Achaean Civilization

Achaean Civilization

About 2000 B.C., the Achaeans, an Indo-European people like the Hitites and Aryans, invaded the Greek peninsula from the north. The Achaeans settles in one region for a few generations. They they pushed further south. As they conquered new territory, the intermarried with the people already living in the Greek peninsula. Eventually, the Achaeans extended their contests over the Peloponnesus, the southern half of Greece.

The Achaeans expanded their empire through warfare and trade. By about 1400 B.C., they controlled the Aegean and probably occupied Knossos. They built strong fortress cities on the mainland. Each city was ruled by a warrior king. Riches from trade and war loot allowed Achaean rulers to fill their palaces and tombs with gold treasures. Outside of each walled city, traders, merchants, artisans, and farmers lived in small villages that paid tribute to the king.

The Achaeans built on the achievements of Minoan civilization. Artisans at Mycenae reproduced Minoan designs on their jewelry, pottery, and tools. The Achaeans also learned writing from the Minoans. Achaean writing, called Linear B, consists of signs adapted from Minoan Linear A.

Ancient Civilization. Photo by Elena.

The Trojan War

Around 1250 B.C., the Achaeans banded together under the leadership of the king of Mycenae to attack Troy, a rival commercial power. Troy controlled trade routes between the Aegean and Black seas. After a long and devastating war, the Achaeans emerged the victors.

Scholars first learned  about the Trojan War from the Iliad the Odyssey, two of the best-known epic poems in the world. The poems were probably composed by Homer, a blind Greek poet, about 750 B.C., long after the fall of Troy. Homer based his poems on stories that had been passed on by earlier generations. Some scholars question whether Homer actually existed. Others have suggested that the Iliad and Odyssey actually existed. Others have suggested that the Iliad and Odyssey were the work of several poets. The ancient Greeks, however, believed that Homer was a real person.

According to the Iliad, the tragic struggle occurred because Paris, a Trojan prince, kidnapped Helen, wife of the king of Sparta. The Spartan king and his brother, King agamemnon of Mycenae, enlisted the  help of other rulers and eventually involved all of Greece in the effort to rescue Helen. After ten years of war, the Achaeans destroyed Troy and drove the Troyans into exile. In the Odyssey, Homer described the wandering and adventures of the Achaean warrior Odysseus after the fall of Troy.

Until the late 1800s, historians considered the Iliad and Odyssey to be fiction. The poems, which mixed stories of gods and goddesses with legends of human heroes, seemed to have no historical value. However, Heinrich Schliemann, an amateur archaeologist, believed otherwise. He thought Troy had really existed, and he set out to prove it.

Schliemann began to excavate a site in northwestern Asia Minor that matched Homer's description of Troy. Digging revealed the ruins of an ancient city, but Schliemann soon discovered that at least nine cities had been built at different times on the time spot. Finally, the charred wood and destruction found on one level suggested that this was the city actually destroyed by the Achaeans. Later, Schliemann excavated the site of Mycenae, which was also described by Homer.

In ancient times, as today, people often rebuilt a city that had been destroyed by war or natural disaster. The new city would be built on the ruins of the old city. Picture by Elena.