MDS1 ANG
Bronze Age Greece and Troy
.
Gillian Shepherd
The Trojan Horse
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
View from the mound of Hisarlik (Troy?) across the Trojan Plain
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
“We have no record of any action taken by Hellas (= Greece) before the Trojan War… Agamemnon it seems must have been the most powerful of the rulers of his day: this was why he was able to raise the force against Troy…”
Thucydides I.3
Some dates…? c. 1250 BC Herodotus (5th cent. BC historian) 1135 BC Ephorus (4th cent. BC historian) 1194-1184 BC Eratosthenes (3rd cent. BC librarian at Alexandria) 5th June 1209 BC Parian Marble (ancient inscription listing notable events from
1581 to 264 BC) IE Late Bronze Age Greece and its Mycenaean civilisation? (Late Helladic III 1400-1100 BC)
The Trojan War: an historical event?
http://www.awesomestories.com/images/user/b2f1970c84.jpg
Troy • 9 main ancient phases (with subdivisions)
• Troy II: EBA Troy (“Schliemann’s Troy”)
• Troy VI or VIIA: Homer’s Troy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heinrich_Schliemann.jpg
Heinrich Schliemann (1822-90)
Other important “Trojans”: • Frank Calvert (the true discoverer Of Troy?) • Wilhelm Dörpfeld (stratigraphy; Troy VI)
• Carl Blegen (Troy VIIa)
Schliemann’s trench, Troy
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Section_Troy-Hisarlik-fr.svg
Yellow = ramparts/acropolis of Troy II Pink = ramparts/acropolis of Troy VI Blue = Acropolis of Troy IX (Hellenistic/Roman Troy)
Cross-section through the hill of Hisarlik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sophia_schliemann_treasure.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Priam%27s_treasure.jpg
“Priam’s Treasure” prior to 1880
Sophia Schliemann wearing the “Jewels of Helen”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tesoro_di_priamo,_grande_diadema_con_pendenti,_oro,_cat._10,_01.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sophia_schliemann_treasure.jpg
“The Big Diadem”, Moscow
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Section_Troy-Hisarlik-fr.svg
Yellow = ramparts/acropolis of Troy II Pink = ramparts/acropolis of Troy VI Blue = Acropolis of Troy IX (Hellenistic/Roman Troy)
Cross- section through the hill of Hisarlik
The walls of Troy VI: Homer’s Troy?
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
“Three times Patroclus set his foot upon a corner of the high wall and three times Apollo flung him back… when for the fourth time he rushed on like a god, then with a terrible cry Apollo spoke to him with winged words…” Iliad 16. 701 ff.
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicaldig/Mycenae/0001210306.gif
Map of Mycenaean Greece
3000 - 2500 Early Helladic I
2500 - 2200 Early Helladic II
2200 - 2000 Early Helladic III
2000 - 1550 Middle Helladic
1550 - 1500 Late Helladic I
1500 - 1400 Late Helladic II
1400 - 1100 Late Helladic III
Photo © Gillian Shepherd Tiryns “The wall… is the work of the Cyclopes and is made of unwrought stones, each stone being so huge that the smallest of them could not be moved even in the slightest degree by a pair of mules.”
Pausanias 2.25.8
Tiryns
http://www.grisel.net/tiryns.htm
Megaron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BurchtTiryns2.JPG
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/cc302k/Greece/02.Myc.htm
Reconstruction of a megaron (Pylos)
Walls of Mycenae Photo © Gillian Shepherd
“Well built Mycenae”
Lion Gate, Mycenae
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/introtogreece/lect3/tMycenaeMap0002280005.gif
Mycenae
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
Grave Circle A, Mycenae (shaft graves)
“…[inside] the wall, where Agamemnon and those murdered with him are lying” (Pau. 2.16.4)
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
“Mycenae rich in gold”
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=grave+circle+a+mycenae+sword&view=detail&id=CBF3E5998469B3EB6874AD38435B878C3DC70F4C&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR
Bronze dagger with scene of lion hunt in gold, silver, electrum and a black bronze alloy Shaft grave IV
http://library.artstor.org/library/iv2.html?parent=true
The “Mask of Agamemnon” Mycenae, 16th cent. BC (Shaft grave V)
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
The “Treasury of Atreus” Mycenean tholos tomb 13th cent. BC
Linear B tablet from Pylos
http://proteus.brown.edu/greekpast/4690
Linear B • syllabary composed of:
• syllabic signs • ideograms (images of objects/units of measure)
• Approx. 200 signs
• Administrative text
• NB Linear A = Minoan text, not yet deciphered
One ebony chair with a golden back decorated with birds; and a footstool decorated with ivory pomegranates. One ebony chair with ivory back carved with a pair of finials and with a man’s figure and heifers; one footstool, ebony inlaid with ivory and pomegranates
Linear B Tablet from Pylos, no. Ta 707 (DMG 242) (preserved c. 1200 BC)
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
“[Odysseus put on] a helmet made of hide… on the outside the white teeth of a boar of gleaming tusks were set thick… and inside was a lining of felt” Iliad X. 261