T1 - Heinrich Schliemann’s

Discoveries
0:06
our second and final lesson on aegean
0:08
art begins with a famous archaeologist
0:10
heinrich schliemann
0:12
schliemann was really a well-educated
0:14
amateur who is obsessed with great works
0:18
of greek literature
0:19
at the age of 46 having already made his
0:22
fortune as a merchant and fluent in both
0:25
greek and turkish
0:27
heinrich schliemann began to start
0:29
hunting for the sites mentioned in
0:31
homer's great works like the iliad and
0:34
the odyssey
0:36
his first major venture was to excavate
0:38
the site of troy the site of the trojan
0:40
war in turkey and you can see i've got a
0:43
thumbtack at that site his second major
0:46
site was by cna on the great main greek
0:49
mainland um and that's where we're going
0:51
to be particularly concerned with um in
0:54
this lecture
0:55
um i've also got the vaffio uh tomb
0:59
there the
1:00
that where the cups were found
1:02
um although there were major problems
1:04
with heinrich schliemann's methods and
1:06
he is suspected of possibly producing
1:10
fake archaeological discoveries or at
1:12
least staging genuine discoveries in the
1:14
most spectacular way possible
1:17
schliemann is also considered one of the
1:20
founding fathers of modern archaeology
1:22
and we're going to discuss schliemann
1:24
his methods and its discoveries in this
1:26
topic we'll also spend our remaining
1:29
topics discussing the site of mycenae
1:34
so here's a sculpted bust of schliemann
1:36
as well as an old photo from the 1880s
1:40
he was active in archaeology at a time
1:42
when new discoveries were
1:43
revolutionizing all the sciences
1:46
and in schliemann we see sort of a
1:48
midpoint between the amateur gentleman
1:51
archaeologists
1:53
intent on building up a private
1:55
collection and the professional
1:56
scientific scholarly archaeologist
1:59
schliemann reneged on the on his
2:02
agreement with the turkish government to
2:05
share his uh discoveries from troy and
2:08
when he made finds he smuggled them off
2:10
to his home in athens he also made sure
2:13
that when he saw signs of an interesting
2:15
object in a dig he would dismiss his
2:17
workers in order to uncover it himself
2:20
unfortunately this led to the suspicion
2:22
that many of his discoveries were staged
2:25
with objects being brought in to be
2:27
quote discovered out of context
2:30
um and
2:32
to quote one reading on schliemann to
2:34
this day schliemann's dishonesty
2:37
is sometimes remembered more clearly
2:39
than his achievements and we'll discuss
2:41
one of his more problematic finds
2:44
a little bit later on
2:47
here we're seeing the site of troy which
2:49
had been partially excavated prior to
2:51
heinrich schliemann but it's most
2:54
closely associated with his work there
2:57
schliemann dug straight down at troy
2:59
uncovering what he believed to be the
3:01
troy from home resilient
3:03
he later realized however that troy had
3:06
seen multiple stages of construction and
3:09
that the city he sought was from the
3:11
seventh layer of construction
3:15
the map that you see here on the top
3:17
right
3:19
shows some of the most important levels
3:21
at troy
3:24
here we encounter some of the major
3:26
problems with troy and heinrich
3:27
schliemann's excavations
3:29
after discovering a great gold treasure
3:32
that he named priam's treasure after the
3:34
trojan king and the iliad
3:36
schliemann
3:37
the smuggled his treasure
3:40
back to athens say schliemann smuggled
3:42
five times fast wow
3:45
schliemann then examined the works more
3:47
closely and dressed up his wife sophia
3:50
as the legendary beauty helen of troy
3:53
and you see
3:54
the famous photo he took of her on the
3:56
left and some of the pieces from priam's
3:59
treasure a bracelet and a couple of
4:01
earrings that you see on sofia's collar
4:03
on the right
4:04
schliemann sent this photo to the press
4:06
and expected to become a famous
4:08
archaeologist based on the discovery
4:11
however the fact that he had tricked the
4:13
turkish government and illegally removed
4:16
artifacts from the site meant that he
4:18
received far more criticism than praise
4:21
schliemann's willingness to manipulate
4:23
the facts
4:25
means that the authenticity of his finds
4:27
tended to be in doubt
4:30
and scholars still wonder if schliemann
4:32
simply gathered together a bunch of
4:33
spectacular pieces from all over the
4:35
troy excavations
4:37
and presented them as a single amazing
4:40
treasure
4:41
shiliman was eventually sued by the
4:43
turkish authority and he uh voluntarily
4:46
paid uh the government in turkey five
4:49
times the imposed fine in order to take
4:52
sole ownership of all the works from
4:54
troy
4:55
in 1881 schliemann presented most of his
4:58
trojan finds to the city of berlin and
5:01
was named an honorary citizen there
5:03
finally in world war ii the most
5:05
valuable works were looted by the
5:07
russians
5:08
and they were famously lost until the
5:11
breakup of the ussr
5:13
and now they can be found in the pushkin
5:15
museum in moscow only a few of the
5:18
original works remain in berlin
5:22
starting in night 1876 just a year after
5:25
paying his fine in turkey heinrich
5:28
schliemann turned his attention to the
5:29
site of mycenae on the greek mainland
5:32
and that's what you see here
5:34
he was accepted as a member of the
5:36
london society of antiquity antiquaries
5:39
uh following his discovery of the shaft
5:41
graves and their spectacular con
5:44
contents
5:45
and he also published a book on his
5:47
excavations at both mycenae and tyrants
5:50
if you do a google book search it's
5:52
