Mycenae: The First Greeks
The Bronze Age beginnings of Western civilization.
The Mycenaeans were the first civilization that can be described as truly Greek.
Heinrich Schliemann
The existence of these people was first uncovered by Heinrich Schliemann, who lived from 1821 to 1890. He was a German businessman who became an amateur archeologist. He made his fortunes as a military contractor during the Crimean War in the mid-1850s. After he retired in 1858, Schliemann devoted himself to historical scholarship. He led excavations at Hissarlik and Mycenae, which revolutionized the burgeoning field of archeology.
Bronze Age Greece
The Mycenaeans were the first civilization of Greece, living from 1600 to 1100 BC. They dominated international trade in the Western Mediterranean. These mysterious people are mentioned in the records of the Hittites. According to Homer, the Mycenaeans referred to themselves as Achaeans, Argives, or Danaans. This ancient civilization casts a large shadow over Homer’s classic works, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Sources
Our main sources about Mycenae are Homer, Thucydides, modern archeology, and Linear B tablets. Homer’s poetry comes from a long oral tradition of bards. It is unclear whether his works truly represent the Mycenaeans, or perhaps some earlier period in the Greek Dark Ages. The Classical Greek authors were not aware of the discontinuity between the Mycenaeans and their own civilization, and they took mythology as historical fact. They underestimated the amount of time that elapsed since the Trojan War, and simply saw their own Greek civilization as descending from the Heroic Age of Greek mythology. This leads to some confusion and unreliability in our sources. Linear B tablets are useful, because modern scholars have been able to decipher it. The basic grammar and meanings are the same as modern Greek. The tablets give details about trade and production of agriculture. There are only a few allusions to the gods and military preparations. Most of these tablets are not very interested, and are just mundane economic records.
Chronology
The Mycenaeans appeared relatively late in the Bronze Age. The first major date were the Shaft Grave Era, dated from 1600 to 1450 BC. These were burials of warriors. Then there was a Koine Era, from 1450 to 1250 BC. At this time, the Mycenaeans began to dominate the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. They built vast trade networks. They conquered the Minoans of Crete, who were weakened. Finally, their civilization collapsed sometime between 1250 to 1100 BC. Their methods of building and government disappeared after 1100. The Greeks reemerged, but knew nothing about their own past.
Sites
The main site was Mycenae itself. It was the most powerful city, near the city of Argos. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey depicts the King of Mycenae as the King of the Greeks. A well-preserved palace can be found at Pylos. The Mycenaeans had some presence in the site of Athens’ Acropolis. Miletus was settled by the Mycenaeans after their conquest of Crete. It was one of their later settlements. They engaged in colonization and invasions, which lends some credibility to the Trojan War story.
Palatial societies
Most Bronze Age societies were palatial states. Palace ruled over everything. Local governors and inspectors were agents of the king. Most political and economic activity was centered at the palace. It was a small-scale command economy, akin to the Soviet Union. The surrounding countryside was under the rule of these palaces, providing a supply of tax revenue. The Mycenaean palaces were run by a royal bureaucracy. The king was called a wanax. There was a second-in-command, called a lawagetas, who held a third of the king’s estate. Then there were the hequetai, or “followers,” who were aristocratic allies of the king. The aristocrats owned their own estate, slaves, and chariots. The lowest class was the basileus, a low-ranking palace official who was described merely as a king by Homer. It is unclear whether the Mycenaeans saw themselves as a single people. There was no federal state. There was no unity in politics, worsened by Greece’s geography. The idea of unity might be a fiction invented by Homer.
Conquest of Crete
War was central to the culture of Mycenae. This is seen in vases and frescoes. Grave shafts are full of arms and armor. Social rank was heavily tied to military achievement. After the volcanic eruption at Thera, the Minoan settlements of Crete were conquered by the Mycenaeans after 1450 BC. We know this because of the presence of Linear B tablets, changes in art style, and increased militarization found there. The Hellenization of Crete meant that future Greeks were unaware of their Minoan predecessors. The Greek myth of King Minos is probably a vague memory of a Mycenaean ruler seated at Knossos.
Trojan War
Was the Trojan War real? Or just mythology? That is the question. If the Trojan War actually happened, it would have involved a Mycenaean expedition into Troy. It would have occurred sometime between 1260 and 1180 BC. The existence of Troy, and Mycenaean aggression there, is attested by Hittite records. There are some reasons to doubt the war’s historicity. The Mycenaean sites were all destroyed within a generation or two. The idea of a ten-year siege is absurd. Odd details in Homer show discrepancies in the oral tradition. This dynamic is similar to the legend of King Arthur.
Decline and fall
There was a wave of destruction in 1250, followed by fortification. Hittite records show that the Mycenaeans were still active internationally around 1200 BC. Further waves of destruction and depopulation occurred across the Mycenaean world, starting around 1180 BC. The city of Pylos was burned to the ground. Tablets mention that defenses were prepared, but do not give any information on the attackers. This became the Bronze Age Collapse. The Mycenaeans completely collapsed from east to west. There is speculation that the Mycenaeans were the victims of the infamous Sea Peoples, which attacked many other civilizations around this time. Other civilizations went into decline, but did not disappear. The Mycenaeans were the only ones that completely collapsed. It was followed by the Greek Dark Ages, from 1100 to 800 BC. By the end of the Dark Ages, the Greeks completely forgot about their Mycenaean origins. So they took mythology as literal history.
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