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Introduction to Pre-Hellenistic Greece - Part 2

© Suzi Goode

Mycenaean culture was sophisticated, both culturally and economically. When we in the twenty-second century think of ancient cultures, more than likely we think of a backwards people who had nothing in the line of culture and bartered one needed item for another. Nothing can be further from the truth judging from the discoveries being made by archeologists.

As I stated last week, Mycenae was the first cultural accomplishment of the Greeks. There was an extremely complex bureaucracy, specialization of labor, a political arrangement any state would be proud of and a complex administrative system. Helladic pottery as well as the buildings and the now- deciphered Linear B tablets are being used to put together what Mycenaean civilization looked like. To make it easier to understand the techniques of pottery analysis and to put the dates used to some meaningful use, it's best to define and summarize what we know of the Helladic (or Bronze Age).

The Early Helladic period is defined as the years 2750 BC to 2000 BC. This period is still not known well, primarily because its inhabitants left little trace of themselves. Although the use of bronze spread rapidly, it was not accompanied by a rise in the material level of civilization. Late Neolithic people in some places still continued to use stone tools. The gradual changes in pottery styles and the fact that there's no sudden transition from one decorative technique to another suggests this was a quiet historical period. This led to increased cultural change. Pottery was no loner shaped by hand but with a potter's wheel. Metal techniques were developed and people worked with precious metals. The Early Helladic period ended in a series of disasters, mostly brought on by invaders.

Who were these invaders? It's believed they were Greeks, a people less civilized than the people they were conquering. As a consequence, the level of culture dropped and this is what archeologists see at the beginning of the Middle Helladic period.

The Middle Helladic period (2000 BC - 1550 BC) and the Late Helladic period (1550 BC - 1150 BC) is the period we are most concerned with, the period which rivals Hellenistic Greece in its artistic and cultural achievements. This period of one thousand years is a continuous one of undisturbed development. The invaders learned from the civilization they were now masters over.

With the discovery of Grave Circle B (B referring to the fact the this was the second site of group burials found in Mycenae) came more knowledge about Mycenae in the years before its greatest prosperity. In 1951 the discovery of Grave Circle B by George Mylonas (an American archeologist who conducted excavations for the Greek Archeological Society) heralded new information about Mycenae in the Middle Helladic period.

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