Mycenaean art and culture in antiquity
Mycenaean art It emerged around 1400 AC (II Milleniun Ac). His apogee period indicates approximately the period between 1550 to 1200 BC in continental Greece. The development of mynical culture in the Bronze Age, in the Greek Peninsula, happened chronologically to the old Minoan culture of Crete.
Mycenic art compared to Minoic art That preceded him was quite solemn, the two cultures formed the basis of Greek art that later emerged in that same peninsula and that is why it is necessary to study them; To better understand the archaic period of Greek art. Greek culture learned some things from this culture, including how to build doors and tombs.
The culture of Mycenae had a society hierarchized with the figure of the king as the greatest exponent of power with political and economic control. Mycenae or Achaeans as they called themselves were a fundamentally Guerrero town, so they developed great specialization and techniques in the elaboration of weapons, arrows, the long sword and the armor with metal sheets and jabali teeth helmets (they possessed these great strength and durability since they were destined for personal protection). They were dedicated to agriculture and livestock for what settled in fertile areas that defended with preponderant Belicity. Its cities among which Tirinto, Argos and Micenas (which is the name of this culture) were very well protected by immense stone walls.
Architecture in the culture of Mycenae.
Myceanic cities usually placed at the top of the hills surrounded by walls from where they could be defended better in case of attack, of course they should also have access to water sources; which provided them with an indispensable subsistence means. Many of these cities were very fences of the sea where they developed their important commercial activities.
From the construction of huge stones of stones in mynical architecture, some ruins have been preserved that show how these stones were put on each other without the need for mortar, they were carved until the desired form were achieved and then they were carefully placed on each other, they fit them so perfectly, that it is difficult to even introduce an object by thin that is between the joints. They created huge architectural structures with this method. Its masonry and “hive” cyclopeas tombs constitute a true monument to the construction and constructive tenacity that this ancient civilization left for posterity.
Mycenic civil constructions
The mynical civil constructions among which are the palaces had a quadrangular plant generally oriented towards the east where the sun rose. In mynica culture the palaces constitute the cities themselves and were totally walled based on courtyards that lead to the main building: The megar. This stay was at the time of offerings and throne hall.
The megar It presents a similar structure and is divided into three environments:
- A porch with two columns of the Cretan type.
- A lobby.
- A royal room with four columns that protect a central home. (A separate area of the housing zone but inside the wall in the form of esplanade for the shelter of the peasants in case of war).
Numerous other rooms supplied the needs of the inhabitants of the palace from the king to the servitude with some differences between them in terms of dimensions, quality of the finish on the walls and vain. Large doors protected the tickets conceived to be impenetrable in case of attack. From the mycenics the Greeks later learned to build solid doors although they of course improve the finish and proportion of them in relation to the dimensions of the building.
The palaces had different rooms among which those destined for religious worship, representations for entertainment as well as others of the utmost importance for the realization of economic and political activities that guaranteed the subsistence of its inhabitants and consolidated the power of the sovereign which is revered in the throne hall. Among these rooms destined for the economic are the workshops and warehouses that were accessed by intricate labyrinths of corridors, these rooms made of masonry were simpler without decoration predominantly the practical concept of their function.
The walls of the main rooms for housing and celebrations were built of masonry also on which stucco was placed that was the perfect basis for decoration with paintings in which reasons predominated with animals and plants generally arranged in the form of a grid.
In the Mycenaical Palaces, concern is observed for the relationship between the length and width of each of the parts of these buildings, so it can be said that there is already a harmonious architectural expression according to the constructive principles that were the basis of what would later be the proportionate and balanced Greek architecture.
Of the constructions where the peasant population lived in Mycenae, no specimens have been preserved, so they were supposed to be made with perishable and of poor quality materials in which numerous people lived but without separation of internal walls that would delimit the rooms; as if inside the palaces. Little windows or vain were placed and a single entry also oriented to the east.
Mycenaic funeral constructions.
Three fundamental types stand out in the construction of these funeral buildings which are also hierarchized as society is for the living.
1- Tombs of pit or well. Family tombs grouped in circles in the outer area of the city. They were five -meter deep wells covered by stones walls and sealed by beams and cover of branches and mud.
2- Chamber and Tholoi tombs. First with rectangular and then round plant that was accessed by the dromos (corridors) and covered by the tholos (dome).
3- Simple camera tombs. Stone mounds excavated in soft terrain to use them in multiple burials.
Mycenic ceramic and sculpture.
The history and legends of town Mycenaean They are part of the writings left by the Greek poet Homer (h. 750 AC) became the dominant culture of the island and its influence; It is patented in all artistic manifestations. They assimilated elements of the preceding culture (Menica) especially in the handmade part where naturalistic elements with flowers of the Minoans are observed in the first stage. Minoic artisans were assimilated by mynical culture and that is why this knowledge goes to mycenics and subsequently to the Greeks.
It is assumed that Etruscan cemitas also worked for mycenae leaving their mark until the latter (which were ceramists and impressive goldsmiths), developed a functional type ceramics; beautifully decorated with geometric motifs.
This style also applied it in the elaboration of beautiful objects of personal use, among which the jewels stand out .. They widely used the gold by which they had special predilection and reached a high degree of mastery in the use of the techniques to elaborate the different objects made in metal such as the rebound, the burila or the denied (inlays of one metal over another).
Remains of Mycenaean Utensils in Athens, Pilos, Chipre and Sparta have been found, verifying the existence of a mynical civilization extended throughout the Aegean Sea.
Mycenica painting.
The fragments of Myceical paintings Found in Tirinto and in Pilos, in Greece, they represent what is presumed were impressive mynical and minoic murals; They were not fresh as they are traditionally known, but like Egyptian murals were made by applying plaster paint.
The pictorial techniques and artistic methods of the Cretans, the predecessor culture, continue to be adopted in their achievements. The colors were extracted from the minerals found locally, so the shades achieved with them are fundamentally blue, red, yellow and black. These colors were applied when the stucco applied to the walls was still wet so the artists had to proceed in preturably and precisely, looking for several of them at the same time.
The themes of Mycenaean murals include daily scenes and representations of war and hunting scenes as well as allusion to nature. As seen in some of their paintings they used a forced perspective and the figures are stereotypes that do not keep a spatial order. However, this painting has dynamism; Especially in the scenes that have fierce war clashes, hunting scenes, birds raising the flight or animals attacking or being persecuted.
Women in richly dressed and adorned procession give us an idea of the clothing of the time as shown in photography. These paintings are made in the Minoic style that the Mycenaean inherited. Red and black dark lines gave the details subsequent to drawing by profiling and hiding the defects.
The majority of the murals found correspond to the cities of Mycenae, Red, Pilos, Orcome and Thebes. Many of these paintings were made for royal palaces and served very well as propaganda to the power of the kings although the aristocracy placed them in their properties as a symbol of status not only for decorative purposes.
Mycenaean civilization It collapsed around 1100 a. C. Its end marked the end of the Bronze Age in Greece. It followed a period of one hundred to one hundred and fifty years called “dark era”, of which very little is known.
When prehistory ends; The period of written history begins. This fact marks a very important milestone in the development of the evolution of human communities and their awareness as cultural entities, allowing even in the case of the Cretan culture and Micena to establish the existence of both as two different cultures through events narrated in found tablets that provide these informative data.