Overview of Bronze Age World

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Overview of Bronze Age World
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Approximate Dates

• The Bronze Age primarily took place between 3500
  BC and 1200 BC, and is traditionally divided into
  the Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC), Middle
  Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC), and Late Bronze Age
  (c.1600-1200 BC), with progressively more
  sophisticated metallurgy which culminates in the
  discovery of ironworking.
• The Bronze Age began 5,500 years ago in the
  present-day areas of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq,
  which was also the cradle of human civilization.
  By this time permanent settlements were already a
  few thousands years old, but it took time for
  these early people to discover the potential of
  metallic ores. The birthplace of metallurgy is
  usually taken to be Anatolia, Turkey. The Indian
  Bronze Age began in 3300 BC with the Indus Valley
  civilization. In China and southeast Asia, the
  Bronze Age began around 2100 BC. Throughout
  Europe the Bronze Age began between 2100 BC and
  2000 BC or so, with sophisticated Bronze Age
  civilizations rising throughout the 2nd
  millennium BC.

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Features of bronze age Civilizations

• The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization
  into organized city states
• Monumental architecture
• Settlements still largely agriculturally based
• Social stratification. More complex and skilled
  specialization
• the invention of writing
• In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people
  partially changed the political pattern of the
  Near East with central monarchies
• The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing
  powerful kingdoms and their vassal states
  (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites,
  Mitanni). Warfare common
• Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean
  civilization in which the copper trade played an
  important role

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BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS

• Middle and New Kingdom Egypt
• Mesopotamia
• Caananites
• Hittite Empire
• Indus Valley
• Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations

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Race to Preserve Worlds oldest ( 5,000yrs) town
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Mycenaean civilization compared to Minoan

• Many cultural customs inherited
• Differences Mycenaean Cities fortified Mycenaean
  was a warlike society
• Mycenae weapons and armour found in graves of
  leaders

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Aerial View of Excavated Site
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RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PALACE AT PYLOS
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Mycenae Lion Gatecyclopian Walls
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A Prosperous City State

• Each city state had a fortified palace surrounded
  by massive walls
• Outside of the large estate of the wannax,
  farmland was collectively owned.
• The economy was based on agriculture and
  livestock breeding.
• They produced oil, flax and wool.
• They were also skilled craftsmen
• The images depicted on their pottery and weapons
  illustrate a warrior culture with a taste for
  luxury,

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Grave Goods
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Mycenaean SocietyHierarchically Structured

• King/Ruler
• Warrior Caste Companions (Mycenae)
• Priests and Priestesses
• Officials and Local Administrators
• Scribes
• Farmers
• Slaves

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Warrior Head
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Mycenean society

• Mycenaeans engaged in sea going commerce
• Aggressively expansionist
• Traded with Sicily, Libya, Anatolia
• Fortified towns using masonry
• Later stages used Linear B writing

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CYCLOPEAN MASONRY
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• Evidence of Mycenaean Aggression
• On Linear B tablets lists of Asian slave women
  and imported objects from all over the
  Mediterranean luxury items.Prehistoric arms
  race? The massive fortifications to protect the
  Argive Plain. Do these citadels house one
  extended family, or indicate frequent wars
  between states?Wood examines Greek legend, such
  as the traditional hatred between Thebes
  Orchomenos.

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BRONZE AGE MYCENAEAN WEAPONS
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• Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a
  sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on
  his head. On the inside there was a strong lining
  on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had
  been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned
  all around with rows of white tusks from a
  shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in
  alternate directions in each row. Homer

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Linear A and B
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Mycenaean trade

• Luxury items came from the east- gold ,ivory and
  gemstones
• Amethyst from Egypt and Amber from the Baltic
• Exported products were bronze weapons,
  jewellery, olive oil, wine, wool and stemmed
  drinking cups

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Mycenaean art

• Pottery was wider at the top than the bottom and
  used spirals, bands, fish, vegetable life and
  human figures to decorate.
• Mass produced to satisfy local and trade
• Small clay figures found in great numbers
  especially in tombs
• Small cups, goblets and jugs, many fashioned from
  gold
• Scarabs and gold rings found in tombs

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Early Bronze Age jug
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• Found in large numbers in tombs And shrines,
  these small clay idols were possibly of a female
  deity
• Typical of these simply shaped and painted
  figurines are the ankle length, belted clothing,
  a kind of crown and specific arm postures.
• Because of their similarity to the corresponding
  letters of the Greek alphabet, these types of
  figurines are known as phi and psi idols.

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Burial practices

• Two types may represent a change in dynastic
  rule.
• Grave Circle B
• Tholos tombs, nine found at Mycenaea
• Bodies dressed in lavishly decorated shrouds,
  were adorned with gold items and diadems and
  their faces were covered by masks of gold. The
  bodies were lowered into the shafts and
  spectacular grave goods , made of precious metals
  were placed inside.
• Here were male skulls with crowns of gold and
  golden masks,, here were osseos ladies with
  golden diadems, here were painted vases, beads of
  amethyst and amber, heavily ornamented daggers,
  gold rings and cups, even clothing embroidered
  with thin plates of gold.

