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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.
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.