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Mycenae (), is an Archaeological Site in Greece , located about 90km south-west of Athens , in the north-eastern Peloponnese . Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth , 48 km to the north. From the hill on which the palace was located one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf . In the second millennium BC Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek History from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. NAME The reconstructed Mycenaean Greek name of the place is Mukanai (long a), which has the form of a plural, like Athanai . The change of a to e is a Development of later Attic - Ionic . Although the citadel was built by Greeks, the name is not thought to be Greek, but is rather one of the many pre-Greek place names inherited by the immigrant Hellenes . John Chadwick said: :"Names such as ... Mukanai ... are certainly derived from one or more unknown languages, previously spoken in Greece." The pre-Greek language remains unknown, but there is no evidence to rule out a member of the Indo-European superfamily. (See '' Pelasgian '', '' Minyans '') PREHISTORY Neolithic Only scattered sherds from disturbed debris have been found datable to this period, prior to about 3500 BC. The site was inhabited but the stratigraphy has been destroyed by later construction. Early Bronze Age Scattered sherds have been found from this period, 2100 BC to 1700 BC. This period is also when the family of Heracles (Roman Hercules) were supposed rulers of Mycenae. Middle Bronze Age The first burials in pits or Cist graves began to the west of the acropolis at about 1800-1700 BC. The Acropolis was enclosed at least partially by the earliest circuit wall. Of the cist graves and the Middle Helladic Emily Vermeule said: :"...there is nothing in the Middle Helladic world to prepare us for the furious splendor of the Shaft Graves ." , or "high city".]] Late Bronze Age The settlement pattern at Mycenae during the Bronze Age was a fortified hill surrounded by hamlets and estates. Missing is the dense urbanity present on the coast (such as at Argos ). Since Mycenae was the capital of a state that ruled or dominated much of the eastern Mediterranean world, the rulers must have placed their stronghold in this less populated and more remote region for its defensive value. Late Helladic I Outside the partial circuit wall, Grave Circle B, named for its enclosing wall, contained ten cist graves in Middle Helladic style and four shaft graves, sunk more deeply, with interments resting in cists. Richer grave goods mark the burials as possibly regal. Mounds over the top contained broken drinking vessels and bones from a repast, testifying to a more than ordinary farewell. Stelae surmounted the mounds. A walled enclosure, Grave Circle A, included six more shaft graves, with 8 male, 9 female and two child interments. Grave goods were wealthier than in Circle B. The presence of engraved and inlaid Sword s and Dagger s, with spear points and arrowheads, leave little doubt that warrior Chieftain s and their families were buried here. Some art objects obtained from the graves are the Silver Siege Rhyton , the Mask Of Agamemnon , the Cup Of Nestor and Mycenaean Weapons . In the same period as the shaft graves, burial of rulers in Tholos tombs began. Alan Wace divided the nine tholoi of Mycenae into three groups of three each based on architecture. His earliest: the Cyclopean Tomb, Epano Phournos and the Tomb of Aegisthus, are dated to IIA. Burial in tholoi is seen as replacing burial in shaft graves. The care taken to preserve the shaft graves testifies that they were by then part of the royal heritage, the tombs of the ancestral heroes. Being more visible, the tholoi had all been plundered. Late Helladic III At a conventional date of 1350 BC the fortifications on the acropolis, and other surrounding hills, were rebuilt in a style known as "cyclopean," because the blocks of stone used were so massive that they were thought in later ages to be the work of the one-eyed giants known as Cyclops . Within these walls, parts of which can still be seen, monumental palaces were built. The palace (what is left of it) currently visible on the acropolis of Mycenae dates to the start of LHIIIA2. Earlier palaces must have existed but they had been cleared away or built over. The construction of palaces at that time with a similar architecture was general throughout southern Greece. They all featured a Megaron , or throne room, with a raised central hearth under an opening in the