1. Writing in Bronze Age Greece

Linear B (Mycenean) (cp. Linear A (Minoan)

• Decipherment of Linear B

  Michael Ventris (1952)

  words, names of deities

• Uses and limitations of Linear B (cp. cuneiform and hieroglyphics)

2. Conclusions about Mycenean Civilization

A. implications of trade

B. nature of Mycenaean society and political organization in relation to Near East

• social/political hierarchy
  • wanax and nature of authority
    • palace megaron

    lawagetas

    telestas

    heqetas

    extra-palatial administrative officials and villages

    slaves or serfs

• religion
• writing

3. Collapse of Mycenean civilization, ca. 1200-1100 B.C.

map of eastern Mediterranean

"Sea Peoples" at Egypt (inscription of Ramesses III) and Ugarit

Hittites (Anatolia)

4. Homer and Oral Tradition

Milman Parry (early 1930s)

dactylic hexameter

formulae, epithets ("formulaic" composition)

oral composition and transmission over centuries

fiction and fact: historicity of Trojan War?

Boar's tusk helmet

cp. the Lemba and oral tradition 

Updated

Wednesday, 21-Sep-2005 14:45:52 CDT