Week 5 - The Mycenaeans and Troy

Question 1

The iliad

Answer 1

-poem about the Aegean Bronze age
-written by Homer
-Gods interacted directly with humans
- about Troy war

Question 2

Trojan War basic overview

Answer 2

• war between Greeks and the Trojans
• Greeks led by King Agamemnon
• trying to get Helen back

Question 3

Heinrich Shliemann found..

Answer 3

Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns

Question 4

Mycenaean: Linear B

Answer 4

• based on Linear A
• meant to be termporary administrative records
• Micheal Ventris

Question 5

Tripod Tablet

Answer 5

-tripod was first word to be discovered
-determined it was Greek so Mycenaeans are Greek

Question 6

The Arrival of the Greeks: Theory 1

Answer 6

• transition from Early Hellatic 2 and 3
• lots of cultural changes
• bronze is a pre greek word

Question 7

The Arrival of the Greeks: Theory 2

Answer 7

-final Neolithic period
-arrival of agriculture
-meaning Greek language involved in Greece itself

Question 8

Mycenaean Religion

sorority

Answer 8

-ancestor worship
-early worship of olympian gods
female terracotta figurines: phi and psi

Question 9

Minoan art influence

What did the Mycenaeans take from their wall art

Answer 9

• motifs
• representation of people
• fresco technique

Question 10

Mycenaean original art had

Answer 10

• war and hunting motifs (not seen in Minoan art)
• method of dress
• simple backgrounds

focus on war and conflict / plain backgrounds

Question 11

Political Development for Mycenaeans

Answer 11

• Big men (proto chiefs)
• chiefdoms (big men established heriditary, more formalized)
• Wanaktes or Wanax sing. (King leaders)

Question 12

Palace of Mycenae

Answer 12

• no central court
• Megarons (central part of Mycenean palace)
• simpler, smaller palace
• not self contained / not one unified building
• fortifiaction wall

Question 13

Architectural Feautures of Mycenean Palaces

Answer 13

-fortification walls
-cyclopean masonry (uneven, random big blocks)

Question 14

Lion Gate

Answer 14

-ashlar masonry
- post and luntel structure
- relieving triangle
- Hittite influence (the Lion motif)
- Minoan influence (tapered column in middle of lions)

Question 15

Main Elements of Mycenean Palaces

Answer 15

-megaron
- storerooms
- workshops
- religious areas
- royal dwellings

Question 16

Function of Mycenean Palaces

Answer 16

• political, religious and economic centres
• Megaron as seat of the wanax
• No hierarchy between the palaces

Question 17

Grave Circle A

Answer 17

• inside the walls
• 6 shaft graves, 19 bodies
• Stelai (stele) and burial mounds

Question 18

Grave Goods from Grave Circle A

Answer 18

• so called Mask of Agamemnon (maybe was a death mask for all men)
• bull
• daggers

Question 19

Tholos Tombs

Answer 19

• dromos (pathway)
• stomion (main entrance)
• corbelled vault
• tumulus
• bodies buried in the chamber
• most of them were looted

Question 20

The Treasury of Atreus

Answer 20

• big tomb
• maybe for a king?

Question 21

Funerary Customs

Answer 21

• prothesis led by women (displaying the corpse)
• washing and dressing of corpse
• offerings
• ekphora (carrying body to the tomb)
• animal sacrifice (horses were buried in some)
• secondary burial

Question 22

Troy in Myth

Answer 22

• Homer iliad
• Helen is kidnapped by Trojan prince Paris
• Priam, king of troy
• Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and “King of Kings”
• Gret walled city
• Destroyed by the Mycenaeans after 10 year siege
• is there any truth to this?

Question 23

Troy in General

Answer 23

• located in modern Hisarlik, Turkey
• major excavations by Heinrich Scliemann

Question 24

Who were the Trojans?

related to

Answer 24

maybe related to the Hittites and the Greeks
- influence by both culture
- maybe an alliance with the Hittites

Question 25

The Site of Troy

Answer 25

- inhabited for 2000 years - troy 2 layer - troy 6 and 7 layers

Question 26

Troy 2 | charectirized by priam's treasure

Answer 26

- Priam's treasure - lots of valuables found at this site

Question 27

Modern history of Priam's Treasure

Answer 27

- smuggled out of Turkey by Schliemann and was he sued - he tries to sell Museums but he ends up giving it to a Berlin Museum - Russia takes it in WWII

Question 28

Troy 6 | what was found + site gets bigger

Answer 28

- site gets bigger - this level of site was destroyed from antiquity - hard to tell if it was an earthquake or war - Mycenean pottery found

Question 29

Troy 7a | flames

Answer 29

- rebuilt after troy 6 - beseigned, sacked and burned - rebuilt afterwards and continued to be inhabited on a small scale

Question 30

Evidence of Collapse: Trouble brewing

Answer 30

- increased fortification walls (fear of attack) - protection of water supply - protection of water supply and workshops

Question 31

Evidence of Collapse: destruction

Answer 31

- almost all palaces destroyed -

Question 32

Elements of the Collapse

Answer 32

- withdrawal from cities to the hills - arts in decline (financial strain) - Mycenaean palace system, Hittite Empire, Ugarit all fall - complete loss of Linear B

Question 33

Possible factors: conflict | civil wae, invasion, _____ people

Answer 33

- foreign or civil war? - seven against Thebes (civil) - Dorian Invasion (the doric Greek dialect, wall across the Isthmus of Corinth) - Sea peoples (accounts of attacks from 14th-11th centuries / origins unclear)

Question 34

Ramses 3

Answer 34

describes sea people, not really sure who they were, roaming band of mauraders, only looted and destroyed palaces

Question 35

Systems Collapse | economy

Answer 35

- overly centralized economy - replacement of palaces with independent merchants and small city states

Question 36

Earthquakes

Answer 36

- storm of earthquakes in 13th century - seismic evidence DOES NOT support this conclusion

Question 37

Climate change | during this time

Answer 37

- evidence of drought in Anatolia and the Levant - ancient documents refer to grain shortages

Question 38

Possible Factors: Perfect storm theory

Answer 38

- economy, drought, variety of invadors, a lot of factors that caused the collapse - very complicated

Question 39

Aftermath of destruction | LOSS OF WRITING IS VERY IMPORTANT

Answer 39

- postpalatial period - loss of writing (Linear B and cuneiform) - dissapeareance of palaces and royalty - large decrease in population - flourishing of pictorial pottery

Question 40

Warrior Vase, Mycenae

Answer 40

from the aftermath period of the Bronze Age Collapse