possible to download a pdf copy of
5:54
schliemann's english language account
5:57
of his mycenae excavations
6:00
and uh we're really going to be
6:01
concerned with mycenae and works from
6:05
there for the remainder of this lesson

T2 - Shaft Graves and their

Contents
0:03
we're going to spend uh most of our
0:05
remaining time at this site ancient
0:07
messines beginning with the earliest
0:10
burials these were in the form of shaft
0:13
graves that were
0:14
inside of circular enclosures einer
0:17
schliemann excavated grave circle a
0:21
where he found
0:24
uh some pretty spectacular works of art
0:26
that had been buried with the dead and
0:28
then grave circle b which came up
0:30
earlier
0:32
was found by accident in 1951 when
0:35
excavators were working at a nearby and
0:37
much later tomb
0:39
we're going to spend this topic looking
0:41
at the shaft graves and more importantly
0:43
at the goods found inside
0:46
based on the grave goods scholars have
0:48
concluded that these shaft graves were
0:50
reserved for an elite class
0:52
grave circle a appears to have held
0:55
mainly male warriors while grave circle
0:58
b had a wider variety in terms of both
1:01
age and gender
1:02
and both sets of burials can roughly be
1:04
dated to about 1600 bce
1:10
here we're seeing grave circle a which
1:12
it with its circular enclosure as well
1:15
as the fortification walls that were
1:18
later built around the grave circle so
1:20
the inner finer stones
1:23
marked by my arrow that's the circle
1:26
that the shaft graves are inside of
1:32
here's a shaft grave a shaft grave
1:34
consisted of a rectangular pebble or a
1:37
rectangular enclosure rather deep a
1:40
pebble floor
1:41
masonry walls and a roof constructed of
1:44
wood of course the wood grooves have
1:46
worn away over the centuries so we have
1:48
to imagine this particular tune covered
1:51
over with wood planks
1:52
if you look carefully down at the bottom
1:54
of this particular shaft grave you can
1:57
see that there is a reconstructed roof
2:00
in a portion of it
2:04
here's a museum case in mycenae with a
2:07
selection of the goods found within one
2:09
of the shaft graves in grave circle a
2:12
as you can see the goods are those of
2:14
wealthy high status warriors with spears
2:17
swords cups arm ornaments and a bunch of
2:21
flat pieces of cut gold that were used
2:23
to adorn the bodies of the deceased
2:27
here's a selection of the drinking
2:28
vessels found in the mycna shaft graves
2:31
you might notice that the form of
2:33
several of them resemble the vapheo cups
2:36
we saw back in lesson 5.1
2:41
some of the most spectacular finds from
2:44
grave circle a are the swords and
2:46
daggers that were uncovered there we're
2:49
looking at two examples here at the top
2:52
is a broken sword or dagger with its
2:54
original gold hilt which as you can see
2:57
is covered in a scrolling pattern of
2:59
stylized lilies
3:01
it looks like the gold of the hilt is
3:03
formed out of a relatively thin sheet of
3:06
gold that was applied over a much harder
3:08
substance likely bronze
3:11
as you can see the decoration of the
3:12
hilt is in reposse and there might be
3:15
relief decoration on the surface beneath
3:18
it to reinforce the replica decoration
3:21
so it doesn't get mushed every time
3:23
someone would grip this sword handle
3:26
if you look now at the blade you'll see
3:28
that that motif of stylized lily
3:31
blossoms continues this time in
3:34
silver inlay down the blade
3:37
the blade is bronze in the metal world
3:40
metalsmith would have had to hollow out
3:42
the spaces
3:43
for those lilies in the bronze and then
3:46
insert the silver inlay
3:48
the stems appear to be be made from
3:51
inlaid wire and to me they look gold
3:55
now if we look closer at the lower blade
3:58
you'll see more inlay this time both in
4:01
silver and gold and here we have another
4:04
scene from nature starting with a clump
4:06
of papyrus plants on the left
4:09
with a wild cat leaping from them to
4:11
catch a bird
4:13
another bird appears beneath the cat's
4:15
hind paws
4:17
continuing to the right you can see
4:18
swimming fish
4:20
more papyrus and more birds
4:22
you might notice also that there's an
4:24
empty channel
4:26
between a couple of the birds on the
4:28
right here that once held additional
4:31
inlay
4:33
and i've brought in an arrow just to
4:35
show you where that inlay would be you
4:38
can see there's a trace of gold
4:40
um so perhaps this could have been
4:44
uh a net or i'm really not sure what it
4:48
would have been frankly
4:51
so here are two views of a blade that
4:55
tends to be
4:56
shown in most textbooks it's one of the
4:59
most famous
5:00
it's inlaid with scenes of a lion hunt
5:03
utilizing silver and gold
5:06
so starting from the left we have a
5:07
spearman with a shield a bowman and two
5:10
other standing figures
5:12
both with shields and spears there's a
5:14
fifth figure of a man who has fallen
5:18
and you can see his shoulders and
5:20
outstretched arms beneath the paws of
5:22
the attacking lion
5:24
behind the first lion two others run
5:27
away down the blade
5:28
and you might notice if you look in the
5:30
mirror behind the dagger that the
5:33
metalsmith put additional decorative
5:35
detail on the other side
5:37
i want you to notice the skillful use of
5:39
a black substance called
5:42
yellow that enhances all the engraved
5:45
lines
5:46
yellow is a mixture of sulfur copper red
5:49
and silver it tends to be black or dark
5:52
brown
5:53
and goldsmiths have used it for
5:55
centuries as a way to enhance engraved
5:58
lines in metal work
6:00
it's applied very much like an enamel in
