International Bronze Age
1800-1100 BCE
Overview
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Background
Minoan Crete
The Hittites
The Phoenicians
Background
• Between 1800 and 1200 a Bronze Age culture spread
throughout the eastern Mediterranean. It connected
southern Europe with N. Africa and western Asia
• Ideas flowed between the empires of the Egyptians,
the Minoans, the Hittites, and Phoenicians
– trade and treaties proliferated
– populations swelled
– the Mediterranean became the point of connection between
various peoples
Minoan Crete
• Located just to the south of Greece in the Mediterranean, Crete
is blessed with adequate rainfall, sheltered ports, and fertile soil
• By 2000 BCE a peaceful and wealthy culture had developed
there
• The center of Minoan settlements was a five acre sprawling
palace complex, Knossos, where a priest/chief lived; the palace
itself was not just the center of government but the focus of
mercantile activity; the palace included huge storage rooms
• Similar but smaller palace complex were scattered throughout
the island
• The Minoans were the first to develop the typically
Mediterranean form of agriculture:
– grapes
– olives
– grain
Minoan Crete
• They palaces of the Minoan rulers had enormous
facilities for storing surplus olive oil and wine, which
the Minoans traded with their mainland neighbors
• A highly unusual, almost unique, feature of the
Minoan civilization was that it lacked any defensive
structures; the enormous storage facilities and the
settlements themselves had no walls or fortresses
• Because of the prominence of women in Minoan
artwork, some archaeologists have suggested that
Minoan Crete was ruled by women but this idea has
not been proven
• Their language, now known as Linear A, has only
been partially deciphered
The Hittites
• The earliest civilization in Western Asia to speak an IndoEuropean language
• Established a kingdom in central Asia Minor by 1750 BC; their
sphere of influence spread southward through the Levant and
eventually bordered Egypt
• originally thought to have expanded their kingdom through the
use of iron weaponry; but this thesis has been discarded; the
were firmly a bronze-age culture
• pious & polytheistic: “a thousand gods”
• fought several wars with the Egyptian New Kingdom and finally
established borders c. 1250
• The Hittites were masters of fighting both on horseback and on
chariots; they relied heavily on chariots in battle
The Phoenicians
• Phoenician society was dominated by merchants who
specialized in the production and distribution of dyes,
especially purple dye, which colored the clothes of
royalty
• The Phoenicians became the greatest sailors of the
ancient world; they established colonies in the western
Mediterranean and exported many of the ideas and
religions of the east to Western lands; they also may
have sailed as far as Britain and even South America
• The Phoenicians were polytheistic and accommodating
to many religious orientations; one of the most popular
Phoenician gods was Baal
• The Hebrew Bible depicts Baal as a god whose cult
rivaled that of their God, YHWH
The Phoenicians
• Also referred to as the Canaanites, the Phoenicians were
great traders who established strong ties to a prosperous
port city just to their northern border: Ugarit; eventually,
the brought Ugarit within their political control
• The Phoenicians adopted the Ugaritic system of writing
which was based on a 22 character alphabet that later
became the basis for Greek and Latin
• By ancient standards, a large portion of Ugaritic and
Phoenician societies were literate because in order to learn
to read they only needed to master approximately thirty
alphabetic characters rather than the thousands of
ideographic characters that had constituted Sumerian and
Egyptian writing systems
The First International System
• A period of relative peace and prosperity that lasted
from c. 1500 – c. 1150; the peak years of peace lasted
from 1450-1300
• Treaties and agreements secured peace between major
powers, the Hittites and the New Kingdom of Egypt
– Alliances
– Dynastic marriages
– Formal, polite, diplomatic communications between rulers
• During this period both goods and ideas moved rapidly
and freely between N. Africa and Western Asia
Summary
• The development of an eastern Mediterranean culture between
1800 and 1200 BCE created a cultural melting pot that
promoted commerce and the diffusion of ideas and technology
• Historians often refer to this civilization as the International
Bronze Age
• It preceded the development of the Hebrew state and ended with
the invasion and turmoil of the period 1200-1000 BCE: “the
raiders of the land and sea”
• During this period rulers experimented with new forms of
diplomacy while advances in writing provided the basis for later
achievements in literature
Troy and the Dark Age
1200-800 BCE
Overview
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Mycenaean Civilization
The Trojan War
Dorian Invasions
The Greek Dark Age
Mycenaean Civilization
• Greek speaking culture that thrived in the Peloponnese
and Crete during the last centuries of the Bronze Age:
1600-1100
• Mycenaeans were the Greeks featured in the Homeric
epics, the Iliad & the Odyssey
• They established numerous maritime settlements that
specialized in commerce and war
• The Mycenaeans were not politically united and often
fought against each other; at any given time there were
numerous Mycenaean kings ruling over spheres of
influence in southern Greece and Crete
Mycenaean Civilization
• The Mycenaeans established trading networks with the
Egyptians, Phoenicians, Canaanites, and others people
of the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age
• They developed a written language called Linear B; it
was a precursor to the ancient Greek language
• They also worshipped the same pantheon of gods that
would later capture the imagination of the Greeks, Zeus,
Hera, Poseiden, etc...
