Between
2000 and 1600 BCE mainland Greece and the Peloponnese were invaded
by a new people, the Greeks. They were warrior-herdsmen, looking
for new pastures for their herds. These Achaeans were an Indo-European
people whom the Hittites called the Ahiyawa. As they came
into Greece they ceased their semi-nomadic lifestyle and settled
in Thessaly, Boetia, Attica, Argolis and Messenia. Each city was
ruled by a king from the warrior/landowning aristocracy, called
the wanax. The cities began to trade in the Aegean and
eastern Mediterranean. These people are known today as the Mycenaeans,
and their culture thrived between 1400 and 1200 BCE.
Each
city-state had a fortified palace surrounded by massive defense
walls. Outside of the large estate of the wanax, farmland
was collectively owned. Below the free lower classes, there were
slaves. The economy was based on agriculture and livestock breeding.
They produced oil, flax and wool which led to the industries of
cosmetics and textiles. They also were skilled craftsmen. The images
depicted on their pottery and weapons illustrate a warrior culture
with a taste for luxury. They
were influenced a great deal by the non-Greek Minoans artistically
but their aggressive warrior culture was unlike that of the peace-loving
Minoans.
The
Mycenaeans spoke an early form of Greek. The written language is
called Linear B by archeologists. When Arthur Evans excavated at
Knossos in Crete he discovered three types of scripts. He called
them hieroglyphic, linear A, and linear B. At the time none of these
scrits could be deciphered. By 1952 enough tablets of linear B had
been found (mostly at Pylos) that Michael Ventris, an English architect,
was able to solve the puzzle. He discovered that there were 89 characters
and that it was a syllabic script. Most of the phonetic values were
represented by one consonant and one vowel. Though Linear B can
now be translated, Linear A still remains a mystery. To find out
how Ventris solved the puzzle, see John Chadwick's The
Decipherment of Linear B.
They
were skilled metal workers who created beautiful creations in gold
and bronze. The kings controlled the workshops.The Mycenaeans had
to import copper from Cyprus and tin from central and western Europe.
Because Greece was not naturally endowed with precious metals, much
had to be imported.The Mycenaean trade network grew to encompass
the Mediterranean basin, and new settlements sprang up along the
western Mediterranean. At their peak the Mycenaeans controlled the
Dardanelles, a critical strait which connected the Aegean and the
Black Sea.
Trade
was so important to the power and wealth of the Mycenaeans that
they engaged in wars to crush their rivals. The most well-known
was a war against the Phrygians of Troy.
Homer called them the long-haired Achaeans.
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