The Ancient Mycenaean Civilization

During the middle period of the Bronze Age, a few decades before the volcano of the island of Thera erupted, many events were taking place in mainland Greece. There was a significant increase of the population and numerous cities began to emerge. These cities were spread all over the mainland but shared a similar culture, the Mycenaean. The civilization was given this name in modern times by the archaeologist Eric Schliemann who excavated many cities including Mycenae. However, they most probably refer to themselves as Achaeans or Danaeans. These are names that other civilizations and also Homer used to refer to them. The Mycenaeans were a people with a complex administrative system and a war-like culture. The most prominent city was called Mycenae built on top of a hill with huge fortifications watching over a rich plain. Other notable cities were Pylos, Tyrrhenes, Athens and Iolkos. Nearly all of these big cities were encircled by walls with the exception of Pylos. Inside these walls was the palace where the king and the nobility lived. The structure of the Mycenaean society is quite significant. At the top was the king or wanax as the Mycenaeans called him. The king had total control over the economic, religious and warfare activities. Below him was the laogetes who we presume was the leader of the army. Then there were the priests or telestai, the haquetas, aristocrats and important leaders of the army, the kerosiwa, a council of elders that advised the king and below them followed other administrative ranks. The damo were the common people and at the lowest rank were the doru or slaves. The slaves were either bought or captured in wars and raids although this form of slavery was nothing like that of the slave system of classical Greece. Many of these slaves were women who worked in the cloth industry and some nobles had domestic slaves both male and female. The common people like farmers, merchants and metal workers lived outside the palace walls in small houses but would enter the citadel in times of an attack for protection. These people mainly lived like the Minoan common folk. They specialized in a specific profession, mostly farming, paid taxes to the government with goods and the palace would either export these goods for trade or store them and redistribute them to the people in case of famines. The main difference with the Minoans is that the Mycenaeans had to do military service. A writing system was formed to keep records of food, jewelry, weapons, building expenses and all other economic affairs of the palace. This system is now called Linea B, a descendant of the Linea A of the Minoans. Linea B has been deciphered and it is a primary source of what we know about the Mycenaeans today. It is also the first known Greek written language, the Proto-Greek with thousands of words of Greek origin. The Minoans influenced the Mycenaean culture greatly. This is evident from the palace architecture, the Mycenaean frescoes, pottery, the various symbols they used and the development of their scripts. Slowly though the Mycenaean culture developed its own character. The palaces were different from the Minoan ones. They were smaller and instead of a big open space there was the Megaron, a hall with a circular hearth in its center where the king would welcome guests, hold meetings and public events as well as animal sacrifices. Another exclusive feature of the Mycenaean palaces was the huge construction of surrounding walls. These walls would rise up to 12 meters tall and were constructed with towers and passageways for the soldiers. The Mycenaean life was centered around warfare. This is evident from the fortifications, army conscription, war details on Linea B tablets and the number of weapons found. But the Mycenaeans were not only waging wars, they also traded. Their economy was in fact built on trade, exchanging goods with other major Mediterranean powers with their network growing even larger in later years. Mycenaean objects have been found even in remote places like Ireland, England, France, Germany and the Black Sea. Mycenaean faith consisted of many gods and goddesses. Many clay figurines of a fertility goddess have been found but these figures were clearly different from the Minoan ones. Several names of deities were written on the Linea B tablets. Some of them are indeed the earliest written mention of the ancient Greek pantheon like Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Athena, Artemis, Dionysius and others. There were also names of deities that are unknown to us. With their military and cultural power they would conquer the Aegean and parts of Anatolia, establishing colonies which helped them further develop their trade. Their presence in Asia Minor brought them in conflict with the Hittites, the empire of whom covered much of Anatolia. The Hittites claim that the Mycenaeans encouraged rebellions in their vassal cities and we know that their relationship was bitter at times. The Hittite king however acknowledged the king of Mycenae as an equal calling him a brother, a title that the kings of the great powers of the bronze age used to call each other. A vassal city of the Hittites was called Wilusa which many historians believe that it is in fact Troy and that this is proof that the famous Trojan war took place along with the ruins of the city that Eric Schlieman excavated. We will further discuss this issue in the next video. The Mycenaeans thrived for 400 years as a major power in the Mediterranean but the events that followed would bring the civilization to its knees along with nearly all of the major contemporary powers of the bronze age.