Mycenae and Agamemnon Essay

Mycenae lies about 90 kilometres south-west of Athens. From around 1600BC-1100BC Mycenae was a highly soused and influential city, dominating much of southern Greece. The Mycenaean Era was named in reference to the city.THE DISCOVERY OF MYCENAEIt was Heinrich Schliemann who prime(prenominal) completely excavated the city of Mycenae. The controversial archaeologist was searching for evidence that Agamemnon, the king who led the Greeks to fight troy in the Trojan War. Schliemann was determined to prove that the Trojan War was a strong event in fact his career was based around his commit for this. After failing to go up any definitive evidence in his search for Troy, he turned to Mycenae. In 1841 an an otherwise(prenominal) archaeologist had represent and restored the Lion Gate that marks the entrance to the city of Mycenae, but Schliemann was the first to systematically excavate the entire site. He believed that the Homeric tales described essential historical events and used hi s discoveries at Mycenae to back this up.DISOVERIES MADE AT THE land siteDiscovered in Grave Circle A by Schliemanns team, a dagger channelizes the militaristic values of the Mycenaeans. From the weapons buried with almost of the bodies fix, we can deduct that the Mycenaeans were not a inactive people. They revelled in fighting, as sh protest by the violent motifs on their stelae and decorative weapons. precisely about graves featured full sets of weapons, both real and decorative.We can call for that life for the men of Mycenae would have had a heavy focus on fighting , with men of higher stance being shown as put up fighters. This is also shown through the architecture of the city, particularly the Cyclopean walls. These huge walls show a need for a defensive attitude, which demonstrates the Mycenaeans armed forces attitude. On this dagger there is a proveion of a king of beasts hunt, which shows that the Mycenaeans hunted for sport. This further reflects the aggress ive principles of the city.Double hack and bull motifs show a Minoan influence in Mycenaean culture. Within the graves in Grave Circle A there were umteen objects that had been made in Mycenae but in Minoan style. This reflects an judgement for Minoan design and an obvious link through trade and get off between Minoan Crete and Mycenae. Later the former would be conquered by the latter. In Mycenae there would have been trading of goods from Minoan Crete and an admiration of the techniques, since they were implemented in wares produced within Mycenae. The graves themselves also shed light upon sepulcher practises and lieu in Mycenae.The graves themselves are shaft graves, 4 metres deep with the idle placed in a cist at the bottom along with many decadent grave goods. The Grave would slightly cartridge holders be marked with a st one(a) Stele at ground level. These stelae would be used to depict things like chariot scenes, showing the heroic nature of the deceased buried below . The grave goods showed the status of the deceased, with gold and weapons showing a higher status. This shows that burial was not only a valued practise, but also reflected status and worth, depending on what you were buried with.The so-called Nestors Cup was a particularly important discovery for Schliemann. His team recovered the vessel from beam Grave IV and Schliemann identified it as the Cup of Nestor as written about in the Illiad. However the cup differs from Homers description in number of handles, the design of the birds, and size. It also is from the wrong clip to have been used in the Trojan War according to some critics. However, this didnt discourage Schliemann from his firm belief in the Homeric tales. This is one of the many discoveries Schliemann made that he believed contributed to proving that the tales detail historical events.CONTROVERSIESWithin a shaft grave V Schliemann discovered a skeleton with a gold cloak covering his face- a face which he believed was that of the legendary Agamemnon. However, in recent years critics have developed more(prenominal) and more arguments to the effect that the mask may be a hoax. William Calder gives the following reasons for his quizzical nature towards Schliemanns find The features of the mask are inconsistent with the other masks engraft Schliemann had considered making fakes of the gold he found at Troy to give forgeries to give to the government contemporaries of Schliemann allege that he deep-rooted artefacts to later discover them the excavations at both Mycenae and Troy had been closed just a few days later the discovery of the gold, bespeaking that he was expecting to find these treasures and nothing else excavations were closed for 2 days shortly before Schliemann found the mask, what could Schliemann have been doing Sophia allegedly has a relative in Athens that was a goldsmithNo other Mycenaean grave has anywhere serious what was discovered in shaft grave V Schliemann had claimed h e had excavated other finds elsewhere, when it was later revealed that he had bought them. David Traill suggests that perhaps the Agamemnon mask wasnt manufactured, but found from a later tomb. Both of his appeals for a scientific examination of the mask have been denied by the Greek authorities. In response to Calder and Traill many postulate that their claims are unfounded and lack any scholarly backing, and have their own arguments in response. They insist that Schliemann was carefully monitored by Greek authorities throughout his excavation, which both Calder and Triall admit to in their own publishing.Kenneth Lapatin explains that the days where Calder alleged Schliemann had time to get a mask made, were before any masks had been found yet. Although he does admit it is possible the mask may have been enhanced after it was discovered. Both sides of the debate present both personal opinions and insinuations mixed in with actual fact. Considering the dishonest nature of Schlieman n it is easy to believe he place the mask.But when considering the work at Mycenae alone, there is no undoubtable evidence to suggest that he was dishonest about that particular find, only rumour and hearsay. From the collections of minute suggestions put forward by Triall and Calder, their theories become increasingly believable. However, some move of their arguments seem reminiscent of conspiracy theories, so perhaps its high hat to take the mask as an important if disputed- archaeological find, but not proving the existence of Agamemnon.BIBILOGRAPHYhttp//library.thinkquest.org/25245/archaeology/mycenae.html http//www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/greecemycenae.htmhttp//mycenae-excavations.org/about.html http//www.historywiz.com/agamemnon.htmhttp//odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/ eh351.jsp?obj_id=2573http//www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/age/myceneans.html http//www.archaeology.org/9907/etc/calder.htmlhttp//www.archaeology.org/9907/etc/lapatin.htmlhttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_Circle _A,_Mycenaehttp//www.archaeology.org/9907/etc/traill.htmlhttp//www.ancientgreece.com/essay/v/greek-life-as-depicted-in-homers-epic-the-odyssey/ http//www.archaeology.org/9907/etc/dema.htmlhttp//www.greek-thesaurus.gr/Mycenaean-weapons.html