6:03
that it has to be fired onto the metal
6:06
in order to adhere securely
6:08
and as you can see here it was used to
6:10
great effect to outline the figures and
6:13
show decorative elements on their
6:14
shields
6:17
at least one certain grave in grave
6:19
circle a appears to have been that of a
6:21
child
6:22
and that child's body was covered in
6:25
thin sheets of gold that have been
6:27
roughly shaped to the form of the body
6:30
as that's what you're looking at here
6:33
as we'll see in the next couple of
6:35
slides a number of adult graves
6:37
similarly featured gold coverings
6:39
particularly on the faces
6:41
and at least one adult also had a chest
6:44
covering of gold
6:47
here we have a photo of showing six
6:49
death masks five out of gold and one of
6:53
electrum that's the one uh in the the
6:55
center bottom
6:57
these were all found inside shaft graves
6:59
in mycenae
7:02
electrum is a naturally occurring alloy
7:04
of silver and gold and you can see it
7:06
looks very different from
7:09
the other masks that particular mass was
7:12
found in grave circle b
7:13
all the other masks out of gold were
7:16
found in grape circle a by heinrich
7:18
schliemann
7:20
the masks appear to have been roughly
7:22
shaped either over a sculpted face or
7:24
possibly
7:25
by pressing
7:27
a gold foil onto a real face and then
7:30
they were augmented using techniques
7:32
like replica and chasing
7:35
they appear to have been
7:37
then laid over the faces of the deceased
7:39
in the graves much like the gold sheets
7:42
laid over the body of that child
7:45
we're going to be looking at the death
7:46
mask on the top left in more detail
7:50
it's the most famous and the most
7:52
controversial of the masks with some
7:54
scholars theorizing that heinrich
7:56
schliemann could have augmented it in
7:59
some way to make it seem more
8:00
spectacular
8:03
so this is a work that heinrich
8:06
schliemann called the mask of agamemnon
8:09
naming it after the famous king in
8:11
homer's iliad
8:12
we know now that this can't possibly be
8:15
the real death mask of agamemnon
8:18
because the graves in grave circle a
8:21
predate the trojan year of trojan war by
8:24
about 300 years
8:26
and scholars have questioned whether
8:28
this particular mask is indeed authentic
8:32
since most of the death masks found in
8:34
the shaft graves in mycenae look a lot
8:37
more like the death masks from our
8:38
previous slide with
8:40
muddier less defined figure features and
8:44
no facial hair
8:45
the details on the mask of agamemnon are
8:48
rather clear and sharp and the facial
8:50
hair is really detailed including a
8:52
mustache that looks
8:54
suspiciously like that of a 19th century
8:57
gentleman
8:58
schliemann himself had such a mustache
9:01
interestingly there is no mention of a
9:03
mustache in the original excavation
9:05
report just as there are no excavation
9:09
photos just sketches by schliemann
9:11
himself
9:13
other scholars have suggested that the
9:14
so-called mask of agamemnon is actually
9:17
a pastiche which means that it was
9:20
assembled in modern times from unrelated
9:22
fragments and possibly reworked as well
9:26
a pastiche is a hodgepodge and many of
9:29
these have appeared on the art market
9:31
because buyers are more likely to be
9:33
attracted by objects in better looking
9:36
condition
9:38
that look complete then they tend to be
9:41
attracted by fragments
9:43
if something was added to this mask it
9:45
was probably the ears you might notice
9:48
that there's a clear seam in the gold
9:50
near each ear
9:52
it's possible that schliemann decided to
9:54
enhance the mask emphasizing the heroic
9:57
figures or features of the man he
10:00
believed to be agamemnon
10:03
and remember
10:04
still other scholars consider this to be
10:07
a total forgery
10:09
planted by this by schliemann and then
10:12
quote discovered
10:14
to make his archaeological finds more
10:17
exciting
10:18
more recently
10:20
some scholars are defending this mask
10:22
pointing out the fact that it has a
10:24
similar patina on the other masks that
10:27
were found
10:28
and also the fact that some of the other
10:30
masks have similar ears
10:32
so it's up to you to decide do these
10:35
seams here really bother you
10:38
um does the is the mustache problematic
10:42
take a look at the eyebrows and that
10:44
very thin aquiline nose
10:47
um if you find this troubling perhaps
10:50
you agree with the either fake or
10:53
pastiche theory
11:13
you

T3 - Tholos Tombs
0:02
by about 1600 bce the mycenaeans were
0:06
building a new type of tomb for their
0:08
important dead
0:10
these were massive beehive shaped tombs
0:12
called tholos tombs
0:14
that were located um outside the citadel
0:17
to the west
0:19
archaeologists have found a total of
0:21
nine of these tombs at mycenae each one
0:24
built into a hillside
0:26
as you can see in the diagram othello's
0:29
tomb consisted of a passageway
0:32
that led to a huge beehive shaped
0:34
chamber with a burial chamber off to one
0:37
side
0:38
and actually it's just the so-called
0:40
treasury of atreus that has this
0:43
this chamber off to the side most of
0:45
them are just a central uh sort of
0:48
beehive shaped chamber
0:51
as you can see this tomb is enclosed
0:53
within a hill
0:55
and there's a passage cutting into the
0:57
hill and the central and burial chambers
1:00
are completely enclosed by the hill
1:03
we'll discuss the diagram in more detail
1:06
in a bit but for now i want you to keep
1:08
it in mind as we look at the location of
1:10
one of the most famous tholos tombs the
1:13
so-called treasury of atreus just to the
1:16
