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AEGEAN
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AEGEAN SITES EmeryWaiker Hissarlik Pitani containing little more than one See also:great See also:residence, and dominating See also:lower towns of meaner houses, point to See also:monarchy at all periods. See also:Independent See also:local developments of See also:art before the See also:middle of the 2nd See also:millennium B.C. suggest the See also:early existence of independent See also:units in various parts, of which. the strongest was the Cnossian. After that date the See also:evidence goes strongly to show that one See also:political dominion was spread for a brief See also:period, or for two brief periods, over almost all the See also:area (see later). The great number of See also:tribute-tallies found at See also:Cnossus perhaps indicates that the centre of See also:power was always there. . (2) See also:Religion.—The fact that shrines have so far been found within palaces and not certainly anywhere else indicates that the See also:kings kept religious power in their own hands; perhaps they were themselves high-priests. Religion in the area seems to have been essentially the same everywhere from the earliest period, viz. the cult of a Divine Principle, See also:resident in dominant features of nature (See also:sun, stars, mountains, trees, &c.) and See also:control-See also:ling fertility. This cult passed through an aniconic See also:stage, from which fetishes survived to the last, these being rocks or pillars, trees, weapons (e.g. bipennis, or See also:double See also:war-See also:axe, See also:shield), &c. When the iconic stage was reached, about 2000 B.C., we find the Divine Spirit represented as a goddess with a subordinate See also:young See also:god, as in many other E. Mediterranean lands. The god was probably son and See also:mate of the goddess, and the divine pair represented the See also:genius of Reproductive Fertility in its relations with humanity. The goddess sometimes appears with doves, as uranic, at others with See also:snakes, as chthonic. In the See also:ritual fetishes, often of See also:miniature See also:form, played a great See also:part: all sorts of See also:plants and animals were sacred: See also:sacrifice (not burnt, and human very doubtful), See also:dedication of all sorts of offerings and simulacra, invocation, &c., were practised. The dead, who returned to the Great See also:Mother, were See also:objects of a sort of See also:hero-See also:worship. This early nature-cult explains many anomalous features of Hellenic religion, especially in the cults of See also:Artemis and See also:Aphrodite. (See See also:CRETE.)
(3) Social Organization.—There is a possibility that features of a primeval See also:matriarchate See also:long survived; but there is no certain evidence. Of the organization of the See also:people under the monarch we are ignorant. There are so few representations of armed men that it seems doubtful if there can have been any professional military class. Theatral structures found at Cnossus and Phaestus, within the precincts of the palaces, were perhaps used for shows or for sittings of a royal See also:assize, rather than for popular assemblies. The Cnossian remains contain evidence of an elaborate See also:system of See also:registration, See also:account-keeping and other secretarial See also:work, which perhaps indicates a considerable See also:body of See also:law. The See also:life of the ruling class was comfortable and even luxurious from early times. See also:Fine See also: Cnossian frescoes show women grouped apart, and they appear alone on gems. Flesh and See also:fish and many kinds of vegetables were evidently eaten, and See also:wine and See also:beer were drunk. Vessels for culinary, table, and luxurious uses show an See also:infinite variety of form and purpose. Artificers' implements of many kinds were in use, See also:bronze succeeding See also:obsidian and other hard stones as the material. Seats are found carefully shaped to the human See also:person. There was evidently See also:olive- and See also:vine-culture on a large See also:scale in Crete at any See also:rate. Chariots were in use in the later period, as is proved by the pictures of them on Cretan tablets, and therefore, probably, the See also:horse also was known. Indeed a horse appears on a See also:gem impression. See also:Main ways were paved. See also:Sports, probably more or less religious, are often represented, e.g. See also:bull-fighting, dancing, See also:boxing, armed combats. (4) See also:Commerce was practised to some extent in very early times, as is proved by the See also:distribution of Melian obsidian over all the Aegean area and by the Nilotic See also:influence on early Minoan art. We find Cretan vessels exported to Melos, See also:Egypt and the See also:Greek mainland. Melian vases came