(image source)
Posted on 10/05/2008 3:49:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A Mycenaean warrior who died in western Greece over 3,000 years ago was the proud owner of a rare gold-wired sword imported from the Italian peninsula, a senior archaeologist said on Thursday.
"This is a very rare discovery, particularly because of the gold wire wrapped around the hilt," archaeologist Maria Gatsi told AFP.
"To my knowledge, no such sword has ever been found in Greece," said Gatsi, head of the regional archaeological department of Aetoloakarnania prefecture.
Tests in Austria have confirmed that the bronze used in the 12th century BCE, 94-centimetre (37-inch) sword came from the Italian peninsula, she said.
The Mycenaean remains were discovered in July 2007 near the town of Amphilochia, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Athens during construction work on a new motorway, Ionia Odos.
Archeologists also discovered a second bronze sword with a bone handle, a bronze and iron dagger, a pair of greaves (armoured plates), an arrowhead, a spear point, a golden kylix or wine cup and a bronze boiler in the grave.
The finds confirm the Mycenaeans were trading with other civilisations in the Mediterranean basin.
The dagger is also considered a rare discovery because of the combination of metals used.
Conquerors of the Minoan civilisation, the Mycenaeans flourished between the 17th century BCE and the 12th century BCE, occupying much of the Greek mainland and establishing colonies in Asia Minor and on Cyprus.
(Excerpt) Read more at howrah.org ...
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I thought historians consider the Italian peninsula to have still been stone age in those days.
That “bronze and iron” dagger has me wondering. Was it pattern-welded bronze and iron layers like damascus steel?
Probably there are iron parts (along with the gold decorations) as well as bronze parts. But anyway, no, the Italian peninsula wasn’t in a stone age then. The Mycenaean Greeks put colonies in and/or traded with various places in Sicily and Italy, and IMO, they were following the precedent set by the Minoans, whom they supplanted in the Aegean, Cyprus, and trading centers in Anatolia.
Conquerors of the Minoan civilisation, the Mycenaeans flourished between the 17th century BCE and the 12th century BCE, occupying much of the Greek mainland and establishing colonies in Asia Minor and on Cyprus.
So this sword, from the Italian Penninsula, "proves" that these fighters, conquerors,and colonizers traded? Maybe the last owner of it just traded blows with the penultimate owner?
I always new that tin was important ( a necessary component) for bronze, and new that Cornwall was a major source, but didn’t realize until recently that Cornwall was the ONLY source of tin outside of central Asia. Any bronze item, by necessity, had to involve trades with Cornish tin miners. (I think there might have been some in Brittany, too).
I’ve often wondered if there was a Mycenean equivalent to the classical “Magna Graecia” of scattered trading colonies.
Really and for true?
Cornwall was the ONLY source of tin for ancient Europe?
The ancient Cymru must have been sittin’ pretty in them days.
Don’t you know that Jesus visited the tin mines as a child? His biblical record stops at ~13 years and doesn’t start up until after his 30th. During that time, he traveled the world with his uncle to visit different sites where the Jews were engaged in commerce.
Of course, this is all legend (see Blake), but there is fascinating evidence of long lasting ties between the Hebrews and the British Isles.
Gosh! I always preferred Nicholas Roerich’s theory that ol’ J.C. followed the Silk Road to the orient where he spent his “lost years” studying under Indian and Chinese Bhuddist monks, Zen masters and Hindu sages, etc.
The Prehistoric Archaeology of the AegeanDuring the reign of the heretical pharoah Akhenaten (= Amenhotep IV), the capital of Egypt was moved downstream from Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten (= modern Tell el-Amarna). This city was only occupied from ca. 1352-1338 B.C., and the large quantities of Mycenaean pottery found within it are therefore supplied with a fairly precise absolute date. The almost complete absence of Minoan pottery at Amarna is one indication of Mycenaean mercantile dominance within the Aegean at this time. More significant is the Mycenaean character of the settlements which have by this time replaced sites characterized until the end of the LM IB period (ca. 1500 B.C.) by Minoan cultural remains at Trianda on Rhodes, Ayia Irini on Keos, Phylakopi on Melos, and Miletus and Iasos in Asia Minor.
Lesson 18: The Nature and Extent of
Neopalatial Minoan Influence
in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Worlds
Aegean Connections With Egypt
In The Amarna Period (ca. 1360-1340 B.C.)
Trustees of Dartmouth College
revised Friday, March 18, 2000
:’)
http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/22.html#5
http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/lessons/les/22.html#6
Trade or loot?
Two methods of exhange in the ancient world.
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