I.

Introduction

Aegean Civilization, term used to denote the Bronze Age civilization that developed (c. 3000-1200 bc) in the basin of the Aegean Sea, mainly on Crete, the Cyclades, and the mainland of Greece. It consisted of two major cultures: the Minoan, which flourished in Crete and reached its height in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1450 bc), notably at Knossos and Phaistos; and the Mycenaean, which developed in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1450-1100 bc) at Mycenae and other centres on the Greek mainland, including Tiryns and Pylos.

II.

The Discovery of Aegean Civilization

Ancient Greek writers had related stories of an ancient “age of heroes”, when the gods themselves intervened in great events and the endeavours of humans. The story of King Minos and the killing of the Minotaur by Theseus, related in Greek mythology, may be a faint echo of the battle for hegemony in the Aegean in which Mycenae gained control over Knossos. In the Iliad, Homer describes the Trojan War and the fall of Troy at the hands of the Greeks, as well as such sites as Mycenae and Pylos. However, no concrete knowledge about the existence of Aegean civilization emerged until the late 19th century, when archaeological excavations began at the cities of Troy and Mycenae, at Knossos, and at other sites.

In 1870 the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began excavating Hissarlik, a mound in Turkey, and found what are believed to be the ruins of Troy. In Greece he uncovered the sites of Mycenae in 1876-1878 and Tiryns in 1884. Finds of fortress palaces, pottery, ornaments, and royal tombs containing gold and other artefacts demonstrated the existence of a well-developed civilization that had flourished from about 1500 to 1200 bc. Schliemann’s work has been continued by numerous archaeologists in the 20th century.

In 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered a huge palace complex at Knossos, Crete, that he associated with King Minos and the labyrinth. Evans also found baked clay tablets with two types of writing, now known as Linear A and Linear B, dating from the middle of the 2nd millennium bc. Linear B tablets from about 1200 bc have also been found at Pylos and at other Mycenaean sites. Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B and John Chadwick, a Classical scholar, proved that it is an early form of Greek. Linear A, the language of Minoan Crete, has not yet been deciphered. The discovery of Linear B on Crete supported the conclusion that the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece gained ascendancy over the Minoans.

The existence of a civilization that had connections with both the mainland and Crete is indicated by artefacts found in the Cyclades. Since the 1930s Greek excavations of a Cycladic settlement on the island of Thera, also known as Santorini, have uncovered frescos and artefacts similar to those of the Minoan civilization. Thera was apparently destroyed by a great volcanic eruption about 1625 bc. (Suggestions that the disaster may have been the basis for the writings by Plato on the lost continent of Atlantis can only be speculative.) More recent excavations on the islands encircling Delos have traced the Cycladic culture back to the 4th millennium bc, when merchants, in search of obsidian (a volcanic glass that is highly suitable for toolmaking), and fishermen established seasonal settlements there. Although no examples of writing have been found, Cycladic culture produced distinctive pottery, jewellery, and unique types of stylized marble figures, generally of women and often life-size in scale, that were often placed in burials.

III.

The Development of Aegean Civilization

Recent archaeological discoveries, such as those at the village of Dimini in Thessaly, northern Greece, have produced material evidence of a cultural progression from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) to the Bronze Age, which began about 3000 bc and which can be divided into three periods: Early, Middle, and Late.

A.

Early Bronze Age

In about 3000 bc a new people apparently arrived in the Aegean, perhaps from Asia Minor. They used bronze to make weapons and tools, and thus introduced bronze-working to the Aegean. On the mainland, their villages appear to have been small independent units, often protected by thick walls; on Crete and in the Cyclades, their buildings gradually became more complex. Burials were communal throughout the Aegean, but burial practices varied. On the mainland, pit graves and some of the more elaborate constructions were common. In the Cyclades, graves consisted of stone-lined burial chambers (cists). On Crete, burials were made in circular stone tombs, rectangular ossuaries (bone depositories), and caves. In all these burials, provision was made for the placing of cult offerings, and the dead were often buried with rich grave goods.

B.

Middle Bronze Age

In about 2200 to 1800 bc population movements resulted in another wave of newcomers arriving in the Cyclades and on the mainland. They caused considerable destruction, and for about two centuries civilization was disrupted, especially on the mainland. The invaders introduced new types of pottery and the use of horses. Like their predecessors, they also spoke a language of the Indo-European family, to which both ancient Greek and modern Greek belong.