in their turn to Crete. After 1600 B.C. there is very See also:close intercourse with Egypt, and Aegean things find their way to all coasts of the Mediterranean (see below). No traces of currency have come to light, unless certain axe-heads, too slight for See also:practical use, had that See also:character; but See also:standard weights have been found, and representations of ingots. The Aegean written documents have not yet proved (by being found outside the area) epistolary See also:correspondence with other lands. Representations of See also:ships are not See also:common, but several have been observed on Aegean gems, gem-sealings and vases. They are vessels of See also:low See also:free-See also:board, with masts. Familiarity with the See also:sea is proved by the free use of marine motives in decoration. (5) Treatment of the Dead.—The dead in the earlier period were laid (so far as we know at See also:present) within cists constructed of upright stones. These were sometimes inside caves. After the See also:burial the See also:cist was covered in with See also:earth. A little later, in Crete, See also:bone-pits seem to have come into use, containing the remains of many burials. Possibly the flesh was boiled off the bones at once (" scarification "), or See also:left to rot in separate cists awhile; afterwards the skeletons were collected and the cists re-used. The coffins are of small See also:size, contain corpses with the knees See also:drawn up to the See also:chin and are found in excavated chambers or pits. In the later period a See also:peculiar " See also:bee-hive " See also:tomb became common, sometimes wholly or partly excavated, sometimes (as in the magnificent Mycenaean " Treasuries ") constructed See also:dome-See also:wise. The See also:shaft-See also:graves in the See also:Mycenae circle are also a See also:late type, paralleled in the later Cnossian See also:cemetery. The latest type of tomb is a flatly vaulted chamber approached by a See also:horizontal or slightly inclined way, whose sides converge above. At no period do the Aegean dead seem to have been burned. Weapons, See also:food, water, unguents and various trinkets were laid with the See also:corpse at all periods. In the Mycenae circle an See also:altar seems to have been erected over the graves, and perhaps slaves were killed to See also:bear the dead chiefs See also:company. A painted See also:sarcophagus, found at Hagia Triada, also possibly shows a hero-cult of the dead. (6) See also:Artistic See also:Production.—Ceramic art reached a specially high standard in fabric, form and decoration by the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. in Crete. The products of that period compare favourably with any potters' work in the See also:world. The same may be said of See also:fresco-See also:painting, and probably of See also:metal work. Modelling in terra-See also:cotta, See also:sculpture in stone and See also:ivory, See also:engraving on gems, were following it closely by the beginning of the and millennium. After 2000 B.C. all these arts revived, and sculpture, as ebidenced by See also:relief work, both on a large and on a small scale, carved stone vessels, metallurgy in See also:gold, See also:silver and bronze, advanced farther. This art and those of fresco- and See also:vase-painting and of gem-engraving stood higher about the 15th See also:century B.C. than at any subsequent period before the 6th century. The manufacture, modelling and painting of See also:faience objects, and the making of inlays in many materials were also See also:familiar to Aegean craftsmen, who show in all their best work a strong sense of natural form and an appreciation of ideal See also:balance and decorative effect, such as are seen in the best products of later Hellenic art. Architectural See also:ornament was also highly See also:developed. The richness of the Aegean capitals and columns may be judged by those from the " See also:Treasury of See also:Atreus " now set up in the See also:British Museum; and of the friezes we have examples in Mycenaean and Cnossian fragments, and Cnossian paintings. The magnificent gold work of the later period, preserved to us at Mycenae and See also:Vaphio, needs only to be mentioned. It should be compared with stone work in Crete, especially the steatite vases with reliefs found at Hagia Triada. On the whole, Aegean art, at its two great periods, in the middle of the 3rd and 2nd millennia respectively, will bear comparison with any contemporary arts. IV. Origin, Nature and See also:History of Aegean See also:Civilization.—The evidence, summarized above, though very various and voluminous, is not yet sufficient to See also:answer all the questions which may be asked as to the origin, nature and history of this civilization, or to answer any but a few questions with See also:absolute certainty. We shall try to indicate the extent to which it can legitimately be applied. A. Distinctive Features.