1. Mycenaean Greece and Cross-Cultural Interaction “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon” ~Heinrich Schliemann

2. Mycenaean Death Mask

3. Dating Scheme after J.-B. Bury (following Evans)

4. Trading Contacts from Minoan Crete  Height of Mycenaean Greece: ca. 1400-1200 BCE (LH II-IIIB)  Cultural Influences (palace architecture, frescoes, seal stones, fine gold work)  Trading Emporia in the Near East and West (Taranto)

5. General Characteristics  Centralized Administration (king or wanax); Palace as Redistribution Center  Highly Organized Bureaucracy (Linear B Palace Inventories)  Complex Social Structure Royal Family (wanax: military, legislative, judicial, religious functions) Nobility (priests and scribes) Merchants (?); Agricultural Workers and Craftsmen Slaves  Mycenae: Shaft Graves (circles A and B): ca. 1650-1550 BCE ; tholos (“beehive”) tombs: ca. 1500 BCE ; “Treasury of Atreus”: ca. 1300 BCE

6. Royal Grave Circle A circa 1600 BCE

8. Entrance, “Treasury of Atreus”

9. Cross-Section of Tholos

10. Interior of “Treasury of Atreus” Corbeled Arch (ca. 1300-1250 BCE )

11. Mycenaeans and Minoans  Significant Differences Mycenaean Palaces are closed; strongly fortified Mycenaean art: war motifs predominate

12. The “Warrior Vase” circa 1200 BCE

13. Vapheio Cup (ca. 1400-1300 BCE )

14. The Citadel of Mycenae

15. Aerial View of Citadel at Mycenae

16. The Lioness Gate at Mycenae

17. Excursus: Heinrich Schliemann  Excavator of Mycenaean civilization  Autodidact; early fascination with Homeric poems  “Outsider” to academic establishment W. Doerpfeld and credibility  Entrepreneur and Treasure Hunter  Modern Assessments

18. Heinrich Schliemann

19. The Mycenaean Argolid

21. Writing: Linear B Script  Monopoly of the Elites Linear B script virtually unchanged destruction at Knossos, ca. 1380 BCE (following Biers) destruction at Pylos, ca. 1250 BCE

22. Linear B Tablets

23. The End of Mycenaean Civilization and the Trojan War  Thirteenth and twelfth century Mediterranean context: Turmoil in the Mediterranean basin and the Near East (“Sea Peoples”). ca. 1200 BCE --Egypt weakened; Hittite empire collapses; destruction at Mycenaean centers (Tiryns, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes; ca. 1150 BCE : final destruction at Mycenae)  Greece--lines of trade disrupted (e.g. contact with Cyprus, a source of copper, is broken) Fortifications rebuilt at Mycenae; secret passageway to underground cistern Secret passageways to water sources at Athens and Tiryns The Isthmian Wall Archaeological Evidence of Troy VII A--a last gasp Mycenaean expedition?

24. Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization

25. Explanations: Intruder, Environmental, Class Conflict  Tradition: return of Heracleidae and the Dorian invasion  Problem: tradition dates invasion to ca. 1100 BCE ; archaeological evidence indicates a date closer to 1200 BCE  Identifying the Dorians?  Alternatives: climatic--famine leads to internal social revolutions; inter-city wars  Joseph Tainter’s theory of complexity and collapse