Overview of Bronze Age
World
Approximate Dates
• The Bronze Age primarily took place between 3500 BC and 1200 BC, and
is traditionally divided into the Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC),
Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC), and Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1200
BC), with progressively more sophisticated metallurgy which culminates in
the discovery of ironworking.
• The Bronze Age began 5,500 years ago in the present-day areas of
Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, which was also the cradle of human civilization. By
this time permanent settlements were already a few thousands years old,
but it took time for these early people to discover the potential of metallic
ores. The birthplace of metallurgy is usually taken to be Anatolia, Turkey.
The Indian Bronze Age began in 3300 BC with the Indus Valley
civilization. In China and southeast Asia, the Bronze Age began around
2100 BC. Throughout Europe the Bronze Age began between 2100 BC
and 2000 BC or so, with sophisticated Bronze Age civilizations rising
throughout the 2nd millennium BC.
Features of bronze age
Civilizations
• The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized
city states
• Monumental architecture
• Settlements still largely agriculturally based
• Social stratification. More complex and skilled specialization
• the invention of writing
• In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people partially changed
the political pattern of the Near East with central monarchies
• The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing powerful
kingdoms and their vassal states (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia,
Hittites, Mitanni). Warfare common
• Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean civilization in which
the copper trade played an important role
BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS
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Middle and New Kingdom Egypt
Mesopotamia
Caananites
Hittite Empire
Indus Valley
Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations
Race to Preserve World’s oldest
( 5,000yrs) town
Mycenaean civilization
compared to Minoan
• Many cultural customs inherited
• Differences: Mycenaean Cities fortified
Mycenaean was a warlike society
• Mycenae – weapons and armour found in
graves of leaders
Aerial View of Excavated Site
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
PALACE AT PYLOS
Mycenae – Lion Gate
cyclopian Walls
A Prosperous City State
• Each city state had a fortified palace surrounded
by massive walls
• Outside of the large estate of the wannax,
farmland was collectively owned.
• The economy was based on agriculture and
livestock breeding.
• They produced oil, flax and wool.
• They were also skilled craftsmen
• The images depicted on their pottery and
weapons illustrate a warrior culture with a taste
for luxury,
Grave Goods
Mycenaean Society
Hierarchically Structured
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King/Ruler
Warrior Caste = Companions (Mycenae)
Priests and Priestesses
Officials and Local Administrators
Scribes
Farmers
Slaves
Warrior Head
Mycenean society
• Mycenaeans engaged in sea going
commerce
• Aggressively expansionist
• Traded with Sicily, Libya, Anatolia
• Fortified towns using masonry
• Later stages used Linear B writing
CYCLOPEAN MASONRY
• Evidence of Mycenaean Aggression
• On Linear B tablets: lists of Asian slave women and
imported objects from all over the Mediterranean; luxury
items.
Prehistoric arms race? The massive fortifications to
protect the Argive Plain. Do these citadels house one
extended family, or indicate frequent wars between
states?
Wood examines Greek legend, such as the traditional
hatred between Thebes & Orchomenos.
BRONZE AGE MYCENAEAN
WEAPONS
• “Meriones gave Odysseus a
bow, a quiver and a sword,
and put a cleverly made
leather helmet on his head.
On the inside there was a
strong lining on interwoven
straps, onto which a felt cap
had been sewn in. The
outside was cleverly adorned
all around with rows of white
tusks from a shiny-toothed
boar, the tusks running in
alternate directions in each
row.“ Homer
Linear A and B
Mycenaean trade
• Luxury items came from the east- gold
,ivory and gemstones
• Amethyst from Egypt and Amber from the
Baltic
• Exported products were bronze weapons,
jewellery, olive oil, wine, wool and
stemmed drinking cups
Mycenaean art
• Pottery was wider at the top than the bottom and
used spirals, bands, fish, vegetable life and
human figures to decorate.
• Mass produced to satisfy local and trade
• Small clay figures found in great numbers
especially in tombs
• Small cups, goblets and jugs, many fashioned
from gold
• Scarabs and gold rings found in tombs
Early Bronze Age jug
• Found in large numbers in tombs And shrines,
these small clay idols were possibly of a female
deity
• Typical of these simply shaped and painted
figurines are the ankle length, belted clothing, a
kind of crown and specific arm postures.
• Because of their similarity to the corresponding
letters of the Greek alphabet, these types of
figurines are known as phi and psi idols.
Burial practices
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Two types may represent a change in dynastic rule.
Grave Circle B
Tholos tombs, nine found at Mycenaea
Bodies dressed in lavishly decorated shrouds, were
adorned with gold items and diadems and their faces
were covered by masks of gold. The bodies were
lowered into the shafts and spectacular grave goods ,
made of precious metals were placed inside.