—The fact that Aegean civilization is distinguished from all others, See also:prior or contemporary, not only by its See also:geographical area, but by leading organic characteristics, has never been in doubt, since its remains came to be studied seriously and impartially. The truth was indeed obscured for a See also:time by persistent prejudices in favour of certain See also:alien Mediterranean races long known to have been in relation with the Aegean area in prehistoric times, e.g. the Egyptians and especially the Phoenicians. But their claims to be the See also:principal authors of the Aegean remains See also:grew fainter with every fresh Aegean See also:discovery, and every new light thrown on their own proper products; with the Cretan revelations they ceased altogether to be considered except by a few Homeric enthusiasts. Briefly, we now know that the Aegean civilization developed these distinctive features. (r) An indigenous script expressed in characters of which only a very small percentage are identical, or even obviously connected, with those of any other script. This is equally true both of the pictographic and the linear Aegean systems. Its nearest See also:affinities are with the " Asianic " scripts, preserved to us by Hittite, Cypriote and See also:south-See also:west Anatolian (Pamphylian, Lycian and Carian) See also:inscriptions. See also:Bute neither are these affinities close enough to be of any practical aid in deciphering Aegean characters, nor is it by any means certain that there is parentage. The Aegean script may be, and probably is, prior in origin to the "Asianic "; and it may equally well be owed to a remote common ancestor, or (the small number of common characters being considered) be an entirely independent See also:evolution from representations of natural objects (see CRETE). (2) An Art, whose products cannot be confounded with those of any other known art by a trained See also:eye. Its obligations to other contemporary arts are many and obvious, especially in its later stages; but every borrowed form and See also:motive undergoes an essential modification at the hands of the Aegean craftsman, and the product is stamped with a new character. The See also:secret of this character lies evidently in a See also:constant See also:attempt to See also:express an ideal in forms more and more closely approaching to realities. We detect the See also:dawn of that spirit which afterwards animated Hellenic art. The fresco-paintings, ceramic motives, reliefs, free sculpture and toreutic handiwork of Crete have supplied the clearest See also:proof of it, confirming the impression already created by the goldsmiths' and painters' work of the Greek mainland (Mycenae, Vaphio, See also:Tiryns). (3) Architectural plans and decoration. The arrangement of Aegean palaces is of two main types. First (and perhaps earliest in time), the chambers are grouped See also:round a central See also:court, being engaged one with the other in a labyrinthine complexity, and the greater oblongs are entered from a long See also:side and divided longitudinally by pillars. Second, the main chamber is of what is known as the See also:megaron type, i.e. it stands free, isolated from the See also:rest of the See also:plan by corridors, is entered from a See also:vestibule on a See also:short side, and has a central See also:hearth, surrounded by pillars and perhaps hypaethral; there is no central court, and other apartments form distinct blocks. For possible geographical reasons for this duality of type see CRETE. In spite of many comparisons made with See also:Egyptian, Babylonian and " Hittite " plans, both these arrangements remain incongruous with any remains of prior or contemporary structures elsewhere. Whether either plan suits the " Homeric See also:palace " does not affect the present question. (4) A type of tomb, the dome or " bee-hive," of which the grandest examples known are at Mycenae. The Cretan " larnax " coffins, also, have no See also:parallels outside the Aegean. There are other infinite singularities of detail; but the above are more than sufficient to establish the point. B. Origin and Continuity.