The Mycenaean Civilization was the first Greek civilization of the Late Bronze Age, which developed mainly in central and southern Greece during the period 1600-1100 BC.
During its heyday it spread to Crete, the Aegean islands and Eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus. The Mycenaean civilization is identified with the last period of Greek Culture, the Late Helladic Civilization. It is traditionally classified as prehistoric, since our knowledge of it is based mainly on archeological finds.
That the Mycenaeans were Greek was proved in the 1950s when their writing, Linear B, was deciphered by Ventris and Chadwick. This major scientific discovery showed that the Mycenaean language was Greek. Moreover, most of the names of people, cities and gods that we find on the clay tablets of Linear B are the same as those of Greece in the following millennia. Thus the events of the Mycenaean world are the oldest of Hellenism.
The signs of Linear B. They are the first written monuments of the Greek language
Unfortunately, we have no text from Linear B recording any historical event, as these are found exclusively on clay tablets related to the bureaucracy of the Mycenaean palaces and are records of goods in the warehouses or votive offerings to the gods. In other words, it is like we found the supermarket shopping list in a modern house, rather than the diary of a family member. However, there is one important source that has preserved some historical data for the Mycenaean era, and that is Greek mythology.
Mycenaean Inscription. Linear B contains 89 syllables representing syllables with phonetic value and about 260 ideograms reflecting terms such as man, woman, cow, oil, wine, etc. and symbols representing numbers. Archeological Museum of Athens.
For example, the myth of the Argonaut Campaign is associated with the expansion of Mycenaean power in the Black Sea. But the most important event in mythology is the siege and fall of Troy. This fact is also recorded by ancient Greek historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides. Excavations at Troy itself have brought to light important evidence that the city was occupied by the Mycenaeans in the 13th or early 12th century BC, which is consistent with the literary sources of the classical period.
But the myths also contain heaps of fictional elements and certainly cannot be accepted as authentic historical sources to the same extent if, for example, we had a contemporary text of the Trojan War written in Linear B.
From the Greek side, although we have no original historical sources for the events of the Mycenaean world, there is one source that provides us with valuable historical data that is contemporaneous with these events and has nothing to do with mythology. These are texts of the Hittites, who had created the first empire in the region.
Their neighbors were the Mycenaeans, or Achaeans according to Homer, who lived in mainland Greece, the Aegean islands and Cyprus. In the Hittite capital, Hattusa, near present-day Ankara, German archeological excavations in the early 20th century found the empire's state archives in the form of a large number of clay tablets with cuneiform texts.
These documents shed light on the relations of the Hittites with the Mycenaeans, who are referred to as "Ahhiya" in the older texts and as "Ahhiyawa" ("Achaeans") in the more recent ones. In the 13th century BC the Hittites accused the Mycenaeans of giving political asylum to the opponents of their king.
The Hittite Empire at its greatest height under Supililioumas AD (c. 1350-1322 BC) and Mursilis II (c. 1321-1295 BC)
There are other signs that speak of Mycenaean actions against the Hittites. The most important and at the same time the oldest is known to the Hittites as "The Indictment against Madduwatta" and dates from around 1400 BC, two centuries before Trojan War. This tablet mentions two campaigns of a Mycenaean named Attarsiya against Hittite subjects in Asia Minor.
This is the oldest reference to a war between Mycenaeans and Hittites.
Attarsiya's first campaign was against Madduwatta - hence the present title of the plaque of the southwest Asia Minor, in a kingdom probably called Arzawa, which was subject to the Hittites.
Attarsiya had 100 chariots in his campaign, and experts agree that no minor Mycenaean ruler could have had such a force, and he probably tried in Asia Minor as leader of a coalition of Mycenaean rulers.
His campaign was extremely successful, for he succeeded in ousting Madduwatta from his territory. He sought refuge in the palace of the Hittite king, who was Arnuwanda A' at the time. The Hittites appointed Madduwatta as a king elsewhere in the west Asia Minor, in a kingdom that the plaque probably records as Zipasia.
Historians link the extension of Mycenaean rule under Attariya to the coasts of the western Asia Minor with the founding of Miletus as a Mycenaean settlement in the early 14th century BC, as evidenced by the findings of archaeological excavations in the city.
Miletus seems to have been the base of Attarisya, who, after the expulsion of Madduwata, continued his military operations in Asia Minor against rulers subordinate to the Hittite king. Among them was again Madduwata, whom he again defeated. Attarisya now posed a serious threat to the Hittite Empire so the king sent his own army under his general Kisnapli to the west Asia Minor to oppose Attarisya's 100 chariots and infantry.
A Madduwata plaque states that a Kisnapli Hittite officer named Zidanza and an unnamed Attarsiya officer were killed in the battle. It is not clear which side won, except that Attarsiya "returned to his own territory" after the battle ended. As we shall see later, it is more likely that Attarsiya returned to his base on the coast of Asia Minor, in Miletus than in Greece.
Duel like in the Trojan War
The fact that the Madduwata plaque records the casualties of only two officers is probably due to the fact that the Hittites were not interested in recording the casualties of common soldiers, and it is less likely that the battle was decided in a duel between two officers, each representing his side, as Homer in the Iliad describes the duel of Paris with Menelaus or that of Hector with Achilles. It seems, however, that Attarsiya suffered defeat after his great rival, Madduwatta, had been restored by the Hittites to the rulership of his ancient region.
Achilles triumphant, after the duel with Hector. Mural painting in Achillion, Corfu
Mycenaean domination of the coasts of the west Asia Minor and Cyprus
Attarsiya had not yet spoken his last word. He attacked with great force the island of Alashiya, which is Cyprus. According to the Madduwata plaque, this action worried the Hittites, since the island was their protectorate. Attarsiya defeated the local Hittite authorities and occupied the island. It should be noted that the loss of Cyprus was a great blow to the Hittite Empire, because in addition to its strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean, it had significant copper mines, which were valuable at the time, mainly because they were the raw material for making the best weapons. Archaeological excavations on the island show that the first presence of the Mycenaeans dates precisely to the time of Attarisya.
Attarisya's forces occupying Cyprus included not only the Mycenaeans, but also the peoples of the southeast Asia Minor. In fact, the people of Lukka (Lycians-Lycia) provided him with ships to invade Cyprus. This shows that Attarisya was not only a great military leader, but also a good diplomat.
Among Attarisya's allies was even his old enemy, Madduwatta. This shows that Mycenaean rule was established on the coasts of the western Asia Minor and relations between the powers in the wider region were also as fluid as they are today. Madduwata, who had previously been with the Hittites and against Attarsiya, discovered that his interests were now better served by changing alliances. For this reason the indictment against him was drawn up by the king of the Hittites.
Thus ends the record of the first events in Greek history about 1400 B.C. and Cyprus. An anonymous officer is the first Greek recorded to have been killed in war, and even in Asia Minor.
The so-called face of Agamemnon (16th century BC). First burial district of Mycenae
Attarisya was Atreus
Finally, the vast majority of historians believe that the name Attarisya is the Hittite rendering of the name "Atreus". According to Greek mythology, Atreus was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, a generation before the Trojan War. Chronologically, he is much later than the historical Attarisya. However, most experts do not exclude that the latter was a namesake of the father of the protagonists of the Trojan War, even their distant ancestor, and thus the real founder of the "House of Atreides", two centuries before Agamemnon and Menelaus.
