Solving Homer’s Riddle: The Larissas of Hippothoos and the Pelasgians (original) (raw)
TAΛANTA LI, the proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society, 2019
This paper – a quasi Part II of Giannakos 2016 – examines the available – written and material – evidence of the 15th-14th centuries BC unearthed in the areas of the Aegean, Cyprus, Egypt, Levant, Asia Minor in relation to the technological level of Minoans and Mycenaeans at the same period in order to infer a possible dating of Trojan War. The findings are also related to the textual evidence of Linear B tablets from Greece which, combined with the Hittite and Egyptian records, could lead us to define the level of Mycenaean power and influence abroad. Two periods of the Mycenaean Polities are considered: a) the period of prosperity (early LH )-1350/1320 BC, with its apogee during 1450 to 1350 BC and their ability to perform overseas military raids, and b) the period of decline after ca. 1350/1320 BC until 1200 BC, when impoverishment and degradation of power are observed. A subtractive approach is used to determine a minimum ‘core of historical events’ in the classical sources. References about Mycenaeans in Hittite and Egyptian records are critically evaluated. The archaeological evidence from Mycenaean Palaces, Levant and Cyprus [Late-Cypriot IIA-IIB (in its abbreviated form LCIIA-LCIIB)] are also examined to verify the working hypothesis of the author for an earlier dating of Trojan War during the period of prosperity of the Mycenaean centers. In the last chapter we reconsider the traditional dating of Troy’s fall.