As children we generally grow up knowing something about ancient Greece, and especially about its Classical period (roughly the fifth century before the time of Christ). The art and architecture created during the time of Pericles have influenced the Western tradition ever since. But this florescence of creativity did not suddenly erupt out of nowhere. Centuries before the arrival of the great poets, philosophers, and architects of the Classical era, the Aegean was already home to two influential cultures: the Minoans (whose origins are little understood to this day), and the Mycenaeans--the Bronze Age ancestors of the Greeks.

During this period, the late Bronze Age, some of the most enduring myths and legends arose: the story of the Trojan War, the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur (and of Daedalus the craftsman and his ill-fated son, Icarus), and innumerable mythic hero journeys. So compelling were the stories told by the poet Homer in his Iliad and Odyssey, that nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans believed them, at least in some measure, to be true. Their efforts uncovered the historic cities of Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns, and Troy.

The many stories upon which Homer built his two epics become fodder for later playwrights: Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, and (even later) Seneca (in Rome) on up to the modern day. We find ranslations and reworkings of these tales sprinkled throughout the great works of Western literature, poetry, and drama because we continue to find meaning in them.

The vast and significant reach of the Minoan empire, and the catastrophic eruption of the volcanic island, Thera, may have inspired Plato's account of Atlantis--as part of his philosophical discussion of the ideal state. The fertile imaginations of nineteenth-century mystics (and charlatans) took this little morsel of history and philosophy and turned it into a gold mine of silly speculation that has plagued scientists and scholars ever since. What people have done with the idea of Atlantis offers an excellent lesson in the use of critical thinking to distinguish probability from absurdity.

Clearly this region, in this "moment" in history, deserves some investigation. In this segment of the class, therefore, we will explore the legacy of the earliest Greeks, and examine the evidence that archaeologists have uncovered over the last century.

The Minoan Empire

Sites on the Mediterranean island of Crete have been occupied since around 5900 BCE; the earliest inhabitants probably came from somewhere in the Near East--perhaps from Egypt, or from southern Anatolia (Turkey). By 2800 BCE, the Cretans were influential in the Aegean and had already developed the characteristic beehive (tholos) tombs that remained in fashion for the next 1000 years. (These tombs, however, are not found intact on Crete itself; the best-preserved example is the so-called Treasury of Atreus near Mycenae, on the mainland.) The shapes of these tombs, with their long forecourts, may represent imitations of what had once been the shapes of houses, or of Egyptian tombs.

For our purposes, Minoan refers to the earlier non-Greek culture found on Crete and some neighboring islands in the Mediterranean. Mycenaean refers to the Greek culture typified by the architecture and archaeological remains found at mainland Greek sites such as Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos, as well as some Minoan sites on Crete later occupied by Greeks. Sir Arthur Evans coined the term "Minoan" to refer to the palace complexes he discovered on Crete (at Knossos and Phaistos, primarily) which he associated with the mythical King Minos. By Mycenaean times, according to legend, the palace at Knossos was occupied by the Mycenaean King, Idomeneus, who fought in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks.

Although writing already existed in the Near East, no evidence of it exists on Crete before 2800 BCE. The earliest examples appear around 1900 BCE (when the first palaces were built), consisting of hieroglyphs or pictographs. Most of what remains of the earliest, Linear A, script appear to be administrative records, although the slightly later Linear B--which has been deciphered as Greek--may have been used for literature as well.

The devastating eruption of the volcanic island, Thera (or Santorini) in around 1628 BCE, appears to have damaged the palaces on Crete; Knossos and Phaistos were rebuilt, and a new palace, Zakros, begun. It now appears certain that mainland Greeks, known as the Mycenaeans, occupied Knossos by around 1450 BCE, but the nature of that occupation is obscure. The Mycenaeans seem to have adopted many of the trappings of Minoan culture, including the linear script used for keeping records. The Greeks transformed Minoan Linear A (still undeciphered) into Linear B (which was deciphered as an archaic form of Greek by Michael Ventris in 1952).

