Overview
What the Culture half covers
What this half is about
- the Homeric World has two halves: this Culture half studies the real Bronze Age world behind Homer's poems, while the Literature half studies the Odyssey itself
- the Culture half looks at the Mycenaean age through what it left behind: its great fortress-cities, the way people lived, the art they made, and how they buried their dead
- the aim is to picture a real, lost civilisation and to weigh it against the world Homer describes
What you will study
| Topic | What it covers |
|---|
| 1. Key Sites | the great citadels: Mycenae, Tiryns and the debate over Troy |
|---|
| 2. Life in the Mycenaean Age | palaces, everyday life, weapons and armour, and Linear B |
|---|
| 3. Decorative Arts | frescoes, jewellery, metalwork and figurines |
|---|
| 4. Tombs, Graves and Burial | shaft graves, tholos tombs and the treasures buried in them |
|---|
The big question
How far does the archaeology match Homer?
The big question
- Homer composed around the 8th century BC, roughly four hundred years after the Mycenaean world collapsed
- so all the way through this half you are really asking one thing: how far does the archaeology match the world of the poems?
- where they agree (great kings, strong citadels, gold) the remains back Homer in broad outline; where they differ (everyday detail, burial customs, writing) they show the poems remember the past only dimly
The Culture half is detective work. The remains are the evidence, Homer's poems are the story, and the skill is judging how far the two really fit.
How it is tested
- the Culture section of the exam is source-based: you respond to the prescribed sites and objects, and to unseen sources too
- you need to describe what a source shows, explain what it tells us, and judge how useful it is as evidence