On Crete, impressive buildings, frescos, vases, and early writing attest to a flourishing culture in the 2nd millennium bc, which came to be known as Minoan. Great royal palaces built around large courtyards were the focal points of these communities. The most magnificent palace was at Knossos. It was destroyed, presumably by an earthquake or a foreign invasion, in about 1700 bc, after which it was rebuilt on a grand scale. It seems likely that the Minoans maintained a marine empire, trading not only with the Cyclades and the mainland but also with Sicily, Egypt, and cities on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.

Minoan religion featured a snake-priestess, or snake-goddess, whose worship was associated with fertility and the lunar and solar cycles. This central cult figure may have been a goddess of Middle Eastern type, who, together with her dying and resurrected consort, probably symbolized the seasons.

C.

Late Bronze Age

The destruction of the Cretan palaces about 1450 bc (that of Knossos took place shortly after 1400 bc) was followed by the decline of Minoan culture and the subsequent rise of the Mycenaean. Some scholars have connected this change with the volcanic eruption on Thera, but recent calculations place this disaster some 200 years earlier. Mycenaean-style art and Linear B tablets found on Crete indicate the presence there of people from the Peloponnese. On the mainland, heavily fortified cities became the new centres of Aegean civilization. Painted vases and decorated weapons, on which hunting and battle scenes are depicted, suggest the warlike aspect of Mycenaean culture. Artistic styles are also more formal and geometric than those of earlier examples, anticipating the Geometric style of Greek art.

The focal point of the typical Mycenaean city was the fortress-palace of the king. The cities themselves were defended by massive ramparts of unevenly cut stones, known as cyclopean walls. The Linear B tablets from this time mention the names of Greek gods, such as Zeus, and bear detailed records of royal possessions. The gold masks, weapons, and jewellery found by Schliemann in royal graves point to the great wealth and power that the Mycenaeans acquired when they gained control of the Minoan trading empire. Troy, which is believed to have been situated on the mainland of Asia Minor (now Turkey) near the Hellespont, was strategically placed to intercept trading vessels and exact exorbitant tolls from the Mycenaeans. Archaeological evidence indicates that a city on this site was destroyed about 1200 bc, close to the date (1184 bc) given as that of the fall of Troy by ancient Greek writers.

Shortly after 1200 bc Aegean civilization collapsed. Many cities were sacked and deserted, and a period of instability followed, characterized by a movement of populations. This collapse may have been caused by a combination of social, economic, and environmental factors: rebellion against a rich upper class may have led to the destruction of the royal palaces; trade in the eastern Mediterranean may have been destroyed by piratical bands; and climate change may have led to drought and starvation. A period generally described as the Dark Ages followed.

IV.

Aegean Art and Architecture

Aegean art is remarkable for the naturalistic pictorial style that originated in Minoan Crete; the movement and variety seen in Minoan art, even in its earlier abstract phases, suggest living things. From Crete, this style spread to the other Aegean islands and the Greek mainland, where it was modified by geometric tendencies.

A.

Architecture

The best-known and best-preserved examples of Minoan architecture are the palaces of Crete. The four major palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and Zakros followed the same basic plan. Rooms, on several levels, were organized around a large central court. These courts probably accommodated crowds of worshippers, who gathered in front of the cult rooms to the west. The palaces also had extensive basement storage areas, artists’ workshops, dining halls, and sumptuous living quarters (including bathrooms) for the noble ruling families. The structures were light and flexible, rather than monumental, and entirely unfortified. The distinctive Minoan column, with its downwardly tapering shape, suggests movement rather than stability. Another specifically Minoan feature was the polythyron, a wall made of doors, which allowed ventilation or made it possible to close off part of a room.

The private residences of Minoan Crete ranged from simple peasant dwellings to rich mansions and villas, constructed with the same features and fine techniques as the palaces. A wide variety of buildings were constructed for burials. The most distinctive were the tholos tombs of southern Crete, circular buildings with corbelled stone vaulting, built large enough to accommodate family burials for many centuries.

Royal palaces on the Greek mainland were completely different from those on Crete. They consisted of the characteristic megaron, a dominant central hall, which was entered from a courtyard through a porch flanked by columns, and which had a large central hearth surrounded by four columns. The megara of the palaces at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos were strikingly similar. The mainland sites tended to be fortified with huge walls of cyclopean masonry, constructed of massive, irregular blocks. Recent excavations at Mycenae indicate that, as in Crete, the palaces served as centres of worship as well as of government. For royal burials the Mycenaean Greeks first used shaft graves, but later adopted the Minoan tholos tomb, developing it into an impressive burial structure. The tombs were covered by tumuli, or artificial mounds of earth, and were entered through long passageways. In the most developed tombs, such as the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the large, circular spaces were dramatically vaulted with thick canopies of stone.