roof, which was supported by four columns in a square around the hearth. A throne was placed against the center of one wall. Fresco s adorned the plaster walls and floor. at Mycenae, actually a circular tomb or Tholos ]] The room was accessed from a courtyard with a columned portico. At Mycenae a grand staircase led from a terrace below to the courtyard on the acropolis. One can easily imagine Clytemnestra rolling out the proverbial red carpet upon it, but there is no evidence beyond the stories of poets and playwrights where she might have rolled it, or whether she really did. Wace’s second group of tholoi are dated between IIA and IIIB: Kato Phournos, Panagia Tholos, and the Lion Tomb. The final group, Group III: the Treasury Of Atreus , the Tomb Of Clytemnestra and the Tomb of the Genii, are dated to IIIB by a sherd under the threshold of the Treasury. The largest, it was discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann . Since it had long ago been looted of its contents, he did not realise it was a tomb and called it the Treasury Of Atreus . > The pottery phases on which the relative dating scheme is based (EH, MH, LH, etc.) do not allow very precise dating, even augmented by the few existing C-14 dates, which have a tolerance. The sequence of construction of imperial Mycenae is approximately as follows. At the beginning of LHIIIB, around 1300 or so, the Cyclopean wall was extended to the south slope to include grave circle A. The main entrance through the circuit wall was made grand by the best known feature of Mycenae, Lion Gate, through which passed a stepped ramp leading past circle A and up to the palace. It went past some houses considered to workshops now: the House of Shields, the House of the Oil Merchant, the House of the Sphinxes and the West House. An undecorated postern gate was also constructed through the north wall. Somewhat later, at the LHIIIB1/B2 border, around 1250 or so, another renovation project was undertaken. The wall was extended again on the west side, with a sally port and also a secret passage through and under the wall, of corbelled construction, leading downward by some 99 steps to a cistern carved out of rock 15 m below the surface. It was fed by a tunnel from a spring on more distant higher ground. The Treasury of Atreus was constructed at about this time. During this period documents from various locations in the eastern Mediterranean indicate Mycenae was a capital city, whose political, military and economic power extended as far as Crete , Pylos in the western Peloponnese, and to Athens and Thebes . Hellenic settlements were already being placed on the coast of Anatolia. A collision with the Hittite empire over their sometime dependency at a then strategic location, Troy, was to be expected. In folklore, the powerful Pelopid family ruled many Greek states, one branch of which was the Atreid dynasty at Mycenae. LITERATURE AND HISTORY ic Greece ]] The memory of the power of Mycenae lingered in the minds of the Greeks through the subsequent centuries, commonly known as the Dark Age . The epic poems attributed by the later Greeks to Homer , the '' Iliad '' and the '' Odyssey '', preserve memories of the Myceanean period. Homer's poems make Agamemnon , King of Mycenae, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War . References to Mycenae and persons associated with it span nearly all of Greek literature, which is good evidence of an inherited tradition. Modern schools of thought consider these legendary persons as to some degree historical. Future documentary evidence will help to clarify the degree to which they are. Perseid dynasty Legend asserts that Mycenae was founded by Perseus , grandson of king Acrisius of Argos , son of Acrisius' daughter, Danae . Having killed his grandfather by accident, Perseus could not or would not inherit the throne of Argos. Instead he arranged an exchange of realms with his half-brother, Megapenthes , and became king of Tiryns , Megapenthes taking Argos. From there he founded Mycenae and ruled the kingdoms jointly from Mycenae. Perseus married Andromeda and had many sons but in the course of time went to war with Argos and was slain by Megapenthes. His son, Electryon , became the second of the dynasty but the succession was disputed by the Taphians under Pterelaos , another Perseid, who assaulted Mycenae and losing retreated with the cattle. The cattle were recovered by Amphitryon , a grandson of Perseus, but he killed his uncle by accident with a club in an unruly cattle incident and had to go into exile. The throne went to