Overview of Bronze Age World

Approximate Dates

• • The Bronze Age primarily took place between 3500 BC and 1200 BC, and is traditionally divided into the Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC), Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC), and Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1200 BC), with progressively more sophisticated metallurgy which culminates in the discovery of ironworking.

The Bronze Age began 5,500 years ago in the present-day areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, which was also the cradle of human civilization. By this time permanent settlements were already a few thousands years old, but it took time for these early people to discover the potential of metallic ores. The birthplace of metallurgy is usually taken to be Anatolia, Turkey. The Indian Bronze Age began in 3300 BC with the Indus Valley civilization. In China and southeast Asia, the Bronze Age began around 2100 BC. Throughout Europe the Bronze Age began between 2100 BC and 2000 BC or so, with sophisticated Bronze Age civilizations rising throughout the 2nd millennium BC.

Features of bronze age Civilizations

• • • • • • • • The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city states Monumental architecture Settlements still largely agriculturally based Social stratification. More complex and skilled specialization the invention of writing In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people partially changed the political pattern of the Near East with central monarchies The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing powerful kingdoms and their vassal states (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitanni). Warfare common Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean civilization in which the copper trade played an important role

BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS

• • • • • • Middle and New Kingdom Egypt Mesopotamia Caananites Hittite Empire Indus Valley Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations

Race to Preserve World’s oldest ( 5,000yrs) town

Mycenaean civilization compared to Minoan

• • • Many cultural customs inherited Differences: Mycenaean Cities fortified Mycenaean was a warlike society Mycenae – weapons and armour found in graves of leaders

Aerial View of Excavated Site

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PALACE AT PYLOS

Mycenae – Lion Gate cyclopian Walls

A Prosperous City State

• • • • • • Each city state had a fortified palace surrounded by massive walls Outside of the large estate of the wannax, farmland was collectively owned.

The economy was based on agriculture and livestock breeding.

They produced oil, flax and wool.

They were also skilled craftsmen The images depicted on their pottery and weapons illustrate a warrior culture with a taste for luxury,

Grave Goods

Mycenaean Society Hierarchically Structured

• • • • • • • King/Ruler Warrior Caste = Companions (Mycenae) Priests and Priestesses Officials and Local Administrators Scribes Farmers Slaves

Warrior Head

Mycenean society

• • • • • Mycenaeans engaged in sea going commerce Aggressively expansionist Traded with Sicily, Libya, Anatolia Fortified towns using masonry Later stages used Linear B writing

CYCLOPEAN MASONRY

• • Evidence of Mycenaean Aggression On Linear B tablets: lists of Asian slave women and imported objects from all over the Mediterranean; luxury items.

Prehistoric arms race? The massive fortifications to protect the Argive Plain. Do these citadels house one extended family, or indicate frequent wars between states?

Wood examines Greek legend, such as the traditional hatred between Thebes & Orchomenos.

BRONZE AGE MYCENAEAN WEAPONS

•

“Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in alternate directions in each row.

“ Homer

Linear A and B

Mycenaean trade

• Luxury items came from the east-

gold

,ivory and gemstones

• • Amethyst from Egypt and Amber from the Baltic Exported products were bronze weapons, jewellery, olive oil, wine, wool and stemmed drinking cups

Mycenaean art • • • • • Pottery was wider at the top than the bottom and used spirals, bands, fish, vegetable life and human figures to decorate.

Mass produced to satisfy local and trade Small clay figures found in great numbers especially in tombs Small cups, goblets and jugs, many fashioned from gold Scarabs and gold rings found in tombs

Early Bronze Age jug

• • • Found in large numbers in tombs And shrines, these small clay idols were possibly of a female deity Typical of these simply shaped and painted figurines are the ankle length, belted clothing, a kind of crown and specific arm postures.

Because of their similarity to the corresponding letters of the Greek alphabet, these types of figurines are known as phi and psi idols.

Burial practices • • • • • Two types may represent a change in dynastic rule.

Grave Circle B Tholos tombs, nine found at Mycenaea Bodies dressed in lavishly decorated shrouds, were adorned with gold items and diadems and their faces were covered by masks of gold. The bodies were lowered into the shafts and spectacular grave goods , made of precious metals were placed inside.

“Here were male skulls with crowns of gold and golden masks,, here were osseos ladies with golden diadems, here were painted vases, beads of amethyst and amber, heavily ornamented daggers, gold rings and cups, even clothing embroidered with thin plates of gold”.