—With the immense expansion of the evidence, due to the Cretan excavations, a question has arisen how far the Aegean civilization, whose See also:total duration covers at least three thousand years, can be regarded as one and continuous. Thanks to the exploration of Cnossus, we now know that Aegean civilization had its roots in a See also:primitive Neolithic period, of uncertain but very long duration, represented by a stratum which (on that site in particular) is in places nearly 20 ft. thick, and contains stone implements and sherds of See also:hand-made and hand-polished vessels, showing a progressive development in technique from bottom to See also:top. This Cnossian stratum seems to be throughout earlier than the lowest layer at Hissarlik. It closes with the introduction of incised, See also: From one stage to another, fabrics, forms and motives of decoration develop gradually; so that, at the close of a span of more than two thousand years, at the least, the influences of the beginning can still be clearly seen and no trace of violent artistic intrusion can be detected. This fact, by itself, would go far to prove that the civilization continued fundamentally and essentially the same throughout. It is, moreover, supported by less abundant remains of other arts. That of painting in fresco, for in-stance, shows the same orderly development from at any rate Period II. 2 to the end. About institutions we have less certain knowledge, there being but little evidence for the earlier periods; but in the documents See also:relating to religion, the most significant of all, it can at least be said that there is no trace of See also:sharp See also:change. We see evidence of a See also:uniform Nature Worship passing through all the normal stages down to theoanthropism in the latest period. There is no See also:appearance of intrusive deities or cult-ideas. We may take it then (and the fact is not disputed even by those who, like Dorpfeld, believe in one thorough racial change, at least, during the Bronze Age) that the Aegean civilization was indigenous, firmly rooted and strong enough to persist essentially unchanged and dominant in its own. geographical area throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. This conclusion can hardly See also:entail less than a belief that, at any rate, the See also:mass of those who''possessed this civilization continued racially the same. There are, however, in certain respects at certain periods, evidences of such changes as might be due to the intrusion of small conquering castes, which adopted the superior civilization of the conquered people and became assimilated to the latter. The earliest palace at Cnossus was built probably in Period II. r or 2. It was of the type mentioned first in the description of palace-plans above. Before Period III. t it was largely re-built, and arguments have been brought forward by Dorpfeld to show that features of the second type were then introduced. A similar rebuilding took See also:place at the same See also:epoch at Phaestus, and possibly at Hagia Triada. Now the second type, the " megaron " arrangement, characterizes peculiarly the palaces discovered in the See also:north of the Aegean area, at Mycenae, Tiryns and Hissarlik, where up to the present no signs of the first type, so characteristic of Crete, have been observed. These northern " See also:megara " are all of late date, none being prior to Minoan III. t. At Phylakope, a " megaron " appears only in the uppermost Aegean stratum, the underlying structures being more in conformity with the earlier Cretan. At the same epoch a notable change took place in the Aegean script. The pictographic characters, found on See also:seals and discs of Period II. in Crete, had given way entirely to a linear system by Period III. That system thenceforward prevailed exclusively, suffering a slight modification again in III. 2 and 3. These and other less well marked changes, say some critics, are signs of a racial convulsion not long after 2000 B.C. An old See also:race was conquered by a new, even if, in matters of civilization, the former capta victorem cepit. For these races respectively Dorpfeld suggests the names " Lycian " and " Carian, " the latter coming in from the north Aegean, where Greek tradition remembered its former dominance. These names do not greatly help us. If we are to accept and profit by Dorpfeld's nomenclature, we must be satisfied that, in their later historic habitats, both Lycians and Carians showed unmistakable signs of having formerly possessed the civilizations attributed to them in pre-historic times—signs which See also:research has hitherto wholly failed to find. The most that can be said to be capable of proof is the infiltration of some northern influence into Crete at the end of Minoan Period II.; but it probably brought about no change of See also:dynasty and certainly no change in the prevailing race. A See also:good See also:deal of anthropometric investigation has been devoted to human remains of the Aegean epoch, especially to skulls and bones found in Crete in tombs of Period II. The result of this, however, has not so far established more than the fact that the Aegean races, as a whole, belonged to the dark, long-headed Homo Mediterraneus, whose probable origin See also:lay in See also:mid-eastern Africa—a fact only valuable in the present connexion in so far as it tends to discredit an See also:Asiatic source for Aegean civilization. Not enough evidence has been collected to affect the question of racial change during the Aegean period. From the See also:skull-forms studied, it would appear, as we should expect, that the Aegean race was by no means pure even in the earlier Minoan periods. It only remains to be added that there is some ground for supposing that the See also:language spoken in Crete before the later Doric was non-Hellenic, but Indo-See also:European. This inference rests on three inscriptions in Greek characters but non-Greek language found in E. Crete. The language has some apparent affinities with Phrygian. The inscriptions are See also:post-Aegean by many centuries, but they occur in the part of the See also:island known to See also:Homer as that inhabited by the Eteo-Cretans, or See also:aborigines. Their language may prove to be that of the Linear tablets. C. History of Aegean Civilization.