THE PREHISTORIC COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM.
The Prehistoric Collection grew out of the zeal and the discoveries of the great pioneering excavations of the late nineteenth century, which gave form and title to the civilizations of Greek prehistory. Two passionate men laid the foundations for the development of Greek prehistoric archaeology. Charismatic and ambitious, Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) excavated legendary places like Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns. Christos Tsountas (1857-1934) carried on the Mycenae excavations, dug the famous Vafeio tholos tomb and delved even deeper in time with his explorations in the Cycladic Islands and Thessaly, which revealed the first civilizations in Greece. Tsountas initiated the first systematic excavations in Greece, which set the standard for research into the Neolithic, Cycladic and Mycenean civilizations. As Keeper of the Mycenean and Egyptian collections of the Museum, from 1896 to 1904, he was responsible for the first inventory of the Prehistoric Collection, which was moved to the newly established National Archaeological Museum in 1892. In that same year, Sophia Schliemann, wife of Heinrich Schliemann, donated his personal collection of Trojan antiquities to the new museum.
The finds of Greek and foreign archaeologists during the twentieth century enriched the Prehistoric Collection with priceless works from all over Greece. Exhibits from the Peloponnese, Attica, Thessaly and the Cyclades make up the body of the Collection, while important works also come from Lemnos, Lefkada, Kythera and Skopelos. With the growth of local museums after World War II, the input of new finds to the Prehistoric Collection gradually dwindled and in the 1970s, after the transport of the famous wall-paintings from Akrotiri in Thera (Santorini), practically stopped. New exhibits have enriched the Collection in recent years thanks to the crack down by the Greek authorities of the illicit antiquities trade and their confiscation of unexpected finds such as the gold jewelry of the “Neolithic Treasure” in 1997.
The Prehistoric Collection remains the richest and most important of its kind in the world. Thousands of visitors converge each day to wonder the treasures from Mycenae ‘rich and gold’, the tablets inscribed with the Linear B’ script, the enigmatic Cycladic marble idols, and the Theran wall-paintings. The wealth and variety of the exhibits offer both a comprehensive lesson in Greek Prehistory as well as a fascinating journey through time.
THE MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION
The Mycenaean Civilization (1600-1100 BC) was born in Greece, which then, as now, bridges the East and West. Its radiance reached from Asia Minor, the Middle East and Egypt to the Western Mediterranean and Northwest Europe. According to tradition, its bearers, the Greek speaking Achaeans, settled in Greece around 2000 BC. The earlier Minoan Civilization of Crete, which was at its height in the 16th century BC, deeply influenced the development of Mycenaean culture and together they constitute the first two great European civilizations.
The origins of the Mycenaean Civilization, named after its great center, Mycenae in the Peloponnese, is marked by the rise of ruling groups of warriors who developed relations with the Minoan Civilization of Crete, importing finished products, new ideas and skills, as well as ideas of social organization. One impressive image of the wealth of the Early Mycenaean period is provided by Mycenae’s royal shaft graves of the 16th century BC (Grave Circles A and B). Their valuable grave offerings, indicators of high social rank and wealth, confirmed Homer’s Mycenaean epithet 'rich in gold'.
The Achaeans/Mycenaeans have already conquered the palace at Knossos and occupied Crete early in the 14th century BC. On the Greek mainland the great palaces of Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos in the Peloponnese, as well as Thebes (Thiva) in Boeotia (Viotia) were built at this time and decorated with wall-paintings. Strong cyclopean walls, which were continuously expanded, encircled and protected these citadels, which, following the Minoan Cretan prototypes, served as the administrative, economic, military and religious centers of wide regions. The central authority, organized hierarchically with the king at the top, maintained archives written on clay tablets in the Linear B’ script, the first proven Greek writing, which was adapted to the Greek language from the Minoan Linear A script (which, as research is about to prove, was also Greek). Organized settlements and chamber tomb cemeteries, whose rich contents indicate social stratification and a prosperous society, grew up around these citadels. The magnificent circular vaulted, or tholos, tombs, such as the tomb of Atreus at Mycenae, the Vapheio tholos in Laconia and the tholos of the legendary Iolkos in Thessaly, belonged to the ruling class.
The centralized palatial administrative system collapsed at the end of the 13th century BC, traditionally soon after the Trojan War, which was a common undertaking by the Achaean lords. Possible causes for this breakdown are the social upheaval, weakening economies due to mass migrations ‘by land and sea’ in the Mediterranean, which destroyed the centers o Asia Minor and the Middle East, and severe earthquakes, as is documented by archaeological excavations.
These changes during the last years of the Mycenaean Civilization mark the beginning of a new period in Greece in the 12th century BC. Life continued at the well-known citadels – this is especially evident at Mycenae and Tiryns -, but there was also the free development of other local centers on the Greek mainland, the Cyclades and Crete. The end of the Mycenaean Civilization, in the 11th century BC, brought about an inevitable cultural retreat. However, it was during the succeeding Geometric Period up to the 8th century BC that the foundations for the development of the Greek city were laid. It was in this period that the Mycenaean Civilization entered the realm of myth. The Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, works of the 8th century BC, poetically recreate the Trojan War and the Achaean heroes’ adventures on their homeward journeys. These epic tales of warriors’ and the bold sailors’ deeds are set in a world which is a combination of both the brilliance of Mycenae at the height of its power and of the centuries which followed on from its decline. The heroes of Homer’s epics and other cycles of Greek myth are the archetypes in which the classical Greek city-states searched for their identity. This is also where the 5th century BC Athenian tragic poets sought their inspiration. In this way, the heroic past of Greece merges with the classical Greek and, by extension, our common European and Western World civilization.