south and west of mycenae and this is
1:18
the one that tends to be
1:20
dealt with in all of the textbooks
1:23
as you can see in this angled satellite
1:26
view
1:27
the treasury of atrias is located
1:29
outside the citadel of the sea mycenae
1:32
along what is now the road leading to
1:34
the main parking lot
1:36
this particular tomb was built between
1:38
about
1:39
and 1200 bce
1:41
and it has no relation at all to atrius
1:44
the mycenaean king of legend but it was
1:46
given that name in the 19th century
1:48
because it was such an enormous and
1:50
impressive tomb
1:52
so here for reference are the earlier
1:54
burial sites that we discussed in the
1:56
previous topic grave circle a on the
1:59
right and grave circle b on the left
2:02
what i hope you can see in this view is
2:05
the fact that these individual b beehive
2:07
shaped tombs are similar in scale to the
2:10
earlier graves
2:12
but from what we can tell
2:14
each of these tholos tombs held a single
2:17
individual
2:18
rather than the multiple burials in the
2:20
shaft graves
2:22
as we continue with our discussion of
2:24
these tombs please discuss or consider
2:27
how important these individuals must
2:29
have been
2:30
the roman traveler pausanias whose quote
2:33
we see here
2:35
was very impressed with by these tombs
2:37
when he first saw them
2:44
so when possanias saw
2:47
the sight of mycenae
2:49
he described it and mentioned these
2:52
tombs he said there is a tomb of atreus
2:55
another tomb is that of agamemnon
2:57
clayton menestra and i guess this were
3:00
buried a short distance from the wall
3:03
they were not deemed worthy to rest
3:05
within the wall where agamemnon lay
3:08
so the reason i brought in this quote is
3:10
to point out that there was a tradition
3:12
of linking the remains of mycenae
3:15
to legendary figures from the greek past
3:18
that existed for centuries before
3:20
heinrich schliemann excavated mycenae
3:23
we know now that these links to figures
3:25
like atrias and agamemnon are false but
3:28
it's important to recognize that
3:30
schliemann was just respecting
3:32
long-standing tradition
3:34
and identifying certain places and
3:36
objects with legendary greek figures
3:39
this is not his invention
3:43
here's a view of the treasure of atreus
3:45
from the citadel at my cna
3:47
and what i want you to notice is the
3:50
passageway
3:51
um into the tomb
3:54
and the mound that covers it and you're
3:57
sort of seeing them
3:58
there's like a central parking lot you
4:01
can see the passageway as kind of a
4:03
diagonal line
4:05
on the left side of that mound
4:08
nine follows tombs have been found in
4:10
mycenae and numerous other mice and
4:12
antholos tombs have been found on other
4:15
sites throughout the greek mainland
4:17
the oldest tombs seem to have been made
4:20
with rarely primitive kind of methods
4:22
with rubble and fieldstone
4:24
rather than cut stone blocks
4:27
and passages simply cut into the
4:29
earphone mound but
4:30
housing the tomb
4:32
the treasury of atrius is the largest
4:34
solos tomb at mycenae and it's also the
4:37
most sophisticated in terms of its
4:39
construction and decoration
4:43
so let's look back at the diagram and
4:46
let's
4:47
discuss it in more detail
4:49
first i have another term for you this
4:51
is the dromos this refers to the
4:54
passageway
4:55
leading up to the tomb
4:57
as you can see it's built into a
4:59
hillside with walls that get
5:00
progressively taller as you walk toward
5:03
the doorway of the tomb
5:05
so the dromos acts as a transitional
5:07
zone between the bright daylight of the
5:09
outside and the deep dark interior of
5:13
that tomb chamber
5:15
here the dromos is 114 feet long
5:19
the elaborate doorway
5:21
as we're going to see was decorated with
5:23
beautifully carved imported stone
5:26
in colors of green and red
5:28
and the tomb was originally shut with a
5:30
heavy wooden door
5:33
once through the door the main chamber
5:35
which housed the body
5:37
is an enormous dome space built with a
5:39
huge corbel dome
5:41
the dome is roughly 43 feet high and 47
5:45
and a half feet in diameter
5:48
as you should recall corbeling
5:51
is an architectural technique in which
5:54
each course of masonry
5:56
angles just more slightly more inward
5:58
creating an either an arch a vault or in
6:01
this case a dome
6:03
and finally a small chamber opens off
6:05
the main chamber in this particular tomb
6:08
but scholars don't know its original
6:10
purpose i believe schliemann assumed
6:13
this was the treasury
6:16
now we're standing outside the so-called
6:18
treasury of atrias
6:21
the dromos corridor leads to an
6:23
impressive entrance that stood 34 feet
6:27
high
6:28
with a doorway 16 and a half feet high
6:32
and you can see that all the decorative
6:34
detail in the entrance way has been
6:36
taken away but there are enough
6:39
fragments that were recovered to allow
6:41
scholars to reconstruct the decoration
6:45
we know that the enormous columns that
6:47
flank the doorway were made of green
6:49
limestone
6:50
and that the other areas were done in
6:52
alternating layers of colored red and
6:55
green marble that came from other areas
6:57
in greece
6:58
some areas were also decorated with
7:00
porphyry a rich purple red stone
7:03
imported from egypt
7:05
we'll look uh into more porphyry when we
7:08
get to roman and later art
7:12
now i'd like to take a better look at
7:14
that doorway as you can see in the
7:15
diagram it was really elaborate
7:18
as i said before it was flanked by
7:20
minoan
7:21
style columns of green limestone
7:24
and we'll see a lot of colored marbles
7:27
being used
7:29
