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Chapter 26 - Artworks in Context

The Historical Framework

from Part V - Aegean Art in the Cretan Second Palace Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2022

Jean-Claude Poursat
Translated by
Carl Knappett
Jean-Claude Poursat
Affiliation:
University of Clermont-Ferrand
Carl Knappett
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Who were the mycenaeans? Bronze Age Greeks. Conventionally, this name is given to the inhabitants of mainland Greece in the Late Bronze Age: it’s the period during which, following the apparent poverty of the preceding period (Middle Helladic (MH)), the Argolid (around Mycenae), but also other regions such as Messenia (around Pylos), sees a spectacular development and tries to compete with the Crete of the Second Palaces.

Still, this definition calls out for nuance and precision. The adjective ‘Mycenaean’ was first applied to the ‘pre-Homeric’ remains found at Mycenae and neighbouring sites; that’s to say, to its material culture. It then took on a chronological meaning (the ‘Mycenaean period’) insofar as these remains belonged to an historical period thus far unknown (other than through the Homeric poems).

Type
Chapter
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The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age
A History
 , pp. 265 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Cavanagh, 2009: Cavanagh, H., Cavanagh, W., Roy, J. eds., Honouring the Dead in the Peloponnese, CSPS Online Publication 2, Nottingham.Google Scholar
Gorogianni, 2016: Gorogianni, E., Pavúk, P., Girella, L. eds., Beyond Thalassocracies: Understanding Processes of Minoanisation and Mycenaeanisation in the Aegean, Oxford and Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Vermeule, 1975: Vermeule, E., The Art of the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, Cincinnati, OH.Google Scholar

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