Minoan trade

209 first settlement in Crete Early Neolithic, Knossos, 7th millennium BCE
210 Neolithics already had lots of nonlocal materials, so plenty of trade already
211 Kampos Group, early 3rd millennium BCE, transition EMI to EMII, represents the beginning of heavy and continuous overseas trade
212 Keros-Syros Culture corresponding to EMII, trade flourished as never before. Sauceboats everywhere (Cyclades, Crete, mainland)
213 Western Mediterranean not completely unknown to Crete, but not regular trade until later
EMIIB-EMIIIA, Kastri Group (strong connections to Anatolia)
214 trade with the north interrupted, Crete more isolated in that respect
trade with the east increased
Hippopotamus ivory traded as a raw material in EMIII and later
Old Palaces early 2nd millennium
215 olive oil, Kamares ware (i.e. the really good stuff), woolen textiles, and murex dye were the prime commodities Crete had to offer
Cretans wanted to acquire metal
216 New Palace Period, from after MMIIB destructions until LMIB destructions
"Minoan thalassocracy" myths date from this period
unified style of pottery
217 Grave Circles A and B in Mycenae
Minoans sending their craftsmen everywhere, not just stylistic borrowing
218 deep rather than wide influence of Crete in Cyprus
Cypro-Minoan script influenced by Linear A
219 15th century BCE = 18th dynasty
references to Keftiu
LMIIIA2 major destruction at Knossos
220 no more Warrior Graves
pottery more regional
Uluburun, Cape Gelidonya, and Point Iria shipwrecks
221 copper from Cyprus (and Laurion still?)
222 increased trade with Italy & the west

