Mycenae and the Heroic Age
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Mycenaean burial practices
However, Homer's account of the burial practices of the Mycenaeans is not supported by archaeology. The Mycenaeans buried their dead along with grave-goods, but Homer describes cremation, a practice only introduced into Greece after the fall of Mycenae. Thus it is likely that Homer's story exhibits accretions from later customs. Homer also refers only once to the practice of letter writing in connection with a story of Bellerophon in which the letter, on a stone tablet, is essential to the plot, since it contains the message, "Please execute the bearer". The shaft graves at Mycenae are impressive, and suggest that the city was wealthy and exerting an increased influence. The graves also show a Cretan influence. 'Royal' families were buried in the shaft graves, whilst commoners were buried in cist graves. There are large tholos tombs at Mycenae dating from c.1510 BC, and they include the Treasury of Atreus. The tholos structure may have been derived from Crete. Other similar tholoi may be found at (1) Prosymna (near Mycenae), (2) Dendra, (3) Orchomenos in Boetia, known as the Treasury of Minyas, (4) Vapheio in Lakonia, (5) Persisteria, (6) Routsi, (7) Volos, (8) Thorikos and Menidhi in Attica. There were chamber tombs for the "middle classes" at Mycenae. The burial remains suggest wide trade connections. Imports include gold, copper from Cyprus, tin (origin not known), ivory from Egypt or the Eastern Mediterranean, bored beads and amber. An important series of houses surround the citadel of Mycenae. Wall decorations (of which only fragments survive) suggest Cretan influence, though they are more formal and stylised. The religious significance of surviving works of art is not known. Frescoes at Mycenae include creatures with strange crocodile heads. Some of the more ordinary objects show a religious affinity with Crete. One motif found in Crete and on mainland Greece is called the Mistress of Animals - it comprises a central female figure flanked by two lions. It suggests that there was a female deity that was common to both Mycenae and Crete. There are cave and hilltop sanctuaries, and there is the general impression of considerable religious organisation with culture strongly influenced by Crete.
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Contents of
Mycenae and the Heroic Age
1 The fall of Knosos
2 Crete circa 1400 BC
3 Mycenae
4 Mycenaean palace architecture
5 Mycenaean burial practices
6 Mycenaean influence
7 Cyprus
8 Decline of Mycenae
9 The sea raiders
10 The wars with Thebes and Troy
11 The seven against Thebes
12 Troy
13 The Dorian Invasion and the end of Mycenaean civilisation
14 The Heraclids
15 Disputing the theory of the Dorian invasion
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