You've Gotta Love Those Mycenaeans! Quiz

Answer: Achaeans

Achaeans is more the group name used for the tribe of Indo-Europeans who settled in Greece about 2,000 B.C. In time the tribes established their own strongholds with Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns being the most important. By 1450 B.C. the most powerful group of ancient Greeks was the Mycenaeans, and that term is generally used interchangeably with Achaeans.

Answer: Aegean

The ancient Minoans are credited with creating the first European civilization on the island of Crete in the Aegean, but after their demise, the Mycenaeans became the most powerful group in the Aegean world. In fact, there are two common theories as to what brought the end of the Minoans civilization: another earthquake or a Mycenaean invasion? The latter seems to be the best guess.

Many of the Minoan cities were burned to the ground. An ancient earthquake would not have caused such a fire.

Answer: True

Of course they were warlike! They were the ancestors of the Greeks, weren't they? Didn't the Mycenaeans conquer the Trojans and burn their city to the ground? Unlike the peaceful Minoans, Mycenaean culture was transmitted by war and conquest. Early Mycenaean nobles were typically buried in shaft graves; later they were buried in domed, circular structures called tholoi with objects including their weapons, armor, and helmets.

Answer: Lion

The ancient Mycenaeans built fortified strongholds with such massive walls, that the later Greeks believed the stones were put into place by the Cyclops, a mythical race of giants. Another group of Indo-Europeans, the Hittites, also built a lion gate that led into their capital, Hattusas.

Answer: False

The ancient Greeks - even the oldest ones - were too independent to tolerate rule by an absolute monarch. The Mycenaeans had kings, but before making decisions, the king was expected to consult his assembly of nobles and listen to their advice.

Answer: Homer

Heinrich Schliemann found Troy using the landmarks Homer described in his "Iliad". Although Homer lived hundreds of years later, the stories he retold had been told around campfires and passed down by word of mouth in verse for many generations. Homer depicts Mycenaean culture in his stories: the importance of heroism, keeping family honor, and great deeds, and of fulfilling obligations to the gods.

Answer: Agamemnon

The mask, found in a Mycenaean grave circle, was believed (hoped!) at the time of discovery to be the death mask of the famous king, Agamemnon. It was, however, determined to be older than the time Agamemnon would have lived. Currently on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the mask was hammered from a sheet of gold.

Answer: Linear B

Linear B is believed to have been related to the Linear A written language of the Minoans on Crete. Containing about two hundred symbols, Linear B is the only one of the "Linear" languages (Linear C was used on the island of Cyprus) to be deciphered.

The destruction of the Mycenaean culture was so thorough that it included the disuse of the written language. Greece was plunged into a dark Age, and later people had to try again at creating a written language.

Answer: Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann immigrated to the United States in 1851, and made a fortune in California. As a child his mother read stories from the "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Now he had the money to search for Troy. Using the stories as a guidebook, he found what today is believed to be the city from the Trojan War.

After completing the dig in Troy, he turned his attention to the ancient Greek stronghold at Mycenae. In addition, he married a Greek women, Sophie, who worked as his assistant, and gave birth to two children, Agamemnon and Andromache.

Answer: Dorians

The invasion of the Dorians was so destructive and thorough, that it plunged Greece into a dark age that lasted four hundred years. Much of the culture created by the Mycenaeans, such as written language, was destroyed. Some of the Mycenaeans were enslaved; some fled to the very small village of Athens or to Ionia, a region on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea.

By the 9th century B.C. a brilliant civilization that we know today as the ancient Greeks began to thrive. Note: The boar's tusk helmet, on display at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens,was worn by Mycenaeans into battle.

The tusks were sewn on a leather base.