MYCENEAN

ARCHITECTURE
The Archaic and Classical Ages
 By about 750 BC, Greeks had organized themselves into
independent city-states (poleis). The reasons for the start of such
communities are several, and there are also several opinions. The
ones that are agreed upon are:
- Due to severe poverty and depopulation as a result of the
Dark Age people had to cooperate to defend themselves
- Then came the idea that political power also should be
shared

THE ARCHAIC AGE (750-480 BC)

The term Archaic Age was coined because it was considered
archaic, or old-fashioned, in comparison with the Classical
Period that followed. However, Greeks during this period
produced startling innovations:
THE SELF-GOVERNING CITY-STATE

 Avoided strong central political authority, by sharing power

amongst a limited group (oligarchy) and sometimes among the
entire male population (a form of democracy).

 In a few areas, they also devised the league (ethnos)-a loose

alliance of geographically separate, small groups who agreed to
share laws and defense-as a new form of political organization.

- Imaginative types of art and architecture,

- And the poetry of Homer.

THE CITY-STATE
The city-state was generally a form of shared social and political organization
based on the concept of citizenship,
 Citizenship sharply divided free men and women from slaves and foreigners.
Guaranteed a shared identity, rights, and responsibilities to a city-state's free
men and women.
 Citizenship made free men, regardless of their social status or wealth,
political partners who shared equal privileges and duties under the rule of law.
 In some city-states, all free adult male citizens, including the poor, shared in
government by voting in a political assembly, where laws and policies of the
community were decided.
 Women also had a set of privileges and protections under the law, but
equality did not extend to them, as they could not vote, and their sexual
behavior and control of property were governed by stricter regulations than for
men.
 Breaking the Mediterranean tradition of royal rule, Greeks struggled to create
new kinds of political organization for their growing communities.
City-states typically consisted of:
 An urban center with houses and public buildings surrounded
by fields for farming and grazing
 Citizens also lived in the countryside in villages or on farms.
 The most prosperous city-states controlled fine harbors, which
brought revenues from trade and cultural interaction with
others.
 Each city-state had centrally located temples to worship the
particular gods protecting it, with the most important sanctuary
located on the highest spot (acropolis)
 The urban center also featured an open gathering place (agora)
for daily markets and conversation
 There was also and a defensive wall of stone and earth that
protected the city. When enemies invaded, residents in the
countryside took cover inside the walls of the city.
By 500 BC, Greeks had founded numerous colonies or city-states
in present-day southern France, Spain, southern Italy, North
Africa, and along the coast of the Black Sea. This was mainly due
to:
 As the economy improved in the Archaic Age, the population
grew rapidly, creating a shortage of good land and natural
resources.
 The search for new farmland and metal ore drove Greeks to
settle far from their homeland
 Generally only men joined colonizing expeditions, often
intermarrying with local peoples when they settled in new areas.
All three traditional divisions of Greeks founded new city-states,
distinguished by the different dialects of Greek they spoke: the
Dorians, the Ionians, and the Aeolians.
Mycenaean culture reached its zenith around 1180 B.C. This is a

society of wavers who built citadels on rock- cut hills enclosed by

cyclopean walls of rough stone. Only the royals resided in citadels

but the same was used as refuge by the people of city living below

in the times of war.

Mycenea was the focal center of Aegean civilization on the

Greek mainland is the late Bronze Age 1600 to 1100 BC.

Mycenaean Architecture
THE TREASURY OF ATRIUS
 This is the example of tholos buildings.
 Tholos is a circular structure with a domical shape capped by a
stone at the top.
 It was built after 1350 BC but before 1250 BC.
 The structure is comprised of a rectangular ‘dromos’ connecting the
tholos to the rock cut square burial chamber.
 Dromos is about 6m wide and 36 mts long
 The side walls rise to a maximum of 13.7 mts at the entrance to the
chamber.
Tholos is 48 ft in diameter and roughly 43 ft in height.
As a general principle, the height of tholos is to be equal to its
diameter.
 This is made up of 34 circular courses of masonry with external
corbelling.
The chamber is capped with a single block stone
Probably metal was used for decoration of the interior walls.
A rock-cut chamber 27 ft sq. and 15 ft high was the actual place of
burial.
The doorway is 13
ft high with the
entrance passage of
dromos is 5.4m.
Long & roofed by
huge limestone
lintels weighing
more than 100
tones.
On either side of
the door there are 2
green limestone
columns that are
tapering at the
bottom.
an ancient tholos tomb, well-
preserved...also known as a "bee-
hive" tomb

walking into the tomb; that lintel in

the doorway weighs approx. 120 tons
and is one piece of rock!
Treasury of Atreus Entrance c. 1300-1200 BCE
Inside the Atreus Tomb, cyclopean, roofed with corbelled vault built up with
regular courses or layers of ashlar, perfectly cut blocks of stones smoothly
moving inward and carefully calculated to meet in a single capstone, top
most stone that joins sides and meets in the center forming a peak.
 Photo, interior · Treasury
inside the tomb of Atreus · Mycenae,
Greece
Photo, exterior, with people
providing scale · Treasury of
Atreus · Mycenae, Greece
Entrance to nine Tholoi. Ancient tombs in the citadel at Mycenae
Lion Gate,
Mycenae
1300 BCE,
Mycenae
Three Methods of Spanning
passageways

a. Post and Lintel

b. Corbelled Arch

c. Round Arch, already

Popular in the Near East.
CITADEL OF TIRYNS
 This is built on a lone rocky hill and
massive fortification to the upper part of
the citadel was done in the later half of
1400 BC. with irregular style of stone
masonry called Cyclopean masonry
 By the end of 3rd century BC the area of
fortification was doubled
 The original gateway on the east side
was replaced by a H-shaped decorative
propylon in plan
The propylon lead to an outer court connecting the 2nd propylon called
‘Lesser Propylae’
This lead to the inner court in front of the chief megaron; the court is
open to sky and is surrounded by columns on S.W, and E

On the north there is access in to the

chief megaron through a triple
opening
The chief megaron or principal room
has a large circular hearth containing
an alter surrounded by a group of 4
columns
Adjoining the megaron there is
another open court leading to lesser
53 – Main gateway 07 – Chief Megaron
megaron
54 – inner gateway to the palace 16 – Court to
lesser Megaron
56 – greater propyleum 18 – Lesser
Megaron
02 – lesser propyleum
04 – court to chief Megaron
GLOSSARY:
oligarchy
 A political system governed by a few people
"one of his cardinal convictions was that Britain was not
run as a democracy but as an oligarchy"; "the big cities
were notoriously in the hands of the oligarchy of local
businessmen“
dialects
The usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific
group of people
"the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "it has
been said that a language is a dialect with an army and
navy"
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