Figure 1.--This is a beautiful ivory carving found in the remains of a palace at Mycenae, the work of a master sculptor. We see two women and a child from a single piece of ivory. Ivory at the time would have been a very precious commodity. The women’s costumes with bare breasts seem more akin to Minoan dress anf thus this object was priobably produced in Creet. The domicity of the sevene is unlike most of Mycenaean art which focuses on hunting and warfare. The identity of the three figures is a matter of dispute. One source indivated: "Some scholars have suggested that the two women are the 'two queens' mentioned in the inscriptions found in the excavation of the Mycenaean palace at Pylos. Others have speculated that the two women are deities, Mycenaean forerunners of the Greek agricultural goddesses Demeter and Persephone and that the child is Triptolemos, the hero who spread the gift of agriculture to the Greeks."

Mycenae was a city state in the northeast Peloponnese giving its name to late-Bronze Age Greece. The Mycenaean civilization (1700-1100 BC) peaked (15th-13th century BC). Mycenae is the best known of the feudal city states, often described as a kingdom. The relationship between the various city states is largely unknown. The Mycenaeans/Achaeans dominated the Peloponnese in Greece and across the Aegean. The Mycenaeans were influenced by the earlier Minoan civilization. Minoan architecture and art were both assimilated and adapted to the more militaristic and austere Mycenaeans. The major art treasures are beautifully decorated vases. There were also religious borrowings. The Mycenaeans came to dominate most of mainland Greece and several islands. Mycenae was the the strongest fortress in all of Greece. Agriculture was the foundation of the economy and Mycenae dominated the the fertile Plain of Argos. The Mycenaeans traded with other Bronze Age cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Greek language and earliest writing in the form of Linear B evolved from Minoan Linear A. The written record is very limited, inscriptions have been found on tablets, stirrup jars, and other objects. Their exploits passed on orally left a huge impression on clasical Greece through the Homeric mythical heroes including Achilles and Odysseus and the Trojan War. Art and culture flourished fueled by both trading and military expeditions. The Kings are unrecorded except for the largely legendary accounts of Agamemnon. Homer's epic poetry was the earliest European literary work It was an inspirational masterpiece for Greek and Roman artists and philosophers. The collapse of Mycenae occured along with other late-Bronze age civilizations like Hittites. The Mycenaean collapse has been attributed to the the Dorians (one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes divided themselves. The others were the Aeolians, Achaeans, and Ionians). They invaded from the north. Other contemporary civilizations reported attacks from the Sea People, but natural disasters probably were even more important, leading to the Greek Dark Age.

Created: 9:45 AM 9/21/2022
Last updated: 9:45 AM 9/21/2022