The Mycenaeans

by Castleden; Rodney

• ISBN13: 9780415249232
• ISBN10: 0415249236
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Mycenaean World was the world of the heroes who conquered Troy. Those heroes stood at the heart of Greek self-perception for centuries after the fall of their civilization. Since the rediscovery of the remains of the civilization of Mycenae by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s, knowledge of these Greeks of the Bronze Age has increased steadily. Stepping into the place of the collapsed civilization of Minoan Crete and the Peloponnese (the subject of Castleden's earlier bestselling study, Minoans), the Mycenaeans dominated mainland Greece and the Greek islands from about 1600-1250 BC. Their exploits became the subject of the legends that were immortalized by Homer. In lively prose informed by the latest research, Castleden lays out the fundamental traits of Mycenaean civilization, its hierarchy, economy, religion and arts. Controversially, Castleden interprets the well-known palaces of Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos and elsewhere as temples. Their sea empire and the their relations with other peoples ofthe Bronze Age world, including the Hittites, the Egyptians and the Trojans, receive full attention. The causes of the end of their civilization are discussed. The book is an indispensable starting point for the study of the Greek Bronze Age. Full bibliography and copious illustration support this comprehensive interpretation of a civilization whose legend still lives on.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Acknowledgements and preface	xiii
Introduction	1	(5)
Cities and kingdoms	6	(60)
Fragmentation	6	(17)
Sandy Pylos and Messenia	23	(6)
The roads	29	(8)
Mycenae and the Argolid	37	(5)
The `palace' at Mycenae	42	(6)
The cities of the Argive Plain	48	(6)
The kingdoms of the north	54	(12)
The people	66	(38)
Physical characteristics	66	(4)
Clothing and jewellery	70	(8)
The nature of Mycenaean society	78	(7)
Language -- Linear B	85	(6)
Tombs of the kings	91	(13)
Everyday life in the countryside	104	(10)
A rural economy	104	(4)
Stock-rearing	108	(3)
Hunting	111	(3)
Everyday life in the towns	114	(27)
Houses	114	(2)
Furniture	116	(2)
Metalwork and armour	118	(7)
Arts and crafts	125	(15)
The `palaces'	140	(1)
Religion	141	(42)
Problems in interpretation	141	(3)
Shrines	144	(7)
Ceremonies	151	(10)
Rediscovering the temples	161	(22)
A Mycenaean sea-empire?	183	(14)
Long-distance trade routes	183	(3)
Ships and ports	186	(2)
Reaching out	188	(3)
The collapse of the Minoan sea-empire	191	(6)
The Trojan War	197	(21)
Homer's view of the war	197	(4)
Greeks and Trojans according to the Hittite texts	201	(11)
Mycenaeans and Egyptians	212	(1)
The Trojan War: a twenty-first-century reconstruction	213	(5)
The fall of Mycenae	218	(8)
And live in song for generations	226	(12)
The Mycenaean personality	226	(2)
What was the Mycenaean achievement?	228	(2)
The Mycenaean inheritance	230	(8)
Appendix A: Anatolian chronology	238	(1)
Appendix B: The kings of Mycenae	239	(1)
Appendix C: The kings of Orchomenos	240	(1)
Appendix D: King list for Argos	241	(1)
Appendix E: The Epic Cycle	242	(7)
Notes	249	(15)
Bibliography	264	(10)
Index	274