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Mycenaean Civilization

• 
  Gold kantharos (drinking cup with two high vertical handles), ca. 1550–1500 B.C.; Late Helladic I
  Mycenaean
  Gold; H. 8 3/8 in. (21.23 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.286.126)
  
• 
  Three female figures, ca. 1400–1300 B.C.; Late Helladic IIIA
  Mycenaean
  Terracotta; 35.11.16: H. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm); 35.11.17: H. 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm); 35.11.18: H. 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm)
  Fletcher Fund, 1935 (35.11.16–.18)
  
• 
  Stemmed cup with murex decoration, late 14th century B.C.; Late Helladic IIIA:2
  Mycenaean
  Terracotta; H. 8 3/8 in. (21.23 cm)
  Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971 (1972.118.137)
  
• 
  Chariot krater, first half of 13th century B.C.; Late Helladic IIIB:1
  Mycenaean
  Terracotta; H. 16 3/8 in. (41.6 cm)
  The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874-76 (74.51.966)
  
• 
  Stirrup jar with octopus, ca. 1200–1100 B.C.; Late Helladic IIIC
  Mycenaean
  Terracotta; H. 10 1/4 in. (26.01 cm)
  Purchase, Louise Eldridge McBurney Gift, 1953 (53.11.6)
  

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Mycenaean is the term applied to the art and culture of Greece from ca. 1600 to 1100 B.C. The name derives from the site of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, where once stood a great Mycenaean fortified palace. Mycenae is celebrated by Homer as the seat of King Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the Trojan War. In modern archaeology, the site first gained renown through Heinrich Schliemann's excavations in the mid-1870s, which brought to light objects whose opulence and antiquity seemed to correspond to Homer's description of Agamemnon's palace. The extraordinary material wealth deposited in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae (ca. 1550 B.C.) attests to a powerful elite society that flourished in the subsequent four centuries.

The extraordinary material wealth deposited in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae (ca. 1550 B.C.) attests to a powerful elite society that flourished in the subsequent four centuries.

Related

Timelines (2)

• Anatolia and the Caucasus, 2000–1000 b.c.
• Southern Europe, 2000–1000 b.c.

Primary Thematic Essays (3)

• List of Rulers of the Ancient Greek World
• Minoan Crete
• Warfare in Ancient Greece

Other Thematic Essays (12)

• Africans in Ancient Greek Art
• Architecture in Ancient Greece
• Athenian Vase Painting: Red- and Black-Figure Techniques
• Geometric and Archaic Cyprus
• Greek Gods and Religious Practices
• Greek Terracotta Figurines with Articulated Limbs
• Prehistoric Cypriot Art and Culture
• Techniques of Decoration on Arms and Armor
• The Cesnola Collection at The Metropolian Museum
• The Techniques of Bronze Statuary in Ancient Greece
• Theseus, Hero of Athens
• Ugarit

Maps (2)

• World, 2000-1000 B.C.
• World, 2000-1000 B.C.

Index Terms (14)

Art Movement/Style

• Minoan Art
• Mycaenean Art

Geography/Place

• The Balkan Peninsula

Material and Technique

• Ceramic from the Balkan Peninsula
• Ceramic from West Asia
• Painted Ceramic from Europe
• Painted Ceramic from West Asia
• Gold from Europe

Subject Matter/Theme

• Aquatic Animal
• Archaeology from Europe
• Indigenous Deity from Europe
• Indigenous Deity from West Asia
• Funerary Art
• Trade (2000–1000 b.c.)

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During the Mycenaean period, the Greek mainland enjoyed an era of prosperity centered in such strongholds as Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes, and Athens. Local workshops produced utilitarian objects of pottery and bronze, as well as luxury items, such as carved gems, jewelry, vases in precious metals, and glass ornaments. Contact with Minoan Crete played a decisive role in the shaping and development of Mycenaean culture, especially in the arts. Wide-ranging commerce circulated Mycenaean goods throughout the Mediterranean world from Spain and the Levant. The evidence consists primarily of vases, but their contents (oil, wine, and other commodities) were probably the chief objects of trade.




Besides being bold traders, the Mycenaeans were fierce warriors and great engineers who designed and built remarkable bridges, fortification walls, and beehive-shaped tombs—all employing Cyclopean masonry—and elaborate drainage and irrigation systems. Their palatial centers, "Mycenae rich in gold" and "sandy Pylos," are immortalized in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Palace scribes employed a new script, Linear B, to record an early Greek language. In the Mycenaean palace at Pylos—the best preserved of its kind—Linear B tablets suggest that the king stood at the head of a highly organized feudal system. By the late thirteenth century B.C., however, mainland Greece witnessed a wave of destruction and the decline of the Mycenaean sites, and the withdrawal to more remote refuge settlements.



Colette Hemingway Independent Scholar

Seán Hemingway Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Hemingway, Colette and Seán Hemingway. "Mycenaean Civilization". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/myce/hd_myce.htm (October 2003) Further Reading Higgins, Reynold Minoan and Mycenaean Art. Rev. ed.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Hood, Sinclair The Arts in Prehistoric Greece. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3d ed., rev.. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pedley, John Griffiths Greek Art and Archaeology. 2d ed.. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998. Robertson, Martin A History of Greek Art. 2 vols.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Von Bothmer, Dietrich "A Greek and Roman Treasury." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 42, no. 1 (Summer, 1984). JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs "Director’s Note" PDF