Sthenelus , third in the dynasty, a son of Perseus. He set the stage for future greatness by marrying Nicippe , a daughter of king Pelops of Elis , the most powerful state of the region and the times. With her he had a son, Eurystheus the fourth and last of the Perseid dynasty. When a son of Heracles , Hyllus , killed Sthenelus, Eurystheus became noted for his enmity to Heracles and for his ruthless persecution of the Heracleidae , the descendants of Heracles. This is the first we hear in legend of those noted sons, who became a symbol of the hated Dorians . Heracles had been a Perseid. After his death Eurystheus determined to annihilate these rivals for the throne of Mycenae, but they took refuge in Athens, and in the course of war Eurystheus and all his sons were killed. The Perseid dynasty came to an end. The people of Mycenae placed Eurystheus' maternal uncle, Atreus , a Pelopid, on the throne. Atreid dynasty The people of Mycenae had received an Oracle that they should choose a new king from among the Pelopids. The two contenders were Atreus and his brother, Thyestes . The latter was chosen at first. At this moment nature intervened. The sun appeared to reverse direction and set in the east. There was in fact a total eclipse of the sun in the Aegean on March 5, 1223 BC, which Atreus might have twisted into a setting of the sun in the east. Because the sun had reversed direction, he argued, the election of Thyestes should be reversed. Atreus became king. His first move was to pursue Thyestes and all his family, but Thyestes managed to escape Mycenae. This date does not solve all the unknowns. A late date is implied for the Trojan War , which would, in that case, have been against Troy VIIa after all. The Perseids would have been in power ca. 1380, the date of a statue base from Kom el-Heitan in Egypt recording the itinerary of an Egyptian embassy to the Aegean in the time of Amenophis III. Mukanu was one of the cities visited, a rare early document of the name of Mycenae. It was one of the cities of the Danaja, Homeric Danaans , named, in legend, after Danae , which suggests that the Perseids were in fact in some sort of dominion. In the 13th century BC the great king of the Ahhiyawa began to be troublesome to numerous kings of the Hittite Empire . Ahhiyawa or Ahhiya, which occurs a few dozen times in Hittite tablets over the century, is probably Achaiwia, reconstructed Mycenaean Greek for Achaea . The Hittites did not use Danaja as did the Egyptians, even though the early Ahhiyawa references precede 1223. The Achaeans had founded Miletus , were settling on the coast of Anatolia , and were suborning the various coastal states of the Hittites into revolt. The Hittites resorted to law, treaties and correspondance. While establishing the credibility of the Mycenaean Greeks as a historical power, these documents create as many problems as they solve. For example, in the "indictment of Maduwattas " a man of the Ahhiyawa, Attarissiyas by name, attacks Arzawa (the region of Ephesus ). The governor, Maduwattas, obtains refuge and military assistance from the great king, Tudhaliya. After the death of the latter and in the reign of his son, Arnuwandas, Maduwattas allies with Attarissiyas and the two lead an expediton into Alasiya, or Cyprus . This is the only known occurrence of Attarissiyas, and there is no other Atreus in Greek legend. However, the Hittite names could fit either Arnuwanda I (reg. 1410–1386), son of Tudhaliya I , or Arnuwanda III (reg. 1235–1215), son of Tudhaliya III . There are exponents of both views. An earlier Attarissiyas would not be our Atreus, nor is there any evidence of a powerful Pelopid named Atreus of those times. Similarly, Hattusilas III (reg. 1255–1230) writes to the great king of Ahhiyawa complaining that the latter’s brother, Tawagalawas (possibly Eteocles) is ravaging Anatolia. The name of the great king is not stated. Neither the Atreus not the Agamemnon of legend have any brothers named Eteocles. Muwatalli II (reg. 1296–1272) makes a treaty with Alaksandus (possibly Alexander), king of Wilusiya (Ilium), swearing by Appaliunas ( Apollo ) among other gods. This Alaksandus is too early to be king of a city assaulted by Agamemnon, and besides, Priam was king of that city. There is no satisfactory way to reconcile the Hittite tablets with later Greek legend. In legend, Atreus had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus , the Atreids. Aegisthus , the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored Thyestes to the throne. With the help of King Tyndareus of Sparta , the