Smoke from wildfire blackens walls of Mycenae, but stones intact

Monuments at Greece's archaeological site of Mycenae have not been damaged by a wildfire that swept through the area, despite the blackening from smoke on the iconic entrance to the ancient citadel, Greece's culture minister said Monday. Four water-dropping planes and two helicopters helped dozens of firefighters contain the blaze Sunday after it reached the fringes of one of Greece's most important archaeological sites, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Athens.

The Bronze Age fortified city, whose rulers were key figures in ancient Greek legend, including the Trojan War, flourished centuries before the major Acropolis temples were built in Athens and was a major center of Mediterranean civilization.

Smoke from the flames blackened the 3,250-year-old Lion Gate, named after the monumental relief sculpture of two heraldic lions flanking a pillar that crowns the entrance to the ancient citadel.

"The damage caused by yesterday's fire was the least possible," Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said during a visit to the site Monday, adding that none of the site's monuments or the Mycenae museum had suffered any damage. 

"Smoke blackened some walls. The problem is (only) aesthetic. The Fire Service acted swiftly ... and prevention measures worked: Dry vegetation had all been cleared away. That's what saved the monuments."

A spokesman for Greece's main political opposition, the left-wing Syriza party, questioned the speed of the response by the Fire Service, noting that the fire had entered the site. The party said it was carrying out a separate inspection Monday and called on the minister to apologize for downplaying the damage.

Mycenae has been closed to visitors but the Culture Ministry said it will reopen Tuesday.

• Thursday, September 3, 2020
  archeology current affairs modern Greece mycean Mycenae Mycenaean

Unplundered Mycenaean tomb discovered in Nemea

The third excavation campaign of a five-year research project conducted by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Korinthia at the Mycenaean cemetery at Aidonia in Nemea, has been completed.

The Mycenaean cemetery of Aidonia was discovered about four decades ago after it had been extensively looted. The site became more widely known in the 1990s after a collection of Mycenaean jewellery originating from the Aidonia cemetery was recovered while being sold abroad and subsequently exhibited in the Nemea Museum. The excavations by the Archaeological Service, which commenced soon after the repatriation of these artefacts, have brought to light a cluster of 16 rock-carved vaulted tombs each with a dromos, entrance and burial chamber.

In recent years, the Mycenaean cemetery of Aidonia has been the focus of new excavations conducted by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Corinth under the direction of Dr. Konstantinos Kissas, former Head of the Office and Assistant Professor at the University of Graz and his associate Dr. Kim Shelton, Professor of the University of California at Berkeley and Director of the Centre for Classical Archaeology in Nemea.

The 2018 campaign saw the completion of the excavation of an unlooted vaulted tomb of the Early Mycenaean period (c.1650-1400 BC), one of the largest found in the Aidonia necropolis.

The newly revealed tomb is distinguished by the short, but very wide, dromos and the circular-ellipsoid burial chamber, the dimensions of which exceed six metres in parts. Both the dromos and the chamber exhibit morphological features typical other mid-sized vaulted tombs of the early Mycenaean period.

On the floor of the burial chamber were four large pits, covered with megalithic slabs, another element which recalls early Mycenaean vaulted tombs. These pits contained earlier burials which were accompanied by ceramic tableware and storage vases, some of which were monumental, like the 'palace-style' pithamphora with symbolic decoration inspired by the plant and marine worlds.

Copper knives, daggers and swords were also found in the pits, as well as numerous arrow heads of copper, obsidian, and pyrite. Jewellery, necklace beads of various raw materials, fibulae and other prestigious items, such as sealstones, were also collected.

Necklace with amethyst and gold beads, c.1600/1500 BC [Credit: Greek Ministry of Culture]
The use of the monument continued during the Late Mycenaean period (c.1400-1200 BC), to which the burials found on the tomb's floor date, though the grave goods are more frugal than those of the previous period. The excavation also found evidence suggesting that part of the tomb's roof had collapsed shortly after it had ceased to be used.

The intensive use of the site both in the Archaic/Early Classical period and Roman Imperial times, as well as during the transition from the Middle to the Late Byzantine period contributed to the accumulation of thick deposits which essentially preserved the Mycenaean monument.

It is hoped that with the discovery of this unplundered tomb in Aidonia, like the interdisciplinary study of burial groups, will shed new light on the nature of the local ruling class of the Early Mycenaean period.

Many more images of the find to be viewed here.

