Zara Mahmood Professor Belkin AR100 June 13 2013 Lecture 13 Notes Age of Heroes The Bronze Age in the Aegean Aegean Bronze Age 3000 1000 BC Legend of Troy is based predominantly of Homer s writing o Ancient Greeks believed he was a historical figure o Modern scholars are somewhat skeptical o The Iliad and Odyssey Written in meter repetition Memorized and passed down as oral history Greek siege the walls of Troy 10 year siege o Greeks surrender and offer Trojan war as gift o Enter into Troy and burn it to the ground Was Troy real Heinrich Schliemann Self made millionaire Discovered Greek bronze age o Began search for ancient Troy Troy Iliad Troy Schliemann made his first visit to Troad o Fits Homer s description of Troy o Test pits showed no results 1868 1873 Traveled north to Hissarlik fortress o According to Homer near coast large defensive walls o Things Schliemann had to look for these things Hissarlik fit this description Excavated 9 cities in total o Troy I was the lowest o Represent the time period 3000 BC to 4th Century CE Troy I 3600 2600 Deepest level Ended by fire destruction Fortified settlement with walls and three different towers o Evidence that Troy I was Homer s Troy o Evidence was not impressive Zara Mahmood Professor Belkin AR100 June 13 2013 Troy II 2600 2200 Featured inner and outer fortification walls Sloping ramps and an approaching gate Large Megaron structure Series of large storage vessels Also burned like Troy I o Schliemann believed this had more characteristics and was Homeric Troy May 31 1873 Found treasure and believed it was Priam s treasure o Smuggled the treasure away out of the country Turkey sued Schliemann in the Greek court o Schliemann pays excess fine to keep digging in Turkey o Associates take treasure and Schliemann presents it in museum Eventually given to Germany but after the war it went missing o Removal by Russian trophy brigades Troy VI 1800 1250 BC Schliemann returns to Troy and hires Wilhelm Dorpfeld Believes now that this was the correct Troy o Found ceramics that linked it to Homer s period Schliemann died in December 1890 o Dorpfeld continued excavating Troy VI o Found large area of habitation free standing buildings main entrance Pottery that dates to 1600 1100 o Mycenaean Late Bronze Age of the Greek Middleland o Some time of Mycenaean culture there Carl Blegen started excavating there and identified Troy VI as Homer s Troy as well o Argued earthquake caused walls to collapse o Or a war machine was used to dismantle walls Recent excavations by Manfred Korfmann o City extended much further than the tell o Was a larger lower town Troy VI was a large city 66 81 acres Population around 5000 10 000 people A regional Bronze Age center complete with citadel ad lower town o Controlled a strategic location o Had contact with the Mycenaeans Destroyed by conflagration o 1200 BC probably from war unburied skeletons heaps of sling bullets Zara Mahmood Professor Belkin AR100 June 13 2013 Mycenae rich in gold One of the 2 pre Greek civilizations in the Aegean o Developed on the land that would become the Greek civilization Schliemann at Mycenae 1876 o Start to search for the Greeks in Homer Mycenae sits on a hill and surrounded by a large wall o Architecture is known as cyclopean large stone walls Believed only to be able to be moved by Cyclops Lion Gate o Triangle lion sculpted motif Grave Circle A o 16th BCE o Buried in different 6 shafts encircled with limestone o Schliemann uncovered 19 burials During period no evidence of circuit wall o 1250 BC grave circle was included into the city with the wall o Site became a sacred precinct ritual center In shaft graves found extremely elaborate grave goods o Evidence of trade Treasury of Atreus 1400 BCE o Family name of Agamemnon o Descended from the Gods Megaron 3 room mega structure Rectangular structure with column porch Led into ante chamber Column hall with antechamber o Mycaenae featured Megaron Homer s Age of Heroes Described warrior kings ruling small territories o Living in fortified palaces o Agamemnon Mycenae Lyre playing singers of tales o Frescas show parties that depict lyre Bronze weapons o Bronze Age world Zara Mahmood Professor Belkin AR100 June 13 2013 o Bronze 10 parts copper 1 part tin Armor body shields boar s tusk helmets o Bronze body armor and boar s tusk helmet Illiad was probably Bronze Age story Most likely between Mycenaean s and Trojans in the Bronze Age Troy in the Hittite Texts Hittite kings made treaties with ruler of Wilusa The geographical location of Wilusa is probably the area of the Troad o Wilusa ilios o King Alaksandu Alexandros Paris Evidence of Troy in the Hittite texts Homer story were passed down in the oral composition folk tales o Songs rhymes stories o Passed down until written in 500 BC Uluburun Excavations 1300 BC radiocarbon Shipwreck discovered in 1982 by Turkish sponge fishermen Excavated by George Bass and Cemal Pulak 1984 1994 Underwater archaeology applying same land principles to underwater o Treasure hunting diving with intention of obtaining as much context material wealth No preservation Uluburun Dive facts o 60 70 m from shore o site at 30 40 degree slope o 150 200 ft deep o Work time 20 minutes with 20 min decompression twice a day o Total of 22 413 dives totaling 6 613 hours on seabed Primary Cargo of Material o 10 tons of copper o 1 ton tin Used to make Bronze o 354 oxhide ingots Copper ingots were mined in Cyprus o 121 oval ingots o 150 Canaanite storage jars containing aroma resin Cypriot pottery o Mycenaean objects found Found daggers and pottery