GCSE Classical Civilisation · The Homeric World · 1.1 · Revision
Dating the Mycenaean Age
When the Mycenaean age was, what defined it, and why it sits four hundred years before Homer.
Dating the Mycenaean Age
When it was, and the gap to Homer
At a glance
the Mycenaean age ran from roughly 1600 to 1150 BC, in the Late Bronze Age
it was at its height around 1350 to 1200 BC, then collapsed
Homer composed his poems around 750 to 700 BC, about four hundred years later
A quick timeline
When
What was happening
c.1600 BC
the Mycenaean age begins
c.1350–1200 BC
its height: great palaces, Cyclopean walls, gold and wide trade
c.1200–1100 BC
collapse: the palaces are destroyed and writing is lost
c.1100–750 BC
the “Dark Age”: Greece is poorer and the citadels lie in ruins
c.750–700 BC
Homer composes the Iliad and the Odyssey
The age and the gap to Homer
What “Mycenaean” means, and the four-hundred-year gap
What “Mycenaean” means
the age is named after Mycenae, the richest city, though it was never a single kingdom
it was many separate cities that shared a culture: similar palaces, similar art, and the same way of running things
each city was run from a palace, with a ruler, scribes who kept records in Linear B, and a steep social pyramid below
“Mycenaean” is a modern label that links these cities together
The collapse and the gap to Homer
around 1200 to 1100 BC this world fell apart, part of a wider breakdown across the eastern Mediterranean: the palaces were destroyed and the art of writing was lost
Greece entered a poorer “Dark Age”, and by Homer's day the great citadels were ancient ruins
their walls seemed so huge that later Greeks believed the Cyclopes had built them
this four-hundred-year gap is why the poems and the archaeology never quite match: Homer remembers a grander past through centuries of retelling, mixed with his own later world
The most important date in this topic is the gap. Homer wrote about four hundred years after the world he describes, so he is its distant echo rather than its witness.
Exam focus
Practice questions
Short answer & explain
When was the Mycenaean age, and when did it collapse? [short answer]
Explain why Homer's poems do not give a reliable picture of the Mycenaean age. [explain]
Flashcards
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