Atreids drove Thyestes again into exile. Tyndareus had two ill-starred daughters, Helen and Clytemnestra , whom Menelaus and Agamemnon married, respectively. Agamemnon inherited Mycenae and Menelaus was regent in Sparta. Helen eloped with Paris of Troy . Agamemnon conducted a 10-year war against Troy to get her back for his brother. The returning Agamemnon was greeted royally with a red carpet rolled out for him and then slain in his bathtub by Clytemnestra and Aegistheus. The latter reigned subsequently, but Orestes , son of Agamemnon, was smuggled out to Phocis . He returned as a man to slay Clytemnestra and Aegistheus. He then fled to Sparta to evade justice, and, a matricide, became insane for a time. Meanwhile, the throne of Mycenae went to Aletes , son of Aegistheus, but not for long. Recovering, Orestes returned to Mycenae to kill him and take the throne. Orestes then built a larger state in the Peloponnesus, but he died in Arcadia from a snake bite. His son, Tisamenus , the last of the Atreid dynasty, was killed by the Heracleidae on their return to the Peloponnesus . They claimed the right of the Perseids to inherit the various kingdoms of the Peloponnesus and cast lots for the dominion of them. Decline By 1200 BC the power of Mycenae was declining; during the 12th century, Mycenaean dominance collapsed. Legend tells us that the long and arduous Trojan War, although nominally a Greek victory, brought anarchy, piracy and ruin. At Mycenae Agamemnon, the high king, was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, on his return to the lofty citadel. LHIIIB ends in a universal catastrophe. Within a short time around 1250 BC, all the palaces of southern Greece were burned, including the one at Mycenae. This is traditionally attributed to a Dorian Invasion of Greeks from the north, although some historians now doubt that such an invasion took place. As originally conceived, it certainly did not. No outsiders speaking Doric Greek entered Greece. Another theory postulates that some of the Mycenaean populace, who later came to speak the Doric dialect, turned on the weakened Mycenaean superstructure and razed it, settling in many regions formerly controlled by it. Displaced populations escaped to former colonies of the Mycenaeans in Anatolia and elsewhere, where they came to speak the Ionic dialect. However, no conclusive evidence has been brought forward to confirm any theory of why the Mycenaean citadel and others around it fell at this time. In the period, LHIIIC, also termed "submycenaean", Mycenae was no longer a power. Pottery and decorative styles were changing rapidly. Craftmanship and art declined. The citadel was abandoned at the end of the 12th century, as it was no longer a stategic location, but only a remote one. Revival and end During the early Classical period, Mycenae was once again inhabited, though it never regained its earlier importance. Mycenaeans fought at Thermopylae and Plataea during the Persian Wars . In 468 BC , however, troops from Argos captured Mycenae and expelled the inhabitants. In Hellenistic and Roman times, the ruins at Mycenae were a Tourist attraction (just as they are now). A small town grew up to serve the tourist trade. By late Roman times, however, the site had been abandoned. EXCAVATION The first excavations at Mycenae were carried out by the Greek Archaeologist Pittakis in 1841 . He found and restored the Lion Gate. In 1874 Schliemann arrived at the site and undertook a complete excavation. Schliemann believed in the historical truth of the Homeric stories and interpreted the site accordingly. He found the ancient Shaft Grave s with their royal Skeleton s and spectacular grave goods. When he found a Gold Death Mask in one of the tombs, he exclaimed: "Behold the face of Agamemnon!" Since Schliemann's day more scientific excavations have taken place at Mycenae, mainly by Greek archaeologists but also by the British School At Athens . The acropolis was excavated in 1902 , and the surrounding hills have been methodically investigated by subsequent excavations. TOURISM Today Mycenae, one of the foundational sites of European Civilization , is a popular tourist destination, a few hours' drive from Athens. The site has been well-preserved, and the massive ruins of the cyclopaean walls and the palaces on the acropolis still arouse the admiration of visitors, particularly when it is remembered that they were built a thousand years before the monuments of Classical Greece. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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