CLASS280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Grave Goods, Mycenaean Greece, Lefkandi
15 Oct 2015
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Document Summary
Collapse of mycenaean world results in return to small communities without a single dominant culture; generally isolated from one another and outside world. Fresh slate; greece does not return to rigidly hierarchical, highly centralized palace state. Dark age: not so much cultural decline as archaeological obscurity. Drastic decline in population (except athens!) and number of settlements. Gold, silver, bronze almost vanish (supply of metals disappears with trade routes) Technology for luxury crafts vanishes: no supply or market. No monumental architecture (no places, fortifications or elaborate tombs) Expansion after collapse of mycenaean civilization (attracted refugees?) Remains of monumental building from c. 1000 bc with remarkable grave containing cremation (man) and burial (woman) Rich grave goods including gold and objects imported from near east. Gradually increasing size and sophistication return of luxury markets for elite cremation. Increasing use of iron (collapse of trade cuts off bronze supply)
