The years from 1450 to 1200 b. c.e. mark the apex of Mycenaean civilization. For close to 100 years, the mainland Greeks held control over the city of Knos-sos. To the east, they established further trading posts and colonies, bringing the Greeks into direct contact with the "Great Civilizations" of the ancient Near East (the Hittites, Mesopotamia). At home, palatial centers sprang up throughout Greece as Mycenae consolidated its hold over the land, leading eventually to the myth of mighty Agamemnon, "King of Men."
The Late Helladic IIIB period formally begins with the Mycenaean conquest of Knossos. This was important for three reasons. First, it gave the Greeks a foothold on Crete, allowing for a greater amalgamation of Minoan and Mycenaean artistic styles, as well as closer relations between the mainlanders to the north and the islanders to the south. One must remember that while Knossos was conquered, the other palatial centers of Crete, such as Phaistos, remained strongly under Minoan control. This was the Minoans' Third Palace period.
Second, this closer contact with the Minoans resulted in the first Greek script—Linear B. From this point forward, we can read about Mycenaean culture and society in the tablets where they kept their economic and social records. These tablets have proved invaluable for the reconstruction of such things as Mycenaean social structure (see chapter 6) and religion (chapter 8). Furthermore, it was probably influence from Knossos that gave rise and shape to the palaces that emerged on the mainland during this period.
Finally, with the dominant Minoan city out of the way, the Greek mainland found no intermediary powers between itself and the great powers of the Near East, especially Egypt. Late Helladic IIIB was the greatest period of Mycenaean international relations. To the west, Mycenaean wares appeared in quantity in Sicily and Sardinia. One of the most extraordinary examples of the extent of Mycenaean influence was the Pelynt Dagger, a fragment of a Late Helladic III sword, which has come to light in the tomb of a Wessex chieftain in southern England! This shows how far the Mycenaeans traveled and traded (Taylour 1990, 145, 150). Copious amounts of Mycenaean pottery have been discovered along the Nile dating back to the fourteenth century, including at the temporary capitol of Amarna, constructed under the heretic king Akhnaten. Trade continued with Cyprus and the Levant during this period, and, at least briefly, Greece seems to have entered into relations with the great Near Eastern kingdoms—the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians.
Evidence for such relations is shown not merely by pottery, but in the documents produced by the Near Eastern kingdoms. These documents were written in Akkadian, which served as the lingua franca of the day, much like Latin in the European Middle Ages. (This language, related to Arabic and Hebrew, was written in a script called cuneiform, a name that referred to its wedgeshaped appearance [Latin cuneus = wedge]). These cuneiform documents, especially those of the Hittites, Mycenae's closest neighbors, mention a powerful people called the Ahhijawoi, who were related to a place called Millewanda. The term Akkiiawoi looks very similar to the Homeric term for the Greeks (Achaeans), just as Millewanda resembles the place-name Miletos. Although there is still debate over this issue, most scholars accept the identification of the Ahhijawoi as Mycenaean Greeks, and so consider the Greeks to have been at least marginally active in the political affairs of the Near East.
Both Crete and the Near East had long been dominated by grand palaces that coordinated the societies and economies of their immediate districts. The Mycenaeans came across such palaces at Knossos; Amarna in Egypt; and Alalakh, Ugarit, and Mari in Syria. Perhaps it was this exposure that led to the establishment of the great palaces in Greece at this time. Or, possibly, the trend toward palatial systems was already present in Greece from an earlier age, only manifesting itself fully with the rise of the Late Helladic IIIB period.
The theory of internal development for palatial systems is supported by two sites in southern Greece. Peristeria (in Messenia) and the Menelaion (a site roughly 3 kilometers from Sparta) both show evidence of monumental architecture as early as Late Helladic I. These could be the earliest palatial structures in Greece (Taylour 1990, 86-92). Even if they were, however, the trend does not seem to catch on until Late Helladic IIIB. During this period, palaces become the main form of grand architecture in Greece, replacing the tholos tombs that had thrived in the previous age. Palaces were constructed throughout Greece, from Iolkos and Thebes in the north, through Athens and Gla in central Greece, to Mycenae, Tiryns, Sparta, and Pylos in the south (Warren 1990, 122). The best examined of these is Pylos in the western Peloponnese.
