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The Early Helladic period was in general a prosperous time on the mainland, but it was not to be long-lasted. Around 2200 to 2100 BCE several sites show evidence of destruction, burnings and eventually abandonment. The House of Tiles at Lerna displayed the great wealth of its owners, but at the end of the Early Helladic it was severely damaged by fire and essentially abandoned. The exact cause of these invasions is unknown and highly debated. Emily Vermeule attributes the destructions to waves of invaders from the north of Greece who destroyed the flowering culture of the period, though most scholars today disagree.
Middle Helladic Period (2000-1675 BCE)
The Middle Helladic period is clearly distinct from the Early Helladic directly preceding it, and lays the foundation for the Late Helladic and the Mycenaeans to come. The period itself is not well-known and appears to exhibit less cultural elaboration than the previous period. Many suspect that this was the time during which the Indo-European languages spread throughout Greece and further west into Europe, but it is extremely difficult to prove this with the data available. All in all the Middle Helladic appears to be a transitional period, between the earlier period of international trade and connections and the even more cosmopolitan period yet to come with the Mycenaeans.
The Middle Helladic is characterized by a distinctive pottery style known as Minyan and Matt ceramics (see Mycenaean Art and Mycenaean Chronology). This style is wheel-made and is characterized by sharp, clean edges and elegant lines. In the best examples, it is highly polished and resembles the hematite. Other features of the Middle Helladic are far less impressive. There is a dearth of architecture early on in the period, suggesting a high level of poverty. The people of the mainland maintained contacts with the Cycladic Islands and areas of the Balkans, but the overseas trade typical of the Early Helladic has disappeared. But the Middle Helladic did not remain stagnant for long. It adopted the metalworking of the Early Helladic and eventually took up the architecture as well.
Towards the end of the Middle Helladic, the amazingly wealthy shaft graves at Mycenae are evidence of the growing wealth and influence of the Greek mainlanders. These burials, originally discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, represent the wealthiest burials of the period. Grave Circles A and B are famous for the highly decorated gold and silver objects found within them, from weapons and armor to drinking cups and burial masks (see also Mycenaean Architecture). Generally dated to around 1700, these graves are a sign of the changes occurring on the mainland at this time, the increase in wealth, and the renewal of large-scale architectural projects.
Early Mycenaean Age – Late Helladic Period, I, II, and IIIA (1675-1340 BCE)
The Early Mycenaean period is marked on one end by the creation of the shaft graves at Mycenae and the collapse of the Minoans of Crete on the other end. The beginning of the Early Mycenaean demonstrates the great influence of the Minoan Culture on the entire Aegean world. Numerous examples of Cretan ceramics and jewelry appear all over the Aegean during this period, and especially in the sites of the mainland. Trade relations with Egypt, and possibly other locals in the Eastern Mediterranean, are renewed during this time as evidenced in the Amarna letters of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh, Akhenaten.
At the same time that the Mycenaeans were gathering influences from overseas, they were also developing their own styles of architecture, ceramics and the minor arts. The first instances of the megaron appear in the Early Mycenaean, as well as the Mycenaean tholos tomb, or beehive tomb. The most famous tholos tomb was found at Mycenae, and was mistakenly identified as the Treasury of Atreus by Schliemann (for more information, see Mycenaean Architecture). The new Mycenaean ceramic style was based on the Palace style found on Crete of the Late Minoan period. In many ways Mycenaean pottery decoration was a stylization and abstraction of the more detailed and complex images of the Minoans (see both Minoan Art and Mycenaean Art).
During this period, it is generally agreed that the Mycenaean cities formed themselves into a series of small kingdoms, each centered around a larger city. As far as we can tell, the kingdoms were independent for the most part, though they are united by a common culture. The many weapons found within the tombs of this period testify to the warlike nature of the Mycenaeans, and is accompanied by evidence of warfare among the kingdoms and with other powers. Hittite texts from Anatolia also speak of the propensity for war shared by the Mycenaean cities, as do the traditional stories of this period in later Classical literature. The new script of Linear B reveals the bureaucracy within the kingdoms to a high degree and the level of trade that was conducted between the kingdoms and abroad (see also Mycenaean Society and Way of Life).
The collapse of the Minoan centers on Crete during the fourteenth century BCE left a power vacuum of sorts in the Aegean that was quickly filled by the Mycenaeans.
Late Mycenaean Age – Late Helladic Period, IIIB and IIIC (1340-1020 BCE)
The Late Mycenaean Age was a progression of the trends and events that began in the Early Mycenaean. The power of the Mycenaeans grew, to the point that this period is often referred to as the Mycenaean Empire. The thirteenth century saw great expansion of the culture of Greece. Their influence can be seen in at the once great sites of the Minoan palaces on Crete, all over the islands of the Aegean, and throughout the mainland of Greece.
There was little change in the architecture of the Mycenaeans during this period. The cities and palaces continued to grow in their monumentality. Huge Cyclopean walls were built around cities such as Mycenae, Pylos and Thebes. Most of the ceramics continued to resemble their Minoan forebearers, but new images were also appearing. The Warrior Vase is one example of a truly Mycenaean style and subject matter.
The preeminence of the Mycenaeans in Aegean politics and culture was short-lived, unfortunately. For about 1200 BCE, the city of Pylos was destroyed, the first of many Mycenaean cites to suffer damage and abandonment. All of the major centers on the mainland were either completely destroyed or left behind. The people of these areas began to move away from the old centers of Mycenaean power and into new regions, such as Attica, and left Greece completely. During the twelfth century BCE, there appeared to be a revival of Mycenaean culture and power, but it did not even last the century. The fall of the Mycenaeans on the mainland mark the end of the Bronze Age in Greece. The reasons for this sudden collapse are still unknown, though many have speculated that the invasion of the Dorians might have been responsible, or perhaps raiding by the Sea Peoples named in Egypt.
All that is certain is that is certain about this dramatic end of the Bronze Age is that both the Minoans and the Mycenaean disappeared or changed so drastically that they are virtually unrecognizable in later periods. However, they were remembered in myth and legend by the Classical Greeks, until their rediscovery in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of this era (see Legacy of the Mycenaeans).
Biers, William R. The Archaeology of Greece. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Dickinson, Oliver. The Aegean Bronze Age. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Mylonas, George E. Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.
Vermeule, Emily. Greece in the Bronze Age. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1964.
