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The Mycenaean civilization flourished for four hundred years in the late Bronze Age before collapsing in to small bands of subsistence farmers. Some historians attribute this decline to the Sea People who terrorized the Egyptians, Anatolians and the Hittites. But could a mysterious people who left no archeological proof of their existence really bring about the collapse of entire civilizations? Mycenaean civilization is characterized by the large palace-like buildings that they created. These huge structures contained dozens of rooms used for a variety of purposes. The rooms were used for everything from industry to meeting places and even sleeping quarters.
The main function of these palatial buildings seemed to be economical. From clay tablets that have been accidentally preserved through fire historians know that the Mycenaean employed a palace economy. The tablets, written in an ancient script called Linear B, are mostly records of good coming in and out of the palace. A palace economy was maintained by trading the surplus of goods produced by farmers and craftsmen with other cities around the eastern Mediterranean. Mycenaean pottery has been found in ancient sites in Palestine and Syria as well as Miletus, Rhodes and Egypt and it is a testament to the extent of trade that Mycenaean had with other cultures. It was essential that the trade routes be kept safe in order to maintain the flow of goods.
By about 1300 bce Mycenaean wares had been so standardized that regional differences were impossible to detect. This suggests that during the late Bronze Age, Mycenaean culture had become increasingly unified economically. The tablets found at Pylos suggest that Mycenaean must have used slaves to drive their economy. In order to secure these slave the Mycenaean must have had to mount raids on other cities. Greek warriors depicted on Ramses III reliefs demonstrate that Mycenaean must have been carrying out raids.
The Mycenaean economy depended on surplus in order to trade. To maintain that surplus, their society had to always be expanding. This made their social structure somewhat delicate and it eventually led to its collapse. The collapse was not because of a single invasion though, many factors led to it. Mycenaean civilization collapsed because of its overdependence on trade and its inherent aggressive nature and was catalyzed by invasions and natural disaster. The most common reason that historians give for the decline of Mycenaean civilization is that they were invaded by foreign peoples.
The two most common people that are credited with this are the Dorians and the Sea People. The Dorians moved in to Greece from the north-west in the late Bronze Age. Coarse pots, not as artfully crafted as Mycenaean pots, have been found in Korakou, Aside, and Mycenae. These pots have been found alongside Mycenaean IIIC pots and is evidence that the Dorians arrived in small waves and were integrated in to Mycenaean society.
The Dorians were not terrible invaders that brought about the end of Mycenaean society, instead they were immigrants. The term Sea People seems to apply to many different tribes of men. Pharaoh Merenptah refers to the Aqaiwasha as Sea People in his victory over the Libyans in 1210 bce. Ramses the third uses the term Sea People in the Harris papyrus to refer to the Donna, the Tjekkeru, the Sweden and the Wishes. Generally the Egyptians regarded anyone from the north as a type of Sea People unless they belonged to a recognized empire. The helmets and facial types depicted on Ramses III reliefs are Greek-types, but they labeled as Sea People.
It is likely that the Sea People were mercenaries and pirates from all nations around the eastern Mediterranean. Though they may have been responsible for the collapse of the Hittite civilization there is no evidence to suggest that they were caused the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. Especially since some of the Sea People were Greeks, it is not very likely that they could have organized long enough to mount a sustained attack against the heavily fortified cities of late Bronze Age Mycenae. However there is evidence to suggest that there was an increase threat from these Sea People. The walls at Mycenae and Tiryns were fortified more heavily and extended to secure a supply of water around this time.
Also close to the end of the bonze age, two attacks were made against Egypt that were credited to the Sea People. The increasing aggression of the Sea People weakened the Mycenaean and made it very difficult to trade, but it was not the only factor that led to the collapse of their civilization. Natural disaster too played a part in the downfall of Mycenaean society. In about 1200 bce there was a large earthquake at Tiryns. At the end of LH III B all the great buildings collapsed and were never rebuilt to their former glory. Studies in the changing levels of peat-bogs and pollen levels indicate that there was a drought in approximately the same year as the large earthquake at Tiryns.