Mycenaean Civilization
• During the last quarter of the 19th century the German
archeologist, Heinrich Schlieman excavated the site of
the most influential Mycenaean kingdom in southern
Greece and the ancient city of Troy - Huge sections of
the walls of Troy stand today in the Pergammon
museum in Berlin
• His work proved that there had been a destructive war
at Troy about 1200 BCE
• The Myceneans had a pronounced fondness for
weapons and were not particularly religious; although
they clearly had gods, they did not build elaborate
temples
Heinrich Schliemann
• The founder of the archaeological profession,
Schliemann used crude excavating techniques to
unearth ancient Trojan remains between 1870 and
1890
• He created an international sensation when he claimed
to have found “King Priam’s Treasure,” which he
secretly smuggled out of Turkey
• Since Schliemann, more careful digs have unearthed
nine layers of Troy and have proven that Schlieman
probably took remains from a much older layer than
the one of the Troy of Homer
Ancient Troy
• Archaeologists have uncovered nine layers of Troy
ranging from 3000 BCE (layer 1) until approximately
500 BCE (layer 9)
• The most likely candidate for the ancient Troy of
Homeric legend is Troy 7, which was a Bronze Age
city destroyed by war c. 1200 BCE
• The people of Troy probably spoke an Indo-European
language and maintained defensive alliances with the
Hittites; they also traded with the Mycenaean Greeks
• Outside the walls of Troy a cemetery of foreign
warriors has recently been discovered and it is the site
of ongoing archaeological inquiries
Ancient Troy
• In ancient times Troy lay on a river by a fertile
plain which adjoined the sea; since then the rivers
have silted up and Troy lies several miles from the
sea
• The city probably provided shelter for no more
than 5000 people
• The Trojans built amphitheaters and temples
outside the ancient fortress and it is likely that
settlements were scattered outside the walls of the
city
Legacy of Troy
• Both the Romans (the Aeneid) and the Britons
(History of the Kings of Briton) believed that they
were descendants of the Trojans who in these
works were associated with a noble lineage
• Ionian Greeks passed won the story of the Trojan
War for over five hundred years before it was
written down; the blind poet Homer is often cited
as the author of the poem but he was likely just
one of several generations of bards who passed
along the story which became a cornerstone of
ancient Greek culture
Dorian Invasions
• During the twelfth century BCE (1100s),
Doric tribes from northern Europe began to
migrate into Greece
• The Dorian warrior used iron swords to
attack their enemies
• In most of Greece, except Athens, they
displaced or dominated the local
Mycenaean society
The Greek Dark Age: 1200-800 BCE
• Begins with the same invasions from land and sea that
plagued most of the eastern Mediterranean
• the origins of the sea and land raiders of the early part
of this period is not known; our best guess is that the
prosperity of the Mycenaean Age brought
overpopulation to many of the uncivilized portions of
the Mediterranean basin; seeking booty from the cities,
they wrought cataclysmic destruction
• The trade, commerce and burgeoning cities of the
Mycenaean civilization disappeared but the Greek
language & many customs lived on
The Greek Dark Age: 1200-800 BCE
• In the early 20th century German historians
imagined that these invaders of the last centuries of
the second millenium BCE were the Aryan race
• Based on knowledge that the invaders seemed to
share a common mother tongue, generally came
from the north (in the case of Greece, northern
Europe), and may have introduced the horse to
Mediterranean cultures, these historians concocted