—History of an inferential and See also:summary sort only can be derived from monuments in the See also:absence of written records. The latter do, indeed, exist in the See also:case of the Cretan civilization and in great See also:numbers; but they are undeciphered and likely to remain so, except in the improbable event of the discovery of a long bi-lingual See also:text; partly couched in some familiar script and language. Even in that event, the See also:information which would be derived from the Cnossian tablets would probably make but a small addition to history,. since in very large part they are evidently See also:mere inventories of tribute and stores. The engraved gems probably See also:record divine or human names. (See CRETE.) (r) See also:Chronology.—The earliest See also:chronological datum that we possess is inferred from a close similarity between certain Cretan hand-made and polished vases of Minoan Period I. r and others discovered by See also:Petrie at See also:Abydos in Egypt and referred by him to the Ist Dynasty. He goes so far as to pronounce the latter to be Cretan importations, their fabric and forms being unlike anything Nilotic. If that be so, the period at which stone implements were beginning to be superseded by bronze in Crete must be dated before 4000 B.C. But it will be remembered that below all Evans's " Minoan " strata lies the immensely thick Neolithic See also:deposit: To date the beginning of this earliest record of human production is impossible at present. The Neolithic stratum varies very much in See also:depth, ranging from nearly 20 ft. to 3 ft., but is deepest on the highest part of the hillock. Its See also:variations may be due equally to natural denudation of a stratum once of uniform depth, or to the artificial heaping up of a See also:mound by later builders. Even were certainty as to these alternatives attained, we could only guess at the See also:average rate of See also:accumulation, which experience shows to proceed very differently on different sites and under different social and See also:climatic conditions. In later periods at Cnossus accumulation seems to have proceeded at a rate of, roughly, 3 ft. per thousand years. Reckoning by that standard we might push the earliest Neolithic remains back behind to,000 B.C.; but the calculation would be worthy of little See also:credence.
Passing by certain fragments of stone vessels, found at Cnossus, and coincident with forms characteristic of the IVth Pharaonic Dynasty, we reach another fairly certain date in the synchronism of remains belonging to the XIIth Dynasty (c. 2500 B.C. according to Petrie, but later according to the See also:Berlin School) with products of Minoan Period II. 2. Characteristic Cretan pottery of this period was found by Petrie in the See also:Fayum in See also:conjunction with XIIth Dynasty remains, and various Cretan products of the period show striking coincidences with Xllth Dynasty styles, especially in their See also:adoption of spiraliform ornament. The See also:spiral, however, it must be confessed, occurs so often in natural objects (e.g. horns, climbing plants, shavings of See also:wood or metal) that too much stress must not be laid on the mutual parentage of spiraliform ornament in different civilizations. A See also:diorite statuette, referable by its See also:style and inscription to Dynasty XIII., was discovered in deposit of Period II. .3 in the Central Court, and a See also:cartouche of the " Shepherd See also: This brings us to the next and most certain synchronism, that of Minoan Periods The See also:terminus qd quem is less certain—iron does not begin to be used for weapons in the Aegean till after Period III. 3, and then not exclusively. If we See also:fix its introduction to about a000 B.C. and make it coincident with the incursion of northern tribes, remembered by the classical Greeks as the Dorian Invasion, we must allow that this incursion did not altogether See also:stamp out Aegean civilization, at least in the See also:southern part of its area. But it finally destroyed the Cnossian palace and initiated the " Geometric " Age, with which, for convenience at any rate, we may close the history of Aegean civilization proper. (2) See also:Annals.