The palace of Pylos consisted of a series of storage rooms located around a central hall called a megaron (see chapter 9). The storage rooms contained mainly agricultural products, such as wine and olive oil, as well as some luxury goods. Most significantly, several thousand wine goblets were found in this palace, suggesting either a corner on the wine goblet market or a phenomenal rate of alcoholism. Beyond the storage rooms were several manufacturing facilities and workshops, attesting to production as well as storage taking place at the palace. One of the most important discoveries at Pylos was the archive, where several hundred Linear B tablets were stored. Among other details, these tablets revealed that the palace of Pylos was in administrative control of roughly 2,000 square kilometers of the surrounding region, divided into the "Hither" province between the coast and Mt. Aigaleon, and the "Farther" province extending from Aigaleon to Mt. Taygetos (Bennet 1999, 9-10). In short, this palace, like the other palaces of Late Helladic IIIB Greece, was an administrative and commercial center where goods were created, stored, and traded under the auspices of a ruler and bureaucracy (see chapter 5).
As stated above, the rise of the palaces more or less coincides with the decline of the tholos tombs. Some see this as evidence of the rise of a Mycenaean middle class, with the prestigious tholoi—marks of conspicuous consumption—declining as the more generalized, economically prosperous palaces come to the fore (Vermeule 1972, 156-157). Others see the decline of the tholoi in the opposite light, indicating a consolidation of power in Greece. That is to say, fewer people expressed their prestige through opulent burials than in the previous period (Voutsaki 1995, 58-59). As this is clearly not due to inadequate wealth (the palaces show considerable affluence), it appears that the right to be buried in tholoi was restricted by a newly emerging elite. By the end of Late Helladic IIIB in the thirteenth century, only Mycenae was still constructing tholoi, specifically the Treasury of Atreus and the Tomb of Clytemnestra. The lavishness of these tombs, combined with the wealth of the palatial city and the later Homeric legends, gives the impression of a royal city ruled by a high king. Altogether, the Late Helladic IIIB palaces reveal a thriving economy and bureaucracy throughout Greece, and the few grand burials show the consolidation of high royal status in Mycenae alone (Thomas 1995, 352).
And so a picture of a prosperous and civilized land emerges. The Greeks learned the art of writing from the conquered population of Knossos, while incorporating much Minoan art and industry into their mainland culture. The Mycenaeans were trading with lands as far off as England to the west and Babylon to the east, even playing a role in Near Eastern diplomacy. Palaces and a palatial economy were on the rise as a high king kept a loose surveillance over the Mycenaeans. The only indication that something sinister was looming over the horizon was a new interest in fortifications, which swept through Greece in the thirteenth century.
The Mycenaeans had always been interested in war, ever since the time of the first art found in the Middle Helladic III burials in Mycenae. And yet, for all their interest in warfare, the Mycenaeans do not appear to have felt personally threatened by aggression at home. Fortifications were minimal throughout the mainland, with only the occasional circuit wall or watchtower at Pylos or in the slightly more vulnerable Cyclades. In the late fourteenth century, Mycenae and Tiryns began to fortify themselves. The outline of Tiryns shows that there was a clear interest in supporting a large body of either troops or the local population within fortification walls (see Image 4.3, Tiryns ). In the thirteenth century, Dendra, Gla, Argos, Asine, Midea, Athens, Thebes, Eutresis, Krisa, Teikhos Dymaion ("Powerful Wall") near Patras, and the isthmus of Corinth all followed suit (Warren 1990, 123). What led to this sudden interest in "national defense" is still unknown. However, it is worth noting that the palatial center of Thebes was destroyed twice during the Late Helladic IIIB period, once in approximately 1375 b. c.e. and again in 1240 b. c.e (Taylour 1990, 157). Either the Mycenaeans were waging more frequent war on each other, as
4.3 Plan of Tiryns (Courtesy Stephanie Budin)
Is indicated in later myths such as the Seven Against Thebes, or some foreign element was moving in.
In either event (possibly both), by the end of the thirteenth century much of Greece was preparing for siege. At Mycenae, as at other sites, a "secret" cistern was constructed to guarantee reasonably fresh water for the inhabitants, and the fortification wall was renewed, including the famous Lion Gate (Taylour 1990, 103; Vermeule 1972, 215). Only Pylos seems to have remained unaffected by this trend toward siege preparations, probably because it was far from the other Mycenaean centers and shielded from potential enemies from the Near East.
In spite of all this planning, Late Helladic IIIB, and the Mycenaean era in general, ended not just in disaster but in a full-scale series of disasters. Beginning around 1200 b. c.e., all the great palatial centers of Mycenaean Greece were destroyed.
World History
