DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0096
74
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. III.
can be dated, gives us a clue for the determination of the
date of the Mycenaean civilisation. Quite recently, he has
endeavoured to affix closer dates to the tombs of the
Mycenaean Acropolis. He considers that their contents
can be assigned almost with certainty to the period 1200-
1100 B.C. But the twelfth century was, if any trust at all
is to be placed in Greek tradition, the age of the culmina-
tion of the Achaean power, shortly before the irruption of
the poor and comparatively barbarous Dorians from the
north shattered the fabric of princely luxury, and paved
the way for the rise of the city commonwealths of the
historic age. It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the
value of this date, if it may be relied on. And it certainly
accords with most indications.
We can scarcely pass in silence the important evidence
as to the peoples of the Levant in prehistoric days which
is furnished by the wall-paintings at Medinet Abu in
Egypt.* We have there in contemporary records the
account of more than one battle waged by the Egyptians
in B.C. 1300-1200 against the peoples of Asia Minor and
the Islands, who are represented in the wall paintings as
attacking the country both by sea and land.f The names
given to these peoples by Egyptologists are so various, and
the identifications with particular races are so uncertain
that I am unwilling to repeat them. One can only
venture to speak of the wall-painting of the sea-fight at
Pelusium, in which the fleet of the invaders was destroyed
by Rameses III., because, however the Egyptian hierogly-
phics may be read, the paintings of Egyptian artists are
clear and trustworthy.
In this cartoon, the northern peoples who attack Egypt
are represented as sailing in ships rising at both ends with
* Rosellini, Monumenti Storichi, pi. 125 and foil,
t In an Appendix to Ilios (p. 745) Dr. Brugsch 'gives a detailed
account of these wars.
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. III.
can be dated, gives us a clue for the determination of the
date of the Mycenaean civilisation. Quite recently, he has
endeavoured to affix closer dates to the tombs of the
Mycenaean Acropolis. He considers that their contents
can be assigned almost with certainty to the period 1200-
1100 B.C. But the twelfth century was, if any trust at all
is to be placed in Greek tradition, the age of the culmina-
tion of the Achaean power, shortly before the irruption of
the poor and comparatively barbarous Dorians from the
north shattered the fabric of princely luxury, and paved
the way for the rise of the city commonwealths of the
historic age. It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the
value of this date, if it may be relied on. And it certainly
accords with most indications.
We can scarcely pass in silence the important evidence
as to the peoples of the Levant in prehistoric days which
is furnished by the wall-paintings at Medinet Abu in
Egypt.* We have there in contemporary records the
account of more than one battle waged by the Egyptians
in B.C. 1300-1200 against the peoples of Asia Minor and
the Islands, who are represented in the wall paintings as
attacking the country both by sea and land.f The names
given to these peoples by Egyptologists are so various, and
the identifications with particular races are so uncertain
that I am unwilling to repeat them. One can only
venture to speak of the wall-painting of the sea-fight at
Pelusium, in which the fleet of the invaders was destroyed
by Rameses III., because, however the Egyptian hierogly-
phics may be read, the paintings of Egyptian artists are
clear and trustworthy.
In this cartoon, the northern peoples who attack Egypt
are represented as sailing in ships rising at both ends with
* Rosellini, Monumenti Storichi, pi. 125 and foil,
t In an Appendix to Ilios (p. 745) Dr. Brugsch 'gives a detailed
account of these wars.