—From these and other data the outlines of primitive history in the Aegean may be sketched thus. A people, agreeing in its prevailing skull-forms with the Mediterranean race of N. See also:Africa, was settled in the Aegean area from a remote Neolithic antiquity, but, except in Crete, where insular See also:security was combined with great natural fertility, remained in a See also:savage and unproductive See also:condition until far into the 4th millennium B.C. In Crete, however, it had long been developing a certain civilization, and at a period more or less contemporary with Dynasties XI. and XII. (2500 B.C. ?) the scattered communities of the centre of the island coalesced into a strong monarchical See also:state, whose See also:capital was at Cnossus. There the king, probably also high See also:priest of the prevailing nature-cult, built a great stone palace, and received the tribute of feudatories, of whom, probably, the See also:prince of Phaestus, who commanded the Messara See also:plain, was See also:chief. The Cnossian monarch had maritime relations with Egypt, and presently sent his wares all over the S. Aegean (e.g. to Melos in the earlier Second See also:City Period of Phylakope) and to See also:Cyprus, receiving in return such commodities as Melian obsidian knives. A system of pictographic See also:writing came into use early in this Palace period, but only a few documents, made of durable material, have survived. Pictorial art of a purely indigenous character, whether on ceramic material or See also:plaster, made great strides, and from ceramic forms we may legitimately infer also a high skill in metallurgy. The absence of fortifications both at Cnossus and Phaestus suggest that at this time Crete was internally peaceful and externally secure. Small settlements, in very close relation with the capital, were founded in the See also:east of the island to command fertile districts and assist maritime commerce. Gournia and Palaikastro fulfilled both these ends: Zakro must have had mainly a commercial purpose, as the starting-point for the See also:African See also:coast. The See also:acme of this dominion was reached about the end of the 3rd millennium B.C., and there-after there ensued a certain, though not very serious, decline. Meanwhile, at other favourable spots in the Aegean, but chiefly, it appears, on sites in easy relation to maritime commerce, e.g. Tiryns and Hissarlik, other communities of the early race began to arrive at civilization, but were naturally influenced by themore advanced culture of Crete, in proportion to their nearness of vicinity. Early Hissarlik shows less Cretan influence and more See also:external (i.e. Asiatic) than early Melos, The inner Greek mainland remained still' in a backward state. Five See also:hundred years later—about 1600 B.c.—we observe that certain striking changes have taken place. The Aegean remains have become astonishingly uniform over the whole area; the local ceramic developments have almost ceased and been replaced by See also:ware of one general type both of fabric and decoration. The Cretans have stayed their previous decadence, and are once more possessors of a progressive civilization. They have developed a more convenient and expressive written character by stages of which one is best represented by the tablets of Hagia Triada. The art of all the area gives evidence of one spirit and common See also:models ; in religious representations it shows the same anthropomorphic personification and the same ritual See also:furniture. Objects produced in one locality are found in others. The area of Aegean intercourse has widened and become more busy. Commerce with Egypt, for example, has increased in a marked degree, and Aegean objects or imitations of them are found to have begun to penetrate ,into See also:Syria, inland See also:Asia See also:Minor, and the central and western Mediterranean lands, e.g. See also:Sicily, See also:Sardinia and See also:Spain. There can be little doubt that a strong power was now fixed in one Aegean centre, and that all the area had come under its political, social and artistic influence. How was this brought about, and what was the imperial centre? Some change seems to have come from the north; and there are those who go so far as to say that the centre henceforward was the Argolid, and especially " See also:golden " Mycenae, whose lords imposed a new type of palace and a modification of Aegean art on all other Aegean lands. Others again cite the old-established power and productivity of Crete; the immense See also:advantage it derived from insularity, natural fertility and geographical relation to the wider area of east Mediterranean civilizations; and the absence of evidence elsewhere for the See also:gradual growth of a culture powerful enough to dominate the Aegean. They point to the fact