DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0394
THE PROBLEM OF THE MYCENAEAN RACE 341
tury. While Beloch's hypothesis is not beset with this
chronological difficulty, it is otherwise quite untenable.
For, as the excavations at Tiryns and Mycenae abun-
dantly prove, the Mycenaean civilization perished in a great
catastrophe. The palaces of both were destroyed by fire
after being so thoroughly pillaged that scarcely a single bit
of metal was left in the ruins. Further, they were never
rebuilt; and the sumptuous halls of Mycenae were suc-
ceeded by the shabby hovels of which we have spoken.
The larger domes at Mycenae, whose sites were known,
were likewise plundered — in all probability by the same
hands that fired the palace. This is evidenced by the pot-
tery found in the hovels and before the doorways of two
of the beehive tombs. A similar catastrophe appears to
have cut short the career of this civilization in the other
centres where it had flourished.
How are we to account for this sudden and final over-
throw otherwise than by assuming a great historic crisis,
which left these mighty cities with their magnificent palaces
only heaps of smoking ruins ? And what other crisis can
this have been than the irruption of the Dorians ? And
their descent into the Peloponnese is traditionally dated at
the very time which other considerations have led us to fix
as the lower limit of the Mycenaean age. Had that migra-
tion never been recorded by the ancients nor attested by
the state of the Peloponnese in historic times, we should
still be led to infer it from the facts now put in evidence
by the archaeologist's spade.
Setting aside the Dorian claim as preposterous, we have
nothing to do but follow the epic tradition. The
H. . , . Homer's
omeric poems consistently assume that* prior to ethnic
T\ • f -ii-ii names
any Dorian occupation Argons was inhabited by
other peoples, and notably by Achaeans whose position is
tury. While Beloch's hypothesis is not beset with this
chronological difficulty, it is otherwise quite untenable.
For, as the excavations at Tiryns and Mycenae abun-
dantly prove, the Mycenaean civilization perished in a great
catastrophe. The palaces of both were destroyed by fire
after being so thoroughly pillaged that scarcely a single bit
of metal was left in the ruins. Further, they were never
rebuilt; and the sumptuous halls of Mycenae were suc-
ceeded by the shabby hovels of which we have spoken.
The larger domes at Mycenae, whose sites were known,
were likewise plundered — in all probability by the same
hands that fired the palace. This is evidenced by the pot-
tery found in the hovels and before the doorways of two
of the beehive tombs. A similar catastrophe appears to
have cut short the career of this civilization in the other
centres where it had flourished.
How are we to account for this sudden and final over-
throw otherwise than by assuming a great historic crisis,
which left these mighty cities with their magnificent palaces
only heaps of smoking ruins ? And what other crisis can
this have been than the irruption of the Dorians ? And
their descent into the Peloponnese is traditionally dated at
the very time which other considerations have led us to fix
as the lower limit of the Mycenaean age. Had that migra-
tion never been recorded by the ancients nor attested by
the state of the Peloponnese in historic times, we should
still be led to infer it from the facts now put in evidence
by the archaeologist's spade.
Setting aside the Dorian claim as preposterous, we have
nothing to do but follow the epic tradition. The
H. . , . Homer's
omeric poems consistently assume that* prior to ethnic
T\ • f -ii-ii names
any Dorian occupation Argons was inhabited by
other peoples, and notably by Achaeans whose position is