an Aryan myth that emphasized the vigor and
vitality of these invaders and attributed it to the
superiority of the Aryan race
Summary
• The centuries between 1500 and 1200 BCE were
instrumental in the definition of the emerging Greek
culture, which many historians claim to have been the
first “Western” culture
• During this period, the Mycenaeans established trade
networks and negotiated treaties with the various
empires of the eastern Mediterranean
• They also developed a rudimentary form of the Greek
language, called Linear B, which Ionian Greeks
adapted by introducing the alphabet of the Phoenicians
Summary
• Both the Trojans and the Myceneans created thriving
mercantile cultures during the last two centuries of the
International Bronze Age
• Around 1200 they engaged each other in what may have been a
war of attrition
• Shortly after the Trojan War Dorian tribes invaded Mycenaean
Greece and settled in the Peloponese; they would eventually
become the Spartans of classical Greece
• Although the Dorian invasions plunged Greece into a Dark
Age, the story of the Trojan War was preserved in oral tradition
and would become the basis for Greek education during the
archaic Greek Age
Overview of Archaic Period
• Overview & Timeline for Greek History
• Background on Archaic Period
• Factors favoring Panhellenism
– Homer’s Epics
– The Olympic Games
– Threat of Foreign Invasion
• Factors favoring the Polis
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Geographical Influences
Acropolis
Civic Identity
Tyrants and political agitation
Timeline
• Archaic Period: 750-500
– The genesis of ancient Greek Culture
• Classical Period: 500-350
– The Golden Age of the Polis
• Hellenistic Period: 350-50 BCE
– The Spread of Greek Culture throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean
The Archaic Period
– Period of Creative Tension influenced partly by
the conflicting loyalties to the polis and a
common Greek identity
– Demographic & Commercial Expansion c. 700
BCE
– Formation of Greek Colonies
• Magna Graecia
• Ionian Greece
– Philosophy & Speculative inquiries
The Archaic Period
• Between 1000 and 800 BCE many Greeks migrate
from Greece to Asia Minor and gradually develop a
distinctive Ionian Greek culture
• Ionia preceded mainland Greece in the rebirth of
civilization by re-developing trade networks, cities,
and literature; many of the pre-Socratic philosophers
and scientists, such as Thales, Pythagorus, and
Heraclitus, were born in Ionia
• By 800 BCE Ionian civilization had spread across the
Mediterranean as far away as Spain and connected the
Greek mainland to many of the ideas and
developments, including the Phoenician alphabet,
which the Greeks quickly adopted and adapted
Ionian Greeks & Philosophy
• During the course of the eighth century, Greek city
states along the coast of Asia Minor underwent a
resurgence of trade; prosperity spread as populations
swelled
• By the seventh century in the city of Miletus a new
strain of intellectual endeavors spread
• A group of thinkers, including Thales and Heraclitus,
known as sophoi or philosophoi (lovers of wisdom)
imagined that the workings of the cosmos could be
explained through reference to mechanistic rather than
supernatural forces
• Later, Pythagoras of Samos incorporated the orderly
nature of mechanistic thought with religion to produce a
secretive mystery religion
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Using the newly adopted Greek alphabet, Homer
allegedly wrote the epic poems, the Iliad and the
Odyssey around 750 BCE
• The poems had been circulating in oral tradition for
centuries before Homer put his version in writing
• References in the poems suggest that they relate
events that took place during the Bronze Age c.
