The Island of Crete has a very moderate climate and the soil is fertile. The presence of Ethiopians at the Trojan War may shed some light on the demographics during the Mycenean era. The city of Byblos (which traded cedar for paper) was closely linked to papyrus, so much so that when the writings of the Hebrew prophets were translated into Greek, the city’s name, Byblos, was given to the Bible. The Minoans did not speak Greek but had extensive contact with Egypt and the Near East, particularly the Phoenicians who were also maritime people, and they passed this culture to the Mycenaeans. Furthermore, the Middle Kingdom was the nexus between the Old Kingdom (2666–2181) that erected the pyramids and the New Kingdom (1550–1069) which further expanded Egypt’s dominance in the region. If you subtract 430 years from 1546, it equals the year 1116 BCE which is very close to the historical date of the establishment of the state of Israel, the decline of Mycenae and the New Kingdom. until the Mycenaeans defeated them and took over (Biers, 1980, 27). According to the Greeks, the original inhabitants of Greece were the Achaeans and the Ionians, who fought in the Trojan War. Both products were uniquely Egyptian, yet they entered Greece, not from the Egyptians, but through the Phoenicians. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15165017, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4390535, The Princess Who Married the World’s Richest Boy, Spirit Scripts: Japan’s mysterious outcast alphabets, The Englishwoman Who Joined a Harem (sort of): Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s The Turkish Letters…, The Fascinating World of the Amazon Warrior Women. The greatness of David and Solomon may have been attributed to the incorporation of ideas that they inherited from the Philistines, who in turn inherited some of them from the Canaanites. The navy itself became the walls of the nation. However, this time also corresponds with the rise of the sea people some of which were the Philistines mentioned in the Bible from which the name Palestine emerged. On the island of Crete between 2000 and 1700 B.C. Although the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures were both influenced by more sophisticated cultures to their south and east, the impact of the Minoans on the Mycenaeans can be seen in the imitation of Minoan culture and products. The Mycenaeans (Greek people) on islands and the mainland of Europe to the north had seen the grandeur of Crete. Meyers, however, was the exact opposite, leading from the Egyptians directly to the Minoans (Keftiu). Many of the paintings, sculptures, and pottery have been found intact. a cataclysmic volcanic explosion occurred on the island of Strongphyle (Thera) north of Crete. Their activities and raiding were wide ranging. For example, he cites the Greek legend that Daedalus, the builder of the Knossan labyrinth modeled his structure on the then famous labyrinth of Amememhet III of the 12th Dynasty. Evans was not a professional scholar, however, like Schliemann, he was guided by the Greek tradition of recording the history of Crete in their legends. The Mycenaeans came to dominate most of mainland Greece and several islands, extending trade relations to other Bronze Age cultures in such places as Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt. Recently, much has been made about the tradition and influence of Western Civilization on the world. It is not known from where the Minoans first came to settle on the Island of Crete. Minoan culture became a powerful force in the region. For the next several hundred years, Greece fell into a period called the Greek Dark Age. Possession of writing was absolutely essential for enforcing contracts and keeping track of property. However, Western Civilization did not originate in Western Europe, but instead, in the eastern part of the continent and stands on the shoulders of older civilizations in Africa and the Middle East. Destruction. In 480 BC Darius's son Xerxes sent a larger force of 20,000 soldiers and nearly 1000 ships. Located on the island of Create, Mycenae was a major centre of culture, military power and trade from around 1600 to 1100 BC. This is mainly because of the difficulty in translating Minoan texts, but may also stem from a relative equality among individuals and classes that may have discouraged monuments to specific great figures. Social Studies, 22.06.2019 15:30, kezin. The Greeks celebrated this age in the poems of Homer and in the oral tradition prevalent before the Greeks learned how to read and write from the Phoenicians. The connection between the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, the Trojan War and the rise of Israel (or the possibility that the Philistines were perhaps responsible for the decline of the Canaanites) is seldom mentioned. Now known as the Thera Eruption, it was so great that earthquakes destroyed buildings and structures in much of the surrounding region. About a millennium before the Common Era, the Mycenaean culture grew weak and was conquered by invaders from the north known as Dorians. In 1954 CE, Michael Ventris demonstrated that the Linear B script was a form of Greek. They were the Dorians, the Aeolians, the Achaeans and the Ionians. Trojan Wars. But another invasion, this time of a more barbaric people known as the Dorians made their own invasion, first of Mycenae and then of Crete. It was natural, like other subsequent island nations, that they should become heavily engaged in trade overseas. The interconnections antedate not only the earliest Hebrew and Greek writings, but also the earliest texts of Sumer and Egypt. However, for reasons unknown but often speculated, the Mycenaean culture collapsed around 1200 BCE and the period between 1200 BCE and about 800 BCE is often referred to as the Dark Ages of the Greeks. Unfortunately, there is little concrete known about individual people or events on Crete. The Minoans, who were known particularly for their extensive trade and dominance of the sea, existed from about 27th century B.C. Which sentences describes a cycle of dependency? Perhaps there was increased fighting among the Mycenaean cities, or perhaps there was a foreign invasion from the north of Greece. After Homer, the activity of… There is perhaps a nexus between the Mycenean myths told by the Greeks, the stories in the Bible and history as recorded by the Egyptians. Economic activity and limited size of the military brought rich rewards to every level of society.1 Even the poorest appears to have lived in multi-roomed dwellings. In 1900 CE, Evans came upon a building with nearly twelve hundred rooms. This does not, however, exclude direct cultural diffusion as Mycenaean artifacts were discovered in Egypt by Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942). Historians and scholars have often pondered if the legends delineated in Homer’s two epic poems were myth masqueraded as history or true events. For example, the frescos found on Crete show the importance of cult games in Minoan life. Because the language is so unfamiliar, Linear A has proved to be difficult to translate. The Mycenaeans (Greek people) on islands and the mainland of Europe to the north had seen the grandeur of Crete. Mycenaean culture included elaborate burial practices, but only for the wealthy aristocracy. to 14th century B.C. When the Minoan culture disappeared in about 1600 B.C.E., for reasons archeologists still have yet to discover, the Mycenaean culture began to flourish on mainland Greece and invaded Crete, where they encountered the Minoans. It is believed by most historians that the Trojans were not Greeks, but vassals of the Hittites to the east of modern-day Turkey. Yet the people out-grew the limited resources of their island; to maintain their standard of living they had to reach out. In fact, Ethiopia was the place where the gods came to feast, and the Greeks often referred to them as the blameless race. It is believed that the writing was read left to right across the page and referred to syllables, usually a consonant followed by a vowel. My own conjectures were founded, first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair.” Sesostris was a pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom who led a military expedition into Europe. Meyer contends that the name Minoan assigned to the denizens of Crete is a misnomer and the real name of those inhabitants is Keftiu. The Mycenaeans. Moreover, it was a practice of the Egyptians to raise the son of the king of their vassals in Egypt, thus, molding its future leaders in the image of the Egyptians. The Greeks became known as Hellenes and Greece as Hellas. It was a great place to grow olives and grapes, commodities which were easily exportable. Furthermore, Herodotus wrote in his history centuries later: “The Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris (Senusret). The Mycenaeans were influenced by the Minoan civilization from the island of Crete who were, in turn, influenced by the Egyptians and Mesopotamians. It's my opinion that the Myceanean culture, that was created on the ashes of the volcanic eruption that destroyed, not only Thera, but the Minoan Crete and the Egyptian cities, was influenced by the culture that existed on the Greek island, today's Santorini, which, I believe, it was the culture that influenced the Minoan, the Egyptian, and Plato's imagination! Map of Mycenaean Greece, stretched over the mainland, the islands of the Aegean Sea and Crete, via Wikipedia It is an era of great might and splendor, fierce warriors and great kings inspired Homer to write his epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. … Yet the Mycenaeans went one … Whatever the reason, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed around 1100 BC. Many historians associate Hyksos with the Jews in Egypt at the time of Joseph and the Exodus. The Iliad and the Odyssey, however, are only two parts of an eight-part known as “the Epic Cycle” of the Trojan War that emanates from a much older oral tradition. What is known about Linear A is due to a comparison with a later script called Linear B which was used after the Mycenaean invasion and referred to a language more easily deciphered that was similar to Greek. Like his predecessor Schliemann, Evans followed Homer and Theseus’ Cord back to the island of Crete. Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BC.It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. Describe three aspects of Mycenaean civilization that influenced later Greek culture. The mountains of Greece also provided precious metals like silver and gold to the city-states. Tholos Tombs. Although there is no Egyptian historical record of Jewish slaves in Egypt, the biblical narrative could reflect the suppression of the Hyksos in Egypt and their presence in the Levant. The influence of the Minoan civilization outside Crete has been seen in the evidence of valuable Minoan handicraft items on the Greek mainland. The Colossus of Memnon demonstrates that the Greeks, on occasion, associated Egyptians with Ethiopians. He had three sons Dorus, Aeolus and Xuthus from which the main Greek ethnic groups originated. However, it took on a flavor all its own. The most active years of the Early Mycenaean Age are those from Egypt’s New Kingdom from the rise of Thutmose III to the end of Amenhotep III about 1380 BCE. The land was fertile and well-watered. Mycenaean tholos tombs have been found on mainland Greece as well as on Crete. In the top painting below, those on the right are Egyptians, and on the left foreigners entering into Egypt: a consistent theme of the Intermediate Periods. C. Mycenaean culture was influenced by the Minoans. And maybe this was the biggest influence of the mycenean civilization to later greek culture. Thus, they became a mercantile people. Minoan palaces, for example, had open designs and lavish courtyards. Although the legend of Troy had been around for millenniums, it was the excavation conducted by Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) that linked Mycenae to Troy. It is also important to note that during the Mycenaean period, the Phoenicians were under the Egyptian sphere of influence which gave them access to Egyptian expertise and products that they modified to make goods of which the Greeks emulated. Depictions of women show them on a par with men rather than subservient, and to even have engaged in some of the more dangerous sports to which the Minoans seemed devoted. Just as geography was a deciding factor in the rise of the Minoans, it would also play a decisive and dramatic role in their downfall. Just as Kaiser and Czar have their entomological roots in the great Roman emperor Caesar, Menes and Mino may have a similar relationship as Menes undoubtedly was the Caesar of his day. Before the rise of Mycenaean civilization in mainland Greece, Minoan civilization flourished on the large island of Crete. Geography | Also, part of Greek legend is the presence of Ethiopians at the battle of Troy and the reverence for Ethiopia during the Heroic period. Thus, the pillars of Western Civilization stand on the foundation laid in foreign lands millenniums before. These aspects of Minoan culture were so powerful that they are reflected in curious Greek myths, including that of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. Even so, it is thought that the government was run more as a huge corporation than as the hereditary possession of a few families. 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