How did the followers of Mycenae survive in the Greek world in the dark ages?

The Aegean Sea Chaos in the Late Bronze Age

In BC 13- 12, most of the palaces in Wang Hongwei, Alcoz were destroyed by internal rebels or usurpers. On the ocean of debauchery, pirate ships of various armed hooligans wander, like wolves pouncing on sheep, killing men and robbing women and children; The population of the Greek mainland has been seriously reduced, and various beasts have appeared in once populous places. The remaining survivors either emigrated overseas or lived in fear all the time. The splendid Mycenae civilization has fallen like a meteor, while some people are still immersed in the splendid afterimage. ......

If you acquiesce from the beginning that you will die from siege, palace fire, looting by people at sea, or famine, then you can fast-forward to the last section. Referring to the details of life history provided by Homer's epic and archaeology, this paper briefly discusses how the Mycenae adherents should survive in the dark ages of Greece (BC 10-8 century).

First of all, as an independent individual, it is wishful thinking to think that one can be alone in the dark ages of ancient Greece (BC 10- 8th century BC) or be independent in the dark ages of any era.

Warrior vase at the end of Mycenae civilization

The population of Greece (peninsula+island) was still above 1000000 around 65438 BC due to the threat of foreign enemies, the expedition campaign, the famine caused by climate and labor, and the wave of immigrants. By10 BC, the population of Greece, which had completely entered the dark age, dropped to less than 800000, with an average of10.

Therefore, the population density of the whole Greek region is very low, and individuals who fight alone cannot obtain enough tools for production and self-defense and cannot maintain the food supply chain stably. Although it is not excluded at any time that individuals with extremely vigorous vitality can survive independently in isolation, their survival is largely protected by geographical environment, and they can maintain a certain military advantage or occupy a relatively stable source of food resources in a short generation or generations, such individuals and small groups are very vulnerable to organized invaders.

Battle map of Mycenae warriors

If a Mycenae survivor chooses to live alone, lions, wild boar, bears and other wild animals wandering outside the settlement may eat him/her in advance. Even if a mature individual has the strength to fight wild animals and can survive by hunting or gathering, he will die because he cannot reproduce.

Practice mace and carry weapons with you.

The battles in the dark ages were equally fierce.

Therefore, if the adherents want to survive for a long time, they must consider other issues: first, contact with people. When meeting people, survivors need to pull out their weapons and fight at the first time.

Today, there is a saying in English that "Greeks meet Greeks, and then tug of war". In addition to the one-on-one confrontation between heroes in ancient times, according to Thucydides' records, Greek men had necessary weapons when traveling in ancient times. Besides preventing wild animals, they also have the purpose of preventing people. In that sparsely populated era, when two individuals met, the Greeks could not determine whether the other person was a human or a non-human creature (conceptually, the Greeks thought that human beings were collective animals, so the humanoid creatures wandering outside might be gods or evil spirits transformed into humans), and secondly, they could not determine enemies and friends, so the people they met in the wild were enemies by default. Until Thucydides' time, robbery and bullying of strangers were still common in some relatively isolated and backward areas of Greece. So Thucydides said that wearing weapons was the daily life of the Greeks in the dark ages; By the time he lived, the Greeks in the central and western parts of the Greek peninsula still kept the habit of wearing weapons when traveling.

Structure of Mycenae's Tomb

The sword and axe of Mycenae era are only the ancestral equipment of princes, and they are also symbols of their rights. Brave people can bear great psychological and spiritual pressure, steal Mycenae's tomb near the settlement, and find the equipment of the former hero from it. But this practice is very sad. The first level of personal psychology, if discovered by the same person, is the fate of execution or exile. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare some easily available spears or bows and arrows, and then engage in economic production activities and practice martial arts in hunting occasions.

Moreover, the value of force determines the status of adult men in tribal and military meetings: at the beginning of the Iliad, the lame man who stutters quickly is beaten by Odysseus with a stick and becomes the laughing stock of everyone. If you want to have dignity, the minimum force is also worth passing.

Tourists from the sea: beware of robbery by other small groups

If you want to join a small isomorphism, one should choose the right leaders with organizational ability. He/she can be the leader of a blood tribe, a priest, a combative hostess like Atalanta and former bartholomew, or the foreign son-in-law of your late monarch. His/her Force value and reputation can unite a group of elite fighters and protect resource producers and technicians (religious personnel/craftsmen/farmers/).

In addition, this isomorphic geographical location is very important. According to Thucydides' records, in his understanding of ancient times (Mycenae tacit understanding-dark age), many major cities in Greece-settlements are not coastal, they are far from the sea, which is a wise move. The painful memory of the maritime nation sweeping across the Mediterranean makes the immigrants who survived the robbery more wary of visitors from the sea; In addition, Mycenae itself was a sea predator. The title of the national hero Odysseus in Homer's epic is "Odysseus who robbed the castle". On his trip to Troy, he robbed a large number of islands and small city-states along the way. Its purpose is to accelerate the development of one's own small group.

So whether Odysseus' son went out to find his father or Odysseus drifted to a strange small country himself, the first thing the people who sacrificed on the coast asked them was:

Who are you, strangers? Where to set sail and break through the sea?

Sail for business, or travel at will, like pirates,

Wandering in the deep sea and risking your life to bring disaster to foreigners? "

Because in those days, looting from the sea was very common.

There are two kinds of robbers: one is a Greek belonging to Mycenae and the other is a foreigner. The former, like the adherents who took refuge, also had their own small * * * bodies, and such small groups and even the whole city-state were very common in classical times: for example, there were Dolopians who robbed for a living on the island of Skuros, who became pirates in the whole city because of the poor harvest of cultivated land, but were destroyed by Meng Ke, the general of the Athenian navy; In earlier times, after Ionian failed in the Battle of Ladd against Persian Uprising, some Ionian navies went into exile near tyrrhenian sea to become pirates, mainly attacking Phoenicians or Etruscans, but spared the Greeks.