ANCIENT SITE OF MYCENAE

Mycenae, is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. In the second millennium BC Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in recognition of Mycenae's leading position.

Although the citadel was built by the Greeks, the name is not thought to be Greek, but is rather one of the many pre-Greek place names inherited by the immigrant Hellenes. The pre-Greek language remains unknown, but there is no particular evidence to rule out a member of the Indo-European superfamily.

The acropolis or "high city" of Mycenae is believed to have been fortified as early as 1500 BC, as evidenced by grave-shafts dating from that period. In around 1350 BC the fortifications on the acropolis, and other surrounding hills, were rebuilt in a style known as "cyclopaean," because the blocks of stone used were so massive that they were thought in later ages to be the work of the one-eyed giants known as Cyclops. Within these walls, parts of which can still be seen, monumental palaces were built.

In later periods the Mycenaeans stopped burying their kings in grave shafts, and instead built enormous circular tombs called tholoi, often built into the sides of hills. The largest of these was discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Since it had long ago been looted of its contents, he did not realise it was a tomb and called it the Treasury of Atreus.

The best known feature of Mycenae is the Lion Gate, which was built in about 1250 BC. At this time Mycenae must have been a thriving city, whose political, military and economic power extended as far as Crete, Pylos in the western Peloponnese, and to Athens and Thebes.

By 1200 BC, however, the power of Mycenae was declining; during the 12th century, Mycenaean dominance collapsed. This is traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion of Greeks from the north, although some historians now doubt that such an invasion took place.

 

The memory of the power of Mycenae lingered in the minds of the Greeks through the subsequent centuries, commonly known as the Dark Age. The epic poems attributed by the later Greeks to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, preserve memories of the Myceanean period. Homer's poems make Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War.

During the early Classical period, Mycenae was once again inhabited, though it never regained its earlier importance. Mycenaeans fought at Thermopylae and Plataea during the Persian Wars. In 468 BC, however, troops from Argos captured Mycenae and expelled the inhabitants. In Hellenistic and Roman times, the ruins at Mycenae were a tourist attraction (just as they are now). A small town grew up to serve the tourist trade. By late Roman times, however, the site had been abandoned.

The first excavations at Mycenae were carried out by the Greek archaeologist Pittakis in 1841. He found and restored the Lion Gate. In 1874 Schliemann arrived at the site and undertook a complete excavation. Schliemann believed in the historical truth of the Homeric stories and interpreted the site accordingly. He found the ancient shaft graves with their royal skeletons and spectacular grave goods. When he found a gold death mask in one of the tombs, he exclaimed: "Behold the face of Agamemnon!"

Since Schliemann's day more scientific excavations have taken place at Mycenae, mainly by Greek archaeologists but also by the British School at Athens. The acropolis was excavated in 1902, and the surrounding hills have been methodically investigated by subsequent excavations.

Today Mycenae, one of the foundational sites of European civilization, is a popular tourist destination, a few hours' drive from Athens. The site has been well-preserved, and the massive ruins of the cyclopaean walls and the palaces on the acropolis still arouse the admiration of visitors, particularly when it is remembered that they were built a thousand years before the monuments of Classical Greece.


 

Study: King Midas' Feast Offered Golden Opportunity For Fungi

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2001) — WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The food buried with King Midas around 700 B.C., along with the king himself, may have fueled a feast for a generally benign type of fungus that led to extensive deterioration of the king's tomb, a new study shows.

Timothy Filley, assistant professor of biogeochemistry at Purdue University, led a study that combined stable nitrogen isotope analysis and microscopy of wood samples from the tomb to gather information on the king's diet and determine the nutrient sources for the fungi that destroyed much of the contents of the tomb and human remains.

The findings, published in Tuesday's (10/30) issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may explain why many artifacts within the tomb have deteriorated, despite the fact they were constructed of decay-resistant wood, Filley says.

"The structural and chemical signatures of the decay, which is heaviest where the body was laid and on the tabletops surrounding the coffin, indicates that the fungus was fueled by nitrogen from the king's body and food sources left in the tomb," Filley says.

"Our results account for the tenuous nature of archeological wood in the tomb and demonstrate the fine balance that must be maintained between the environment, nutrient supply and microbial community to permit preservation," he says.

The samples Filley studied came from Tumulus Midas Mound at Gordion, Turkey, thought to be the tomb of the Phrygian King Midas. Earlier analysis of the coffin, furniture and tomb structure by co-authors Robert Blanchette and Elizabeth Simpson had shown that the primary cause of degradation was a soft-rot fungus, which generally does not cause extensive damage to wood.

"Though environmental conditions within the tomb over the past 2,700 years were fairly dry, alkaline water seeped through the limestone overburden of the mound into the buried wooden tomb, creating ideal conditions for this distinct type of fungi to flourish," Filley says. "The fungus, without competition from other wood decomposing microbes, was able to feed off the nitrogen sources found in the tomb."

To determine the nutrient sources that fed the fungus, Filley analyzed stable nitrogen isotopes found in the wood and other artifacts from the tomb. Isotopes are forms of an element that contain slight variations in their neutron counts but have the same number of protons.

The test used by Filley and colleagues, which included Marilyn Fogel of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was designed to detect trace amounts of two forms of nitrogen: 14-N, which accounts for most of the nitrogen found in nature, and 15-N, a heavier form of nitrogen.

Filley says the extremely high levels of 15-N found in the wood of the coffin, as well as the floor boards around the coffin, suggest that the king's body served as a primary source of nitrogen for the wood-decomposing fungi. In addition, the findings indicate that the king with the golden touch also had a penchant for meat.

"While all animals contain small amounts of the heavier form of nitrogen, creatures higher on the food chain contain greater amounts," he says. "The high levels of 15-N found in the wood around the coffin suggest a diet rich in meat."

Food from the funerary meal — which consisted primarily of barbecued meats — also provided nourishment for the fungi, evidenced by the extensive deterioration of the tabletops on which food was placed, Filley says.

"How long the fungal community feasted upon the body of the king is a matter for speculation," he says. "But the extensive decay found throughout the huge cedar and pine timbers suggests the soft-rot fungus may have lingered in the tomb for centuries or possibly millennia."

The findings may suggest ways to arrest further deterioration, Filley says.

"Identifying and tracking the nutrient source of the microbes and relating it to the chemistry of wood decay may suggest ways to thwart fungal growth at existing historical sites," he says.

Currently, Filley and Blanchette are working on microbial decomposition processes in the Canadian Arctic where soft-rot fungi are quite active. As a pilot study, they traveled to the High Arctic this past summer to collect wood samples from the historic camp established by American explorer Adolphus Greely, who set out to lead a military expedition to the North Pole in 1882. The voyage ended in disaster when supply ships failed to reach his group.

Filley and Blanchette plan to continue their research in the Arctic next summer.

Collaborating with Filley were Blanchette of the University of Minnesota, Fogel, and Simpson of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York.

Adapted from materials provided by Purdue University.