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• Archaeologists now believe that gold, tin and
  Amber came from distant ports in Anatolia and the
  Baltic.

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Circle A graves
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Archaeological remains of a Circle A Grave
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Tholos tomb
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Burial goods
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Mycenaean weaponry-Shields were made of wood and
so were not preserved, but images of them were
preserved on bronze daggers.
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Mycenaean soldiery
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END OF GREEK BRONZE AGE

• The collapse of the Mycenaean palaces and
  civilization occurred mysteriously at 1100 BC.
• Various theories have been proposed
• (a) Economic Factors
• (b) Climatic Changes
• (c) Internal Social Upheaval
• (d) Invasion from Outside the Aegean World

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• Fall of Mycenaean Palaces
• After the disruptions at the end of the Bronze
  Age, representational art was lost, along with
  writing and other arts associated with the
  palaces and palace life.

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End of Mycenaea and the Trojan War?

• According to Homer, when Troy was destroyed, it
  was the Mycenaeans who sacked it. Based on the
  archaeological evidence, about the same time
  Hisarlik burned and was destroyed, the entire
  Mycenaean culture was also under attack.
• Beginning about 1300 BC, the rulers of the
  capital cities of the Mycenaean cultures lost
  interest in constructing elaborate tombs and
  expanding their palaces, and began to work in
  earnest on strengthening the fortification walls
  and building underground access to water sources.
  These efforts suggest preparation for warfare.
• One after another, the palaces burned, first
  Thebes, then Orchomenos, then Pylos. After Pylos
  burned, a concerted effort was expended on the
  fortification walls at Mycenae and Tiryns, but to
  no avail.
• By 1200 BC, the approximate time of the
  destruction of Hisarlik, most of the palaces of
  the Mycenaeans had been destroyed.

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HITTITE EMPIRE
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MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE
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• They were able to build a large empire because of
  their military strength. Between 1400 BC and
  1200 BC, they ruled over most of the Fertile
  Crescent.

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The people lived in cities fortified by thick
stone walls. They build palaces and temples.
Outside the cities, farmers grew food for
everyone. Their empire fell apart around 1200 BC.
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A Balance of Power 1200 B. C. E.
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Hattusas-Capital of the Hittite Empire
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RECONSTRUCTED CAPITAl
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Hittite Writing
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Hittite Art and Sculpture
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BRONZE AGE TRADE NETWORKRole of the Black
Sea??moodle
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The Black Sea- crossroads between Europe, Asia
and the Middle East
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Source of tin for the Bronze Age

• Until 1984 we did not know the source of tin for
  the ancient bronze civilizations of the Near
  East. Now more than 40 ancient sites of tin
  mining have been discovered in the Taurus
  mountains of southern Turkey, only 40 km from the
  Cilician Gates,. The area has a great variety of
  metal ores, including deposits of gold and
  silver. But lead is also present, and lead
  artefacts are known from Çatal Höyük. Cast lead
  figurines had become common by the late third and
  early second millenia, and silver was important
  from the late fourth millennium.

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MYTH AS EVIDENCE

• According to Greek mythology, on the eastern
  shores of the Black Sea, there was once a kingdom
  called Kolchis. Located in what is today the
  Republic of Georgia, this kingdom was said to be
  the home of the Golden Fleece, the legendary
  treasure that Jason and his Argonauts set out to
  find .
• The Greeks originally referred to the Black Sea
  as Pontos Axeinos - the Inhospitable Sea - for
  good reason. Large sections of the southern and
  Crimean coasts are mountainous and offer few
  protected anchorages. Violent storms and
  dangerous winds from both north and south made
  navigation treacherous for ancient mariners.
  Despite these hazards, however, the Mediterranean
  cultures were drawn to the Black Sea by its
  enormous economic potential

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• The evidence for Bronze Age Mediterranean
  seafarers in the Black Sea is not limited to
  mythology. Mycenaean anchors and oxhide-shaped
  copper ingots have been found off the western
  coast of the Black Sea. This aspect of Bronze Age
  seafaring, however, remains largely unexplored.

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What Links the Two????
Did Mycenaeans know about the Black Sea? Was
Troy a geo-commercial gatekeeper controlling
access to the Black Sea? Although evidence has
been limited by political opportunities for
maritime archaeology in the Black Sea, recent
projects have revealed Mycenaean pottery at
Kolchis and Masat, oxhide ingots and Mycenaean
double headed axes found in the Ukraine. Likewise
finds at Mycenaea such as the boar tusk helmet is
supposed to have originated from Southern Russia.
Some scholars suppose that the wide use of gold
in Mycenaean shaft graves is linked to Pontic
trade known to be a rich source of gold. This
gives a much larger meaning to the Myth of Jason
and the Golden Fleece