Editing Archaic Greece (section)

== Dark Age Greek People and Society ==
The people of the <u>Aegean Bronze Age</u> had no clear '''ethnic''' type; men chose brides from outside of the tribe, often as far away as <u>Anatolia</u>, the <u>Balkans</u>, or points south. There was considerable variety among people represented from the beginning: slender or fat, round or long skulls, tall or medium height; they likely looked like modern <u>Greeks</u>, largely. The people were active, muscular, and moderate in height; they had dark hair, dark or grey eyes, fine profiles, and slender figures.  <u>Mycenae</u> graves have shown tall, rugged skeletons with large hands and feet, some with arthritis or gallstones, and recurrent 'family traits'. These are sample‑bound inferences from elite burial contexts, not as population‑wide traits. 

Small clay figurines from ~2000 BCE in <u>Crete</u> show men wearing a narrow '''codpiece''' with a belt or '''loincloth''' while going bare above the waist.  This was the basic fashion for Cretan men throughout the <u>Bronze Age</u>.  Cretan women wore short-sleeved '''jackets''' with breasts bare, ankle-length '''flounced skirts''' (but shorter knee-length skirts were also seen). Marble figurines from the <u>Cyclades</u> show belts and narrow codpieces in the Cretan style for men, though there is little evidence for dress on the mainland until the '''Mycenae Shaft Graves''' (16th century BCE), where we find considerable variety; '''tasseled''' '''shorts''' worn by men (attested both on <u>Crete</u> and <u>Mycenae</u>); large codpieces similar to Cretan styles (perhaps representations of Cretan envoys); kilts without codpieces were attested in both the mainland and Crete at a later period (about 1450 BCE and continue after conquest). 

Also represented are strange '''scaly cloaks''' and long single-piece '''robes''' which likely served as ritual garments. '''Linen''' was known in Crete at the beginning of the <u>Bronze Age,</u> but most clothes were made of '''wool'''; wall paintings show them woven with colorful and intricate designs. We also see pictures of animals and birds, as well as musical instruments.  One dye used was purple crushed from '''murex shells'''. Cretan men wore knee boots and sandals with upturned toes. Men with leggings or greaves are shown in paintings on the mainland; caps appear on the heads of men; pointed hats and tiaras on women and deities and their clergy. Cretan women had elaborate '''hairstyles'''; they put jewelry in their hair, including strings of beads. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and armlets were worn by men and women both. '''Sealstones''' were carried on strings around the neck, or on the wrist. Cretan men wore their hair long but were clean-shaven.  Beards and mustaches appear on the mainland in the Shaft Grave Period (16th century BCE) and after.

There were few signs of economic disparity in the earliest villages; but there are some houses bigger than others in the later <u>Neolithic</u>, which could indicate social stratification. Island communities of the 3rd millennium BCE engaged in maritime trade, and offered grave gifts of marble idols, pointing to some spiritual belief as well as disposable wealth. In <u>Crete</u>, two types of town existed: a communal one ('''Myrtos''') and one dominated by a big house or houses ('''Vasiliki'''). 

After 2000 BCE (the '''early palace period''') a governing power clearly could call upon several provinces for extensive labor to construct buildings, granaries, and roads. The palaces were very similar, which suggests social similarities as well, and perhaps shared religious behaviors or motivations. There were combined agricultural storage facilities with locations for community displays and festivals, perhaps regulated by trained families and/or clergy. This suggests a reciprocal relationship between palace inhabitants and surrounding villages.

On the mainland, dynasties controlled fortified acropolis centers with outlying towns that depended on these princes, as told by '''[[Homer]]'''. During the last phases of <u>Mycenae</u>, presumably also during the <u>Dark Age</u>, the traditional power of the old families was dispersed to lower local rulers, the '''basileis'''; systems of councils of elders and village headmen were instituted. Ships with a mast and a square sail in addition to oars or paddles were used from the Early Bronze Age. 

Overland, goods were transported by pack animals or on poles slung between two bearers (also used for passenger chairs; clay models of these exist).  A '''4-wheeled cart''' model from <u>Crete</u> dates to 2000 BCE or before. Wheels were solid, no doubt driven by oxen. Horses may have been ridden in Crete - they were depicted on early Cretan seals. They could have come from the east or could have been a local breed. The light spoke-wheeled chariot drawn by horses likely originated in <u>Syria</u> / <u>Mesopotamia</u> in early 2nd millennium BCE; they spread rapidly through the region as a useful weapon of war. '''Chariots''' were depicted on tombstones of <u>Mycenae</u> Shaft Graves and on <u>Cretan</u> seals before 1450 BCE and were used for hunting and travel as well as war.  Terraces were built to support wide roads to carry wheeled vehicles both in Crete and on the mainland by the latter part of the Bronze Age. Some bridges still remain over streams.

Short '''daggers''' of a <u>Syrian</u> style along with long '''rapiers''' of a <u>Cretan</u> style were found on the mainland during the 16th century BCE. Their armor: a shield shaped in the figure eight (or a '''tower shield'''), a helmet (reinforced with '''boars' tusks'''), a thrusting spear, a sword on a baldric in a tasseled scabbard. Some frescoes show linen greaves, and bronze greaves have been found in graves. Bronze wrist-guards for archers. 