Early Mycenaean Greece

230 When the interregional culture of the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean collapsed, a period on the mainland of Greece followed that archaeologists term Middle Helladic. depopulation, little trade
Lerna V, Kolonna on Aegina, and Pefkakia in Thessaly
EHIII to MHI less abrupt than previously thought
MHIII to LHI often indistinguishable
231 Early Minyan, Decorated Minyan, and Late Phase (Dickinson's classification)
Minyan & matt-painted identify a stratum as MH
Minyan ware (named by Schliemann after the legendary king Minyas of Orchomenos) is wheel-made, highly burnished, & incompletely fired
Matt-painted wares recognized by flat dark (red, brown, & black) paints applied to vessels, either in thick bands or in geometric and later in curvilinear motifs
232 Theories of the collapse of EBA cultures
1. IE invasions
2. competition for raw metals, between 2 networks (central & southern Greece, Aegean, western Anatolia) & (Adriatic coast & western Greece)
3. 300 year long drought
233 most settlement in southern & central Greece, Aegina, & Kythera. Not so much MH in northern Greece
234 EBA wide distribution of settlements, MBA nucleation
235 burials in early MH were primarily pits dug in the earth, or cist graves lined and covered w/ stones
later, more organized buildings, & cemeteries
237 early half of MH, buildings are apsidal
later, rectangular axial, front porches often with a post, divided into 2 or 3 rooms, central room frequently with a central hearth sometimes with a post, doorways centered, walls of mud brick with rubble socles, thatched roofs laid over rafters with a gable at the front
238 houses for individual familes, 5-7 people
MH II tumuli & cemeteries mixing ages & sexes
evidence for social stratification:
1. widespread cemeteries
2. well demarcated mounds for burial
3. built, large cist graves, deep shaft graves in the Argolid (sometimes with stone markers carved with scenes in relief), in Messenia, tholos tombs
LHII stratification complete. Ruling elite constructed monumental tholos tombs (round domed chambers), and everyone else in simpler chamber tombs and occasionally in old traditions of burial mounds and pit and cist graves
239 MH economy based on subsistence crop production and animal husbandry, nothing indicates large-scale production of surplus
but progressively richer burials for the "Big Men"
240 raising of sheep and goats, pigs, cattle & some equids, and the hunting of red deer and boar
Vapheio cup
242 some scholars argue that stratification & nucleation began by MH II, well ahead of the explosion in MHIII and LH I
243 hunting big deal in man's reputation
244 Ethnographic examples inform us that the translation of sociopolitical reputation into durable power and authority is accomplished through alliances and coalitions, which are created and maintained through marriage and descent, through feasting and its accompanying display and gift-giving, through manipulation of rituals and control of religion, and through force
245 MHIII and LHI competition for territory, reflected in high-status burials. Grave Circles A & B the most famous but not the only examples
246-7 Thus the chamber tomb cemeteries and tholoi mark out Kokla, Argos, Mycenae, Berbati, Prosymna, Dendra-Midea, Tyrins, and Nauplion; just beyond to the southeast lies asine; farther east are Kazarma and Palaia Epidauros. This distribution may be similar to that of Messenia in the early Mycenaean phase; certainly the distribution of tholos tombs during LH II is widespread: Mycenae(6), Prosymna(1), Berbati(1), Tyrins(2), and Kazarma(1). The wealth represented by these monumental tombs probably reflects domination by leading lineages, in contrast to settlements that had only chamber tomb cemeteries. Of the sites with tholoi, only Mycenae and Tiryns developed monumental and architecturally diverse complexes in LH III.
248 Athens seems to have been a center in Attica, although the MH-LH II material is scarce, there are numerous chamber tombs in the area of the agora
249 little evidence of a formalized religion until the founding of the palaces in LHIIIA, just when Mycenaean figurines, thought to represent female deities, began to be produced
It is traditionally assumed that the palaces evolved uniformly throughout the core area of Mycenaean society, because this development seems to explain the resultant plan of an axially aligned rectangular structure
250 LH II mansion at the Menelaion is often cited as the intermediate stage in the formation of the palaces. Built of rubble masonry, but may have had some half-timbering and a second storey. No evidence to suggest that this plan was adopted at every emerging center. remains of Pylos showed that LHI buildings used limestone ashlar masonry, more related to Minoan palaces. Tiryns MHIII-LH I rubble-built structures display neither an organized plan nor enlargement or formalization of the freestanding axial buildings
The familiar plan of the palaces resulted from the process of peer polity interaction, as outlined by Renfrew. First seen at LH IIIAI at Tiryns, not integrated into megaron flanked by corridors and ancillary rooms until LHIIIB. At Pylos the plan commonly represented as typical of the Mycenaean period was in fact built only at the beginning of LHIIIB.
Formalization of the hearth, throne, and interior columns represents the Helladic architectural tradition, whereas Minoan masonry practices governed the production of orthostats (upright stone slabs) and ashlar masonry, and Minoan fresco painting provided an iconography adapted for Mycenaean purposes. Elements shared with the Hittites include corbelled vaults (constructed of overlapping courses of blocks) and the use of hard stones for column bases, thresholds, and anta bases (the thickened projections of long walls) and a form of wall construction using timber forms
251 West House frescoes from Akrotiri depict warriors who are probably Mycenaeans
252 LM II - IIIAI Warrior "Royal" tombs proliferated around Knossos, at Archanes, at Phaistos, and at Khania. Need not have been only tombs of conquering mainlanders. Good reasons to think that some of these were burials of local elites adjusting to a new political and economic reality.

Economy and Administration

289 Palace-centered states not universal: Achaea and Laconia never developed them. May have continued to operate at the level of the Early Mycenaean village-centered societies, outside the control of any particular center; and indeed they benefited from the collapse of the palatial administrations ca. 1190 BCE, at the end of LH IIIB.
290 In contrast to the "Big Man" societies of the early Mycenaean period, dependent on personal prestige and kinship connections, the office of wanax was more important than the particular individual who held it.
291 no compelling evidence that boundaries were fixed
292 The earliest records from Knossos are from the Room of the Chariot Tablets, which probably date to LMIIIAI. The earliest tablets yet found on the mainland come from an LH IIIA2 context at Mycenae.
293 not clear if the wanax was a lawgiver, or a military leader, but he was definitely in charge of the economy and a religious leader
297 Pylos is the only site at which a central Archives Complex has been identified
307 Because Mycenaean states were autonomous and the texts show almost no sign of interaction among them, it is less likely that exchange was funneled through a single center, such as Mycenae.

