This week’s theme is something super light, civilization collapse! In our material culture course, we explored the ancient Mycenaean and Minoan societies. These were some of the first prehistoric organized large-scale societies of what is now the Greek world. They were around to their fullest extent for about 400 ish years from 1600 BC to 1200 BC. This was when both groups started creating palaces for political and administrative centralization. What I found very interesting about these civilizations, especially the Mycenaeans, both came to prominence very quickly and disappeared equally as fast.
Due to this period being during prehistoric times, much of the theorizing around their rise and collapse is more speculative. However, it seems like trade played a key role in the rise of the empires. Goods from all over the European and Middle Eastern world were found in the tombs of leaders of the Mycenaeans. It also seems likely that this was paired with a commanding military presence that could have dominated the surrounding areas to provide goods to trade with or to secure trade routes. However, to achieve such production and concentration of wealth so quickly must have also been quite brutal––as most clearly noted by the human resources it took to assemble the cycloptic walls of several palaces. Resource extraction of both the landscape and the people might have been one of the causes of the demise of the Mycenaeans so quickly. If subjugated brutally, people are bound to revolt–– or enemies are bound to form alliances so that they are not next to be brutalized. Regardless, of the specifics of how it happened, the important takeaway is extreme brutality is not the best way to organize a society. Leaders and states must keep enough of the population sufficiently happy to make sure they do not turn against them. This follows with other surrounding states and polities. In other words, enough fear and contempt can lead to political instability.
Outside of my thoughts on societal collapse, I was also struck by the sheer amount of time we are dealing with between the Mycenaean societies and the archaic periods when Homer was writing. Conceptualizing it in my head made it even more staggering. Homer wrote at about 800 BC, and at the latest, the Mycenaeans were around 1200 BC. That is a 400-year difference, or the equivalent of us in the present day writing about 1620 at the latest, all by close to oral tradition. In human terms, this is an extraordinarily long term, especially as the average life expectancy is much lower. I think it is interesting how even though it seems like the Mycenaeans were probably pretty brutal, these types found their way into myth and stories in not a fully negative way. (In fairness I haven’t read Homer so I don’t know if that statement is true or not). Though if my assumption is correct, it is equally interesting in contrast to how most today conceive the 1600s as a negative backward version of today. Would that be true if we only had oral tradition?
On a brighter and less academic note, our trip to the Peloponnese resulted in some incredible views and allowed me to reconnect with nature. Several places we went to such as the forts in both Npehlio and Pylos had incredible views. These forts allowed me to listen to the sounds of nature and almost a meditative experience. It provided a great reprieve to the busyness of the rest of the weekend. I thought to myself “Wow being a 17th century watch guard must have been a pretty good gig” (outside of the impending worry of attack). I’ll end with this thought–– it is fascinating how what was once a place of violence and war has been incorporated into the Greek landscape as a place of serenity. I don’t know what that says about Greece or modernity but I think it is worth pondering upon.