Many preferred quilted or padded protection in the summer. In the 15th century BCE short swords were adapted to cutting and thrusting, likely related to chariot warfare. Bronze armor and small round shields replace the old Cretan body shields. '''Bows''' and '''slings''' probably used everywhere, but arrowheads of flint and obsidian are found only on the mainland, not on <u>Crete</u> (where they may have used bone or wood).  Mainland and <u>Cyclades</u> settlements defended by walls from the <u>Early Bronze Age</u> onward. At '''Mallia''' in <u>Crete</u> there appears to be a wall during the <u>Early Palaces period</u>, but by the <u>Late Palaces period</u>, towns may have been unwalled.  '''Faience''' inlays from 17th century BCE '''Knossos''' show an attack on a walled town, much as one depicted in a silver-relief vase from <u>Mycenae</u> shaft graves.  By the end of the <u>Bronze Age</u>, warfare advanced considerably; improved weapons, complex and well-designed fortifications, extensive use of chariots, '''warships''' with rams.

Foreign trade was likely under palace control. Mycenean goods were exported densely throughout the <u>Levant</u> in the 14th-13th centuries BCE; likely for archaeologically invisible exports (food, textiles, copper ore, slaves, mercenaries, woolen goods, olive oil, timber, silver, technology or skilled craftsmen). Tin was imported from <u>Anatolia</u> for bronze; copper ore probably from <u>Cyprus</u> and other sources. Silver-lead produced in <u>Cyclades</u> and <u>Attica</u>. The '''Kaş Ulu Burun''' shipwreck shows an extensive trade in '''glass ingots''', often cobalt blue; Ostrich eggs and stone for making vases were imported from <u>Egypt</u>, ivory from <u>Egypt</u> or <u>Syria</u>, amber from the <u>Baltic</u> (from the Shaft Grave Period onward).

<u>Cycladic</u> religion is little-known before the period of heavy Cretan influence. An open-air sanctuary filled with marble figurines on '''Kéros''' is early <u>Bronze Age</u>.  Crete's <u>Early Palace Period</u> showed many open-air sanctuaries on the tops of hills and mountains. Some of these had small '''shrines''' with one or more rooms and benches for offerings, and cult statues were found in the countryside and towns. Parts of palaces and large houses were set apart for cult activities. Such shrines began to exist in the <u>Cyclades</u> and the mainland from the <u>Late Bronze Age</u>, but hilltop sanctuaries were not transferred. Most Cretan hilltop sanctuaries ceased use after mainland conquest (~1450 BCE). 

Caves were also used as sanctuaries on <u>Crete</u>; this persisted until the end of the <u>Bronze Age</u>. The chief deity in the <u>Aegean</u> was a '''goddess''', perhaps more than one. Extant texts reference a '''Potnia''' ('lady' or 'mistress') with epithets associated with 'horse' or 'grain'.  Most mainland palaces have paintings of processions with people bringing gifts to a goddess. <u>Theran</u> frescoes show girls picking saffron '''crocus''' and offering them to a seated goddess in baskets. Clay statues of goddesses, with upraised arms and horns of consecration, doves, snakes, or poppies, were found in Crete from 14th-12th centuries BCE, evidence of a strong tradition. A shrine with large clay goddesses, once stuccoed and painted, on the islands of '''Ceos''' and '''Melos''' (later, smaller, and with figurines of both genders). A shrine at <u>Mycenae</u> was devoted to powers of grain and the sword. 

A later shrine at '''Tiryns''' had small clay goddesses with raised arms. Many statues were likely made of wood, and there is mythic mention of simple wooden logs or planks ('''xoana''') dropping from heaven or being found in thickets, thereafter, becoming attached to several later sanctuaries (and these primitive representations were often said to be preferred for worship compared to more elaborate, beautifully-made statues). 

Texts show many deities, including later <u>Greek</u> ones already in existence: '''[[Zeus]]''', '''[[Poseidon]]''', '''[[Athena]]''', '''[[Artemis]]''', '''[[Ares]]''', '''[[Hermes]]''', and '''[[Dionysus]]'''. Cretan birth goddess '''Eleuthia''' and war goddess '''Eyno''' were also transmitted to the mainland. Natural forces like winds were occasionally worshipped. There can be no doubt that religious cult continued from <u>Late Bronze Age</u> into later <u>Greek</u> times, alongside the language; some deities, like '''female''' '''Zeus''' and '''female Poseidon''' found at '''Pylos''', do not reappear. These deities received gifts of scented oils, textiles, and animal sacrifice of cattle, sheep, and pigs. Burial of a horse or dog (or a combination of the two) may signify a sacrifice. Two ideas about the '''realm of death''' coexisted: a rarer one of an overseas '''Elysian''' paradise where the dead were restored to a new life of bodily blessed ease; and a more common one (as seen in the epic tradition) of a dark <u>Underworld</u> realm ('''<u>[[Hades]]</u>''') inhabited by weak shades with poor memories. These ideas were not fused but represent separate <u>Cretan</u> and <u>Mycenaean</u> traditions.