• Archaeologists now believe that gold, tin and Amber came from distant ports in Anatolia and the Baltic.

Circle A graves

Archaeological remains of a Circle A Grave

Tholos tomb

Burial goods

Mycenaean weaponry-Shields were made of wood and so were not preserved, but images of them were preserved on bronze daggers .

Mycenaean soldiery

END OF GREEK BRONZE AGE

• • • • • • The collapse of the Mycenaean palaces and civilization occurred mysteriously at 1100 BC.

Various theories have been proposed: (a)

Economic Factors

(b)

Climatic Changes

(c)

Internal Social Upheaval

: (d)

Invasion from Outside the Aegean World

:

• •

Fall of Mycenaean Palaces

After the disruptions at the end of the Bronze Age, representational art was lost, along with writing and other arts associated with the palaces and palace life.

• • • •

End of Mycenaea and the Trojan War?

According to Homer, when Troy was destroyed, it was the Mycenaeans who sacked it. Based on the archaeological evidence, about the same time Hisarlik burned and was destroyed, the entire Mycenaean culture was also under attack.

Beginning about 1300 BC, the rulers of the capital cities of the Mycenaean cultures lost interest in constructing elaborate tombs and expanding their palaces, and began to work in earnest on strengthening the fortification walls and building underground access to water sources. These efforts suggest preparation for warfare. One after another, the palaces burned, first Thebes, then Orchomenos, then Pylos. After Pylos burned, a concerted effort was expended on the fortification walls at Mycenae and Tiryns, but to no avail. By 1200 BC, the approximate time of the destruction of Hisarlik, most of the palaces of the Mycenaeans had been destroyed.

HITTITE EMPIRE

MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE

They were able to build a large empire because of their military strength. Between 1400 BC and 1200 BC, they ruled over most of the Fertile Crescent .

The people lived in cities fortified by thick stone walls. They build palaces and temples. Outside the cities, farmers grew food for everyone. Their empire fell apart around 1200 BC.

A Balance of Power:

1200 B. C. E.

Hattusas-Capital of the Hittite Empire

RECONSTRUCTED CAPITAl

Hittite Writing

Hittite Art and Sculpture

BRONZE AGE TRADE NETWORK Role of the Black Sea??

moodle

The Black Sea-

crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East

Source of tin for the Bronze Age

• Until 1984 we did not know the source of tin for the ancient bronze civilizations of the Near East. Now more than 40 ancient sites of tin mining have been discovered in the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey, only 40 km from the Cilician Gates,. The area has a great variety of metal ores, including deposits of gold and silver. But lead is also present, and lead artefacts are known from Çatal Höyük. Cast lead figurines had become common by the late third and early second millenia, and silver was important from the late fourth millennium.

• •

MYTH AS EVIDENCE

According to Greek mythology, on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, there was once a kingdom called Kolchis. Located in what is today the Republic of Georgia, this kingdom was said to be the home of the Golden Fleece, the legendary treasure that Jason and his Argonauts set out to find . The Greeks originally referred to the Black Sea as

Pontos Axeinos

- the Inhospitable Sea - for good reason. Large sections of the southern and Crimean coasts are mountainous and offer few protected anchorages. Violent storms and dangerous winds from both north and south made navigation treacherous for ancient mariners. Despite these hazards, however, the Mediterranean cultures were drawn to the Black Sea by its enormous economic potential

• The evidence for Bronze Age Mediterranean seafarers in the Black Sea is not limited to mythology. Mycenaean anchors and oxhide-shaped copper ingots have been found off the western coast of the Black Sea. This aspect of Bronze Age seafaring, however, remains largely unexplored.

What Links the Two????

Did Mycenaeans know about the Black Sea?

Was Troy a geo-commercial gatekeeper controlling access to the Black Sea?

Although evidence has been limited by political opportunities for maritime archaeology in the Black Sea, recent projects have revealed Mycenaean pottery at Kolchis and Masat, oxhide ingots and Mycenaean double headed axes found in the Ukraine.

Likewise finds at Mycenaea such as the boar tusk helmet is supposed to have originated from Southern Russia. Some scholars suppose that the wide use of gold in Mycenaean shaft graves is linked to Pontic trade known to be a rich source of gold. This gives a much larger meaning to the Myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece