Mycenaean civilization. Achaean Greece in the 2nd millennium BC

1. Greece in the early Helladic period (until the end of the 3rd millennium BC). The creators of the Mycenaean culture were the Achaean Greeks, who invaded the Balkan Peninsula at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. from the north, from the region of the Danube lowland or from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, where they originally lived. Moving further and further south through the territory of the country, which later began to be called by their name, the Achaeans partly destroyed and partly assimilated the indigenous pre-Greek population of these areas, which later Greek historians called the Pelasgians *. Next to the Pelasgians, partly on the mainland and partly on the islands of the Aegean Sea, lived two more peoples: the Leleges and the Carians. Modern scholars usually associate them with the pre-Greek population of these areas. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (the period of the Chalcolithic, or the transition from stone to metal - copper and bronze), the culture of mainland Greece was still closely connected with the early agricultural cultures that existed on the territory of modern Bulgaria and Romania, as well as in the southern Dnieper region (the zone of the “Trypillian culture”). Common to this vast region were certain motifs used in pottery painting, such as the spiral and the so-called meander motifs. From the coastal regions of Balkan Greece, these types of ornaments also spread to the islands of the Aegean Sea and were adopted by Cycladic and Cretan art. With the advent of the Early Bronze Age (mid-3rd millennium BC), the culture of Greece began to noticeably outstrip other cultures of southeastern Europe in its development. It acquires new characteristic features that were previously not characteristic of it. Among the settlements of the Early Helladic era, the citadel in Lerna (on the southern coast of Argolis) especially stands out. Along with the citadels, in which, apparently, representatives of the tribal nobility lived, there were settlements in Greece of the Early Helladic era also of another type - small, most often very densely built-up villages with narrow passage-streets between rows of houses. Some of these villages, especially those located near the sea, were fortified, while others lacked any defensive structures. Examples of such settlements are Rafina (eastern coast of Attica) and Zigouries (northeastern Peloponnese, near Corinth). Judging by the nature of archaeological finds, the bulk of the population in settlements of this type were peasant farmers. At this time, a specialized craft was already emerging in Greece, represented mainly by such branches as pottery production and metalworking. The number of professional craftsmen was still very small, and their products provided mainly local demand, only a small part of it was sold outside the given community. From the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e., in Greece the process of forming classes and the state had already begun. In this regard, the already noted fact of the coexistence of two different types of settlements is especially important: a citadel like Lerna and a communal settlement (village) like Rafina or Ziguries. However, the early Helladic culture never managed to become a real civilization. Its development was forcibly interrupted as a result of the next movement of tribes across the territory of Balkan Greece.

2. Invasion of the Achaean Greeks. Formation of the first states . This movement dates back to the last centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. e., or the end of the Early Bronze Age. Around 2300 BC e. The citadel of Lerna and some other settlements of early Helladic times were destroyed in a fire. After some time, a number of new settlements appear in places where there were none before. During the same period, certain changes were observed in the material culture of Central Greece and the Peloponnese. For the first time, ceramics made using a potter's wheel appeared. Its examples can be “Minian vases” - monochrome (usually gray or black) carefully polished vessels, reminiscent of metal products with their shiny matte surface. Many historians and archaeologists associate all these changes in the life of mainland Greece with the arrival of the first wave of Greek-speaking tribes, or the Achaeans can be considered the beginning of a new stage in the history of Ancient Greece - the stage of formation of the Greek people. The basis of this long and very complex process was the interaction and gradual merging of two cultures: the culture of the alien Achaean tribes, who spoke various dialects of Greek or, rather, proto-Greek, and the culture of the local pre-Greek population. A significant part of it was apparently assimilated by the newcomers, as evidenced by the numerous words borrowed by the Greeks from their predecessors - the Pelasgians or Leleges. The formation of civilization in mainland Greece was a complex and contradictory process. In the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. there is a clear slowdown in the pace of socio-economic and cultural development. Despite the appearance of such important technical and economic innovations as the potter's wheel and a cart or war chariot with horses drawn to it, the culture of the so-called Middle Helladic period (XX-XVII centuries BC) is generally noticeably inferior to the culture of the Early Helladic era that preceded it . In settlements and burials of this time, metal products are relatively rare. But tools made of stone and bone appear again, which indicates a certain decline in the productive forces of Greek society. Monumental architectural structures like the already mentioned “house of tiles” in Lerna are disappearing. Instead, nondescript adobe houses are built, sometimes rectangular, sometimes oval, or rounded on one side. Settlements of the Middle Helladic period, as a rule, were fortified and located on hills with steep steep slopes. Apparently, this was an extremely turbulent and alarming time, which forced individual communities to take measures to ensure their safety.

The period of prolonged stagnation and decline gave way to a period of new economic and cultural upsurge. The process of class formation, interrupted at the very beginning, was resumed. Within the Achaean tribal communities, powerful aristocratic families stand out, settling in impregnable citadels and thereby sharply separating themselves from the mass of ordinary tribesmen. Great wealth was concentrated in the hands of the tribal nobility, partly created by the labor of local peasants and artisans, partly captured during military raids on the lands of neighbors. In various regions of the Peloponnese, Central and Northern Greece, the first and still quite primitive state entities. Thus, the prerequisites were formed for the formation of another civilization of the Bronze Age, and starting from the 16th century. BC e. Greece entered a new, or, as it is usually called, Mycenaean, period of its history.

3. Formation of the Mycenaean civilization. In the first stages of its development, the Mycenaean culture experienced a very strong influence from the more advanced Minoan civilization. The Achaeans borrowed many important elements of their culture from Crete, for example, some cults and religious rituals, fresco painting, water supply and sewerage, styles of men's and women's clothing, some types of weapons, and finally, linear syllabary. All this does not mean, however, that the Mycenaean culture was just a minor peripheral variant of the culture of Minoan Crete, and the Mycenaean settlements in the Peloponnese and elsewhere were simply Minoan colonies in a foreign “barbarian” country (this opinion was shared by A. Evans). Many characteristic features of the Mycenaean culture suggest that it arose on local Greek, and partly also pre-Greek, soil and was successively associated with the most ancient cultures of this region, dating back to the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The 15th-13th centuries can be considered the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. BC e. At this time, its distribution zone extends far beyond the borders of Argolis, where, apparently, it originally arose and developed, covering the entire Peloponnese, Central Greece (Attica, Boeotia, Phocis), a significant part of Northern (Thessaly), as well as many of the islands Aegean Sea. Throughout this large territory there was a uniform culture represented by standard types of dwellings and burials. Common to this entire zone were also some types of ceramics, clay cult figurines, ivory items, etc. Judging by the excavation materials, Mycenaean Greece was a rich and prosperous country with a large population scattered across many small towns and villages. The main centers of Mycenaean culture were, as in Crete, palaces. The most significant of them were discovered in Mycenae and Tiryns (Argolis), in Pylos (Messenia, southwestern Peloponnese), in Athens (Attica), Thebes and Orkhomenes (Boeotia), and finally, in the north of Greece in Iolka (Thessaly). The architecture of Mycenaean palaces has a number of features that distinguish them from the palaces of Minoan Crete. The most important of these differences is that almost all Mycenaean palaces were fortified and were real citadels, reminiscent in appearance of the castles of medieval feudal lords. The powerful walls of Mycenaean citadels, built from huge, almost unprocessed stone blocks, still make a huge impression on those who saw them, testifying to the high engineering skill of the Achaean architects. The famous Tiryns citadel can serve as an excellent example of Mycenaean fortifications. Among the most interesting architectural monuments of the Mycenaean era are the majestic royal tombs, called “tholos”, or “dome tombs”. Tholosas are usually located close to palaces and citadels, being, apparently, the final resting place of members of the reigning dynasty, like shaft graves in earlier times. The largest of the Mycenaean tholos - the so-called tomb of Atreus - is located in Mycenae on the southern slope of the hill on which the citadel stood. The tomb itself is hidden inside an artificial mound.

4. Socio-economic structure. The construction of such grandiose buildings as the tomb of Atreus or the Tiryns citadel was impossible without the widespread and systematic use of forced labor. In order to cope with such a task, it was necessary, firstly, the presence of a large mass of cheap labor, and secondly, a sufficiently developed state apparatus capable of organizing and directing this force to achieve the goal. Obviously, the rulers of Mycenae and Tiryns had both. Slavery already existed in Greece and slave labor was widely used in various sectors of the economy. Among the documents of the Pylos archive, a lot of space is occupied by information about slaves employed in the palace household. Each such list indicated how many female slaves there were, what they did (grain milkers, spinners, seamstresses and even bathhouse attendants are mentioned), how many children they had with them: boys and girls (obviously, these were children of slaves born in captivity), what they received rations, the place where they worked (it could be Pylos itself or one of the towns in the territory under its control). The number of individual groups could be significant - up to a hundred superfluous person . The total number of female slaves and children, known from the inscriptions of the Pylos archive, should have been about 1,500 people. Along with work detachments, which included only women and children, the inscriptions also include detachments consisting only of male slaves, although they are relatively rare and, as a rule, are small in number - no more than ten people each. Obviously, there were more female slaves in general, which means that slavery at that time was still at a low stage of development. Along with ordinary slaves, the Pylos inscriptions also mention the so-called “God’s male and female slaves.” They usually rent land in small plots from the community (damos) or from private individuals, from which we can conclude that they did not have their own land and, therefore, they were not considered full members of the community, although, apparently, they were not slaves in proper meaning of this word. The very term “God’s servant” probably means that representatives of this social stratum served in the temples of the main gods of the Pylos kingdom and therefore enjoyed the patronage of the temple administration. The bulk of the working population in the Mycenaean states, as in Crete, were free or, rather, semi-free peasants and artisans. Formally, they were not considered slaves, but their freedom was of a very relative nature, since they were all economically dependent on the palace and were subject to various duties in its favor, both labor and in kind. Individual districts and towns of the Pylos kingdom were obliged to provide the palace with a certain number of artisans and workers of various professions. For their work, artisans received payment in kind from the palace treasury, like officials in the public service. Among the artisans who worked for the palace, blacksmiths occupied a special position. Usually they received from the palace the so-called talasia, i.e. a task or lesson. A special official, obliged to supervise the work of the blacksmith, handed him an already weighed piece of bronze, and upon completion of the work he accepted the products made from this bronze. Another category of artisans, apparently, were free community members, for whom working for the palace was only a temporary duty. Craftsmen recruited for public service were not deprived of personal freedom. They could own land and even slaves, like all other members of the community. All land in the Pylos kingdom was divided into two main categories: 1) palace land, or state land, and 2) land that belonged to individual territorial communities. State land, with the exception of that part of it that was under the direct control of the palace administration, was distributed on the basis of conditional holding rights, that is, subject to the performance of one or another service in favor of the palace, between dignitaries from among the military and priestly nobility. In turn, these holders could lease the received land in small plots to some other persons, for example, the already mentioned “God’s servants.” The territorial (rural) community, or damos, as it is usually called in tablets, used the land it owned in approximately the same way. The bulk of the communal land was obviously divided into plots with approximately equal returns. These plots were distributed within the community itself among its constituent families. The land remaining after the division was again leased. Palace scribes recorded plots of both categories in their tablets with equal diligence. It follows that communal lands, as well as lands that belonged directly to the palace, were under the control of the palace administration and were exploited by it in the interests of the centralized state economy. The private economy, although, apparently, it already existed in the Mycenaean states, was in fiscal (tax) dependence on the “public sector” and played only a subordinate, secondary role in it. The state monopolized the most important branches of handicraft production, such as blacksmithing, and established strict control over the distribution and consumption of scarce raw materials, primarily metal. Not a single kilogram of bronze, not a single spear or arrowhead could escape the watchful gaze of the palace bureaucracy. All metal at the disposal of both the state and private individuals was carefully weighed, accounted for and recorded by scribes of the palace archive on clay tablets. A centralized palace or temple economy is typical of the earliest class societies that existed in the Mediterranean and Middle East during the Bronze Age. We encounter diverse variants of this economic system in the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. e. in the temple cities of Sumer and Syria, in dynastic Egypt, in the Hittite kingdom and the palaces of Minoan Crete.

5. Organization of public administration. Based on the principles of strict accounting and control, the palace economy needed a developed bureaucratic apparatus for its normal functioning. In addition to the staff of scribes who served directly in the palace office and archive, the tablets mention numerous officials of the fiscal department who were in charge of collecting taxes and overseeing the fulfillment of various types of duties. Each of them was responsible for the regular receipt of taxes from the district entrusted to him into the palace treasury (the taxes included primarily metal: gold and bronze, as well as various types of agricultural products). Subordinate to the koretera were lower-ranking officials who governed individual settlements that were part of the district. In the tablets they are called "basilei". Basilei supervised production, for example, the work of blacksmiths who were in public service. The coreters and basilei themselves were under the constant control of the central government. The palace constantly reminded the local administration of itself, sending messengers and couriers, inspectors and auditors in all directions. At the head of the palace state was a person called “wanaka”, i.e. “lord”, “master”, “king”. It is clear, however, that the vanakt occupied a special privileged position among the ruling nobility. The land allotment belonging to the king - temen (one of the documents of the Pylos archive mentions it) - was three times larger than the land allotments of other senior officials: its profitability is determined by the figure of 1800 measures. The king had numerous servants at his disposal. Among the highest-ranking officials subordinate to the king of Pylos, one of the most prominent places was occupied by the lavaget, that is, the governor or military leader. As the title itself shows, his duties included command of the armed forces of the kingdom of Pylos. However, it seems quite likely that in this circle high nobility, closely connected with the palace and forming the immediate circle of the Pylos vanakta, included, firstly, the priests of the main temples of the state (the priesthood in general enjoyed very great influence in Pylos, as in Crete), and secondly, the highest military ranks, especially the leaders detachments of war chariots, which in those days were the main striking force on the battlefields. Thus, Pylos society was like a pyramid, built on a strictly hierarchical principle. The top level in this hierarchy of classes was occupied by the military-priestly nobility, headed by the king and military leader, who concentrated in their hands the most important functions of both an economic and political nature. Directly subordinate to the ruling elite of society were numerous officials who acted locally and in the center and together constituted a powerful apparatus for the oppression and exploitation of the working population of the Pylos kingdom.

6. Relations between the Achaean kingdoms. Trojan War. The decline of the Mycenaean civilization.

The tense relations that existed between the Achaean states throughout almost their entire history do not exclude, however, the fact that at certain moments they could unite for some kind of joint military enterprises. An example of such an enterprise is the famous Trojan War, which Homer tells about. According to the Iliad, almost all the main regions of Achaean Greece took part in the campaign against Troy, from Thessaly in the north to Crete and Rhodes in the south. The Mycenaean king Agamemnon was elected leader of the entire army with the general consent of the participants in the campaign.

The first one and a half to two centuries after the resettlement of the Achaeans were a time of significant changes in Greece. On the one hand, many large centers of life of the previous era remained in ruins or more modest settlements grew in their place. On the other hand, approximately the same level of development of the indigenous (autochthonous) and newcomer populations ensured the continuity of those economic and social processes that occurred in both societies before their mixing. At the same time, the resettlement of the Achaeans accelerated the worsening of social inequality due to the growth of individual property. The importance of resettlement in the development of private property was noted by K. Marx, who pointed out that “the further a tribe moves away from its original settlement and captures strangers earth, therefore, finds itself in significantly new working conditions, where the energy of each individual person receives greater development..., the more conditions there are for individual became private owner land...”’. It was during this period, at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, that a further rise in production was observed, associated with the widespread use of bronze and the development of various crafts. In the XX-XIX centuries. BC e. the country was covered with a dense network of agricultural settlements. They were located near good sources, usually on the tops of hills that represented natural fortifications. Already at this time, the settlements in Mycenae, Tiryns and other large centers of the subsequent era were significantly different from such modest neighboring villages as Koraku and Ziguri. Mycenae especially grew in the 18th-17th centuries. BC e. Their acropolis (upper city) was surrounded by a wall. Residential areas were located on the slopes of the acropolis and neighboring hills. The emergence of larger settlements, which became centers where rulers and nobility lived, also occurred in other regions of Greece. Gradually these points turned into cities inhabited by artisans and farmers. In numerous workshops, Achaean artisans produced objects that spread far from Greece. As archaeological finds show, already at that time the external relations of the Achaean tribes were considerable. In the south, the Achaeans communicated with Crete, and through it had contact with Egypt. The Cyclades islands served as a link between Greece and the Asia Minor coast. Judging by the ceramics, the Achaeans maintained contacts with Macedonia, Illyria and the population of Thrace.

In conditions of intensive development of production and exchange, the long process of the formation of a class society and the formation of a state organization was completed on the territory of mainland Greece by the 17th century. BC e. Here, as in Crete, early states arose initially in small territories, growing out of traditional local tribal associations. The geographical conditions of Hellas contributed to the long-term preservation of independence even by small tribes, and this was the reason for the emergence of many regions ruled by individual royal families. The powers of the rulers were very unequal, but the dynasts in each region sought to maintain their independence. The legends of the ancient Greeks very clearly convey this feature of the political life of the Achaeans. The historian Thucydides also emphasizes the fragmentation of the country: “So, the Hellenes, who lived separately in cities, understood each other and were subsequently called by a common name, until Trojan War, due to weakness and lack of mutual communication, did not accomplish anything together” (I, 3). Noting that the inhabitants of Hellas were in this state for quite a long time, Thucydides says that then, due to piracy, cities were built at some distance from the sea (I, 7). Indeed, almost all Achaean cities, as modern excavations have shown, are located several kilometers from the coastline.

The Achaean kingdoms developed differently: cities located on coastal lands grew and became stronger faster than cities in the interior regions.

Population and culture of Greece before the arrival of the Achaeans

Vessel of Tripoli culture. V-III millennium BC

The creators of the Mycenaean culture were the Achaean Greeks, who invaded the Balkan Peninsula at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, apparently from the north, from the region of the Danube Lowland, where they originally lived. Moving further and further south, the Achaeans partly destroyed and partly assimilated the indigenous pre-Greek population of these regions, which later Greek historians call the Pelasgians. The Pelasgians were most likely a people related to the Minoans, and like them, they were part of the Aegean language family.

The Achaeans considered the Pelasgians and other ancient inhabitants of the country to be barbarians, although in reality their culture was not only not inferior to the culture of the Greeks themselves, but initially surpassed it in many ways. This is evidenced by archaeological monuments of the so-called Early Helladic era (second half of the 3rd millennium BC), discovered in different places in the Peloponnese, Central and Northern Greece. Modern scholars usually associate them with the pre-Greek population of these areas.

Vessel from the Neolithic culture of Dimini 5000-4400. BC.

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. (the period of the Chalcolithic or the transition from stone to metal - copper and bronze), the culture of mainland Greece was still closely connected with the early agricultural cultures that existed on the territory of modern Bulgaria and Romania, as well as in the southern Dnieper region (the zone of the “Trypillian culture”). Common to this entire vast region were some of the motifs used in painting. pottery, for example, spiral and so-called “meander” motifs. From the coastal regions of Balkan Greece, these types of ornaments also spread to the islands of the Aegean Sea and were adopted by Cycladic and Cretan art. With the advent of the Early Bronze Age (around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC), the culture of Greece began to noticeably outstrip other cultures of South-Eastern Europe in its development.

Settlements of Early Helladic times

Among the settlements of the Early Helladic era, the citadel in Lerna (on the southern coast of Argolid) stands out. Situated on a low hill near the sea, the citadel was surrounded by a massive defensive wall with semicircular towers. In its central part, a large (25x12 m²) rectangular building was discovered - the so-called house of tiles (fragments of tiles that once covered the roof of the building were found in large quantities during excavations). The house dates from the Early Helladic II period (2500-2300 BC)

Settlement of Lerna. "Central Courtyard"

In one of the rooms, archaeologists collected a whole collection (more than 150) of seal impressions pressed on clay. Once upon a time, these clay “labels” were used to seal vessels with wine, oil and other supplies. This interesting find suggests that there was an administrative and economic center in Lerna, which in part already anticipated in its character and purpose the later palaces of Mycenaean times. Similar centers existed in some other places.

Along with the citadels in which representatives of the tribal nobility lived, in Greece of the early Helladic era there were also settlements of another type: small, most often very densely built-up villages with narrow passages - streets between rows of houses. Some of these villages, especially those located near the sea, were fortified, others were built more openly, without any defensive structures.

Examples of such settlements are Rafina (eastern coast of Attica) and Zigouries (North-Eastern Peloponnese, near Corinth). Judging by the nature of archaeological finds, the bulk of the population in settlements of this type were peasant farmers. In many houses there were special pits for pouring grain, coated with clay on the inside, as well as large clay vessels for storing various supplies. At this time, a specialized craft was already emerging in Greece, represented mainly by such branches as pottery production and metalworking. Thus, during the excavations of Rafina, the premises of a small blacksmith’s workshop were discovered, the owner of which, apparently, supplied local farmers with tools.

Plan and reconstruction of the “house with tiles”.

Available archaeological data suggest that in early Helladic times, at least from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, the process of formation of classes and the state had already begun in Greece. Particularly important is the already noted fact of the existence of two different types of settlements:

Lerna type citadel and
community settlement (village) such as Rafina or Ziguries.

However, the early Helladic culture never managed to become a real civilization. Its development was forcibly interrupted as a result of the next movement of tribes across the territory of Balkan Greece.

The arrival of the Achaean Greeks and the formation of the first states

Invasion of tribes from the north

Minyan monochrome amphora from Mycenae. 1700-1600 BC.

With a high degree of approximation, this movement dates back to the last centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. or the end of the Early Bronze Age. Around 2200 BC The citadel of Lerna and some other settlements of early Helladic times were destroyed by fire. After some time, a number of new settlements appear in places where there were none before. During the same period, certain changes were observed in the material culture of central Greece and the Peloponnese. For the first time, ceramics made using a potter's wheel appeared. Its examples can be the so-called Minya vases - monochrome (usually gray or black) carefully polished vessels, reminiscent of metal products with their shiny matte surface.

In some places, during excavations, bones of a horse were found, previously apparently unknown within the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. Many historians and archaeologists associate all these changes in the life of mainland Greece with the arrival of the first wave of Greek-speaking tribes, or Achaeans.

Thus, the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. can be considered the beginning of a new stage in the history of Ancient Greece - the stage of formation of the Greek people. The basis of this long process was the interaction and gradual merging of two cultures:

the culture of the alien Achaean tribes, who spoke various dialects of Greek or, rather, proto-Greek,
culture of the local pre-Greek population.

A significant part of it was apparently assimilated by the newcomers, as evidenced by the numerous words borrowed by the Greeks from their Pelasgian or Lelegian predecessors, for example, the names of a number of plants: cypress, hyacinth, narcissus, etc.

The formation of class society in mainland Greece was a complex and contradictory process. In the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, there was a clear slowdown in the pace of socio-economic and cultural development. Despite the appearance of such important technical and economic innovations as the potter's wheel and the cart or the fighting cart with horses harnessed to it, the culture of the so-called Middle Helladic period (XX-XVII centuries BC) is generally noticeably inferior to the culture of the Early Helladic era that preceded it.

In settlements and burials of this time, metal products are relatively rare. But tools made of stone and bone appear again, which indicates a certain decline in the productive forces of Greek society.

Settlements of the Greek-Achaeans

Monumental architectural structures like the already mentioned “house of tiles” in Lerna are disappearing. Instead, nondescript adobe houses are built, sometimes rectangular, sometimes oval or apsidal (rounded at the end) in shape. Settlements of the Middle Helladic period, as a rule, were fortified and located on hills with steep steep slopes. Apparently, this was an extremely turbulent and alarming time, which forced individual communities to take measures to ensure their safety.

A typical example of a Middle Helladic settlement is the site of Malti Dorion in Messenia. The entire settlement was located on top of a high hill, surrounded by a ring defensive wall with five passages. In the center of the settlement, on a low terrace, stood the so-called palace (probably the house of the tribal leader) - a complex of five rooms with a total area of 130 m² with a stone hearth-altar in the largest of the rooms. The premises of several craft workshops were adjacent to the “palace”. The rest of the settlement consisted of houses of ordinary community members, usually very small, and warehouses built in one or two rows along the defensive wall.

Excavations of Malti Dorion in 2015 by a Swedish expedition.

The very layout of Malti, the monotony of its residential development, testify to the still undivided internal unity of the tribal community that lived here. About the absence of clearly expressed social and property differences in Achaean society Middle Helladic times are also evidenced by the burials of this period, which are overwhelmingly standard, with very modest accompanying grave goods.

The beginning of the stratification of ancient Greek society

Only at the end of the Middle Helladic period the situation in Balkan Greece began to gradually change. The period of prolonged stagnation and decline gave way to a period of new economic and cultural upsurge. The process of class formation, interrupted at the very beginning, was resumed. Within the Achaean tribal communities, aristocratic families stand out, settling in impregnable citadels and thereby sharply separating themselves from the mass of ordinary tribesmen.

Great wealth was concentrated in the hands of the tribal nobility, partly created by the labor of local peasants and artisans, partly captured during military raids on the lands of neighbors. In various regions of the Peloponnese, Central and Northern Greece, the first and still rather primitive state formations appeared. Thus, the prerequisites were formed for the formation of another civilization of the Bronze Age, and starting from the 16th century. BC. Greece entered a new or, as it is usually called, the Mycenaean period of its history.

Formation of the Mycenaean civilization

The formation of civilization and the influence of cultures

In the first stages of its development, the Mycenaean culture was strongly influenced by a more advanced one. The Achaeans borrowed many important elements of their culture from Crete. The most important among them are -

some cults and religious rituals,
fresco painting in palaces,
water supply and sewerage,
styles of men's and women's clothing,
some types of weapons,
linear syllabary.

All this does not mean, however, that the Mycenaean culture was just a minor peripheral variant of the culture of Minoan Crete, and the Mycenaean settlements in the Peloponnese and elsewhere were simply Minoan colonies in a foreign “barbarian” country (this opinion was stubbornly held by A. Evans). Many characteristic features of the Mycenaean culture suggest that it arose on Greek soil and was successively associated with ancient cultures this area, dating back to the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages.

Early monuments of Mycenaean culture of the 16th century. BC.

"Lion Gate" of Mycenae.

The earliest monument of Mycenaean culture is considered to be the so-called shaft graves in Mycenae (XVI century BC). The first six graves of this type were discovered in 1876 by G. Schliemann within the Mycenaean citadel. For over three millennia, the shaft graves concealed truly fabulous riches. Archaeologists have recovered from them many precious objects made of gold, silver, ivory and other materials. Massive gold rings decorated with carvings, tiaras, earrings, bracelets, gold and silver dishes, magnificently decorated weapons, including swords, daggers, armor made of sheet gold, and finally, completely unique gold masks that hid the faces of the buried were found here.

Homer in the Iliad called Mycenae “abundant with gold,” and recognized the Mycenaean king Agamemnon as the most powerful of all the Achaean leaders who took part in the famous Trojan War. Schliemann's findings provided visible evidence of the truth of the great poet's words, which many had previously treated with distrust. The enormous wealth discovered in the graves of this necropolis shows that even at that distant time Mycenae was the center of a large state.

The Mycenaean kings buried in these magnificent tombs were warlike and ferocious people, greedy for other people's wealth. For the sake of robbery, they undertook long trips by land and sea and returned to their homeland, burdened with booty. It is unlikely that the gold and silver that accompanied the royal dead in afterworld, fell into their hands through a peaceful exchange. It is much more likely that it was captured in war. The warlike inclinations of the rulers of Mycenae are evidenced by -

firstly, the exceptional abundance of weapons in their tombs,
secondly, images of bloody scenes of war and hunting, with which some of the things found in the graves were decorated,
thirdly, stone steles that stood on the graves themselves.

Particularly interesting is the scene of a lion hunt depicted on one of the bronze inlaid daggers. All the signs: exceptional dynamism, expression, precision of design and extraordinary care in execution indicate that this is the work of the best Minoan jewelry craftsmen. This wonderful work The art was most likely made in Mycenae itself by a Cretan jeweler, who clearly tried to adapt to the tastes of his new owners (subjects of this kind are almost never found in the Minoan art of Crete).

The rise of the Mycenaean civilization

The 15th-13th centuries can be considered the heyday of the Mycenaean civilization. BC. At this time, its distribution zone extends far beyond the borders of Argolis, where, apparently, it originally arose and developed, covering the entire Peloponnese, Central Greece (Attica, Boeotia, Phocis), a significant part of Northern (Thessaly), as well as many of the islands Aegean Sea. Throughout this large territory there was a uniform culture, represented by the types of dwellings and burials that varied little from place to place. Common to this entire zone were also some types of ceramics, clay cult figurines, ivory items, etc. Judging by the excavation materials, Mycenaean Greece was a rich country with a large population scattered across many small towns and villages. Cities in proper meaning Mycenaean Greece did not know this word as economic and political centers opposing the rural district, just like Minoan Crete.

The main centers of Mycenaean culture were, as in Crete, palaces. The most significant of them are open

in Mycenae and Tiryns (Argolis),
in Pylos (Messenia, Southwestern Peloponnese),
in Athens (Attica),
in Thebes and Orkhomenes (Boeotia),
in northern Greece in Iolka (Thessaly).

Features of the architecture of the Mycenaean civilization in the XV-XIII centuries. BC.

The architecture of Mycenaean palaces has a number of features that distinguish them from the palaces of Minoan Crete. The most important of these differences is that almost all Mycenaean palaces were fortified and were real citadels. The powerful walls of Mycenaean citadels, built from huge, almost unprocessed stone blocks, testify to the high engineering skill of the Achaean architects.

An excellent example of Mycenaean fortifications is the famous Tiryns citadel. First of all, the monumental dimensions of this structure are striking. Huge uncut blocks of limestone reaching up to in some cases weighing 12 tons, form the outer walls of the fortress, the thickness of which exceeded 4.5 m, the height only in the surviving part reached 7.5 m. In some places, vaulted galleries with casemates were built inside the walls, in which weapons and food supplies were stored (the thickness of the walls here reaches 17 m). The entire system of defensive structures of the Tiryns citadel was carefully thought out and guaranteed the defenders of the fortress against any unforeseen accidents. The approach to the main gate of the citadel was arranged in such a way that the enemy approaching it was forced to turn to the wall on which the defenders of the fortress were located, with his right side, not covered by a shield. To ensure that the besieged inhabitants of the citadel did not suffer from a lack of water, an underground passage was built in its northern part (the so-called lower city), ending approximately 20 m from the walls of the fortress at a source carefully hidden from the eyes of the enemy.

Palace in Pylos

The remains of a palace in Pylos, with a megaron in the center. Now there is a roof over it. OK. 1700-1200 BC.

Among the actual palace buildings of the Mycenaean period, the most interesting is the well-preserved palace of Nestor in Pylos (Western Messenia, near Navarino Bay), discovered in 1939 by the American archaeologist K. Bledzhen. With a certain similarity with the palaces of Minoan Crete (it is manifested mainly in the elements interior decoration- columns of the Cretan type thickening upward, in wall paintings, etc.) The Pylos palace differs sharply from them in its clear symmetrical layout, which is completely uncharacteristic of Minoan architecture.

The main premises of the palace are located on one axis and form a closed rectangular complex. The vast hall with the megaron formed an integral and most important part of any Mycenaean palace. In the center of the megaron there was a large round hearth, the smoke from which came out through a hole in the ceiling. Around the hearth there were four wooden columns that supported the ceiling of the hall. The walls of the megaron were painted with frescoes. In one of the corners of the hall there is a large fragment of a painting depicting a man playing the lyre. The floor of the megaron was decorated with multi-colored geometric patterns, and in one place, approximately where the royal throne should have been, a large octopus was depicted.

Megaron was the heart of the palace: here the king of Pylos feasted with his nobles and guests, official receptions and audiences were held here. Outside, two long corridors adjoined the megaron. They opened into the doors of numerous storerooms, in which several thousand vessels for storing and transporting oil and other products were found. Judging by these finds, the Pylos Palace was major exporter olive oil, which was already very highly valued in the countries neighboring Greece at that time. Like the Cretan palaces, Nestor's palace was built taking into account the basic requirements of comfort and hygiene.

The building had specially equipped bathrooms, running water and sewerage. But the most interesting discovery was made in a small room near the main entrance. The palace archive was kept here, numbering about a thousand clay tablets, inscribed with linear syllabary characters, very similar to the one used in the already mentioned documents from the Knossos palace. The tablets were well preserved due to the fact that they were caught in the fire that burned down the palace. This was the first archive found on mainland Greece.

Tombs

Among the most interesting architectural monuments The Mycenaean era includes majestic royal tombs, called tholos or domed tombs. Tholosas are usually located close to palaces and citadels, being, apparently, the final resting place of members of the reigning dynasty, like shaft graves in earlier times. The largest of the Mycenaean tholos - the so-called tomb of Atreus - is located in Mycenae.

The tomb itself is open inside an artificial mound. The inner chamber of the tomb of Atreus is a monumental, round room with a high (about 13.5 m) domed vault. The walls and vault of the tomb are made of superbly hewn stone slabs and were originally decorated with gilded bronze rosettes. Connected to the main chamber is another side chamber, somewhat smaller in size, rectangular in plan and not so well finished. In all likelihood, it was here that the royal burial was located, plundered in ancient times.

Socio-economic structure of Mycenaean societies

The construction of such grandiose buildings as the tomb of Atreus or the Tiryns citadel was impossible without the widespread and systematic use of forced labor. In order to cope with such a task, it was necessary, firstly, the presence of a large mass of cheap labor, and secondly, a sufficiently developed state apparatus capable of organizing and directing this force to achieve the goal. Obviously, the rulers of Mycenae and Tiryns located in equally both.

Until recently, the internal structure of the Achaean states of the Peloponnese remained a mystery to scientists, since in resolving this issue they could only rely on archaeological material obtained through excavations. After M. Ventris and J. Chadwick managed to find the key to understanding the linear syllabary signs on the tablets from Knossos and Pylos, historians now have another one at their disposal important source information.

Linear B. Tablet found by Evans in the Palace of Knossos. OK. 1450-1375 BC.

As it turned out, almost all of these tablets represent “accounting” records that were kept from year to year in the household of the Pylos and Knossos palaces. These laconic notes contain the most valuable historical information, allowing us to judge the economy of the palace states of the Mycenaean era, their social and political structure. From the tablets we learn, for example, that at that time slavery already existed in Greece and slave labor was widely used in various sectors of the economy.

Previously slavery

Among the documents of the Pylos archive, a lot of space is occupied by information (lists) about slaves employed in the palace household. Each such list indicates

how many female slaves are employed in the household,
what they do (grain grinders, spinners, seamstresses and even bath attendants are mentioned),
how many children were with them: boys and girls (obviously, these were children of slaves born in captivity),
what rations do they receive,
the place where they work (this could be Pylos itself or one of the towns in the territory under its control).

The number of individual groups could be significant - up to more than a hundred people. The total number of female slaves and children, known from the inscriptions of the Pylos archive, should have been about 1,500 people.

Fresco depicting a female figure. Acropolis of Mycenae. XIII century BC.

Along with the detachments, which included only women and children, the inscriptions also include detachments consisting only of male slaves, although they are relatively rare and, as a rule, are small in number - no more than ten people each. Obviously, there were generally more female slaves, from which it follows that slavery at that time was still at a relatively low stage of development and the slave-owning mode of production had not yet developed into a comprehensive economic system.

Along with ordinary slaves, the Pylos inscriptions also mention the so-called “God’s male and female slaves.” They usually rent land in small plots from the community (damos) or from private individuals, from which we can conclude that they did not have their own land and, therefore, they were not considered full members of the community, although, apparently, they were not slaves in proper meaning of this word. The very term “God’s servant” probably means that representatives of this social stratum served in the temples of the main gods of the Pylos kingdom and therefore enjoyed the patronage of the temple administration.

Layer of the free population - peasants and artisans

The bulk of the working population in the Mycenaean states, as in Crete, were free or, rather, semi-free peasants and artisans. Formally, they were not considered slaves, but their freedom was of a very relative nature, since they were all economically dependent on the palace and were subject to various duties in its favor, both labor and in kind.

Two warriors on a chariot, wearing helmets made of boar tusks. Fresco from Pylos. OK. 1350 BC

Individual districts and towns of the Pylos kingdom were obliged to provide the palace with a certain number of artisans and workers of various professions. The inscriptions mention masons, tailors, potters, gunsmiths, goldsmiths, even perfumers and doctors. For their work, artisans received payment in kind from the palace treasury, like officials in the public service. Absence from work was recorded in special documents.

Among the artisans who worked for the palace, blacksmiths occupied a special position. Usually they received from the palace the so-called talasia, that is, a task or lesson (the inscriptions specifically note how many blacksmiths in each individual locality had already received talasia, and how many were left without it). A special official, obliged to supervise the work of the blacksmith, handed him bronze according to exact weight, and upon completion of the work, he accepted the products made from this bronze from him.

Only very little is known about the social status of blacksmiths and artisans of other specialties appearing on tablets. Probably some of them were considered "people of the palace" and were in permanent service either in the palace itself or in one of the sanctuaries associated with it. Thus, some of the Pylos tablets mention “the smiths of the lady” (“the lady” is the usual epithet for the supreme goddess of the Pylos pantheon). Another category of artisans, apparently, were free community members, for whom working for the palace was only a temporary duty. Craftsmen recruited for public service were not deprived of personal freedom. They could own land and even slaves.

Land tenure system

Documents from the archives of the Pylos Palace contain important information also about the land tenure system. Analysis of the texts of the tablets allows us to conclude that all the land in the kingdom of Pylos was divided into two main categories:

palace land, or state land, and
land that belonged to individual territorial communities.

Terracotta figurines of women. They are also called psi-figurines, for their raised arms in the shape of a Greek letter. About 1400-1300 BC.

State land, with the exception of that part of it that was under the direct control of the palace administration, was distributed on the basis of conditional holding rights, that is, subject to the performance of one or another service in favor of the palace, between dignitaries from among the military and priestly nobility. In turn, these holders could lease the received land in small plots to some other persons, for example, the already mentioned “God’s servants.”

The territorial (rural) community, or damos, as it is usually called in tablets, used the land it owned in approximately the same way. The bulk of the communal land was obviously divided into plots with approximately equal returns. These plots were distributed within the community itself among its constituent families. The land remaining after the division was again leased. Palace scribes recorded plots of both categories in their tablets with equal diligence. It follows that communal lands, as well as lands that belonged directly to the palace, were under the control of the palace administration and were exploited by it in the interests of the centralized state economy.

Eastern type farming system

In the documents of the Knossos and Pylos archives, the palace economy of the Mycenaean era appears to us as a powerful, widely branched economic system, covering almost all the main sectors of production. The private economy, although, apparently, it already existed in the Mycenaean states, was in fiscal (tax) dependence on the “public sector” and played only a subordinate, secondary role in it.

The state monopolized the most important branches of handicraft production, such as blacksmithing, and established strict control over the distribution and consumption of scarce raw materials, primarily metal. Not a single kilogram of bronze, not a single spear or arrowhead could escape the watchful gaze of the palace bureaucracy. All metal at the disposal of both the state and private individuals was carefully weighed, accounted for and recorded by scribes of the palace archive on clay tablets.

A centralized palace or temple economy is typical of the earliest class societies that existed in the Mediterranean and Middle East during the Bronze Age. We encounter diverse variants of this economic system in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. in the temple cities of Sumer and Syria, in dynastic Egypt, in the Hittite kingdom and the palaces of Minoan Crete. A number of data suggest that in the states of Achaean Greece a type of economy developed that was to some extent close to the economic system of the East.

Organization of public administration

Based on the principles of strict accounting and control, the palace economy needed a developed bureaucratic apparatus for its normal functioning. Documents from the Pylos and Knossos archives show this apparatus in action, although many details of its organization remain unclear due to the extreme laconicism of the texts of the tablets.

Treasures from Tomb A, Mycenae. 1600-1100 BC.

In addition to the staff of scribes who served directly in the palace office and archive, the tablets mention numerous officials of the fiscal department who were in charge of collecting taxes and overseeing the implementation various kinds duties. Thus, from the documents of the Pylos archive we learn that the entire territory of the Pylos kingdom was divided into 16 tax districts, headed by governors-koreteri. Each of them was responsible for the regular receipt of taxes from the district entrusted to him into the palace treasury (the taxes included primarily metal: gold and bronze, as well as various types of agricultural products).

Subordinate to the koretera were lower-ranking officials who governed individual settlements that were part of the district. In the tablets they are called basilei. Basilei supervised production, for example, the work of blacksmiths in the public service. The coreters and basilei themselves were under the constant control of the central government. The palace constantly reminded the local administration of itself, sending messengers and couriers, inspectors and auditors in all directions.

Who set this entire complex mechanism in motion and directed its work? The tablets from the Mycenaean archives provide an answer to this question. At the head of the palace state was a person called “vanaka”, which corresponds to the Greek “(v)anakt”, i.e. “lord”, “master”, “king”. Unfortunately, the inscriptions say nothing about the political functions and rights of the vanakta. Therefore, we cannot judge with certainty the nature of his power. It is clear, however, that the vanakt occupied a special privileged position among the ruling nobility. The Temena land plot belonging to the king (one of the documents of the Pylos archive mentions it) was three times larger than the land plots of other senior officials: its profitability is determined by the figure of 1800 measures.

Marching soldiers. Ceramic crater. Found in Mycenae. OK. 1300-1100 BC.

The king had numerous servants at his disposal. The tablets mention the “royal potter”, “royal fuller”, “royal gunsmith”.

Among the highest-ranking officials subordinate to the king of Pylos, one of the most prominent places was occupied by the lavaget, that is, the governor or military leader. As his title itself shows, his duties included command of the armed forces of the kingdom of Pylos.

In addition to vanakt and lavaget, the inscriptions also mention other officials, designated by the terms “telest”, “eket”, “damat”, etc. Exact value these terms remain unknown. However, it seems quite likely that this circle of high nobility, closely associated with the palace and constituting the inner circle of the Pylos vanakta, included,

firstly, the priests of the main temples of the state (the priesthood in general enjoyed very great influence in Pylos, as in Crete),
secondly, the highest military ranks, first of all, the leaders of the detachments of war chariots, which in those days were the main striking force on the battlefields.

Thus, Pylos society was like a pyramid, built on a strictly hierarchical principle. The top level in this hierarchy of classes was occupied by the military-priestly nobility, headed by the king and military leader, who concentrated in their hands the most important functions of both an economic and political nature. Directly subordinate to the ruling elite of society were numerous officials who acted locally and in the center and together constituted a powerful apparatus for the oppression and exploitation of the working population of the Pylos kingdom.

The peasants and artisans who formed the basis of this entire pyramid did not take part in governing the state. There is an opinion according to which the term “damos” (people) found in the tablets of the Pylos archive means a national assembly representing the entire free population of the Pylos kingdom. However, another interpretation of this term seems more likely: damos is one of the territorial communities (districts) that are part of the state (cf. the later Athenian demes).

Below them stood slaves employed in various works in the palace economy.

Relations between the Achaean states and their development

Relations between states within Greece

Bronze Mycenaean armor found in Dendra (Argolis). OK. 1400 BC

Decryption Linear B could not solve all the problems of socio-economic and political history Mycenaean era. Many important questions still remain unanswered. We do not know, for example, what kind of relations existed between the individual palace states: they constituted, as some scientists think, a single Achaean power under the auspices of the king of Mycenae, the most powerful of all the rulers of then Greece, or they led a completely separate and independent existence. The latter seems more likely.

It is probably no coincidence that almost each of the Mycenaean palaces was surrounded by powerful defensive walls, which were supposed to reliably protect its inhabitants from the hostile outside world and, above all, from their closest neighbors. The Cyclopean walls of Mycenae and Tiryns testify to the almost continuous enmity of these two states, which divided the fertile Argive plain between themselves.

Greek myths tell about the bloody strife of the Achaean rulers, about the stubborn struggle for primacy waged between the rival dynasties of Central Greece and the Peloponnese. One of them tells, for example, that seven kings of Argos went on a campaign to Thebes - the richest of the cities of Boeotia - and after a series unsuccessful attempts and the deaths of some of them took and destroyed the city. Excavations have shown that the Mycenaean palace at Thebes was indeed burned and destroyed in the 14th century. BC. long before other palaces and citadels perished.

Expansion of the Achaean states to the east

The tense relations that existed between the Achaean states throughout almost their entire history do not exclude, however, the fact that in individual moments they could unite for some joint military enterprises. An example of such an enterprise is the famous Trojan War, which Homer tells about. If we follow the Iliad, almost all the main regions of Achaean Greece took part in the campaign against Troy, from Thessaly in the north to Crete and Rhodes in the south. The Mycenaean king Agamemnon was elected leader of the entire army with the general consent of the participants in the campaign.

It is possible that Homer exaggerated the true scale of the Achaean coalition and embellished the campaign itself. Nevertheless, almost no one now doubts the historical reality of this event. The Trojan War was only one, although, apparently, the most significant of the manifestations of the military and colonization expansion of the Achaeans in Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. During the XIV-XIII centuries. BC. Numerous Achaean settlements (indicated by large accumulations of typically Mycenaean pottery) appeared on the western and southern coasts of Asia Minor, the adjacent islands: Rhodes and Cyprus, and even on the Syro-Phoenician coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout these places, the Mycenaean Greeks were seizing the trade initiative from their Minoan predecessors.

Vases from the Mycenaean cemetery in Argos, from Grave No. 2. OK. XV century BC.

The reasons for the special interest of the Mycenaean states in trade with the population of Cyprus, Syria and Asia Minor can be understood by an interesting discovery made under water at Cape Gelidonium (the southern coast of Turkey). Remains were found here ancient ship with a large cargo of bronze ingots, apparently destined for one of the Achaean palaces of the Peloponnese or Central Greece. An equally sensational discovery was made in 1964 in Greece itself during excavations at the site of the ancient Theban citadel of Kadmeia. In one of the rooms of the palace that once stood here, archaeologists found 36 stone cylinders of Babylonian origin. On 14 of them, cuneiform seals were discovered with the name of one of the kings of the so-called “Kassite dynasty” that ruled Babylon in the 14th century. BC. This find clearly shows that during this period the rulers of Thebes - the largest Mycenaean center on the territory of Boeotia - maintained close relations not only trade, but, apparently, also diplomatic with the kings of the distant Mesopotamian state.

Crete itself, as we have already said, was colonized by the Achaeans even earlier (in the 15th century) and became the main springboard in their advance to the east and south. Successfully combining trade with piracy, the Achaeans soon became a very noticeable political force in the area. ancient world. In documents from the capital of the Hittite kingdom of Boghazkey, the state of Ahhiyawa (probably one of the Achaean states in the western part of Asia Minor and on the adjacent islands) is placed on a par with the strongest powers of that era: Egypt, Babylon, Assyria. From these documents it is clear that the rulers of Ahhiyawa maintained close diplomatic contacts with the Hittite kings.

Even at the turn of the XIII-XII centuries. BC. detachments of Achaean miners who came from Crete or the Peloponnese took part in the raids of the coalition of the so-called “Sea Peoples” on Egypt. In the Egyptian inscriptions telling about these events, the peoples of Ahaivash and Danaun are mentioned, along with other tribes, which may correspond to the Greek Ahaivoy and Danaoi - the usual names of the Achaeans in Homer.

The colonial expansion of the Achaean states also covered part of the Western Mediterranean, mainly those areas that would be developed by the Greeks much later during the era of the Great Colonization. Excavations have shown that a Mycenaean settlement existed on the site of the later Greek city of Tarentum on the southern coast of Italy. Significant finds of Mycenaean pottery have been made on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples, on the east coast of Sicily, on the Aeolian Islands and even in Malta.

Fall of the Mycenaean civilization

While Egypt was repelling the onslaught of the “peoples of the sea” from its borders, clouds were already gathering over Achaean Greece itself. Last decades of the 13th century. BC. were an extremely anxious and turbulent time. In Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens and other places, old fortifications are being hastily restored and new ones are being built. A massive Cyclopean wall is erected on the Isthmus (a narrow isthmus connecting Central Greece with the Peloponnese), clearly designed to protect the Mycenaean states in the south of the Balkan Peninsula from some danger approaching from the north.

The so-called "Tarzan Fresco", depicting the reflection of the attack of the barbarians. Pylos Palace. XIII centuries BC.

Among the frescoes of the Pylos Palace, one attracts attention, created shortly before the death of the palace. The artist depicted a bloody battle in which, on the one hand, Achaean warriors in armor and characteristic horned helmets are participating, on the other, some barbarians dressed in animal skins with long flowing hair. Apparently, these savages were the people who were so feared and hated by the inhabitants of the Mycenaean strongholds, against whom they erected more and more fortifications.

Archeology shows that in the immediate vicinity of the main centers of the Mycenaean civilization in the north and north-west of the Balkan Peninsula (areas called in ancient times Macedonia and Epirus) a completely different life lived, very far from the luxury and splendor of the Achaean palaces. Tribes lived here that were at a low level of development and, obviously, had not yet emerged from the stage of the tribal system. Their culture can be judged from the crude molded pottery and primitive clay idols that form the accompanying grave goods of the vast majority of burials in these areas. It should, however, be noted that, despite their backwardness, the tribes of Macedonia and Epirus were already familiar with the use of metal and their weapons, in a purely technical sense, were apparently not inferior to the Mycenaean ones.

The movement of tribes and the formation of the union of the “peoples of the sea”

At the end of the 13th century. BC. The tribal world of the entire Northern Balkan region, due to some reasons unknown to us, began to move. One of the results of this movement was resettlement to Asia Minor large group Phrygian-Thracian tribes who previously lived in the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The formation of the already mentioned union of “peoples of the sea”, under the blows of which beginning of XII V. The great Hittite kingdom fell.

Gold earrings from Mycenae. OK. XVI century BC. Stored in the Louvre, Paris, France.

A huge mass of barbarian tribes, which included both peoples who spoke various dialects of the Greek language (this includes Dorian and the closely related Western Greek dialects), and, apparently, peoples of non-Greek, Thracian-Illyrian origin, left their homes and rushed south to the rich and prosperous regions of Central Greece and the Peloponnese. The route along which the invasion took place is marked by traces of ruins and fires. On their way, the aliens captured and destroyed many Mycenaean settlements. The Pylos Palace was destroyed in a fire. The very place where he stood was forgotten. Some modern scholars believe that the Dorians did not participate at all in the first invasion, which ended with the fall of Pylos. They came later (already in the 12th or even 11th century), when the resistance of the Mycenaean Greeks was finally broken.

The citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns were seriously damaged, although apparently not captured. The economy of the Mycenaean states suffered irreparable damage. This is evidenced by the rapid decline of crafts and trade in the areas most affected by the invasion, as well as a sharp decline in population. Thus, at the turn of the XIII-XII centuries. BC. Mycenaean civilization suffered a terrible blow, from which it was no longer able to recover.

Reasons for the decline of civilization

The question naturally arises as to why the rather developed Mycenaean civilization, which existed within the framework of an early class society for several centuries, fell. Why did the Achaean states, which had a well-organized military machine, significant economic resources, high culture and trained administrative personnel, fail to resist the scattered hordes of conquerors who did not leave the framework of the primitive tribal system? Several reasons can be pointed out for the decline of the Mycenaean civilization.

First of all, it should be noted the internal weakness of early class relations in Greece in the 2nd millennium BC. generally. Early class relations, which presuppose the functioning of more complex than primitive relations of domination and subordination, social differentiation and the identification of various social strata, did not penetrate deeply folk life, did not permeate the social structure from top to bottom.

If the inhabitants of the Mycenaean palace cities were divided into several social strata and class groups, ranging from disenfranchised slaves to the court nobility living in conditions of palace luxury, then the bulk of the population constituted tribal communities and were engaged in primitive agriculture. These tribal communities retained their collectivist structure and were little affected by social and property differentiation, although they were subject to exploitation by the inhabitants of the Mycenaean palaces.

Such dualism of Mycenaean societies is evidence of the fragility of class relations in general, which could be relatively easily destroyed by external conquest. Moreover, residents of ancestral villages sought to destroy Mycenaean palaces - isolated centers of high culture, which acted mainly as centers of consumption and took little part in the overall organization of production.

One of the important reasons for the fall of the Achaean states was the depletion of internal resources, the waste of huge material and human reserves as a result of the many years of the Trojan War and bloody civil strife between individual Achaean kingdoms and within the ruling dynasties. With a low level of production and a small amount of surplus product squeezed out of tribal communities All funds were spent on maintaining the court aristocracy, a solid bureaucratic apparatus, and a military organization. Under these conditions, additional spending on ruinous wars (including the Trojan War) could not but lead to an overstrain of internal potential and its depletion.

The Achaean civilization, with its brilliant façade, was an internally fragile society. It did not so much increase social production in its development as it squandered existing resources and undermined the foundations of its well-being and power. During the period that began at the turn of the XIII-XII centuries. BC. Due to the large movements of tribes in the Balkans and Asia Minor (among them were Dorian tribes), the Mycenaean states, weakened by a complex of internal deep contradictions, could not withstand the onslaught of warlike tribes. The rapid collapse of the largest Mycenaean states that followed the tribal movements is explained not so much by the strength of the northern barbarians as by the fragility of their internal structure, the basis of which was, as we have seen, systematic exploitation rural population a small, introverted palace elite and its bureaucratic apparatus. It was enough to destroy the ruling elite of the palace states for this entire complex structure to collapse like a house of cards.

The destruction of the Mycenaean civilization and the fate of the population

The further course of events is largely unclear: the archaeological material at our disposal is too scarce. The main part of the barbarian tribes that took part in the invasion, apparently, could not hold on to the territory they captured (the devastated country could not feed such a mass of people) and fled to the north - to their original positions. Only small tribal groups of Dorians and related Western Greek peoples settled in the coastal regions of the Peloponnese (Argolis, areas near Isthmus, Achaea, Elis, Laconia and Messenia). Individual islands of Mycenaean culture continued to exist mixed with newly founded settlements of aliens until the end of the 12th century. Apparently, at this time the last of those who survived the catastrophe of the late 13th century. the Achaean citadels fell into final decline and were forever abandoned by their inhabitants.

Two women on a chariot. Fresco from Tiryns. OK. 1200 BC

During the same period, there was mass emigration from the territory of Balkan Greece to the East - to Asia Minor and to the nearby islands. The colonization movement was attended by: on the one hand, the surviving remnants of the Achaean population of the Peloponnese, Central and Northern Greece, who are now called Ionians and Aeolians, and on the other, Dorian new settlers. The result of this movement was the formation of many new settlements on the western coast of Asia Minor and on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes and others, among which the largest were

Ionian cities Miletus, Ephesus, Colophon;
Aeolian Smyrna;
Dorian Halicarnassus.

Here, in the Ionian and Aeolian colonies, several centuries later, a new version of Greek culture developed, sharply different from the Mycenaean civilization that preceded it, although it absorbed some of its basic elements.

At the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The territory of Ancient Greece is invaded by the Achaean Greeks who came from the north. They managed to conquer the population of this country, despite the fact that their level of development was lower.

Only from the 16th century BC. The Achaeans begin to improve their economy and culture, make tools and full-fledged weapons.

The civilization that arose during this period is most often called Achaean, after the name of its conquerors, and sometimes Mycenaean, since the most powerful and prosperous state in this territory was called Mycenae and was located in the Peloponnese.

The centers of the Achaean state are Tiryns, Pylos and Mycenae

Palaces were considered centers on the territory of Greece and Crete, some of which were excavated modern archaeologists. These were not just beautiful and comfortable structures, they were real fortresses, which suggests that at this time the Achaeans had to fight often.

Such Achaean palaces have been found at Pylos, Mycenae and Tiryns. The latter is considered the most powerful and indestructible fortress, the thickness of its walls was about five meters and its height was about seven.

But the most powerful and influential center of that time is the palace in Mycenae, which was located on a hill and was surrounded by thick walls with gates. The city of Mycenae is also famous for the many riches that were found by archaeologists in the burial places of the Mycenaean kings.

This confirms that, like the residents Ancient East, the Greeks believed in the afterlife and tried to provide the deceased with everything necessary. In the graves of noble rich people and Mycenaean kings, a lot of jewelry, dishes and weapons made of gold, silver and ivory were discovered.

Also found there were golden masks that covered the faces of the dead and represented their portraits. What was found in excavations significantly surprised archaeologists. The partially preserved palace in Pylos is also noteworthy.

An archive was found in it, which interested historians and archaeologists. Despite the fact that Pylos was destroyed by a fire, the archive was preserved as it was written on clay tablets at that time, and they remained only burnt.

Economy of Achaean Greece

These records were deciphered by the Englishman Ventris, who was able to understand that the tablets were business records. Scientists managed to learn a lot about the structure of the economy and politics in Achaean Greece.

There is mention of numerous slaves, among whom were women and their children. It is also known that there were officials who ensured that peasants regularly paid taxes and performed duties for the state. The ancient Achaean Greeks especially valued metal; there was a special accounting for it.

The structure of the state of Achaean Greece

At the head of the state was the king, priests and officials were of particular importance, and below them were ordinary residents of small settlements.

The most insignificant place was occupied by slaves. Village residents could not take any part in the management of the city. This device is reminiscent of the states of the Ancient East.

Culture and religion of Achaean Greece

The main theme for the art and faith of the ancient Achaeans was war. This is why their wall paintings are different from those found in Crete.