B.

Painting: Frescos

In Crete the palaces and houses were often decorated with bright wall paintings. The Minoans made a major contribution to the art of landscape painting. Only in the Aegean were landscapes depicted for their own sake, without human figures. Minoan artists represented the terrain with undulating contours and swirling bands of colour to emphasize the vitality of life. The scenes were enlivened with animals, such as monkeys and birds, in sprightly movement amid swaying foliage. Figures were depicted in instantaneous moments of action and in a great variety of poses. It is primarily in ritual scenes, such as the bull-leaping fresco from the palace at Knossos, that human figures are depicted. Occasionally, frescos were rendered in a special shorthand method of painting known as the miniature style, whereby crowds of people were depicted in a small area with a few lightly sketched strokes.

Recent excavations on Thera have revealed prosperous private dwellings decorated with well-preserved frescos in a style closely related to that of Crete, although the scenes from nature are depicted in a more abstract manner. Many of the frescos on Thera feature children, who are portrayed at different ages and with shaven heads, except for hair-locks. One particularly important painting, from a site known as the West House, presents a narrative scene in an elaborate setting, the most extensive landscape known before the Hellenistic period. An entire Aegean world is depicted, with a fleet of lavishly ornamented ships sailing from town to town.

The Minoan pictorial repertoire and fresco technique were later adopted on the Greek mainland, where religious scenes similar to those from Crete and Thera were depicted. Hunting and fighting scenes were also popular.

C.

Sculpture

Among the earliest examples of sculpture from the Aegean are the highly schematic early Cycladic figures. From these beginnings evolved life-size, brightly painted marble figures, generally of women with their arms folded beneath their breasts, and an astonishing array of seated male figures generally playing harps or holding drinking cups in their hands.

Most extant Minoan sculpture takes the form of statuettes and figurines in various materials, and seals in semi-precious stone cut with intaglio motifs. These seals have proved useful in determining the development of Minoan culture.

Among the most important artefacts of the Aegean civilization are the bronze figurines associated exclusively with Minoan sites. They include male and female worshippers with their arms raised in adoration as well as images of a crawling infant, a bull with a leaping figure, and a reclining goat. The Minoan artists excelled in the carving of ivory figurines to which secondary materials were added to enhance their effect. In addition to the figures of goddesses associated with animals, a further image was found in 1987 at Palaikastro, Crete, of a youthful god, the body of carved ivory covered with gold leaf and the head carved from a single piece of blue-grey serpentine.

The Minoans also excelled in the sculpting of stone vessels, many of which were enhanced with relief decoration. Stone sculpting on a large scale, however, is best represented by the Mycenaeans, who embellished their architecture with reliefs. The façade of the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae is adorned with contrasting red and green marbles in the form of columns and a frieze of spirals. The stone stelae, or commemorative plaques, recovered above the royal shaft graves at Mycenae, contain both geometric and figural motifs. A typical example of this kind of decoration is the monumental stone relief above the Lion Gate at Mycenae, in which two lions stand majestically either side of a column. The Mycenaeans also excelled as carvers of circular ivory containers, statuettes, and decorative plaques.

D.

Pottery and Metalwork

With the building of the great Cretan palaces came the development of pottery as a luxury art. Employing the same three-part firing technique later used by Attic potters, Cretan artists created splendid vases of numerous shapes and a seemingly endless variety of colourful decorations. Highly regarded in the ancient world, Minoan pottery was copied throughout the Aegean and even exported to Egypt and the Near East. In the later periods, the decoration included naturalistic motifs, such as floral forms and the well-known Marine style, with octopuses, shellfish, and seaweed painted in rich overall designs. Minoan pottery was imitated on the Greek mainland, where it gradually evolved in both shape and decoration into harsher, more disciplined forms. In the final phase, the Mycenaeans introduced animals and human figures as part of the decoration.

The art of fine metalworking also developed in Minoan Crete. Among the few surviving objects, the granulated gold pendant in the form of two opposed bees, from Mallia, testifies to Minoan expertise at working precious metals. The most impressive Mycenaean finds of metalwork were discovered in the shaft graves and tholos tombs of the mainland. They include gold masks and grave goods embossed with geometric designs. The burials also contained luxurious gold and silver vases and ornamented bronze weapons, many by Minoan artisans. Some of the vessels were decorated with elaborate figures and scenes hammered in repoussé relief. Other vessels, as well as daggers of bronze, were inlaid with designs of different-coloured metals, a technique sometimes referred to as “painting with metal”. These intricate products were the most prized objects of the Aegean.