[bright string music]
- Rick Steves: As dominant civilizations
inevitably decline,
their culture is absorbed by the next civilization to rise.
The Minoans were followed by the Mycenaeans,
a more warlike people on the Greek mainland.
They created powerful cities, impressive tombs,
and beautiful art.
Unlike the Minoans,
the Mycenaeans were a militaristic society
surrounded by enemies.
Their citadel was heavily fortified
and stood on an easy-to-defend hill,
flanked by steep ravines with views all the way to the sea.
Ideally situated for trade by both sea and land,
the citadel of Mycenae flourished.
Its mighty Lion Gate would have been awe inspiring,
a symbol of power.
They were crude architecturally, with only a corbeled arch,
much weaker than a round, Roman-style arch,
which wouldn't be adopted for a thousand years yet.
They could only span the width of a single flat stone.
But the Mycenaeans built with huge stones,
so huge that a thousand years later,
Greeks would look with wonder at these walls and declare,
"No man could build with such stones.
It must be the work of the Cyclops."
In fact, this came to be called Cyclopean architecture.
This passageway leads to an underground royal tomb.
The corbeled stonework was an engineering marvel.
Designed like a stone igloo,
this tomb was the grandest dome of its day.
In fact, this remarkable Mycenaean structure
would remain the biggest dome in the world
for over a thousand years.
This was a vast distance to span,
with no internal supports.
A wonder in its day.
These early Greeks had the technology
to melt tin and copper together to make bronze.
As people of the Bronze Age,
they had the best tools and weapons yet,
and they came with an artistic flair.
The ornamentation,
whether for the simple things of everyday life
or tools of war, was exquisite.
The Mycenaeans, whose gorgeous works of art
were lovingly crafted,
were the mysterious people the poet Homer wrote of
in his legends of Greece's earliest origins,
the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Their artifacts match his description of Mycenae
as a fabled city rich in gold.
The so-called Mask of Agamemnon was a death mask
placed on the face of a dead king in his coffin.
Objects from the royal tombs
include finely-decorated weapons and sheaths
and fine golden jewelry.
These delicate golden cups are another example
of impressive Mycenaean artistry.