particularly by the romans when we get
7:31
there
7:33
the columns are carved with decorative
7:35
bands of geometric decoration and
7:37
chevrons filled with running spirals
7:40
above the lintel of the doorway there
7:42
were two smaller but similar columns
7:45
flanking a panel decorated in red and
7:48
green colored marble
7:49
and some of the fragments from that
7:52
particular decoration are on the right
7:54
here
7:55
if you can see the angled edge of that
7:58
decoration um
8:00
especially on the the uppermost fragment
8:03
you can see that this came from a
8:05
triangular shape
8:06
because there was a triangular relieving
8:09
arch
8:10
constructed over the lintel and a
8:12
relieving arch is exactly what it sounds
8:14
like this is an empty space over a
8:17
lintel remember that's the cross piece
8:19
at the top of two posts in a posted
8:22
lintel
8:23
um that relieves the pressure on the
8:26
lentils so that it doesn't collapse
8:28
it doesn't uh fracture under the weight
8:31
above it
8:32
here at the treasury of atrias the
8:34
builders left that space above the
8:36
lentil empty and they built a corbeled
8:38
arch with a tr in sort of a triangular
8:41
shape to take the weight off the lentil
8:44
and present it and prevent it from being
8:46
destroyed
8:49
so now we've made the transition into
8:51
the follows tomb and you can see that
8:53
we're standing inside a cavernous domed
8:56
space
8:57
it's shaped like an old-fashioned
8:59
beehive due to the corbin that covers
9:01
the entire space
9:03
we saw a coral vault when we were back
9:04
at newgrade's tomb in ireland back in
9:07
lesson 2 but that coral vault was pretty
9:10
primitive in comparison to what we see
9:12
here
9:13
here are the enormous cyclopean stones
9:17
and we use cyclopean as a term to to
9:19
refer to really giant
9:21
pieces of stone that look like they only
9:24
only a giant could move them
9:27
um these cyclopean stones are neatly
9:29
trimmed and placed in regular courses
9:32
that gradually but very regularly slope
9:35
inward to form that corbel dome
9:39
all of this is dry stone masonry too
9:41
there's no mortar between the stones
9:43
which means that it took a lot of skill
9:46
and precision to cut every stone and
9:49
place them just right
9:51
this dome space which was 43
9:55
it's 43 feet high
9:56
47.5 feet in diameter
9:59
was the largest dome in the western
10:01
world until the pantheon was constructed
10:04
in rome
10:06
and before we leave this slide i want
10:08
you to notice the enormous doorway and
10:11
you can see a portion of that religion
10:14
relieving arch opening there
10:17
uh the decorative panel from the doorway
10:19
was much thinner than the lentil and it
10:21
would have been placed just at the front
10:23
so there would have been very little
10:24
weight on the lintel to cause stress
10:29
here we're looking at two more views
10:31
inside the domed burial chamber of the
10:34
treasury at h of atreus remember we have
10:37
no idea who was buried here
10:39
but that individual must have been
10:41
important enough to be buried in the
10:43
largest tomb of mycenae
10:45
if you look to the right of the slide
10:47
you'll see the entrance to the small
10:49
side chamber
10:50
scholars don't know how it was used but
10:52
it could have
10:53
held treasurings or treasures or
10:56
offerings for the the deceased
10:59
unfortunately we have a lot more
11:01
questions than we do answers about the
11:03
mycenaeans but as you can see they sent
11:06
they left us some really spectacular
11:08
works of art and architecture
11:12
here to show you how com impressive the
11:15
construction is i'm showing you a view
11:18
up into the domed ceiling of this those
11:21
two
11:22
the vault was built up in circular
11:24
courses of cut stone
11:26
that decrease in size until they come to
11:28
the very apex of the vault which is
11:30
covered in a capstone
11:33
the masonry work here is much finer than
11:35
in the prehistoric corporal vaults we
11:37
saw earlier for example at newgrange in
11:39
ireland
11:44
before we leave the tholos tomb of my
11:46
cna behind i just want to make sure the
11:49
point that there are several here
11:52
visible
11:53
in the landscape and you can find them
11:55
even in satellite view
11:57
so here's the treasury of atrias the
12:00
tholos tomb that is the largest and most
12:02
impressive
12:04
of the ones at mycenae
12:06
here are the two properly popularly
12:09
assigned to clitomento
12:12
glutamine estra sorry and it gets this
12:15
and here are three more that you can
12:18
spot even in the satellite view
12:20
so we found six out of the nine that we
12:22
know are at mycenae
12:25
i haven't visited the site yet but what
12:26
i do i look forward to discovering those
12:29
six tombs
12:31
and figuring out where the other three
12:33
are that i'm not able to spot right now
12:35
on google earth
0:03
probably the most famous feature of the
0:05
citadel of mycenae
0:07
is its imposing main gate
0:09
called the lion gate because of its
0:11
sculptural decoration
0:14
we're going to examine the gate in more
0:16
detail but first i want you to see it in
0:18
the context of the citadel's defenses
0:21
the lion gate is located at the top of a
0:24
long steep ramp
0:26
flanked on either side by defensive
0:28
walls
0:29
an invader approaching the gate would
0:31
have had to be exposed fire from three
0:33
directions
0:35
as they approached the gate and the
0:36
steep ramp would make forward progress
0:38
difficult to say the least
0:41
i also want you to notice how the
0:42
defensive platforms on top of the walls
0:45
could easily be reached by defenders on
0:48
