The video argues that the Mycenaean builders of “Cyclopean” fortifications formed one of antiquity’s earliest sea powers, combining trade with raiding in a way comparable to later European maritime empires. Mycenaean Greece did exert strong maritime and commercial influence during the Late Bronze Age, but calling it the first thalassocracy is not established: Minoan maritime power predates it, and the precise nature of Mycenaean seapower is debated. The Portuguese-in-Asia parallel and the idea that these powers deliberately mixed trade with piracy are the presenter’s interpretation.
Video argues Mycenaean “Cyclopean” builders were an early sea power
Key facts
- “Cyclopean” describes Mycenaean-era fortification masonry, not a separately identified people called the Cyclopean builders.
- Minoan maritime influence in the Middle Bronze Age preceded Mycenaean dominance in the Late Bronze Age, so the Mycenaeans cannot straightforwardly be called the first thalassocracy.
- Mycenaean kingdoms traded and exerted maritime influence across the eastern Mediterranean, but the scale and character of their seapower remain debated.
- A deliberate combination of trade and piracy, and the parallel with Portugal in Asia, are interpretive theories rather than established findings.
- Comparisons with Minoans, Phoenicians, Athens, Rome, and later European maritime powers are broadly reasonable.
Sources
Aegean Civilizations and the Collapse of Bronze Age - Webweb.ics.purdue.edu
Around 1200 BC, the construction of Cyclopean Walls marked the beginning of the end at Mycenae and Tiryns. They indicate that the inhabitants of Mycenaean ...
[PDF] THE “ENERGETICS” OF MYCENAEAN DEFENSE WORKSbatadora.trentu.ca
The label “Cyclopean” had traditionally been applied in a very inclusive manner ... Cyclopean masonry resembles that of the other early Mycenaean walls in ...
Fortuitous Parallels or Historical Connections? The Prehistoric Indus ...journals.sagepub.com
There have been contacts between them through maritime trade and ... Cyclopean walls of the citadels of Mycenae, Tiryns, Glas and Boetia.
Thalassocracy in the Bronze Age and Its Relationship to Sustainabilityresearchgate.net
... cyclopean walls” were. discovered in Mycenaean settlements and fortresses. and other military constructions have been found in. later land based Roman ...
Chapter 6 Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze Age Aegean and ...brill.com
Legend notwithstanding, though, there may have been technological and architectural exchange between ... Cyclopean Terrace Building at Iklaina in ...
ActaAth-4°, 32: The Minoan Thalassocracy (1984)ecsi.se
The myth and reality of the Minoan Thalassocracy · An early thalassocracy in the Middle Bronze Age? · Crete and the Mycenaean Mainland · Crete, the ...
23. Beyond the Versailles Effect: Mycenaean Greece and Minoan ...books.openedition.org
Petersburg as well. I applied the analogy to the relation of Minoan Crete to Mycenaean Greece at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, while suggesting direct ...
The idea of 'finders keepers' as a signature for two sea-empirescontinuum.fas.harvard.edu
Linguists generally describe as Mycenaean the Greek language of the Linear B tablets, even though Mycenae is not the only ancient site in ...
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