Early European History. Hutton Webster
so distant that the historic Greeks had lost all sight of it. As in the Orient, [4] the labors of modern scholars are yearly adding to our knowledge of ancient life.
[Illustration: Map, AEGEAN CIVILIZATION]
[Illustration: EXCAVATIONS AT TROY The great northeast tower of the sixth city. The stairs at the right belong to the eighth city.]
SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT TROY
The man who did most to reveal the prehistoric civilization of Greece was a wealthy German merchant named Heinrich Schliemann. An enthusiastic lover of Homer, he believed that the stories of the Trojan War related in the Iliad were not idle fancies, but real facts. In 1870 A.D. he started to test his beliefs by excavations at a hill called Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor. Here tradition had always fixed the site of ancient Troy. Schliemann's discoveries and those of later explorers proved that at Hissarlik at least nine successive cities had come into existence, flourished, and passed away. Excavations completed in 1892 A.D. have shown that the sixth city in order from the bottom was the one described in the Homeric poems. It had powerful walls defended by towers, well-fortified gates, and palaces of stone. The marks of fire throughout the ruins indicate that the city must have been destroyed by a disastrous conflagration.
SCHLIEMANN'S EXCAVATIONS AT MYCENAE AND TIRYNS
The remarkable disclosures at Troy encouraged Schliemann to excavate other Homeric sites. At Mycenae, a prehistoric city of Argolis in Greece, he laid bare six rock-hewn graves, containing the skeletons of nineteen persons, men, women, and children. The faces of the dead had been covered with thin masks of gold, and their bodies had been decked with gold diadems, bracelets, and pendants. The other funeral offerings include gold rings, silver vases, and a variety of bronze weapons. At Tiryns, once the capital of Argolis, he uncovered the ruins of an extensive structure with gateways, open courts, and closed apartments. Characteristic of this edifice were the separate quarters occupied by men and women, the series of storerooms for provisions, and such a modern convenience as a bathroom with pipes and drains. In short, the palace at Tiryns gives us a clear and detailed picture of the home of a Homeric prince.
[Illustration: LIONS' GATE, MYCENAE The stone relief, of triangular shape, represents two lions (or lionesses) facing each other on opposite sides of a pillar. The heads of the animals have been lost.]
EVANS'S EXCAVATIONS AT GNOSSUS
But the fame of even Schliemann's discoveries has been somewhat dimmed by the excavations made since 1900 A.D. on the site of Gnossus, the ancient capital of the island of Crete. At Gnossus an Englishman, Sir Arthur Evans, has found the remains of an enormous palace, with numerous courts, passages, and rooms. Here is the royal council chamber with the throne on which the king once sat. Here are the royal magazines, still filled with huge earthenware jars for the storage of provisions. A great number of brilliant pictures—hunting scenes, landscapes, portraits of men and women—cover the palace walls. Buried in some of the chambers were thousands of clay tablets with inscriptions which, if ever read, will add new chapters to ancient history. [5]
[Illustration: THE VAPHIO GOLD CUPS (National Museum, Athens) These beautiful objects were found in 1888 within a "bee-hive" tomb at Vaphio in Laconia. The two cups are of beaten gold, ornamented with designs in repoussé work. The first scene represents a wild-bull hunt. The companion piece pictures four tame bulls under the care of a herdsman.]
[Illustration: SILVER FRAGMENT FROM MYCENAE (National Museum, Athens) A siege scene showing the bows, slings, and huge shields of Mycenaean warriors. In the background are seen the masonry of the city wall and the flat-roofed houses.]
These discoveries in the Aegean enable us to place another venerable center of civilized life by the side of Babylonia and Egypt. As early as 3000 B.C. the primitive inhabitants of the Aegean were giving up the use of stone tools and weapons for those of metal. Bronze soon came into general use, as is shown by the excavations. The five centuries between 1600 and 1100 B.C. appear to have been the time when the civilization of the Aegean Age reached its highest development.
THE FINE ARTS
Remarkable progress took place during Aegean times in some of the fine arts. We find imposing palaces, often splendidly adorned and arranged for a life of comfort. Wall paintings, plaster reliefs, and fine carvings in stone excite our admiration. Aegean artists made beautiful pottery of many shapes and cleverly decorated it with plant and animal forms. They carved ivory, engraved gems, and excelled in the working of metals. Some of their productions in gold, silver, and bronze were scarcely surpassed by Greek artists a thousand years later. [6]
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There was much intercourse throughout the Mediterranean during this
period. Products of Aegean art have been found as far west as Sicily,
Italy, and Spain, Aegean pottery has frequently been discovered in
Egyptian tombs. Some objects unearthed in Babylonia are apparently of
Aegean workmanship. In those ancient days Crete was mistress of the seas.
Cretan merchants preceded the Phoenicians as carriers between Asia and
Europe. [7] Trade and commerce thus opened up the Mediterranean world to
all the cultural influences of the Orient.
[Illustration: A CRETAN GIRL (Museum of Candia, Crete) A fresco painting from the palace of Gnossus. The girl's face is so astonishingly modern in treatment that one can scarcely believe that the picture belongs to the sixteenth century B.C.]
DOWNFALL OF AEGEAN CIVILIZATION
Aegean civilization did not penetrate beyond the shores of Asia Minor, the islands, and the coasts of Continental Greece. The interior regions of the Greek peninsula remained the home of barbarous tribes, which had not yet learned to build cities, to create beautiful objects of art, or to traffic on the seas. By 1100 B.C. their destructive inroads brought the Aegean Age to an end.
23. THE HOMERIC AGE (ABOUT 1100–750 B.C.)
COMING OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS
The barbarians who overthrew Aegean civilization seem to have entered Greece from the north, perhaps from the region the Danube River. They pushed gradually southward, sometimes exterminating or enslaving the earlier inhabitants of the country, but more often settling peaceably in their new homes. Conquerors and conquered slowly intermingled and so produced the one Greek people which is found at the dawn of history. These Greeks, as we shall call them henceforth, also occupied the islands of the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The entire basin of the Aegean thus became a Greek world.
[Illustration: AEGEAN SNAKE GODDESS (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) A gold and ivory statuette found in Crete. Dates from the sixteenth century B.C. The goddess wears the characteristic Cretan dress, with low- cut jacket and full skirt with five plaited flounces. On her head is an elaborate crown.]
THE HOMERIC EPICS
The period between the end of the Aegean Age and the opening of historic times in Greece is usually called the Homeric Age, because many features of its civilization are reflected in two epic poems called the Iliad and the Odyssey. The former deals with the story of a Greek expedition against Troy; the latter describes the wanderings of the hero Odysseus on his return from Troy. The two epics were probably composed in Ionia, and by the Greeks were attributed to a blind bard named Homer. Many modern scholars, however, consider them the work of several generations of poets. The references in the Iliad and the Odyssey to industry, social life, law, government, and religion give us some idea of the culture which the historic Greeks received as their inheritance.
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