Throughout the Bronze Age, Crete participated in a lively trade with surrounding peoples; Minoan Crete may, in fact, have fostered the legend of Atlantis, because of its obvious wealth and power, and because of the respect it inspired in its neighbors. Egypt, which seldom acknowledged the greatness of any other nation, apparently admired the "Keftiu" as they may have called the Cretans, and pictured them in tomb paintings. Perhaps weakened by a series of devastating earthquakes, however, Crete succumbed to the more war-like influence of the mainland Mycenaeans at around 1450 BCE. By about a hundred years later, Knossos palace was all but abandoned; in another hundred years, the Greeks had perhaps fought and won the Trojan War, but were themselves defeated by invaders or pirates at around 1100 BCE. The burning of the Mycenaean site of Pylos in the Western Peloponnese, however, preserved a large number of Linear B tablets--thus ensuring the survival of at least a small record of Mycenaean life, and ultimately making the decipherment of Linear B possible.

Mycenae, Mycenaeans, and the Trojan War

The Mycenaeans were a Greek-speaking culture of uncertain origins, typical of the chariot-driving warriors of the late Bronze Age. They occupied cities in the Peloponnese, including Mycenae (the "type site" from which the modern name for the culture is derived), Tiryns, Sparta, and Pylos, as well as cities elsewhere such as Athens and Thebes. Eventually, although the reasons and timing are uncertain, the Mycenaeans took over control of Crete.

The Iliad, which recounts Homer's version of a great war between the Greeks and the Trojans, is grounded in the Mycenaean culture. The "most beautiful woman in the world" promised to the Trojan prince, Paris, was Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. His brother, Agamemnon, was king of Mycenae. When Helen is abducted, an old alliance required the brother kings and their supporters (including Odysseus) to pursue her, and engage the Trojans. This story probably has more to do with the ancient tradition of "guest friendship" (xenia) than with lust, but it makes for a good story--and a long, brutal war with an almost immeasurable cultural aftermath.

By around 1100 BCE, most of the old Aegean kingdoms had been demolished by war, or environmental disaster, or both. But their legacy remains in their architecture, ceramics, sculpture, painting, and metalwork--and in the works of the poets.

Despite the fact that some interpretations of Minoan and Mycenaean evidence remain tenuous or controversial, one important lesson should be apparent; together, these two cultures created the basis for much of the subsequent development of Greece and the Classical world.

The Greeks, for instance, never forgot the importance of writing; although the Linear B script itself was lost to them as a consequence of war, they soon (by around 1000) adapted and applied another system (essentially Phoenician) to their needs. In doing so, they provided us with the first true alphabet, and the foundation for many of the alphabetic writing systems in use today. In addition, the legends, myths, artistic traditions, and technologies that developed during the Aegean Bronze Age continue to influence us well into the twenty first century.

Homer, Greek Myth, and the Aegean Bronze Age

The Minoan and Mycenaean ruins on mainland Greece and on Crete provide a helpful backdrop to studies of the Bronze Age and of the foundations of Classical Greece. Investigating these cultures also helps us to understand how the combination of "fact" and "myth" can become difficult to separate in the histories of human cultures. One reason we will consider the Minoans and Mycenaeans (who are often ignored or glossed over in most history/humanities courses) is that their rich mythic and historical legacy has provided sources for uncountable human creative efforts over several millennia.

Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans left written records, and both built extensive palace complexes with sophisticated amenities, such as bathrooms and water channels. Even after the Mycenaean Greeks had settled on Crete, many of the elements of Minoan culture (such as at least some of its myths and perhaps religious practices) survived or were adapted to Greek ways of life. The Mycenaeans learned the art of writing from the Minoans, using many Minoan characters to express Greek phrases (although the exact nature of Minoan language itself is still not understood). The Mycenaeans also followed the Minoan practice of inscribing catalogues and lists on clay.

