Mycenaean archaeology and the Pylos texts

Abstract

The Mycenaean Greek Bronze Age is a relatively new field of study, if one takes the long view of historical enquiry, but it has managed to ca pture the imaginations of scholars and amateurs more than any ot her field of Classical studies.Mycenae was always known to the ancient world; nearly 25 centuries ago an exiled Athenian general turned historian, Thucydides, speculated about its size and the nature of its power.But not until a mere century ago did a German entrepreneur turned archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, begin recovering the material remains of Mycenae, Tiryns and other fortified citadels that dominated mainland Greece in the late second millennium OC: (Schliemann 1878; 1886; Schuchhardt 1891: Bennet, Figure 2).As a result of his discoveries, the term 'Mycenaeans' has been applied by archaeologists to all the Late Bronze Age inhabitants of Greece.Since Sehl iemann's time exploration has continued, and the material remains recovered suggest a sophisti ca ted, cosmopolitan culture, which reached its floruit in the 14th-13th centuries BC (summaries in: Vermeule 1972; Mylonas 1966; Stubbings 1973; 1975a; 1975b; Hooker 1977).Monumental bui !ding complexes --the term 'palaces' is convenient, so long as we resist its modern political and social connotations --have been excavated in different parts of Greece, and surveys have located sites of various sizes in the regions around the palaces.Mycenae is the focal point of one such grouping, or 'kingdom' ; others exist at Pylos and at Thebes (Bennet, Figure 2).

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