Archaeological discovery of Mycenaean civilization
Descubrimiento arqueológico de la civilización micénica
- Date
- 1874-1876 · confidence high
- Place
- Mycenae, Argolis, Greece
- Credited to
- Heinrich Schliemann
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Heinrich Schliemann excavated the citadel of Mycenae and its shaft graves, bringing to light a Greek Bronze Age civilization predating classical Greece and lending a historical background to the Homeric poems.
Schliemann used Homer's poems as his guide; his excavation methods, careless by modern standards, damaged part of the site and his initial chronology was later revised.
What it led to
- founding of modern Aegean archaeology
- recognition of a Greek civilization predating classical Greece
- spurred the search for Mycenaean writing and language