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Location: Peloponnese, Greece.

Grid Reference: 37 39' N, 22 52' E.

Oracle Centres.
Earth Navels.
Eleusian Mysteries.
Antikythera Device.
Phaistos Disc.
Greek Automata.

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Index of Ancient Sites.

Mycenae: (Capital of the Mycenaean Empire).

The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called
Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae.
In the second millennium BC Mycenae was one of the major centres of
Greek civilization and a military stronghold which would have dominated
much of southern Greece. The Mycenaean civilization filled the vacuum of
the Minoans following the Santorini disaster in the 16th cent BC. There are
several indications that they originated from the middle east (Phrygia).
The fact that both Greek and Roman travelers used to measure 1 degree of
latitude at 600 Greek Stadia or 75 Roman miles, a measure which is only
correct at the latitude of Mycenae, adds to the suggestion that their
system of calculation traces back to their Mycenaean ancestors.
(Click here for map of Citadel)

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Ancient Wisdom Jewelry

Article: May. 2013: 'Mysterious Mayans Were European According to DNA'

The Minoans, the builders of Europe's first advanced civilization, really were European, new research suggests.
The conclusion, published today (May 14) in the journal Nature Communications, was drawn by comparing DNA
from 4,000-year-old Minoan skeletons with genetic material from people living throughout Europe and Africa in
the past and today.
(Link to Full Article)

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Article: Oct. 2009: 'The Worlds Oldest Submerged Town' Archaeologists surveying the worlds oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final
Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some
5,000 years ago at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.
(Link to Full Article)

Mycenaea: The Mycenaean's

Greek legend always maintains that the Pelopidae of Mycenae came from Phyrgia, which is corroborated by
archaeology. The objects found in excavations, and the sculptured ornament on the doorways of the
"Treasuries" and over the Lion Gate, all point to foreign influence and particularly to Asia Minor. The same type
of the two lions and the column has been recently found over the entrance to a colossal sepulchre in the rocks
near the south-western corner of the Sangarius valley in Phyrgia. Legend and remains alike show that a rich
and powerful dynasty of foreign origin ruled at Mycenae; the only early remains in the Greek world that equal
them in interest are the ruins of ancient Troy. It is precisely these two cities which are described in the
Homeric poems as the two great cities of the Greek world.
The city is surrounded by two walls, built of cyclopean blocks on the lower and older courses.
The Lion-Gate.
The primary entrance to the city is flanked on either side by the city
wall. Over the entrance is placed a triangular slab of stone into
which the now famous carved lions face one another, separated by
an upright column.
(Note the similarity in design to the entrance at the 'Treasury of Atreus')
The art of this relief shows no resemblance to archaic Greek art; in is foreign in character, the work of immigrant race,
which brought with it a well-developed civilization.
The same art can be seen in Mesopotamian art of the same period, as seen in this Phrygian Lion Gate, below.

The classic symbol of two flanking lions has middle eastern roots
tracing back to Sumeria, where the hero/king Gilgamesh was always
portrayed in such a way. Flanking lions are also found at the gates of
Important Middle eastern cities such as Boghazkoy and Alaja Hyk .

Mycenaean snake-goddess, following the tradition of the Minoan (Cretan) snake-goddess.

'Cyclopean' Walls.
The renowned cyclopean walls of Tiryns and Mycenae are attributed to the Mycenaeans, also called the Achaeans or
Pelasgians, and are generally assigned to the 14th and 13th centuries BCE. Greek tradition asserts that they were built
by the Cyclopes, mythical one-eyed giants.

A superb example at Paleo Kastro-Agios Adrianos.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries some scholars ascribed many of these walls and buildings to the ancient
Pelasgians, but their history was so hard to unravel most modern works make almost no reference to them. At most,
modern textbooks consider them to be the earliest inhabitants of Greece before the invasion of the Mycenaeans. In fact
it appears that the term Mycenaeans was invented to replace these hard to trace Pelasgians - as noted by Professor
William Ridgeway in The Early Age of Greece.

(Other examples of 'cyclopean' masonry)

Tholoi: Omphalos-shaped chambers.

Nine significant Tholoi have been discovered in ancient Mycenae, with the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' being the most
impressive. Tholoi are characterised by their internal domed chamber, normally referred to as 'Beehive-shaped'.
Numerous other 'Tholoi' are recorded around the Mediterranean and the Middle-east, where they were commonly used for
burial, but in some cases they were used for other purposes such as homes (Cyprus), ritual (Syria), and even fortification
(Spain, Sardinia). The ultimate origin of this architectural technique can be seen in both the Neolithic cultures of Tell Halaf
(Syria and Turkey), with echoes in the Neolithic Western-Atlantic passage-mounds.

The 'Treasury' of Atreus.

