Among the artifacts excavated from Mycenae's Grave Circle A in 1876-1877 by Heinrich Schliemann and Panayiotis Stamatakis and now on display at the National Museum of Athens is this haunting shroud of gold leaf.

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A lovely gold and blue glass child’s ring from a fourteenth century B.C. tomb near Thebes. Such exquisite craftsmanship and simple elegance would, with a bit of restoration, sell in any modern-day Manhattan or Beverly Hills fine jewelry boutique.

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Wo-ka

Chariot

The Mycenaeans were a chariot-using people, and chariots and chariot parts are lovingly inventoried in the Linear B records.  The Mycenaean chariot was small, swift, and typically only carried two passengers; the Iliad speaks of the Greek heroes and their charioteers.

Homer does not mention the chariot actively being used in warfare, ( Read more... )

This charming pair of women with a young child is an ivory piece discovered on the palace mount at Mycenae.  It’s been speculated that the women might be goddesses, perhaps Hera and Athena, the patron goddesses of Argolis, and the child squirming between them a divine child.  The clothing detail is so exquisite that experts use the piece as part of ( Read more... )

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Mycenaean children's artifacts are rare, but they have been found, as attested by these miniature feeding bottles.

In one excavation, a doll's head was found buried with a girl.  At first, the archaeologists assumed the head belonged to a cult figure placed there to protect the child in the grave, but then someone pointed out the little holes where ( Read more... )