MYCENAEANS

WHO WERE THEY?

• Mighty sea traders
• Controlled the Aegean Sea
• Influenced by Egyptians and Mesopotamians
• Lived in separate City-States
• Conquered Crete

How did they get their name?

The main city, Mycenae, was located in the Peloponnesus.

LANGUAGE

• Tablets found in Knossos on Crete
• Called Linear B
• Deciphered by Michael Ventris
• Used Linear A (Minoan) symbols, but was Early Greek

THE TROJAN WAR

• Conflict between the Mycenaeans and the Trojans
• Troy controlled straits between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas
• Occurred around 1250 BCE
• The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer tell the story of the war

TROJAN WAR MYTHOLOGY

• Paris kidnaps Helen
• Agamemnon leads Greeks
• War lasts 10 years

HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN

• Archaeologist in the 1800s
• Wanted to find the Troy Homer wrote about
• Dug in Turkey, claimed he found Troy
• Careless, destroyed artifacts
• His finds are dated too early for the Trojan War