Before classical Athens and Sparta, Greece was home to a powerful Bronze Age civilization: the Mycenaeans.
In this episode of Before the Cross, we explore the fortified palaces, warrior aristocracy, and complex society of Mycenaean Greece.
Discover the mighty walls of Mycenae, the palace kingdoms of Pylos and Tiryns, and the remarkable Linear B tablets that preserve the earliest known written form of Greek.
We'll explore the lives of ordinary people, the influence of Minoan Crete, religious traditions, and the Mediterranean trade networks that connected Mycenaean Greece to a much wider world.
Then we'll confront one of ancient history's great mysteries: why did the Bronze Age palace system collapse around 1200 BC?
Through the story of a Mycenaean warrior, we'll witness a civilization at its height and consider what survived after its palaces fell.
Before the Cross: A History of the World That Made Christianity.
-Chadwick, John. The Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
-Cline, Eric H. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Revised and updated edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
-Middleton, Guy D. Understanding Collapse: Ancient History and Modern Myths. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
-Palaima, Thomas G. “The Nature of the Mycenaean Wanax: Non-Indo-European Origins and Priestly Functions.” In The Role of the Ruler in the Prehistoric Aegean, edited by Paul Rehak, 119–139. Liège: Université de Liège, 1995.
-Pulak, Cemal. “The Uluburun Shipwreck: An Overview.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27, no. 3 (1998): 188–224.
-Shelmerdine, Cynthia W., ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
-Wright, James C., ed. The Mycenaean Feast. Hesperia 73, no. 2 (2004).
This episode draws on archaeological evidence, Linear B administrative records, and modern historical scholarship. The opening and closing warrior scenes are imaginative reconstructions, not accounts of a documented individual.
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