Grave Circle A at Mycenae aerial view |
Homer
described the city as "Mycenae, rich in gold" in the great epic poem The
Iliad.
Certainly the graves at Mycenae were rich in gold grave goods,
such as this mask. The splendor of the graves at
Mycenae demonstrate the power and grandeur of the Mycenaean kings
of that time.
The
amateur archeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, went to
Mycenae because it was the legendary home of King Agamemnon,
leader of the Greeks who went to Troy to fight the Trojan
War. He used the text of Pausanias, the second-century A.D.
Roman traveler, as his guide. The site was already well-known,
but he was the first to dig systematically at the site. He discovered
the deep shaft graves which were cut into the rock of the Mycenae
acropolis.
Bodies,
dressed in lavishly decorated shrouds, were adorned with gold
items and diadems and their faces were covered by masks of gold
or electrum (such as the Mask of Agamemnon). The bodies
were lowered into the shafts and spectacular grave goods, made
of precious metals, were placed inside.
When
Schliemann, excavated a Mycenaean grave shaft,
he
discovered this mask and thought he had "gazed upon the
face of Agamemnon," the great king from The
Iliad. Although the Mycenaeans
flourished around 1500 or 1600 BCE, earlier than the supposed
time of Trojan War, this great civilization from the past probably
did inspire the later Homeric tales.
There may well have
been a war between the Mycenaeans and Troy of Asia Minor over
trade dominance. But the shaft graves themselves date from the
early Mycenaean period and were certainly not the graves of Mycenaean
warriors who went to Troy. The graves actually date from the very
beginnings of Mycenaean civilization in 1800-1700 BCE, when there
is no evidence of contact with Troy. The walls of Mycenae
were built later, in the 1400s BCE, and the shaft graves had long
been there.
Plan
B, “The Circular Agora, with the Five Royal Sepulchres,
in the Acropolis of Mycenae,” Mycenae by
Dr. Henry Schliemann, London 1880.
A
tombstone, or stela, discovered at Mycenae. It was one of several
which marked the shaft graves
“The
Third Tombstone, found above the Sepulchres in the Acropolis,”
Mycenae by Dr. Henry Schliemann, London 1880.
At
the peak of Mycenaean civilization, shaft graves were no longer
used. Tholos (Beehive) tombs
came into use around 1500 BCE.
More
on other Mycenaean sites:
The
Palace of Nestor
by Carl W. Blegen
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