• Wednesday, October 10, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs modern Greece Mycenaean

Drought confirmed as cause of the end of the Mycenean era, research shows

The Bronze Age civilization of the Mycenaeans collapsed due to an extended drought in the western Peloponnese, according to a study conducted by researchers Martin Finne and Karin Holmgren of the Navarino Environmental Observatory in collaboration with archaeologist Shari Stocker. The researchers drew their conclusions after examining a stalactite from a cave on the uninhabited the islet of Schiza off the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese which yielded precise information on the weather conditions that prevailed in the region from around 1200 to 1180 BC.

These researches are not the first to come to this conclusion. Back in 2013, a study of fossilized pollen particles taken from sediments at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee brought researchers to the same conclusion. By studying pollen samples taken at 40-year intervals, the scientists were able to monitor changes in the vegetation. Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, who was one of the lead scientists in this earlier study notes:

"In a short period of time, the entire world of the Bronze Age crumbled. The Hittite Empire, Egypt of the pharaohs, the Mycenaean culture in Greece, the copper-producing kingdom located on the island of Cyprus, the great trade emporium of Ugarit on the Syrian coast, and the Canaanite city—states under Egyptian hegemony—all disappeared and only after a while were replaced by the territorial kingdoms of the Iron Age, including Israel and Judah."

Wars, pestilence, and sudden natural disasters have all been postulated as possible causes, but thanks to sophisticated pollen-sampling techniques and advances in radiocarbon dating, Finkelstein and his colleagues believe they know the primary culprit: drought, or rather a succession of severe droughts over a 150-year period from 1250 BCE to about 1100 BCE. These fairly precise dates come from core samples drilled into the sediments at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. The drill cores extended 18 meters into the seabed and cut across a range of sediments deposited over the past 9,000 years. Dafna Langgut, a University of Tel Aviv palynologist (one who studies ancient pollens) states:

"We focused our study on the time interval between 3200 BCE and 500 BCE. Pollen grains are the 'fingerprints' of plants. They are extremely helpful in the reconstruction of ancient natural vegetation and past climate conditions."

The scientists noticed a sharp decline around 1250 BCE in oaks, pines, and carob trees—the traditional flora of the Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age—and an increase in the types of  plants usually found in semiarid desert regions. There was also a big drop in the number of olive trees, an indication that horticulture was on the wane. All are signs, say the researchers, that the region was in the grip of regular and sustained droughts. The most crucial years of the collapse were probably between 1185 and 1130 BCE, says Finkelstein, but the entire process extended over a longer period of time. Finkelstein:

"I think that climate change can be seen as a sort of a 'prime mover' that initiated other processes. For example, groups of people in the northern regions were uprooted from their homes because of destruction of the agricultural output, and [they] started moving in search of food. They could have pushed other groups to move by land and sea. And this in turn caused destructions and disruption of the delicate trade system of the eastern Mediterranean."

The dates the researchers came up with via pollen analysis correspond nicely to the few remaining historical records of the period, which mention shortages of grain, disruption of trade routes, civil unrest, and pillaging of cities as people began to fight over diminishing resources. The Late Bronze Age was also a period when marauding bands known as the Sea Peoples raided coastal areas in the eastern Mediterranean.

The tumultuous period ended only when rains returned and uprooted groups began to settle down again.

• Monday, May 14, 2018
  archeology current affairs Mycenae Mycenaean

Drone video of ancient Mycenae

Just something pretty today: aerial footage of the ancient site of ancient Mycenae.

Mycenae, located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese, is regarded as the most important and richest palatial center of the Late Bronze Age in Greece.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is renowned for its technical and artistic achievements but also its spiritual wealth, which spread around the Mediterranean world between 1600 and 1100 BC and played a vital role in the development of classical Hellenic culture.

The palatial administrative system, the monumental architecture, the impressive artifacts and the first testimonies of Greek language, preserved on Linear B tablets, are unique elements of the Mycenaean culture; a culture that inspired the great poet Homer to compose his famous epics. At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares.

UNESCO says that the monuments of Mycenae maintain their authenticity since the various restoration works carried out in the past were based on the international standards for the intervention on monuments, on archaeological evidence and on architectural remains of the Mycenaean period.

• Saturday, April 21, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs mycean Mycenae Mycenaean videos

Large chamber tomb with multiple burials revealed in Mycenaean settlement at Dimini

A new tomb type with distinctive features, containing the remains of about 20 people, three of them children, was recently revealed in the Mycenaean settlement of Dimini. The finds were announced by Mrs. Stamatia Alexandrou, the archaeologist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Magnesia who is responsible for the archaeological site in Dimini, during the proceedings of the Sixth Archaeological Conference of Thessaly and Central Greece.

In the framework of the NSRF Project for the protection and promotion of Megara A and B of the Mycenaean settlement with the installation of metal shelters, it was necessary to construct a rainwater catchment tank. During the excavation, a section of a stone enclosure was uncovered and which was found to be part of a large tomb. The enclosure, of which only a small part has been investigated, is ellipsoidal in shape and has a diametre of about 7m. It consists of a stone circle, 0,50m wide and 1,70m tall, and on its outer face are mounted monolithic vertical slabs 1.30m in height. The investigation of the enclosure is continuing and archaeologists expect to find new elements which will help complete the picture of this impressive and unique structure.

A large L-type chamber tomb was found in the centre of the enclosure. Its external dimensions were 3.80m x 3.30m (max) -2.70m (min). Inside, the long sides are lined with vertical elongated slabs, similar to those of the enclosure, with a height of 1,00m to 1,10m, width 0,40m to 0,64m and a thickness of 0.008m. The narrow sides are covered with monolithic slabs at the bottom, while on top there are worked stones placed horizontally. At the end of the NE side is a narrow opening, sealed with a vertical slab, and a stone threshold broken into two sections.

On the NW side, there are remains of older burials, heaped in a pile on one side without special attention, and on the NE side an adult skeleton was found in a contracted position with the skull resting on a tall stone. A preliminary examination of the osteological material revealed that a total of 17 adults and 3-4 children were buried in the tomb. 16 vessels, including drinking cups, storage vases and cooking pots, were collected from among the remains. Other finds include 5 clay spindle whorls, one bronze needle and 3 bronze pins (two with rock crystal heads), gold and silver clasps, bronze rings, as well as beads made from amethyst and sardonyx.

The tomb was constructed between 1750/1720 and 1680 BC and was used from 1700/1665 to 1635/1600 BC making it the earliest example of a built chamber tomb in Thessaly. It therefore forms a connecting link between the earlier burial mounds and the later vaulted or beehive tombs, and belongs to a pre-Mycenaean cultural tradition that appeared in areas close to the eastern and southern shores which had contacts with the Aegean Islands via Dimini, which controlled the port of the Pagasitic Gulf and was thus a gateway to the Aegean.

The architecture, the rich funeral gifts and the fact that it was used for multiple burials suggests that the tomb is not a simple burial site, but belongs to a privileged 'elite' class that developed through complex processes taking place from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, particularly in the Peloponnese and Athens, but also in Thessaly, as shown by recent investigations. The evidence from the settlement in Dimini clearly shows that by the end of the Middle Bronze Age a new wealthier class had emerged from the local population who clearly wanted to differentiate their position from other social groups by adopting a more complex funerary type, while the offerings indicate some wealth and access to resources, perhaps through the development maritime trade.

• Monday, March 26, 2018
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs modern Greece Mycenae Mycenaean

Ancient DNA analysis reveals Minoan and Mycenaean origins

A recent study of ancient DNA suggests that there is genetic continuity between the predecessors of the Minoans and Mycenaeans and Greeks today. These civilizations emerged from Aegean farming communities and gave rise to the ancient Hellenes. The findings, which were published online August 2nd in the journal Nature, also raise some questions about prehistoric migrations that set the stage for the Bronze Age.

The Minoans and Mycenaeans were the first advanced, literate civilizations to appear in Europe (around 3000 BC for the Minoans and 2000 BC for the Mycenaeans). They left archaeologists with a wealth of material to pore over: palaces, golden jewelry, wall paintings, writing (some of it still undeciphered) and, of course, burials, in what is today Greece. Now, an analysis of ancient DNA has revealed that Ancient Minoans and Mycenaens were genetically similar with both peoples descending from early Neolithic farmers. They likely migrated from Anatolia to Greece and Krete thousands of years prior to the Bronze Age. Modern Greeks, in turn, are largely descendants of the Mycenaeans, the study found.

An international team of researchers from the University of Washington, the Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, together with archaeologists and other collaborators in Greece and Turkey, analyzed tooth DNA from the remains of 19 ancient individuals who could be definitively identified by archaeological evidence as Minoans of Krete, Mycenaeans of mainland Greece, and people who lived in southwestern Anatolia. They compared the Minoan and Mycenaean genomes to each other and to more than 330 other ancient genomes and over 2,600 genomes of present-day humans from around the world.

Study results show that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically highly similar - but not identical - and that modern Greeks descend from these populations. The Minoans and Mycenaeans descended mainly from early Neolithic farmers, likely migrating thousands of years prior to the Bronze Age from Anatolia, in what is today modern Turkey. Iosif Lazaridis:

"Minoans, Mycenaeans, and modern Greeks also had some ancestry related to the ancient people of the Caucasus, Armenia, and Iran. This finding suggests that some migration occurred in the Aegean and southwestern Anatolia from further east after the time of the earliest farmers."

