Mycenaean Archaeology Contradicts Homeric Depictions of Iron Age Practices. In Homer, chariots are used as taxis to ferry warriors to battle, an Iron Age practice Homer depicts heroes being cremated with ashes collected in urns, a standard Iron Age burial practice Mycenaean Greeks primarily buried their dead in tombs or shaft graves, not cremation
Fascinating how Homer's world doesn't quite match Mycenaean archaeology. The epics describe Iron Age cremation burials, but Mycenaeans actually inhumed their dead. Kings look like modest Iron Age aristocrats rather than powerful wanax rulers, and the heroic world is illiterate despite Linear B being in active use. Scholars see only scattered Bronze Age relics in an otherwise post-Bronze Age tapestry.
Key Facts
- In Homer, chariots are used as taxis to ferry warriors to battle, an Iron Age practice
- Homer depicts heroes being cremated with ashes collected in urns, a standard Iron Age burial practice
- Mycenaean Greeks primarily buried their dead in tombs or shaft graves, not cremation
- Homer depicts modest kings resembling Iron Age aristocratic society, unlike the wanax rulers of the highly centralized Mycenaean palace economy
- The Homeric epics portray an illiterate heroic world, while Mycenaean Greeks used Linear B writing
- Religious practices in Homer align more with later Greek norms than with the Linear B tablets of the Mycenaean world
- Scholars generally see the epics as post-Bronze Age in their depictions, with only isolated relics from earlier times
Source: Ancient Historian Reviews Nolan's ODYSSEY by World of Antiquity