Mycenaean Art & Architecture

261 only some time after the LMIB destructions did a true Mycenaean art evolve, before that, it was too Minoan-derived to be able to securely identify a list of distinctly Mycenaean characteristics
262 no fortification wall at Pylos; plus some different techniques
To ensure that the citadel had a secure water supply in times of siege, a covered staircase was built inside the fortification walls to reach down to the cistern, as at Mycenae and Athens. Such measures were necessitated by the troubles that afflicted Greece in the later part of LH IIIB.
265 In LH IIIB the rulers at Mycenae completed a planned building program that included the rebuilding of the palace, the construction of a new citadel entrance with an enclosure for the Circle A precinct, and the erection of the greatest three tholoi on the road up to the citadel: the Treasury of Atreus, the Tomb of Clytemnestra, and the Tomb of the Genii.
268 The most secure evidence for a Mycenaean road system comes from the Argolid, though sections of roads are known from Phokis, Messenia, and Boeotia. Near Tiryns, the Manessi River caused a disastrous flood in late LH IIIB-early IIIC, so they built a dam an da canal to channel the river safely away to the south. Near Thebes the most ambitious, and the most successful, drainage works of the Aegean Bronze Age were constructed to drain the Kopaic Basin and provide a greatly enlarged arable area.
269 At Pylos, the Mycenaeans excavated an artificial harbor, with a constant flushing system
270 sculpture and painting predominantly architectural adornments. concentrated on relief architecture. No direct evidence for sculpture in the round, though maybe some of wood/clay
Late development of the painting technique is seen on the LH IIIB larnakes (clay coffins) from Tanagra.
271 Some of the scenes develop out of the fresco tradition, but others show new motifs: the pouring of the libation, mourning women, and the prothesis (mourning the deceased on a bier)
272 terracotta figurines: phi, psi, and tau shaped
273 Mycenaeans may have been the first to employ oared galleys
274 LH IIIB pottery decorations include the human figure for the first time
No intact shields have been found, but Early Mycenaean illustrations show both the tower and eight shields in use
275 lots of good ivory carving, interacting with Near Eastern traditions of ivory carving
280 It appears that the Mycenaeans were quite selective in what the took from the rich Minoan iconographic vocabulary. They left behind the images closely associated with Minoan nature religion but took up, and kept using to the end, those images which they saw as associated with Minoan prestige and power. The selectivity on the part of the Mycenaean elites who are doing the choosing points to two conclusions about Mycenaean iconography. First, the Mycenaeans must have chosen images conducive to their outlook, so it is likely that the meaning is not much changed when used on the Greek mainland. Second, the Mycenaean elites had a vested interest in keeping alive the images of Minoan power and prestige, because these images proclaimed them legitimate heirs to the grandeur of the Minoan tradition. Only such a preference can explain the extremely slow rise of indigenous iconographic motifs. Similarly, only such a predisposition can explain the use of images such as bull leaping three centuries after the spectacle likely ceased in Crete. Yet, the peril to the leaper in the confrontation with the bull, so evident in the Minoan portrayals, is not shown and the true hunt and war dueling motifs with all their mortal danger are not continued beyond the early period. These scenes of personal prowess and bravery give way to scenes where the Mycenaean rulers are distanced from injury, driving their chariots or performing in processions or enjoying banquets. The warrior chieftains who forged the Mycenaean states may have identified with the victorious duelist, but the later rulers desired images of power and control.