While both Minoans and Mycenaeans had both "first farmer" and "eastern" genetic origins, Mycenaeans traced an additional minor component of their ancestry to ancient inhabitants of Eastern Europe and northern Eurasia. This type of so-called Ancient North Eurasian ancestry is one of the three ancestral populations of present-day Europeans, and is also found in modern Greeks. A passion for history inspired Stamatoyannopoulos to initiate this project:

"For over 100 years, many hotly contested theories have circulated concerning the origin of the inhabitants of Bronze Age, Classical, and modern Greece, including the so-called 'Coming of the Greeks' in the late second millennium, the 'Black Athena' hypothesis of the Afroasiatic origins of Classical Greek civilization, and the notorious theory of the 19th century German historian Fallmerayer, who popularized the belief that the descendants of the ancient Greeks had vanished in early Medieval times."

In broad strokes, the new study shows that there was genetic continuity in the Aegean from the time of the first farmers to present-day Greece, but not in isolation. The peoples of the Greek mainland had some admixture with Ancient North Eurasians and peoples of the Eastern European steppe both before and after the time of the Minoans and Mycenaeans, which may provide the missing link between Greek speakers and their linguistic relatives elsewhere in Europe and Asia. The study thus underscores the power of analysis of ancient DNA to solve vexing historical problems, and sets the stage for many future studies that promise to untangle the threads of history, archaeology, and language.

• Friday, August 4, 2017
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Minoan Mycenaean

'Griffin warrior' highlights transference of Minoan cuture to mainland Greece

Last year, archaeologists digging at Pylos, an ancient city on the southwest coast of Greece, discovered the rich grave of a warrior who was buried at the dawn of European civilization. Archaeologists expressed astonishment at the richness of the find and its potential for shedding light on the emergence of the Mycenaean civilization, the lost world of Agamemnon, Nestor, Odysseus and other heroes described in the epics of Homeros. In the year since, a lot of research and discovering has been done--and the results are very interesting!

The warrior was buried around 1500 B.C., next to the site on Pylos on which, many years later, arose the palace of Nestor, a large administrative center that was destroyed in 1180 B.C., about the same time as Homeros’ Troy. The palace was part of the Mycenaean civilization; from its ashes, classical Greek culture arose several centuries later. He was a man about 30 to 35 years old and lying on his back. Placed to his left were weapons, including a long bronze sword with an ivory hilt clad in gold and a gold-hilted dagger. On his right side were four gold rings with fine Minoan carvings and some 50 Minoan seal stones carved with imagery of goddesses and bull jumpers. The grave contained gold, silver and bronze cups. An ivory plaque carved with a griffin, a mythical animal that protected goddesses and kings, lay between the warrior’s legs, giving the warrior it's moniker of 'griffin warrior'.

Archaeologists are now convinced that the riches he was buried with were possessions from his culture, not loot from the nearby island of Crete. If true, the grave throws light on a dramatic historical process: the extension of the Minoan culture of Crete to southern Greece, where it formed the basis of Mycenaean civilization, the first in mainland Europe. Mycenaean rulers such as Achilles, Agamemnon and Odysseus were the heroes of Homer’s epics, and Mycenaean civilization, even though it collapsed shortly after 1200 B.C., was the forerunner of the classical Greek era that arose some 700 years later.

A lot of focus has been on the rings discovered in the grave. The gold rings, archaeologists say, were rings of power. These items served as insignia of the elite who ruled the local inhabitants of Pylos, the town on the southwestern coast of Greece where the warrior’s grave was found. The gold rings, engraved gemstones and many other items in the grave bear Minoan themes, so they could have been plunder from a raid on Crete. But Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker, the husband-and-wife team at the University of Cincinnati who discovered the grave, believe otherwise, noting that objects in the grave are echoed in the iconography of the gold rings. they will soon publish an article on the subject in the journal Hesperia. Dr. Davis did mention:

"[The warrior’s grave] is telling us that right from the beginning there were people on the mainland who knew what Minoan culture meant and were bringing it to the mainland for a specific reason, that of establishing themselves in positions of power."

Cynthia W. Shelmerdine, an expert on the Aegean Bronze Age at the University of Texas, said she agreed that the rings and gemstone seals in the warrior’s grave represented administrative and political power.

"These things clearly have a power connection. [The grave, whether dug by Minoans or Mycenaeans] fits with other evidence that the elites on the mainland are increasingly closely connected to the elites on Crete."

• Saturday, October 8, 2016
  ancient Hellenic culture archeology current affairs Minoan modern Greece Mycenaean