the inside of the citadel
0:50
and of course the walls are topped with
0:52
renovations alternating masonry
0:54
projections and open notches that
0:57
provided shelter and open shooting
0:59
spaces for archers and spearmen
1:01
defending the wall
1:04
here's a great 19th century view of the
1:07
lion gate that was created prior to
1:09
schliemann's excavations
1:11
here you can see that steep ramp up to
1:13
the gate along with the remnants of the
1:16
defensive walls that flank the ramp on
1:18
either side
1:19
i also want you to particularly notice
1:22
those enormous stones remember this
1:24
cyclopean masonry
1:26
used stones so large
1:29
that the ancient greeks believed that
1:31
only the legendary cyclops the one-eyed
1:34
giant could possibly have moved them
1:40
now we're looking at two views
1:42
right at the lion gate on the left is a
1:45
great historical photo that shows
1:47
heinrich schliemann his wife sophia and
1:50
several colleagues
1:52
and there's on there
1:55
here's sophia
1:57
what's so nice about the photo is it
1:59
shows the gate prior to restorations
2:01
that put back the missing blocks and you
2:04
can also get a great sense of just how
2:07
big those cyclopean blocks are
2:10
this gate would have been truly imposing
2:12
for both the residents and the visitors
2:15
of mycna alike the cyclopean stones
2:18
would have dwarfed any person entering
2:21
approaching the gate
2:22
and an enemy or visitor might wonder
2:25
what kind of superhuman or godlike
2:27
powers would have been required to build
2:30
with stones so large you know the first
2:32
step is just intimidating the living
2:35
daylights out of your enemy
2:37
then when you consider the massive
2:39
panels sculpted with lions above the
2:41
lentil
2:42
imagine how intimidating that would have
2:44
been
2:45
we'll take a better look at those lions
2:47
in the remainder of this topic
2:51
before we look at the lions on that
2:53
sculpted panel that fills the relieving
2:56
triangle above the lintel of the lion
2:58
gate i want to show you a view that
3:00
never shows up in the textbooks
3:03
the textbook pictures drive me nuts
3:05
sometimes because they show you just
3:08
one way of looking at things of course
3:11
especially for an archaeological site
3:12
there are so many other things to see
3:16
and you can understand things so much
3:18
better so rant over
3:20
um i have a good reason for showing you
3:23
this back view
3:24
from this view it's clear that the
3:26
sculpted panel that is the relieving
3:28
triangle is narrower than the lentil and
3:32
that it's also made of a different type
3:34
of stone one with a much finer grain
3:36
that's more suitable for sculpture
3:39
because the sculpted panel is
3:41
significantly narrower than the lentil
3:44
and the corbled arch around it it acts
3:47
to relieve much of the weight that would
3:49
otherwise have rested on that enormous
3:51
lintel
3:52
making for a much more stable gateway
3:54
overall
3:55
the other thing you can see in this view
3:57
that's really nice
3:58
is you can see just how
4:01
uh kind of thick
4:02
that gate is
4:04
um you know there's a good six eight
4:07
feet trip to traverse inside of that
4:10
gate
4:11
and you might be able to see over on the
4:13
right on the inside of the doorway
4:16
areas where doors could be bolted
4:23
here's the sculpted panel
4:25
and the reason that this is called the
4:27
lion gate however as you can see these
4:30
can't be positively identified as lions
4:33
they're some sort of feline
4:36
but they're missing their heads
4:38
there's no visible signs of male manes
4:41
male genitalia or female teats
4:44
so we have to really guess on the
4:46
identity and gender of these creatures
4:49
except for the fact that they do appear
4:51
to be feline
4:55
there's a socket behind the front of the
4:57
shoulder on each one
5:00
um and
5:01
these would have held the heads
5:04
it's
5:05
this is an indication that probably
5:07
another material perhaps gold ivory
5:11
or another type of stone
5:13
was used to form the head for each of
5:15
these creatures
5:18
now i'm showing you a couple of
5:20
possibilities
5:21
these are both writings ceremonial
5:24
drinking vessels that i hope you
5:26
remember from lesson 5.1
5:29
they have one wide opening and a
5:31
narrower one
5:33
and wine or oil would be scooped up and
5:36
poured into the large opening and then
5:38
it would flow out through the smaller
5:40
opening
5:41
in the case of these rightins the nose
5:43
of the alabaster lioness on
5:46
the left and uh there's a hole
5:50
um
5:50
on the the face of the lioness on the
5:53
right
5:54
so back to the lion gate i want you to
5:56
remember that lioness heads could be one
5:59
possibility
6:01
uh the creatures could be male lions or
6:03
panthers or possibly composite creatures
6:06
like sphinxes or griffins
6:09
the sculpture was probably also brightly
6:11
painted and there might have been
6:13
additional gilding on the relief panel
6:15
as well
6:17
so if we look at what stands between the
6:19
two creatures
6:20
their paws are up on a stepped base and
6:23
they flank a minoan style column that is
6:26
topped by a rectangular lintel
6:28
and four rounded forms that could be a
6:31
stylized representation of roof beams
6:35
some scholars have interpreted this
6:37
architectural form as an abbreviated
6:40
representation of a temple
6:42
others as an abbreviated palace
6:45
still another scholar suggests that the
6:47
column in fact represents a female
6:50
mother goddess in the role of mistress
6:52
of beasts
6:53
but i'm not really sure i
6:55
agree with that one i find this the
6:57
least convincing
7:00
now we're back to the exterior of the
