Tiryns Fresco, Bull Jumping
Ancient Greek Mythology, Religion, Art
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By comparing graves of various ages, it is possible to surmise that Mycenae became very wealthy very quickly. Why the sudden change. Mycenae is not a port nor did it control significant resources, mineral or agricultural. It did, however, stand astride a major trade route which suggests that the increasing affluence of Mycenae may have been part of a more general increase in wealth due to contact with Minoan culture from Crete.
The close relationship between Mycenaean and Minoan culture is both undeniable and amazing. Archaeological investigations often have difficulty distinguishing which artifacts were manufactured on Crete and which were manufactured instead in Mycenaean sites on the mainland.
The above fresco is all that remains of a much larger work from Tiryns (near Argos and south of Mycenae). Inhabited since at least the 3rd millennium BCE it was at its height 1600 to 1100 BCE. You can just make out what appears to be a young man jumping a bull, a sort of image that one would expect to find in Crete.
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