that, even in the new period, the See also:palm for See also:wealth and variety of civilized production still remained with Crete. There alone we have proof that the art of writing was commonly practised, and there tribute-tallies suggest an imperial organization; there the arts of painting and sculpture in stone were most highly developed ; there the royal residences, which had never been violently destroyed, though remodelled, continued unfortified; whereas on the Greek mainland they required strong protective See also:works. The golden treasure of the Mycenae graves, these critics urge, is not more splendid than would have been found at Cnossus had royal burials been spared by plunderers, or been happened upon intact by modern explorers. It is not impossible to combine these views, and place the seat of power still in Crete, but ascribe the Renascence there to an influx of new See also:blood from the north, large enough to instil fresh vigour, but too small to change the civilization in its essential character. If this dominance was Cretan, it was short-lived. The security of the island was apparently violated not long after 1500 B.C., the Cnossian palace was sacked and burned, and Cretan art suffered an irreparable See also:blow. As the comparatively lifeless character which it possesses in the succeeding period (III. 3) is coincident with a similar decadence all over the Aegean area, we can hardly See also:escape from the conclusion that it was due to the invasion of all the Aegean lands (or at least the Greek mainland and isles) by some less civilized conquerors, who remained politically dominant, but, like their forerunners, having no culture of their own, adopted, while they spoiled, that which they found. Who these were we cannot say; but the See also:probability is that they too came from the north, and were pre-cursors of the later " Hellenes." Under their See also:rule See also:peace was re-established, and art production became again abundant among the subject See also:population, though of inferior quality. The Cnossian palace was re-occupied in its northern part by chieftains who have left numerous See also:rich graves; and general commercial intercourse must have been resumed, for the uniformity of the decadent Aegean products and their wide distribution become more marked than ever. About boo B.C. there happened a final See also:catastrophe. The palace at Cnossus was once more destroyed, and never rebuilt or re-inhabited. Iron took the place of Bronze, and Aegean' art, as a living thing, ceased on the Greek mainland and in the Aegean isles including Crete, together with Aegean writing. In Cyprus, and perhaps on the south-west Anatolian coasts, there is some See also:reason to think that the See also:cataclysm was less See also:complete, and Aegean art continued to languish, cut off from its See also:fountain-See also:head. Such artistic See also:faculty as survived elsewhere issued in the lifeless geometric style which is reminiscent of the later Aegean, but wholly unworthy of it. See also:Cremation took the place of burial of the dead. This great disaster, which cleared the ground for a new growth of local art, was probably due to yet another incursion of northern tribes, more barbarous than their predecessors, but possessed of superior iron weapons—those tribes which later Greek tradition and Homer knew as the See also:Dorians. They crushed a civilization already hard See also:hit; and it took two or three centuries for the artistic spirit, See also:instinct in the Aegean area, and probably preserved in suspended animation by the survival of Aegean racial elements, to blossom anew. On this See also:conquest seems to have ensued a long period of unrest and popular movements, known to Greek tradition as the Ionian See also:Migration and the Aeolic and Dorian " colonizations "; and when once more we see the Aegean area clearly, it is dominated by Hellenes, though it has not lost all memory of its earlier culture. (1901— ) ; See also:Ephemeris Archaiologike (1885— ) ; See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies, Athenische Mittheilungen, Bulletin de correspondance hellinique, See also:American Journal of See also:Archaeology, (all since about 1885). See also:SPECIAL WORKS: H. See also:Schliemann's books (see SCHLIEMANN), summarized by C. Schuchhardt; Schliemann's Excavations (1891); Chr. Tsountas, Mu,o ac (1893) ; Chr. Tsountas and J. I. Manatt, The Mycenaean Age (1897) ; G. See also:Perrot and Ch. Chipiez, Histoire de l'art dons l'antiquite, vol. vi. (1895) ; W. Dorpfeld, Troja (1893) and Troja and Ilios (1904) ; A. See also:Furtwangler and G. Loschke, Mykenische Vasen (1886); A. S. See also: R. See also: (1905). Various summaries, controversial articles, &c., formerly quoted, are now superseded by recent discoveries. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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