7:02
citadel at mycenae looking up at the
7:05
lion gate and i love this view because
7:08
it shows you just how enormous
7:11
and intimidating this gate really is
7:14
it would have been shut with a huge door
7:16
that revolved around an enormous central
7:19
hinge that fit into the underside of the
7:22
lintel
7:23
you can also see the great defensive
7:25
bastion that projects outward from the
7:27
gate this would force any invaders into
7:30
a narrow channel that would expose them
7:33
to fire from three sides
7:35
from defenders at the top of the civil
7:37
wall that you see on the left the top of
7:39
the gate and the top of the bastion to
7:41
the right
7:42
that's this
7:44
narrow well-defended passage to get into
7:47
this citadel
7:48
extends for 15 15 meters that's roughly
7:51
50 feet
7:53
outward from the gate and remember it's
7:55
sloping upward too
7:57
uh so this makes it even harder you know
7:59
if you're rushing up to it you're
8:01
running at an upward angle
8:05
when these stones were polished they
8:06
would have been even more impressive
8:08
because they would shine with all sorts
8:11
of bright colors
8:13
and then you'd have that sculpture with
8:15
the protective feline creatures
8:17
all of this would make for
8:20
a really strong and also kind of
8:23
psychologically intimidating entry way
0:03
we're going to finish up this lesson
0:05
with some ceramics
0:07
the first of these is the so-called
0:10
warrior vase
0:11
a late hellenic example of mycenae
0:14
ceramics dating to between about 1300
0:18
and 1100 bce
0:20
and this is a type of vase called a
0:23
crater
0:24
and that is a large bowl used for mixing
0:27
water with wine
0:28
craters were used both for dining and
0:31
for grave markers and we'll learn a lot
0:33
more about greek base forms when we get
0:35
to lesson six
0:37
this vase depicts a woman on the far
0:40
left
0:41
waving farewell to a group of soldiers
0:43
who march away from her
0:46
unlike the vaffeo cups that we or the
0:48
harvester vase we saw in lesson 5.2
0:51
with their strong diagonals and
0:54
overlapping figures the decoration on
0:56
this warrior vase keeps all the figures
0:58
strictly separate from one another
1:00
all the soldiers share the same outfit
1:03
same pose and same weapons and seem
1:06
nearly interchangeable and anonymous
1:09
similarly the woman though her jet her
1:11
arm is upraised in the gesture of
1:13
mourning
1:14
seems emotionless
1:16
these human figures have been treated in
1:18
a highly stylized way and they form a
1:20
rhythmic procession around the vase
1:23
this is extremely different from the
1:25
crowding and energy that we saw on the
1:27
harvester base with all of those poses
1:30
facial expressions and character types
1:33
in lesson one we'll move into early
1:36
greek art and the geometric period and
1:38
we'll see an even further stylization of
1:41
and reduction of the human form to just
1:44
its most basic geometric elements
1:48
one last thing i want you to notice
1:50
like the set of the walls at mycna and
1:53
other sites
1:54
this object the warrior base has been
1:56
used to further the scholarly contrast
2:00
between the supposedly peaceful minoans
2:03
and the supposedly warmongering mycenae
2:06
remember what we talked about with the
2:08
vaffio cups with one peaceful cup and
2:11
one war white cup one one
2:14
cup with lots of
2:15
uh trials and tribulations
2:18
um and we have to remember that the
2:20
circumstances that face the mycenaes
2:22
were very different from those of the
2:23
minoans
2:24
the minoans lived on islands the mice
2:26
and anne's on the greek mainland the
2:28
mycenaeans built their citadels long
2:31
after the minoan palaces on crease and
2:33
crete had been destroyed and we can't
2:37
know from the records has been
2:38
discovered so far
2:40
what kind of pressures the mycenaeans
2:42
faced as a society
2:44
they could have had other
2:46
threats from peoples invading by the sea
2:49
or by land
2:50
threats the monoands might never have
2:53
faced but it's probably oversimplifying
2:56
things to just say
2:58
oh the minoans were peaceful
3:00
and their works of art are very playful
3:04
and and celebratory
3:06
and the mice and ends are all about war
3:09
and conflict and self-protection and so
3:12
on
3:13
um it's certainly much more complex
3:16
situation
3:19
here's our second ceramic vessel this is
3:21
a stirrup jar in the princeton
3:23
university museum
3:25
and i've had the privilege of going to
3:28
that museum and examining a number of
3:30
works from the aegean period
3:33
stir up jars were a very practical form
3:36
for storing and pouring liquid
3:38
as you can see the jar has two stirrup
3:41
shaped handles on either side of a false
3:44
neck
3:44
and by false neck i mean you'd expect to
3:47
see an opening at the center of the top
3:49
of the vessel but that's closed
3:52
instead we have this offset spout that
3:55
you see
3:57
just to the front of that
3:59
and uh you could you could put a bung or
4:02
a stopper
4:04
into that to close up this vessel
4:07
scholars suggest that stirrup jars were
4:09
designed to be closed and sealed with
4:11
some kind of a string or cord that could
4:14
pass through the handles and around the
4:17
offset spout and also securely hold the
4:20
the bung or or cork or whatever into
4:23
place
4:25
stirrup jars came in two distinct sizes
4:29
smaller finer ones like this and you can
4:31
see in the right i'm actually cradling
4:34
it
4:34
um in my hand or no i think
4:37
those are my friend emily's hands she
4:39
was a
4:40
she was working at the museum at the
4:42
time
4:43
um
4:45
and then there were much larger ones
