The Bronze Age in Greece
Satellite image of Europe and Asia
Timeline
• Cycladic Period (3000 – 2000 BCE)
• Minoan Age (2000 – 1400 BCE)
• Mycenaean Age (1750 – 1100 BCE)
• The Dark Ages/ The Homeric Period (1100 – 750 BCE)
• Archaic Period (750 – 500 BCE)
• Classical Period (500 – 336 BCE)
Cycladic Period (3000-2000 BCE)
• Based on the Cyclades
• Distinctive art – female
figurines with crossed
arms and abstract
features
Bronze Age
• What does the term ”Bronze Age” refer to?
• What is the Bronze Age contrasted with?
• Where does bronze come from?
• What are the implications of bronze metallurgy for culture and social
structure?
Tin routes in the Bronze Age
Minoan Civilization
• Based on Crete, from ca. 2000 BCE until ca. 1400 BCE
(Middle Bronze Age).
• Unique art and architecture
• Palaces with complex structure, frescoes, and storage
facilities (wine, oil, grain, precious metals and ceramics)
• No fortifications have been found
• Bull-leaping, double-axes, mountain-top shrines
• Linear A writing: not deciphered?
• Good craftsmanship (metal, ceramic, ivory, stone)
• Trade links with mainland Greece, Egypt, Near East
Plan of Minoan, later Mycenaean palace at
Knossos
Palace at Knossos, west wing; view of the upper Throne Room, 1700-1400
BCE.
Queen’s megaron at
Knossos. Built around
1900 BC; destroyed by an
earthquake ca. 1700 BC;
immediately rebuilt;
captured by Mycenaeans
around 1450 BC; final
destruction by fire
around 1200 BC.
Crete, Second Palace Period, ca. 1400 B.C.. Wall painting from Knossos showing youths and maidens
somersaulting over the backs of bulls.
Minoan goddess
with snakes, ca
1500 BCE
Late Minoan
painted pot,
about 1500
B.C.E.
Mycenaean Civilization
• Late bronze age (1600-1200 BCE) and
• Influenced by the Minoans in art, architecture, writing
• Palaces with huge fortification walls, elaborate tombs
• Comes to mysterious end around 1200 BCE (possibly a “perfect storm”
of eathquakes, volcanic eruption, infighting and invasion?).
Mycenaean
World
• Influence throughout the
Peloponnese (Pylos, Mycenae,
Tiryns), in mainland Greece
(Athens, Thebes), on Crete, and
on the Cycladic islands.
• Trade with Western Europe,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant,
Anatolia, Cyprus
“Lion Gate” at entrance to Mycenae
Grave circle at Mycenae
Gold artefacts from shaft graves at Mycenae
Funeral mask known as “Agamemnon Mask”. Gold, found in Tomb
V in Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann (1876), 16th century BCE
(but some archaeologists question its authenticity)
Trojan War
Trojan War
• Where is mythic Troy?
• Was there a historical Troy?
• Did a Trojan War really take place?
• Who were the Trojans?
• Was there really an Agamemnon and an Achilles and a Helen of Troy?
• What difference does it make?
Map showing principal sites listed in the Iliad
and Odyssey
Chronology
• Mycenaean period (aka Bronze Age): 1750-1100 BCE: the time of the
Mycenaean palaces and, conventionally, the time of the Trojan war (ca
1200 BCE)
• Dark Age (1100-750 BCE): destruction of palaces, time of collapse, then
slow growth – little written record
• Archaic period (750-480 BCE): conventionally, the period when Homeric
poems flourish (8th-7th century BCE)
• Homer – ca. 8th century BCE, blind poet responsible for
• Iliad – set during the Trojan War, describes the rage of Achilles
• Odyssey – set immediately after the Trojan War, describes the 10-year journey of
Odysseus, King of Ithaca, back home
Troy
• Occupied from ca. 3000 BCE
• Destruction layer which corresponds to around 1200 BCE
• Trade
• Mentioned in Hittite documents (also an Anatolian Indo-European language) as
Wilusa: cf. Greek name (W)Ilion=Troy
• Layout of city and environment: citadel, city, plain, walls all part of description
of Troy in Iliad.
Hittite tablet in
cuneiform
script recording
a treaty with
Wilusa
(=Ilion=Troy).
Dated c. 1280
BCE
Excavations at Troy (Turkish name of site is
Hisarlık)
• Heinrich Schliemann, 1870s and 1880s: belief in historicity of Iliad and
Odyssey, excavation to prove truth of this.
• ongoing
Heinrich
Schliemann,
1822-1890,
German
excavator of
Mycenae
and Troy
Sophia
Schliemann,
wife of
Heinrich
Schliemann,
wearing
treasures
discovered at
Hisarlık
(Turkish name
of site of Troy).
Location of Mycenae
Bronze
Age
Mycenae
Boar’s tusk helmet, described in Homer’s Iliad. L. actual helmet found at. R. Boar’s
tusk helmets on fresco from Orkhomenos.