No cement was used with the masonry. The blocks were cut to fit together perfectly, with the largest (the
lintel), weighing around 120 tons.
(Link to the Top-50 Megaliths)
According to Wilhelm Dorpfeld it is true that:
'...all these tombs, great as well as small, were once closed; the only question is when it was done. As both the
great tholoi at Mycenae were provided with rich faades and had their wooden doors overlaid with metals, it
appears to me more probable that they were not forthwith blocked up. . . . it is the fact that the walls, built to block
up the two great tholoi, are not of the same material as the tombs themselves'. -- Dorpfeld's Introduction to The
Mycenaean Age -- A Study of the Monuments and Culture of Prehomeric Greece by Chrestos Tsountas and J.
Irving Manatt (1897), pp. xxvi-xxvii
This means that the skeletons found in some tholoi could date from a later period, and proof that skeletons
found inside the tholoi do not belong to the period of the original builders is found in the observation that:
As a rule, the body was simply laid on the floor of the tholos or the chamber, not covered with earth nor placed in
a coffin of wood or stone, of which not a trace has yet been found. . . . For repeated observations prove that, as
often as the area of the chamber or the tholos became crowded with corpses, the earlier remains were gathered
in heaps in the corners, or buried in shallow trenches, so as to make room for the new interments. -- Ibid., pp.
136-7

The inside space creates a negative-space 'Omphalos'.

Pennick (28), notes that the Roman author Varro compared the omphalos shape with a treasury, the name commonly
applied to dome-shaped graves (such as the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, so described by Pausanias). The suggestion
that the Treasury of Atreus may be an omphalos of negative space, is of interest as we are told that the site was
Treasury was built on the site of the old oracle of the earth goddess herself, with legends stating that Python, the serpent
spirit of the earth, lays buried there having been killed by Apollo the sun god.
(More about Omphalos)

The Tragedy of Atreis: A Mycenaean Myth..

Following the death of the last member of the Perseid dynasty, the Mycenaean's went to the oracle at Delphi, who told them to
summon Atreus and Theyestes, the two sons of Pelops, in order to choose on of them as a king. Atreus won their favour and
ascended the throne of Mycenae, however, he quarrelled with his brother, who plotted against him with the help of Atreus' wife,
Aerope, who was also his lover. To avenge himself, Atreus invited him to dinner where he offered Thyestes the flesh of his
sons, thus bringing upon himself a curse blighting his destiny and that of all the offspring.

A Mycenaean Connection with Stonehenge?

For a while it was debated as to whether or not there may have been a connection between the builders of Stonehenge
and the Mycenaean's. Current dating suggests that while the Mycenaean civilisation existed from around 1,600 BC 1,100 BC, the Stonehenge sarsen's were erected around 600 years earlier and the debate has now been been laid to
rest.
The curved Mycenaean lintels have been compared to the Stonehenge lintels, which have no precedent in
British prehistoric architecture.

The Mycenaean tombs or Tholos all had curved lintels over the entrances.
In 1953, a carving of what appears to be a Mycenaean dagger (below, left), was found carved onto a stone at Stonehenge.

This discovery raised the suggestion that the stones were raised by Mycenaean architects as the nearest artefacts with
any similarity to this dagger are those found in Mycenae.
However, the date for the erection of the bluestones at Stonehenge has since been revised, as pointed out
in the book Hengeworld by Mike Pitts, (0-09-927875-8), on page 341 he states that the "large sarsen
structures" of Stonehenge have been dated with 95% confidence to between 2461 & 2205 bce., at the
inside more than 600 years earlier .. It also seems to place these carvings well after the bluestone circle &
oval, said to date from between 2267 & 1983 bce. (page 342).
At best then, the dagger might represent a Mycenaean visit to Stonehenge, but no more.
(More about Stonehenge)

Mycenaean daggers.

'It would take a very skilful man to-day, a man who was both goldsmith and artist, to make such daggers as men found at
Mycenae. First the blade was made. Then the artist took a separate sheet of bronze for his design. This sheet he enamelled,
and on it he inlaid his design. On one of these daggers we see five hunters fighting three lions. Two of the lions are running
away. One lion is pouncing upon a hunter, but his friends are coming to help him. If you could turn this dagger over, you would
see a lion chasing five gazelles. The artist used pure gold for the bodies of the hunters and the lions; he used electron, an alloy
of gold and silver, for the hunters' shields and their trousers; and he made the men's hair, the lions' manes, and the rims of the
shields, of some black substance. When the picture was finished on the plate, he set the plate into the blade, and riveted on
the handle. On the smaller dagger we see three lions running'. (Jaennie Hall)
(Passage Mounds)
(Other Greek locations)

References:
1). http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:czCzAbRH7P0J:www.geo.lt/Seminaras_2008/Pages 103-148.PDF+delphi+prehistoric&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=uk
2). Ledworth, M and Klauss Heinmann. 2007. The Orb Project. Beyond Worlds Publishing. pp 158-163.

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