Study Questions: William Biers THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF GREECE
Chapter 3: “The Mycenaeans”
Illustration; “Cup of Nestor” from
Mycenae Grave Circle A. See Iliad 11.656ff (Lombardo)
(from: Mycena. by H. Schliemann,
1880. p. 237)
Questions Due in Class: MONDAY, 31 AUGUST, 2009.
What did Linear
B Script look like?
How did Linear B
compare to Linear A (Cretan)?
Images From Mycenae (William McDonald PROGRESS
INTO THE PAST)
1. What does the word “Helladic” signify? Write an original
sentence using it properly.
2. If the Middle Helladic peoples were Greeks, as Biers states, when
did Greeks first come to Greece?
3. How were Mycenaean palaces different from Minoan palaces?
4. Why do most scholars doubt that a “Dorian Invasion” was
the cause of the destruction of the Mycenaean palace culture? What other
theories have been proposed? What does Biers conclude?
5. In broad terms, how is Mycenaean art different from Minoan?
6. What is a “megaron”? Where
would we find one, and what are its characteristics?
7. What is “megalithic” architecture? Which Mycenaean citadels
exhibit it?
8. What is “Cyclopean” construction? How did it get its name?
Which Mycenaean citadels exhibit it?
9. What is “corbel vaulting”? Where is it found?
10. What is a “relieving triangle”? Why was it invented, and
where is it found?
11. Why might the residents of Mycenae, Athens, and Tiryns have constructed
“secret springs” in the Late
Helladic III period?
12. What has been found in Mycenaean “cult areas” or “shrines”?
13. What are kylikes?
14. How did Mycenaeans show their skill as hydraulic engineers?
15. What is a “tholos”? What is
its use, and where would we find one?
16. What is a “shaft grave”?
How is it different from a “simple inhumation”?
17. What was found in the shaft graves besides bodies?
18. What is a “chamber tomb”? How
is it different from a tholos tomb?
19. What interpretations of the Lion Relief at Mycenae’s Lion Gate does
Biers mention?
20. What kinds of scenes were featured on Mycenaean tombstones?
21. How is Mycenaean painting different from Minoan? How is it similar?
22. How did Mycenaeans decorate their pottery? Why is the “Warrior
Vase” typically Mycenaean?
23. Where were small Mycenaean terra cotta figurines found, and what
did they represent?
24. What did the Mycenaeans make from ivory? What decorations did they
carve in it?
25. What do boars’ tusks have to do with Mycenaean armor?
26. Describe the “repoussé” technique that was used
to make the gold cups found in a tholos tomb at Vapheio.
27. How did the city of Mycenae
get its name?
28. What is notable about the gold mask which Heinrich Schliemann found
in Grave Circle A at Mycenae ?
29. What are “fibulae”? How were they used, and where did they
originate?
30. Who was Heinrich Schliemann, and what did he have to do with Mycenaean
archaeology? (62, 64, 75, 94)
31. What three written sources are important for information about the
Mycenaeans, and which do you think would be the most reliable for giving
us the ‘truth’ about them?
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