The Mycenaeans
The Bronze-Age Mycenaean civilization flourished for about four hundred years from about 1600 BC to 1100 BC. Its name came from the archaeological site of Mycenae in the northeastern Argolid, in the Peloponnesos of southern Greece. Major Mycenaean city-sites also include Tiryns in the Argolid, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenos in Boeotia and Iolkos in Thessaly. In Crete, Mycenaeans occupied the ruins of Knossos.
Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared on islands in the Aegean, on the coast of Asia Minor, and in Cyprus.
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete -- the center of the Minoan civilization -- and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek.
In oontrast to the Minoans who delighted in depicting the life of animals, the Mycenaeans depicted animals only in relation to man, or as victims of the hunt, as in the bull-jumping fresco panels which appear at Mycenae and at Tiryns.
Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans but, according to legend, they twice defeated Troy, a powerful city-state that rivaled Mycenae's power. Whether it was the final ten-year battle with Troy that depleted its resources and caused the civilization to eventually collapse -- or an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians -- is inconclusive.
All we know is that early Greek Mycenaean civilization fell into the Dark Ages following the Sack of Illium (Troy) which took place in 1184 BC in the tenth year of the Trojan War between King Priam of Troy and the kings of Greece, led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his brother Menelaus of Sparta.
By 1100 BC the Mycenaean civilization had completely collapsed. During this period Greece experienced decreasing population, they lost their literacy and many Mycenaeans migrated to Cyprus as well as other Greek islands, parts of Anatolia and southern Europe.
Around the same time as the sack of Troy, Ramesses III had come to power in Egypt and successfully stopped an attempted invasion of Egypt by the Sea People and in doing so destroyed most Canaanite sites that were later to become Israel and Judah.
The Sea People had cultural links with the Mycenean world in mainland Greece and among them were Philistines, Tjekker, Denyen and Shardana people who were later allowed to resettle the cities of the coastal road (including Gaza, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Ashkelon) which became known in the as 'the Way of the Philistines'.
Nobody knows exactly where these Sea People came from -- they could have been Vikings for all we know -- but because the Mycenaeans and their rivals, the Turkish Lydians, were wiping each other out in the same period that the Sea People were invading Egypt, it is likely that the Sea People were Mycenaeans or Turkish Lydians, or both, escaping from constant warfare in their home lands.
We know most about the Mycenaeans and the Trojan War from the writings of Homer (810-791 BC). Written about 400 years later -- as most ancient texts are, including the Bible -- it is difficult to separate fact from fiction but the story of Paris and Helen remains as moving today as it did then, and it is likely to be factually based.
Paris was a son of Priam, the king of Troy -- a place in Lydia (Turkey) within sight of Greece opposite to it on the shore of the Aegean Sea. His mother dreamed that he would one day set Troy on fire, and in fear of this happening King Priam ordered one of his shepherds to take the infant and let it die of cold and hunger but the shepherd brought it up as his own child. Later, when the abandoned child grew up, he was welcomed back into the royal family and on a diplomatic mission to Sparta he won her heart of beautiful Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and took her away with him to Troy.
Menelaus sent a message to the kings of all the states of Greece asking them to help him regain Helen and punish Paris. Under the lead of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, twelve hundred ships assembled for war against Troy.
The Greeks laid siege to Troy for nine years, and in the tenth year the Greeks hid their ships after leaving behind the Trojan Horse, pretending to sail to Greece. The Trojans took the horse inside the city and then feasted and celebrated in the belief the war was over. At night the soldiers crept out of the horse and opened the gates to the other Greeks who had sailed back under cover of night.
Troy was sacked, and Menelaus took Helen back with him to Sparta.
A Roman tradition held that many hundreds of Trojans escaped and, after years of migration, eventually settled in Italy. In that the original home of the Italian Etruscans was Lydia (Turkey), it could very well be true.
Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared on islands in the Aegean, on the coast of Asia Minor, and in Cyprus.
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete -- the center of the Minoan civilization -- and adopted a form of the Minoan script called Linear A to write their early form of Greek.
In oontrast to the Minoans who delighted in depicting the life of animals, the Mycenaeans depicted animals only in relation to man, or as victims of the hunt, as in the bull-jumping fresco panels which appear at Mycenae and at Tiryns.
Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans but, according to legend, they twice defeated Troy, a powerful city-state that rivaled Mycenae's power. Whether it was the final ten-year battle with Troy that depleted its resources and caused the civilization to eventually collapse -- or an invasion by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians -- is inconclusive.
All we know is that early Greek Mycenaean civilization fell into the Dark Ages following the Sack of Illium (Troy) which took place in 1184 BC in the tenth year of the Trojan War between King Priam of Troy and the kings of Greece, led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his brother Menelaus of Sparta.
By 1100 BC the Mycenaean civilization had completely collapsed. During this period Greece experienced decreasing population, they lost their literacy and many Mycenaeans migrated to Cyprus as well as other Greek islands, parts of Anatolia and southern Europe.
Around the same time as the sack of Troy, Ramesses III had come to power in Egypt and successfully stopped an attempted invasion of Egypt by the Sea People and in doing so destroyed most Canaanite sites that were later to become Israel and Judah.
The Sea People had cultural links with the Mycenean world in mainland Greece and among them were Philistines, Tjekker, Denyen and Shardana people who were later allowed to resettle the cities of the coastal road (including Gaza, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Ashkelon) which became known in the as 'the Way of the Philistines'.
Nobody knows exactly where these Sea People came from -- they could have been Vikings for all we know -- but because the Mycenaeans and their rivals, the Turkish Lydians, were wiping each other out in the same period that the Sea People were invading Egypt, it is likely that the Sea People were Mycenaeans or Turkish Lydians, or both, escaping from constant warfare in their home lands.
We know most about the Mycenaeans and the Trojan War from the writings of Homer (810-791 BC). Written about 400 years later -- as most ancient texts are, including the Bible -- it is difficult to separate fact from fiction but the story of Paris and Helen remains as moving today as it did then, and it is likely to be factually based.
Paris was a son of Priam, the king of Troy -- a place in Lydia (Turkey) within sight of Greece opposite to it on the shore of the Aegean Sea. His mother dreamed that he would one day set Troy on fire, and in fear of this happening King Priam ordered one of his shepherds to take the infant and let it die of cold and hunger but the shepherd brought it up as his own child. Later, when the abandoned child grew up, he was welcomed back into the royal family and on a diplomatic mission to Sparta he won her heart of beautiful Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and took her away with him to Troy.
Menelaus sent a message to the kings of all the states of Greece asking them to help him regain Helen and punish Paris. Under the lead of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, twelve hundred ships assembled for war against Troy.
The Greeks laid siege to Troy for nine years, and in the tenth year the Greeks hid their ships after leaving behind the Trojan Horse, pretending to sail to Greece. The Trojans took the horse inside the city and then feasted and celebrated in the belief the war was over. At night the soldiers crept out of the horse and opened the gates to the other Greeks who had sailed back under cover of night.
Troy was sacked, and Menelaus took Helen back with him to Sparta.
A Roman tradition held that many hundreds of Trojans escaped and, after years of migration, eventually settled in Italy. In that the original home of the Italian Etruscans was Lydia (Turkey), it could very well be true.
Labels: Agamemnon, etruscans, helen, lydia, Menelaus, paris, priam, sea people, trojan horse, trojan war, turkey
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