4:47
uh so this one would have been used for
4:49
something like perfumed oil
4:52
uh or or a rarer more precious substance
4:56
and then the the larger
4:58
more enormous ones were for things like
5:00
wine and olive oil that you would have
5:02
in greater quantities
5:04
stirrup jars were widely used by the
5:06
mycenaeans for long distance trade
5:09
in addition to domestic use inside uh
5:12
communities
5:14
and uh again this is these are my friend
5:17
emily's hands uh
5:20
holding this vessel you can see its
5:22
decorations pretty simple mostly red
5:24
stripes of slip in a variety of widths
5:28
that alternate with the creamy color of
5:30
the unpainted clay
5:32
and the decoration around the false
5:35
neck
5:36
could be some sort of plant form but to
5:38
me it kind of looks like little bird
5:39
heads
5:40
um
5:41
except for those flowers or bird heads
5:44
uh and the decoration on the handles
5:47
the slip painting probably would have
5:48
been done on a wheel with the brush
5:50
being held steady while the artist
5:53
rotated the vase
5:55
it's all really meticulous
5:57
with the artist even adding dark color
5:59
to the center of the fall spout so it
6:01
looks like a real spout
6:04
it isn't hard to imagine a lovely little
6:06
jar like this holding an expensive
6:09
liquid like a perfumed oil
6:13
here's a larger
6:15
much
6:16
more substantial stirrup jar that i
6:19
photographed in the british museum it's
6:20
a good example of that larger size
6:23
and what's fascinating about this
6:25
stirrup jar is that it's evidence of a
6:27
thriving trade between mycenaean
6:30
controlled crete
6:32
and the island of cyprus
6:34
cyprus is a large mediterranean the
6:37
mediterranean island
6:38
east of the aegean roughly between
6:40
anatolia the near east and north africa
6:44
and you should recall that all of those
6:46
areas were interconnected by both land
6:48
and sea trade routes
6:50
this particular vase as you can see
6:52
features an octopus decoration that is
6:56
inspired by the minoan marine style
6:59
but when we look at a marine style vase
7:02
you can see that there are some really
7:04
serious differences here right
7:06
uh the mycenaean example is much simpler
7:09
and more stylized with a really paired
7:12
down kind of elegant form
7:15
that communicates the subject an octopus
7:18
in a symmetrical and graphic way
7:21
the minoan octopus on the other hand is
7:23
really complex
7:24
and it's portrayed in a way that seems
7:27
to suggest its motion in moving ocean
7:29
water
7:32
let's take a look at that mycenaean
7:34
stirrup jar again
7:36
and a closer view on the right like i
7:39
said it was found on cyprus along with a
7:41
huge number of other mycenaean vessels
7:45
its clay indicates that it came from
7:47
mycenaean controlled crete
7:49
and the fact that many such mycenaean
7:51
vessels from crete are decorated with
7:54
octopue pie like this
7:56
has prompted scholars to conclude that
7:58
mice and anne's on crete
8:01
use this octopus motif like a trademark
8:04
so it's like a graphic logo think of it
8:07
like the apple logo for example
8:10
this jar has been analyzed we know it
8:12
once contained oil
8:14
and although it seems a little odd for
8:16
the people of cyprus to import oil when
8:19
they also were an olive growing place
8:21
um but there appears to have been a
8:24
thriving market for luxury oils coming
8:26
from crete
8:28
some of them perfume some of them
8:30
flavored and maybe some that were just
8:33
extraordinarily high quality
8:35
when you consider this octopus as a
8:37
trademark then suddenly its extreme
8:41
simplicity and symmetry make a lot of
8:44
sense
8:45
because this octopus is meant to be seen
8:48
and recognized
8:50
and immediately associated with mice and
8:52
and crete
8:56
this is our final object from the
8:58
princeton museum collection
9:00
this is a two-handed drinking cup called
9:02
achillex
9:04
and we'll learn more about helixes in
9:06
lesson six it's another important vessel
9:09
form in greek art
9:11
like the previous work this vessel has a
9:13
stylized octopus um and there's one
9:16
octopus on either side so i'm showing
9:18
you the side and and a front view um now
9:23
here the octopi have been simplified to
9:26
the point where they just have four
9:28
tentacles instead of eight
9:30
but the tentacles curl and flow around
9:32
the the rather wide body of the cup
9:35
and imply movement
9:38
we don't know whether or not this cup
9:39
came from mice and and controlled crete
9:41
but if it did
9:43
then the octopus motif could have been
9:45
used for any and all mycenaean goods
9:47
that came from the island of crete it's
9:50
a plausible explanation but one that i
9:52
can't prove
9:54
i also want to point out the variations
9:56
in color on the octopus here
9:59
when ceramics were fired
10:02
the the darkness of the the slip
10:05
decoration was dependent upon the heat
10:08
in the kiln
10:10
and in the way that these works were
10:12
fired and we'll talk about this in more
10:13
detail in our next set of lessons
10:16
um you could get sort of cooler spots
10:18
and hotter spots
10:20
um so
10:21
it was possible to have
10:24
variations so it's not that they're
10:26
using different colors
10:28
on this vase to create the the colors
10:31
that you see here it's all the same slip
10:34
which is watered-down clay that is used
10:37
it just fired at two different
10:40
temperatures inside the kiln
10:44
i hope these works inspire you to go to
10:46
a museum
10:48
and investigate some some vases and
10:50
things that might seem a little bit less
10:52
interesting
10:54
um and see what you can find
11:04
you