The End of the Bronze Age: what went wrong?

I. Signs of trouble (verbal and non-verbal) in Greece, Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant

II. Disaster strikes – cataclysm throughout eastern MediterraneanIII. Explanations? A. Invasions/migrations B. Internal conflict C. Natural disaster D. Systems

collapse E. All of the above F. none of the above G. some of the aboveIV. Results: Darkness and eventually new configurations of power and culture

and technology (the IRON AGE)V. And finally, the problem of the Trojan War

I. First, the non-verbal signs: Mycenae’swalls are strong but…..

Mycenaen Entrenchment in 13th century

Mid-13th century (1200’s) walls strengthend and expanded in MycenaeTowards end of 13th century sally gate and ‘secret cistern’ added

Mycenaean cisternNote: similar precautions taken in Athens

What is the danger?Who is the enemy?

The ‘semi-verbal’ - Pylos

Linear B tablets (‘the cross-section of a cell’ ) preserved by fire of destruction:

“Thus the watchers are guarding the coastal regions.”

800 men are sent into two sections of the coast. What were they watching for?

The verbal: anxious letters ( Hatti, Cypus, Ugarit) and inflated claims (Egypt)

Merneptah in Egypt (1213-04): asserted that he repelled Libyans and those “of the countries of the sea”

Ramsses III (1187-56):

Ramsses III (11187-1156):

The foreign countries made a conspiracy in their islands… No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode (= Tarhuntassa), Carchemish, Arzawa, and Alashiya on . . . They were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared for them. Their confederation was the Peleset, Tjeker, shekelesh, Denyen, and Weshesh, lands united” ( Van de Mieroop p. 195)

so called ‘Sea Peoples’!

II. Disaster strikes!

NB: Dorian ‘invasion’ is a how a discredited theory

III. Explanations

A. Migrations/Invasions -- NEW PEOPLE

Problems: are the people new? (e.g. ‘Sea peoples’) Do they settle down (e.g. ‘Dorians’ in Greece)?

B. Internal conflict –within ruling elites or class

warfare

C. Natural or Environmental disaster –(a suggestion most focused on Aegean world)

Climate change – drought, famine?Earthquake (some evidence of earthquakes in Peloponnese at this time)

D. Systems Collapse?

IV. Results: Darkness – especially dark in Greece -- and eventually new configurations of power and culture

and technology (the IRON AGE)

Darkness! but – darkness from which emerges a new culture and society

In the Greek world collapse of the palace system

DepopulationDecentralization

Decapitation –What happens to the kings?In Linear B tablets(cf. Dartmouth site)Mycenaean /social order Wanaka – wanax Qasireu – qasileus/basileus

• WA-NA-KA [wanax]• Mentioned at both Pylos and Knossos, only one

wanax appears to have existed at either place.. In some cases, wanax appears to be used in the tablets as a divine title, but this does not necessarily imply that the wanax was some sort of priest-king. Some tradesmen – a potter, a fuller, and an armorer(?) – are referred to by the adjectival form wanakteros and were therefore presumably in some sense in the “royal” service. Some of the painted stirrup jars from Thebes, Eleusis, Tiryns, and Chania are labelled in paint with the same adjective, wanaktero. These jars, which are among those almost certainly made in western Crete, presumably contained produce (wine or oil) from “royal” vineyards or olive orchards. They are particularly significant as indicating that there was a LM IIIB wanax of western Crete, presumably one resident at the important site of Chania (Classical Kydonia, Linear B KU-DO-NI-JA). The wanax of Pylos was a major landholder. It has been suggested, on the basis of unfortunately inconclusive evidence, that his name was Enkhelyawon (or something similar). There is no archaeological evidence for the Iliad‘s King Nestor, nor is Enkhelyawon recognizable among any of the Messenian heroes of Classical saga and legend.

• From Dartmouth “Prehistoric Aegean Archaeology” -- Lesson 25

• QA-SI-RE-U [quasileus = basileus]• Personnel bearing this title are known

from Pylos, Knossos, and Thebes. The connection of Linear B QA-SI-RE-U with Homeric basileus meaning “king” is undeniable, but it is equally clear that the Mycenaean quasileus was nothing more than some kind of chief or leader of a small group, in one case a group of bronzesmiths. In some contexts the quasileus may have been in charge of small, outlying districts, in which case the metamorphosis from Mycenaean “village headman” to Homeric “chieftain/king” would be explicable in view of the chaotic conditions which followed the collapse first of Mycenaean palatial civilization and then of Mycenaean civilization in a broader sense during the period ca. 1200-1000 B.C. An extreme view held by Palmer insists that QA-SI-RE-U and words derived from it never occur in Mycenaean contexts not involving craftsmen in some way and therefore that quasileus signifies nothing more than a man in charge of an industrial or manufacturing unit.

IV. The Trojan War – how does it fit in?

Bronze age perspective on Troy [not Bronze Age

name, however]

3000-1800 – continuity

1800 – Troy VI (destroyed

by earthquake c. 1300

1300 – Troy VII A (destroyed

by man – ‘other things being equal

the conclusion would be drawn…that

the fall of Troy vII A was part of the

general cataclysm of about 1200

throughout the Aegean area.”

______________________________ Dark ages intervene – memory

of the Bronze Age and its society

lost

________________

Homer’s Iliad – c. 750 BCE – recreates story of the heroes at Troy – the ‘basileis’ and occasionally the ‘wanax’ – but institutions, social and political and religious belong to the new world of Iron Age Aegean.