Both these factors could have been linked to a greater disaster such as a volcanic explosion. Nevertheless, Mycenaean civilization was hardy enough to withstand either earthquake or drought but the combination of both could have played a significant role in the downfall of their society. The Mycenaean's depended on trade to sustain their economy and to drive their industry. The Knossos tablets mention that copper was imported from Cyprus and spices, gold and other luxuries were imported from Syria. The Mycenaean's must have traded with the Hittites as well because LH IIIB pottery has been found near Hattusas and the Mycenaean's are mentioned in a Hittite document, the Maduwattas Indictment.
Additionally, Mycenaean pottery from various ages has been found at over 70 different sites in Egypt. The chief staple products of Mycenaean agriculture were wine, wheat and olive oil but as trade increased the city states became increasingly specialized in one product. The increased dependence on trade allowed this specialization as well as facilitating a larger industrial base, as former farmer could produce goods for trade instead of farming for food for himself. Unfortunately this meant that a larger percentage of the population depended on the trade surplus for food. When faced with several bad years for crops the Mycenaean's would have been in trouble, as they were in the drought period around 1200 bce. Coupled with this is the fallout of overseas market due to war.
Many of the overseas export markets such as the Hittite Empire and the Egyptian empire collapsed due in part to incursions by the Sea People as well as the drought that pervaded the Mediterranean. This fallout of trade meant that the palace economies no longer had the surplus to maintain their administrative facilities, nor the food to sustain their population which led to a widespread abandonment of the Mycenaean cities and contributed to the collapse of their society. The Mycenaean's were an aggressive society. They depended on raids to acquire slaves and treasure.
Homer wrote about the Mycenaean exploits in his epic poem, The Illiad and it is one of the most revered pieces of literature by the ancient Greeks. Theseus referred to the Late Bronze Age as the Heroic Age and that demonstrates what the ancient Greeks must have though of their Mycenaean precursors. Mycenaean cities reflected the dangerous times that they were built. The cities were often defended by extraordinarily thick cyclopean walls. The walls were called cyclopean because the ancient Greeks thought that they were so enormous they must have been built by Cyclops. These walls suggest the nature of conflict within Late Bronze Age Greece.
The conflicts must have been mostly land based and between the city states as the walls would have taken a long time to build and as such were in place to deal with sustained and predictable threats. More evidence of the warlike nature of the Mycenaean's can be found in the tablets of Pylos. The tablets contain records for making weapons as well as lists of generals and officers and their guard duties. The Mycenaean's also had a fleet which was used for defending the coastline as well as overseas raids, such as the famous raid on Troy. Mycenaean warriors required goods from trade for their weapons and armor as copper and tin were not in great abundance in Greece. When trade collapsed in the Mediterranean, Mycenaean cities lost the ability to create and maintain their armies.
That meant that the Mycenaean's no longer had the ability to mount raids but also they would have a surplus of unpaid, useless warriors. Some of these warriors must have become pirates, further endangering the trade routes. The warlike nature of Mycenaean society played a part in their downfall; a constant expansionist attitude made economic collapse a dangerous prospect. Mycenaean society developed in a time of economic and political expansion.
The area surrounding the eastern Mediterranean empires was dangerous and uncivilized. This allowed the Mycenaean's to sustain their empire by trade with the empires and raids against the non-affiliated tribes. This also made the Mycenaean civilization somewhat fragile. A collapse in trade due in part to overspecialization and increasing aggression by the Sea People and others, catalyzed by natural disasters eventually led to the economic collapse of the eastern Mediterranean market. After this the large palaces with their complex administration were no longer needed and could no longer be sustained.
People simply abandoned to cities and went back to subsistence farming until they slowly rekindled an empire. REFERENCES Huxley, G. L... Achaeans and Hittites.
Oxford, The Queens University. 1965. Palmer, Leonard R... Mycenaean's and Minoans. London, Faber and Faber. 1961. Sanders, N.
K... The Sea Peoples. London, Thames and Hudson. 1978. Velikovsky, Immanuel. Peoples of the Sea. Garden City, Doubleday & Company. 1977.
Wood, Michael. In Search of the Trojan War. London, British Broadcasting Corporation. 1985.
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