th century B.C., also contained several tablets written in Linear B script, the earliest known form of written Greek, the Greek Ministry of Culture said in a statement. The ancient palace was uncovered about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) away from the historical Sparta that arose centuries later. [Source:Tia Ghose, Live Science, August 26, 2015]

Though archaeologists have a fairly clear picture of the late Mycenaean culture up to around 1200 B.C., they knew relatively little about the centuries beforehand. Then in 2009, archaeologists uncovered the remains of an ancient site that was first erected in the 17th century B.C., according to the statement. The entire complex was likely destroyed in a fire a few hundred years later.

The ruins, which are on a low hill on a Spartan plain that is dotted with olive trees, include what is likely the palace archive. At the time, administrators of the political bureaucracy kept temporary records on unbaked clay tablets, which would then be recycled after a short period, such as a year, said Hal Haskell, an archeologist who studies the ancient Mycenaean culture at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Though the conflagration destroyed the palatial complex, it also fired the clay tablets, baking the Linear B text into permanence. So far, the team has been able to identify both male and female names, as well as records of financial dealings and religious offerings, according to the statement. The records' complexity reveals a highly sophisticated culture with an intricate bureaucracy, the archaeologists note. A second structure on the site preserved fragments of ancient murals, while a sanctuary east of the courtyard included cultic religious objects, such as ivory idols and figurines, a rhyton, or drinking vessel, with a bull's head on it, large newts and many decorative gems.

The palatial complex fills a big gap in archaeology, said Haskell, who was not involved in the current excavation. “Tradition tells us that Sparta was an important site in the Mycenaean period," Haskell told Live Science. Yet no one had found a palace in the Spartan plain, certainly not one that matched the grandeur of the palaces of Pylos and Mycenae. The new site could be that lost Spartan palace, Haskell told Live Science. “What's exciting is you do have this middle Bronze Age stuff that suggests it's a site of great significance," Haskell said, referring to the artifacts inside the palace.

For instance, Linear B tablets would only be housed in an administrative center in Mycenaean culture, Haskell said. To really show this is a long-lost Spartan palace, the archaeologists are hoping to uncover the megaron, or the throne room where ancient Greeks held receptions, Haskell said.

The find is "hugely significant," Torsten Meissner, a classicist at the University of Cambridge in England, told Live Science in an email. All of the other famous sites Homer mentioned in his epics have been discovered. "Mycenaean, or Bronze Age, Sparta was the last 'big prize,'" Meissner said.

The early evidence of Linear B tablets at the palace could also force scholars to rethink the time and place where Linear B developed. Historians used to think that Linear B derived from an elusive, still undecipherable text used by the enigmatic Minoan culture known as Linear A, which developed on the island of Crete. The new Linear B tablets at Ayios Vassileios were from 100 years earlier than the next oldest tablets, and given that there is a Minoan settlement near the new Spartan palace, scholars may need to rethink where that language transfer occurred, Meissner said.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum except Iklaina and Iklaina tablet, Iklaina Archeological Project, teenager skeleton from The Guardian and skull from Archaeology wiki

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024