Mycenaean Greece: Map & History
Mycenaean Greece, also called Mycenaean civilization, was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.
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Mycenaean Greece, also called Mycenaean civilization, was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 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. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, and Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, and Athens in Central Greece, and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, and on Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant and Italy.
Modern Countries Once Part of Mycenaean Greece
At its mapped extent, Mycenaean Greece covered territory in 1 present-day country. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Mycenaean Greece's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Mycenaean Greece in Depth
History
Scholars have proposed different theories on the origins of the Mycenaeans. According to one theory, Mycenaean civilization reflected the exogenous imposition of archaic Indo-Europeans from the Eurasian steppe onto the pre-Mycenaean local population. An issue with this theory, however, is the very tenuous material and cultural relationship between Aegean and northern steppe populations during the Bronze Age. Another theory proposes that Mycenaean culture in Greece dates back to circa 3000 BC with Indo-European migrants entering a mainly-depopulated area; other hypotheses argue for a date as early as the seventh millennium BC (with the spread of agriculture) and as late as 1600 BC (with the spread of chariot technology).
Economy
The Mycenaean economy, given its pre-monetary nature, was a palace economy, focusing on the redistribution of goods, commodities and labor by a central administration. The preserved Linear B records in Pylos and Knossos indicate that the palaces were closely monitoring a variety of industries and commodities, the organization of land management and the rations given to the dependent personnel. The Mycenaean palaces maintained extensive control of the nondomestic areas of production through careful control and acquisition and distribution in the palace industries, and the tallying of produced goods.
Legacy
In the 8th century BC, after the end of the so-called Greek Dark Ages, Greece emerged with a network of myths and legends, the greatest of all being that of the Trojan Epic Cycle. In general, the Greeks of Classical antiquity idealized the Mycenaean period as a glorious period of heroes, closeness of the gods and material wealth. The legends of Homer's Epics were especially and generally accepted as part of the Greek past and it was not until the 19th century that scholars began to question Homer's historicity. At this time, German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann undertook the first modern archaeological excavations in Greece at the site of Mycenae in 1876. Thus, Schliemann set out to prove the historical accuracy of the Iliad by identifying the places described by Homer.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Mycenaean Greece (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Mycenaean Greece: Key Facts
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Facts from Wikidata Q181264 (CC0).
Mycenaean Greece Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Mycenaean Greece appears, with the other states of the time.
Mycenaean Greece Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 71,057 km² in 1210 BCE.
Mycenaean Greece: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Mycenaean Greece exist?
Mycenaean Greece is dated to 1500 BCE – 1101 BCE, in the Bronze Age Civilizations era.
How large was Mycenaean Greece at its peak?
At its peak in 1210 BC Mycenaean Greece covered about 71,057 km².
How did the map of Mycenaean Greece change over time?
Mycenaean Greece appears on 2 dated world maps in the atlas, from 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE. Each shows its borders in that year next to the other states of the time.
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