San Antonio College Library

"Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 BC? c. 1100 BC) was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important sites of this period. The last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, it is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer."--Wikipedia.

1000-500 BC. It is the height of the bronze age. Then for some mysterious reason, everything begins to go wrong. The great international bronze trading economy of Europe collapses. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with iron, but when this new metal is discovered it heralds an age of hill forts and brochs.

In Part 5 of the BBC series, "In Search of the Trojan War," Michael Woods searches for decisive documental evidence of the Trojan War in clay tablets from the Hittite Empire, housed in the State Museum in Berlin. Woods follows the journey of King Hattusili iii to the Greek kingdoms on the coast of Anatolia, as referenced in a letter from Hattusili to the Achaean King that may have been Agamemnon himself. Different levels at the Hisarlik Mound have...

"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No...

"The results of the excavation of an Early Bronze Age cemetery-including 37 tombs and an associated rectangular Minoan building-at Gournes in north-central Crete revealed strong relations with the Cyclades during the time of the Kampos Cultural Group, as exemplified by the distinctive style of pottery and other types of burial objects such as obsidian pieces and metal items. The discussion of burial practices at Gournes involves both the significance...

Archaeologist and historian Richard Miles looks at the winners, losers and survivors of the great Bronze Age collapse, a regional catastrophe that wiped out the hard-won achievements of civilization in the eastern Mediterranean.

Examines the mummies located in the museums of Ürümchi, in Chinese Turkestan, which are from a blond Caucasian group of people dating as much as 4,000 years ago.

Describes the Chinese Bronze Age, including the development of the Chinese state, writing, religion and architecture. "[T]he Great Bronze Age of China has come down to us mainly in the ritual vessels that symbolized power and prestige for China's first three dynasties: the Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou. Passed on to successive conquerors, used to honor the ancestors, and buried--along with other grave goods and sacrificial victims or in storage pits...