Both groups tended to build their palaces in elevated places where they could command a view of the surrounding country and which could be fortified if necessary to afford protection from enemies. Nestor's palace at Pylos was a notable exception among Mycenaean sites; although situated on a hill, it was not fortified. The Cretan palaces were never fortified, which indicates that the Minoans may have enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence--at least until the Mycenaeans arrived.

The Mycenaeans, according to legend and some archaeological evidence, were the "Greeks" (or "Achaeans" or "Danaeans") referred to in stories about Troy and the Trojan War. Indeed, except for their languages, the Greeks and the Trojans were probably culturally quite similar; learning what we can about life in the Mycenaean world can thus help us to understand other Bronze Age cultures. Recent archaeological work has also produced compelling evidence that Plato's account of Atlantis in his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, may reflect a cultural memory of the Minoan empire at its peak in the Bronze Age Aegean.

The chief literary source for Greek life in the Bronze Age is Homer who, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, compiled and wrote down numerous legendary accounts of events that may have occurred more than 500 years before his time. Homer composed his poems in Greek, using the newly adapted alphabet borrowed from the Phoenicians. The Greeks rediscovered writing during the late Geometric period (roughly the 9th or 8th century BCE). Later poets such as Hesiod, as well as the great Athenian tragedians--Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus--offered variant versions of mythical events, as did even later writers like Ovid and Apollodorus.

Despite its ultimate demise and long absence from historical records, Bronze Age Aegean civilization bequeathed to Western culture a wealth of stories, poems, and plays. The mythical king Minos and his efforts to conceal his wife's peculiar infidelity, for example, fostered the tales of the Minotaur, the flight of Daedalus and Icarus, and the escapades of Theseus. The extent of Crete's influence on the Aegean and into Egypt and other parts of the Near East may have influenced Plato to create the city-state of Atlantis to balance his portrayal of Athens as an ideal state in his dialogues. The catastrophic eruption of Thera and the subsequent destruction of its Minoan-influenced culture may account for its association with Atlantis in nineteenth-century European popular culture.

The myths that inform the Trojan War stories may well reflect a complex and compelling but half-hidden history of the Aegean peoples who preceded the Classical Greeks. Belief in these stories is what drove early explorer-archaeologists such as Sir Arthur Evans and Heinrich Schliemann to discover the sites that inspired that belief--another instance of the interdependence between storytelling and history.

To help students sort out events and peoples involved in our discussions of this period, I've constructed a chart on the Chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age. It's as up to date as I can make it, but interpretations often change when new evidence is uncovered.

The following books, available in the Kelley Library, might also be useful, both for images and for information.

Dickinson, Oliver. The Aegean Bronze Age, from the Cambridge World Archaeology series. DF 220 .D49 1994

Farnaux, Alexandre. Knossos: Searching for the Legendary Palace of King Minos. This book contains an account of the excavations at the main Minoan site, along with photographs and maps. DF 212 .E82 F37 1996

Friedrich, Walter. Fire in the Sea: The Santorini Volcano: Natural History and the Legend of Atlantis. This book covers the science of the Santorini/Thera eruption, and its cultural and historical consequences. It also contains good charts and maps to educate the non-scientist. QE 523 .S27 F65 2000

MacGillivray, Joseph A. Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth. Many archaeologists are interesting subjects in themselves, and Evans is one of the most colorful. He wasn't quite Indiana Jones, but worth reading about. DF 212 .E82 M33 2000

Roth, Hal. We Followed Odysseus. Roth and his wife sailed around the Mediterranean, Homer's Odyssey in hand, in an attempt to retrace the voyage of the legendary war hero. This book includes pictures and an account of the journey. PA 41670 .R69 1999

Time Life Books. Wondrous Realms of the Aegean. This is a little out of date, but contains nice pictures and some of the reconstruction drawings from the original excavations of important sites like Knossos, Mycenae, and Pylos. DF 220 .W66 1993

The main literary texts for this period are, of course, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. I highly recommend the very readable translations by Robert Fagles: