Minoans and Mycenaeans

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Minoans and Mycenaeans
http//web.clas.ufl.edu/users/sterk/ImagesAW/agame
mnonmask.jpg

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The Ancient Mediterranean
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Lecture Summary

• Chronology
• Minoans and Minoan Athletic Contests
• Mycenaeans and Mycenaean Athletics
• Mycenaeans and the Later Greeks

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Chronology

• Bronze Age c. 3000 1100 BCE
• Early Bronze Age 3000 2000 BCE
• Middle Bronze Age c. 2000-1500 BCE
• Late Bronze Age c. 1500 1200 BCE
• Dark Ages c. 1200 - 800 BCE
• Archaic Period c. 800 480 BCE
• Classical Period 480 BCE 323 BCE
• Hellenistic Period 323 BCE 146 B.C.
• Roman Period 146 BCE ff.

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The Minoan World
http//www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images
2/MinoanWorld.jpg
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The Minoans

• Non-Greek civilization
• Developed on the island of Crete (fl. 2200 BCE
  and 1300 BCE
• Sir Arthur Evans (1851-1941) named society
  Minoan after the mythical king of Crete, King
  Minos
• Principal Sources for Minoan Civilization 1.
  Archaeology, 2. Minoan Writing (Linear A)
  undeciphered

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Characteristics of Minoan Civilization

• Earliest civilization in the Aegean Basin
• Immigrants from Anatolia (ca. 6000 BCE)
• Urban development and monumental architecture,
  esp. after (ca. 2200 BCE) at Knossos large
  palace complexes
• Economy agriculture and sea-trade
• Centralized redistribution economy centered on
  palace complexes
• Peaceful and Stable Palaces and cities not
  walled
• Long distance sea-traders (Thalosocracy?)
• Syllabic writing known as Linear A (not
  decipherable)

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The Palace at Knossos
www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images.html
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Palace at Knossos(reconstruction)
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Palace Store Room at Knossos
www.bluffton.edu/sullivanm/knossos/knossos.html
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Evidence For Minoan Sport

• All of our evidence is Archaeological
• Depictions of acrobatics, dance, boxing,
  wrestling, combats, and bull-sports in Minoan
  art
• Methodologically problematic because the evidence
  requires much interpretive speculation
• Most of evidence appears to connect Minoan
  athletics with the palace complex at Knossos

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Minoan Grandstand Frescoca. 1600 1450 BCE
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The Boxers(Thera)
http//www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images
1/thera-boxing-kids.jpg
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The Boxers (Thera, ca. 1600 BCE)
http//www.historywiz.com/galleries/boxingboys.htm

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Minoan Bull-Leaping
http//www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images
1/bull-leap-ring.jpg
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Bull Leaper Fresco (Knossos)
http//www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/MinoanBullJump.
htm
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Minoan Bull Sports

• Others Bull Sports include bull wrestling, bull
  hunting
• Bull appears to have been a sacred animal in
  Minoan Crete
• Minoan Crete associated with bulls in Greek myth
  (i.e. Europa Pasiphae Theseus and the Minotaur)
• Minoan art redolent with bull imagery

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Horns of Consecration (Knossos)
http//www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images
1/knossos-horns.jpg
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The Mycenaean World
www.wwnorton.com/.../ralph/resource/greece.htm
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the Mycenaeans

• First Greek speakers in the Balkan Peninsula
• Fl. 2000 BCE ca. 1000 BCE
• Spread to Minoan Crete ca. 1400 BCE
• Heinrich Schliemann (1822 1890) German
  Archaeologist
• Principal Sources Archaeology Mycenaean Writing
  (Linear B) Homer (?)

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Mycenaean Society

• Agricultural economy
• Aristocratic warrior society governed by a king
  and his hetairoi (warrior companions)
• Social hierarchies determined by 1. Martial
  Skills, 2. Wealth, 3. Lineage
• Timocratic society (from the Greek Time Honour)
• Time (honour) is a public commodity that must be
  publicly displayed by 1. Warfare, 2. Conspicuous
  Consumption (I.e. through Gift-giving and
  feasting etc.), 3. Physical display esp. Athletic
  Contests

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Evidence of Mycenaean Sport

• Few references in Linear B texts
• Bulk of the evidence from archaeology
• Appears to be connected with funeral practices
• Evidence for Equestrian and chariot events,
  Bull-leaping, Combats, Belt-wrestling, Hunting
• No evidence of prizes
• Some of the evidence is problematic (Actual
  events v. East to West Culture-Drift)

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Mycenaean Dagger (ca. 1400 BCE)
home.att.net/a.a.major/shielddag.jpg
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Mycenaean Hunting Scene
http//www.hartzler.org/cc307/mycenaean/images/43.
jpg
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End of Mycenaean Civilizationca. 1200 1100 BCE

• General catastrophe throughout the Aegean basin
  ca. 1200 BCE (Hittite Kingdom destroyed Egypt
  invaded by Sea People Evidence of warfare
  among the Mycenaeans Palaces, agriculture,
  writing disappear)
• Dark Age from 1000 BCE to 800 BCE
• Ca. 800 BCE general recovery writing is
  re-acquired from Phoenicia
• Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey ca. 750
  BCE (supposed to narrate events ca. 1200 1100
  BCE)

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Homer

• Often used as a source for Mycenaean history
• Know little about Homer
• Wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey ca. 750 BCE and
  800 BCE

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The Iliad

• Set in the final year between the Trojans and the
  Greeks
• About the wrath of Achilles
• Celebrates the heroic achievements of both the
  Trojans and the Greeks (i.e. Not about Trojans v.
  Greeks no ethnic dimension)
• Reflects the ethos/values of the aristocratic
  warrior class (i.e. fighting, feasting, competing)

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The Odyssey

• Multiple themes
• The return of Odysseus from the war at Troy
• The coming of age of Telemachus, son of Odysseus
• The struggle of Penelope, wife of Odysseus to
  defend the oikos of Odysseus and avoid remarriage
  to one of the suitors
• Reflects aristocratic warrior ethos

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Historicity of the Homeric Narrative

• Mycenaean Archaeology confirms some Homeric
  details
• Evidence of oral tradition (i.e. Heavy use of
  mnemonic devices such as repetition, meter etc.)
• Problems with Homer as a source

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Sport in the Homeric Epics

• Iliad, book 23 depicts athletic contests put on
  by Achilles in honor of the dead Patroclus (Arete
  1)
• Odyssey, book 8 recounts athletic contests among
  the Phaiakians in connection with a typical
  Homeric feast scene (Arete 2)
• Odyssey, book 18 recounts a boxing match between
  Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, and another
  beggar
• Odyssey, book 21 recounts an archery contest
  between a disguised Odysseus and the suitors