Bronze Age Aegean
The Minoans of Crete and the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece (c. 3000-1100 BCE): palaces, Linear A and B, and the collapse of the Late Bronze Age.
Category: Peoples
- c. 2100 BCECretan hieroglyphs
From about 2100 BCE the Minoans use a pictographic script on seals and clay documents, at Archanes, Knossos, Malia and elsewhere. It lasts to about 1700, is undeciphered, and its language is unknown. It overlaps with, and may have been a prototype for, Linear A.
- c. 1900 BCEThe first Minoan palaces
Around 1900 BCE the first palaces rise at Knossos, Phaistos and Malia on Crete, opening the Protopalatial period of Minoan civilization. Linear A, still undeciphered, develops soon after.
- c. 1850 BCEThe Phaistos Disc
Luigi Pernier finds a clay disc stamped with 45 signs (242 in all) at Phaistos on 3 July 1908. Estimates run from c. 1850-1600 BCE to after 1400. It is undeciphered, it is not clear that it is a script, and it is now generally accepted as authentic.
- c. 1800 BCELinear A
Minoan Crete uses Linear A from about 1800 to 1450 BCE: roughly 1,400 inscriptions, about 7,400 sign tokens. Named by Arthur Evans, it has been known since 1900 and is undeciphered. Linear B was later adapted from it to write Greek.
- c. 1750 BCEMycenaean civilization
On the Greek mainland a palace culture centred on Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos emerges from c. 1750 BCE. It peaks between 1400 and 1200, spreads across the Aegean, and keeps its archives in Linear B.
- c. 1600 BCEThe Minoan eruption of Thera
The volcano of Thera (Santorini) erupts in one of the largest eruptions in recorded history (VEI 7). Radiocarbon favours the 17th to 16th century BCE, archaeology 1550-1480. It strikes Crete with tsunamis and earthquakes. Its role in Minoan decline is debated.
- c. 1500 BCECypro-Minoan script and the Enkomi tablet
The Cypro-Minoan syllabary, derived from Linear A, is used on Cyprus and elsewhere from c. 1550 to 1050 BCE. About 250 inscribed objects survive. The longest early text is a clay tablet found at Enkomi in 1955, c. 1500. It is undeciphered.
- c. 1450 BCEMycenaeans take over Crete; Linear B appears
Around 1450 BCE Mycenaean Greeks come to dominate Minoan Crete and adapt Linear A into Linear B to write Greek. Knossos is the only palace still in use later. Scholars debate whether this rule was political or mainly cultural.
- c. 1400 BCEHittite texts name Wilusa
From c. 1400 BCE, when it joins the Assuwa confederation, to a letter of Tudhaliya IV, Hittite records name a western Anatolian state, Wilusa. It is generally identified with Troy, though not all scholars see that as settled. The texts do not describe a Greek attack on it.
- c. 1300 BCEThe palace at Thebes is sacked and burned
Between about 1300 and 1200 BCE the palace at Boeotian Thebes is sacked repeatedly and finally burned. The city does not regain significant standing until at least the late twelfth century.
- c. 1300 BCETroy VI is destroyed
Troy VI, occupied from about 1750 BCE, ends around 1300 in damage that suggests an earthquake. The city was not burned and no victims were found, so an uprising or foreign attack cannot be excluded. Troy VIIa is built on the same site.
- c. 1250 BCEMycenae extends its citadel and builds the Lion Gate
In the middle of Late Helladic IIIB, around 1250 BCE, Mycenae's Cyclopean wall is extended to enclose Grave Circle A (c. 1550-1500 BCE), and the Lion Gate becomes the main entrance. A last extension of the citadel follows around 1200.
- c. 1200 BCELate Bronze Age collapse
Around 1200-1150 BCE the Mycenaean palaces burn, the Hittite state fragments and Ugarit falls; Sea Peoples attack Egypt. Recent scholarship sees the collapse as more limited than once thought. Its causes are unsettled, probably several at once.
- c. 1200 BCEAn earthquake damages Tiryns
Around 1200 BCE an earthquake damages Tiryns, including its palace. The city probably remained inhabited afterwards.
- c. 1195 BCEMycenae burns
Mycenae is destroyed by fire around 1200-1190 BCE, for reasons not established. It is partly rebuilt but is no longer a centre of literate bureaucracy. A later destruction around 1150 is followed by sparse occupation until Hellenistic times.
- c. 1194 BCEThe Trojan War (traditional)
Tradition, as reckoned by Eratosthenes, places the ten-year Greek siege of Troy in 1194-1184 BCE. Whether a real war lies behind it is open: Troy VII at Hisarlik was burned around then, but the epics blend many stories.
- c. 1180 BCEThe Palace of Nestor at Pylos burns
The palace at Pylos burns around 1180 BCE (one source gives about 1250). Its Linear B tablets, preserved by the fire, mention hasty defensive preparations against an imminent attack, but no text names the attackers. The palace itself had no walls.
- c. 1180 BCETroy VIIa is destroyed
Troy VIIa, occupied from about 1300 BCE, is destroyed around 1180, with scorch marks and signs of enemy attack. Excavators found arrowheads and burned human remains in early twelfth-century layers. The site is rebuilt at once. The traditional Trojan War is dated 1194-1184.
- 1952Linear B is deciphered
In 1952 Michael Ventris shows that Linear B, found at Knossos by Arthur Evans in 1900, writes an early form of Greek. His work builds on Alice Kober's, and John Chadwick collaborates with him. It pushes written Greek back to the Mycenaean age.