1500-1200 BCE
• The Iliad tells the story of a ten year long siege of
Troy that the Greeks endure in order to reclaim a
Greek princess who was kidnapped by Paris of Troy
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Achilles is the great Greek hero of the Iliad; by
modern standards he seems almost bipolar, one
minute sulking in his tent because his concubine has
been ravished by his king, Agamemnon, and the next
minute seeking revenge against the Trojans for the
slaying of his soul mate, Patrocolus - the relationship
between Achilles and Patrocolus is reminiscent of that
between Gilgamesh and Enkidu
• Rather than viewing Achilles as bi-polar, it is more
accurate to view his moodiness as the result of ten
years of fighting and bloodshed; his violent slaying of
Hector, Patrocolus’ killer, signifies the brutality of the
hardened warrior
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Homer
• Eventually Achilles is re-civilized and he agrees to
return the battered body of Hector to the Trojans for
proper burial; by agreeing to the entreaties of his
enemies who invoke the wishes of the gods, Achilles
demonstrates his willingness to re-integrate with
civilized life
Influence of the Homeric Epics
• The Homeric epics became the basis for Greek
education during the classical period; students
memorized great portions of the poem in order to learn
grammar, vocabulary, and particularly ancient values
– heroism
– piety and respect for the gods
• The poems never doubt the existence of the gods,
whose humanity is evident throughout
• The poems established a common identity and shared
past for the various tribes and cities that began to
emerge at the end of the Greek Dark Ages
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Olympics
• Beginning in the early eighth century, the games
are part of a religious festival held at Olympia in
the NW Peloponese every four years
• Competition initially included running, wrestling,
jumping, throwing and later included horse and
chariot racing
• Individual, not city-state, competitions with a
garland for the winner
• Women were barred on pain of death but had their
own games dedicated to Hera, wife of Zeus
Factors Favoring Panhellenism: Olympics
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Emphasis on excellence: aretê
Contributed to panhellenic identity
all fighting ceased during the games
Olympia was not the site of an ancient city
or town; it was a sacred sanctuary complex
– Temple of Zeus was the principal shrine; it was
destroyed by the Christian Roman Emperor
Theodosius II in 426 CE
Factors Favoring the Polis:
Geography
• Similar to the political organization of ancient Sumeria
- and later Renaissance Italy - city states had become
the principal form of political organization in Greece
by 750 BCE, which is traditionally identified as the
beginning of the Archaic Greek Age
• With its plethora of mountains and isolated pockets of
land surrounded by sea, the geography of Greece
encouraged the formation of fragmented rather than
unified political structures
• Additionally Greeks established numerous urban
colonies throughout the Aegean and Mediterranean
The Polis
• In contrast to the Mesopotamian city-state, the Greek
polis had a much broader level of political participation,
which was often divided among its male citizens, not its
inhabitants
• Because both rich and poor participated in the political
process, tension was an ongoing feature of many poleis
during the Archaic Age, when many city-states sought
to define the rules for administering justice and sharing
power
The Polis
• Several poleis first emerged on fortified hilltops, called
an acropolis, which served as a defensive post in time
of war and the treasury in time of peace
• Unified by civic gods, traditions, and ceremonies, the
various poleis were the primary focus of Greek
political loyalties, which were caught between the
conflicting forces of panhellenism and civic pride
• Most poleis numbered only ten to twenty thousand
people and many were limited in size by the fertility of
the surrounding countryside
The Tyrants & the Poleis
• As the population and commercial expansion
spread to the Greek mainland during the seventh
and sixth centuries, tensions emerged in the poleis
as the merchants and prosperous independent
farmers challenged the control that the hereditary
aristocracy had exercised on the governments of
Greek cities
• In most of the Greek mainland a group of popular
dictators known as tyrants seized power from the
aristocracy by catering to the will of the
independent farmers and merchants
The Tyrants
• One of the most successful tyrants was Solon
(630-560 BCE) of Athens; he reorganized the
social and economic laws of the city and ushered
in a period of profound prosperity for the city’s
merchants during the early decades of the sixth
century BCE
• An unintended consequence of his actions was a
mushrooming of foreign born slaves in the city
• Solon is usually credited with a vital influence on
the spread of popular control over the city
government: the democratization of Athens
Diverging Cultures: The Lacedaemonians
• Unlike Athens, Sparta never had a tyrant and they
developed a culture that was rabidly opposed to tyranny
• Political power was shared by hoplite warriors, “the
Similars,” who were led by a king
• The Spartan warriors were free to train for warfare
throughout most of their life while their economy was
supported by virtually servile labor of helots
• Encouraged to perform physical exercise, Spartan
women enjoyed more independence and freedom than in
other Greek city-states
Diverging Cultures: The Lacedaemonians
• The term used to describe those who lived in and
around Sparta
– people of few words, from whom we obtain the term
laconic
– male children raised for martial career from a very early
age; by 7 they are living in barracks, separated from family
– Relatively sparse population but immense political
influence in Hellas based on the respect that they
engendered for their bravery and military exploits; this
respect helped the Spartans form the Peloponesian
League, a coalition of allied city-sates loyal to Sparta
Summary
• The writing of the Iliad and the Odyssey marked an
important step in the coalescence of the various
elements of Greek culture
– language
– religion
– values
• As various civic cultures developed throughout the
Greek mainland, the common heritage of the Homeric
epics provided a unifying element of panhellenic
identity; nevertheless, panhellenism generally played
second fiddle to the attraction of the polis
• During the archaic Greek Age, the various poleis of
Greece developed their own customs and traditions and
gradually undermined the unifying aspects of
panhellenism
Who were the wealthy mercantile
people who controlled Crete?