• “Here were male skulls with crowns of gold and golden
masks,, here were osseos ladies with golden diadems,
here were painted vases, beads of amethyst and amber,
heavily ornamented daggers, gold rings and cups, even
clothing embroidered with thin plates of gold”.
• Archaeologists now believe that gold, tin
and Amber came from distant ports in
Anatolia and the Baltic.
Circle A graves
Archaeological remains of a Circle
A Grave
Tholos tomb
Burial goods
Mycenaean weaponry-Shields were made of wood
and so were not preserved, but images of them
were preserved on bronze daggers.
Mycenaean soldiery
END OF GREEK BRONZE AGE
• The collapse of the Mycenaean palaces
and civilization occurred mysteriously at
1100 BC.
• Various theories have been proposed:
• (a) Economic Factors
• (b) Climatic Changes
• (c) Internal Social Upheaval:
• (d) Invasion from Outside the Aegean
World:
• Fall of Mycenaean Palaces
• After the disruptions at the end of the
Bronze Age, representational art was lost,
along with writing and other arts
associated with the palaces and palace
life.
End of Mycenaea and the
Trojan War?
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According to Homer, when Troy was destroyed, it was the Mycenaeans who
sacked it. Based on the archaeological evidence, about the same time
Hisarlik burned and was destroyed, the entire Mycenaean culture was also
under attack.
Beginning about 1300 BC, the rulers of the capital cities of the Mycenaean
cultures lost interest in constructing elaborate tombs and expanding their
palaces, and began to work in earnest on strengthening the fortification
walls and building underground access to water sources. These efforts
suggest preparation for warfare.
One after another, the palaces burned, first Thebes, then Orchomenos, then
Pylos. After Pylos burned, a concerted effort was expended on the
fortification walls at Mycenae and Tiryns, but to no avail.
By 1200 BC, the approximate time of the destruction of Hisarlik, most of the
palaces of the Mycenaeans had been destroyed.
HITTITE EMPIRE
MONUMENTAL
ARCHITECTURE
They were able to build a large empire because of their
military strength. Between 1400 BC and 1200 BC,
they ruled over most of the Fertile Crescent.
The people lived in cities
fortified by thick stone walls.
They build palaces and
temples. Outside the cities,
farmers grew food for
everyone. Their empire fell
apart around 1200 BC.
A Balance of Power:
C. E.
1200 B.
Hattusas-Capital of
the Hittite Empire
RECONSTRUCTED CAPITAl
Hittite Writing
Hittite Art and Sculpture
BRONZE AGE TRADE NETWORK
Role of the Black Sea??
moodle
The Black Seacrossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East
Source of tin for the Bronze
Age
• Until 1984 we did not know the source of tin for the
ancient bronze civilizations of the Near East. Now more
than 40 ancient sites of tin mining have been discovered
in the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey, only 40 km
from the Cilician Gates,. The area has a great variety of
metal ores, including deposits of gold and silver. But lead
is also present, and lead artefacts are known from Çatal
Höyük. Cast lead figurines had become common by the
late third and early second millenia, and silver was
important from the late fourth millennium.
MYTH AS EVIDENCE
• According to Greek mythology, on the eastern shores of
the Black Sea, there was once a kingdom called Kolchis.
Located in what is today the Republic of Georgia, this
kingdom was said to be the home of the Golden Fleece,
the legendary treasure that Jason and his Argonauts set
out to find .
• The Greeks originally referred to the Black Sea as
Pontos Axeinos - the Inhospitable Sea - for good reason.
Large sections of the southern and Crimean coasts are
mountainous and offer few protected anchorages.
Violent storms and dangerous winds from both north and
south made navigation treacherous for ancient mariners.
Despite these hazards, however, the Mediterranean
cultures were drawn to the Black Sea by its enormous
economic potential
• The evidence for Bronze Age
Mediterranean seafarers in the Black Sea
is not limited to mythology. Mycenaean
anchors and oxhide-shaped copper ingots
have been found off the western coast of
the Black Sea. This aspect of Bronze Age
seafaring, however, remains largely
unexplored.
What Links the Two????
Did Mycenaeans know about the Black Sea?
Was Troy a geo-commercial gatekeeper
controlling access to the Black Sea?
Although evidence has been limited by political
opportunities for maritime archaeology in the
Black Sea, recent projects have revealed
Mycenaean pottery at Kolchis and Masat,
oxhide ingots and Mycenaean double headed
axes found in the Ukraine.
Likewise finds at Mycenaea such as the boar
tusk helmet is supposed to have originated
from Southern Russia. Some scholars
suppose that the wide use of gold in
Mycenaean shaft graves is linked to Pontic
trade known to be a rich source of gold. This
gives a much larger meaning to the Myth of
Jason and the Golden Fleece