A. The Hittites
B. The Hyksos
C. The Myceneans
D. The Minoans
Why are the Minoans so enigmatic?
A. They left no written records
B. We have not deciphered their script, called
Linear A
C. Women seem to have occupied positions
of importance in their society
D. They apparently built no fortifications
around their palaces
Minoan Crete
Minoan Wall Painting
Minoan Snake Goddess
c. 1500 BCE
Phoenicia
and the
Levant
Phoenician Ship
Colonization early first millennium BCE
Invasion of the
Sea Peoples
• Name given by Egyptian
Sources, such as the relief to
the left
• Invaded coast of New Kingdom
in Egypt between 1200 and
1175
• Initiated a Dark Age with
relatively few sources
• Included a loose confederation
of peoples from across the
Mediterranean
Invasion of the
Sea Peoples
• Widespread famine and
plague may have sparked
the invasions, which
brought an end to the
Empire of the Hittites
• The Egyptians overcame
numerous invasions from
the Sea Peoples; but
resistance to them
depleted the resources of
the pharaohs by 1100 and
Egypt fell into civil war
Invasions of the Sea Peoples c. 1200 BCE
The Ancient Greeks
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Dark Age: 1200-800 BCE
Archaic Age: 800-500
Classical Age: 500-350
Hellenistic Age: 350-200
Discuss the Ancient Greeks
• What was their connection to western
civilization?
• What was their significance?
• How did they differ from other ancient
civilizations?
• What was their religious orientation?
• How did they resemble the Sumerians?
Mycenaean Daggers
Mycenaean
murals from the
palace of
Nestor in SW
Peloponese
Mycenaean
Vase
c. 1300
Mycenaean Palace: Lion’s Gate
Greek Bireme c. 1200
Troy
The Walls of Troy 7
Entrance
Ramp to
Ancient
Troy 2
Pergammon Museum in Berlin
Homer c.
725 BCE
What is the central topic of
Homer’s Iliad?
A. The character of the Greeks
B. The character of Achilles
C. A ten year war between Greeks & Trojans
D. The dehumanizing aspects of war
E. The quest for excellence
The Rage of
Achilles
Giovanni
Battista 1757
Achilles in 5th century CE manuscript
The Archaic Greek Age
800-500 BCE
How did Homer
contribute to the
formation of a
panhellenic identity?
Remains of
the ancient
site of
Olympia
Mt. Olympus in Thessalonica
Apollo
Temple of Zeus
• One of the most popular
gods of the Greco
Roman world
• Represented the sun,
wisdom, justice
• The favored god of the
ancient Trojans;
Achilles desecrates his
temple in the Iliad
Pentathlon: The Discuss
Pentathlon: Wrestling
Running
• Races varied in
length from ½
mile to 3 miles
• In one of the half
mile races
contests wore full
armor (50-60 lbs)
Equestrian
Sports
• Expensive, only the
wealthy could
compete
• Road bareback and
without stirrups
• At 4.5 miles, the
standard race was
much longer than
modern thoroughbred
racing
Four Horse
Chariot Race
Typical Greek Acropolis
Colonization c. 500 BCE
Ancient Greece
Attica
Greek
Hoplites
Hoplite phalanx
Hoplite phalanx
This frieze of attacking foot soldiers is from the so-called Chigi Vase--a Corinthian masterpiece.
When the Greeks adopted heavy armor, weapons, and shields, their lack of mobility forced them
to fight in several dense lines, each behind the other. Cohesion and order became as valuable as
courage. Here a flute player plays a marching tune to help the hoplites maintain their pace during
the attack. (Villa Giulia Museum/Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale)
Solon and
the Tyrants
Pesistratus Instituted
the Pan Athenian
Festival during the
mid 500s BCE
Cleisthenes
Father of
Athenian
Democracy
508-507
BCE
Sophoi:
Thales of Miletis (624-547) Pythagoras of Samos (570-495)
Sophoi:
Socrates? (470-399)
Aristophanes
446-386 BCE