THEBES and the KADMEIA

#Thebes #mycenaeancitadels #Kadmeia

THEBES and the KADMEIA

THEBES did have Mycenaean walls and a rough outline can be seen if you look at aerial shots of the modern city but the Kadmeia has been reduced to a few walls and corners and odd remains of rooms or workshops that show up now and then when older buildings are torn down.

It may have been the leading power in Boeotia once but now its basically a country town.

It retains one Mycenaean feature the love of designers for adding walls to oval or triangular shaped sites often preexisting in the Helladic or even Neolithic

Here is an old map made by some one who has clearly based his map on descriptions of the Classical era city by Pausanias. We have no idea though if Thebes would had outer suburbs in the Mycenaean era?

The map also does not show that there were streams running along both the western and eastern sides of the Kadmeia or stress that Thebes was a junction for several ancient roads.

When Copais was a lake and wetland rather than a drained irrigated plain Thebes location would have allowed it to control roads and travel along the southern and eastern sides of the lake and access to the coast to the north east and block roads south east to Attica and the Isthmus.

Take a close look at this and then please also check Google Earth for recent aerial shots.

This cartographer felt the walls of Thebes covered a smaller area however at least he shows both streams and some roads and the Kadmeia area. 

Another location location location site. 

Hills and rivers and roads. 

Next time Minyan Orchomenos.

Kalogria - Mycenaean citadel

KALOGRIA is Myrsinus ?

#kalogria #myrsinus #mycenaeancitadels

Tucked away on the farmost NW corner of the Peloponesse is a lesser known site also called the Dymean Wall. Its near a village called Kalogria and has wetlands and lagoons on either side but these may be the result of silting over 3000 years.

Modern Myrsinos further south is a much later settlement with the same name.

Modern placenames - note the lagoons.

A visit to Google Earth will also show rivers ... well creeks running into those lagoons. The seawards exits have probably silted up.

Some parts of the wall facing inside were probably added or repaired and refaced later during the Byzantine empire or by the Franks and others. Note the lagoon on one side and that highly dersired Mycenaean feature a slope down one side for an access road .

and on the side facing out to sea that other highly desirable feature a high steep cliff with views over the surrounding area!

and yes cyclopean blocks !

I wonder if some of that silting might have been accelerated by buried seawalls or moles?

Moving to Methone

LETS  MOVE ON TO METHONE IN MESSENIA

#methone #methoni #pedasus #messenia #Mycenaeancitadels #pedasos

Methone also known as Modon appears to have been ancient Pedasos.

Today its a port for yachts and fishing.

However when ships were smaller it was a much more important port.

Note the location ! The far SW of Messenis where ships sailing down from Italy or Elis or Northern Greece or westwards from other parts of Greece would be rounding a cape.

A great place for a watch post?

Note this topographic map. It is not a major Mycenaean or Helladic settlement but there's also a COASTAL PLAIN with a river (not shown on this map) on one side.

Now a modern view

There's a lot of later construction which has probably obliterated or reused older walls but you can see its a great site for a watch post with deep water in one side but a shallow beach allowing ships to be drawn up onto the sand on the other side plus if you check Google Earth you'll see moles added later. Plus the classic beloved long pointy oval or triangular shape Mycenaean builders loved!

If there wasn't at least a watch post here ...

The "lower" polis may have been under the modern town. Not shown here!

ARGOS' Shield - Mycenaean Citadels

#mycenaeancitadels #Argos #aspis  #argolid

ARGOS' SHIELD

On the edge of both the ancient and modern city of ARGOS there were two hills.

One the higher has a Frankish castle and the other lower is now crowned by a Byzantine church and trees surrounding that but was once the Mycenaean citadel of the city.

(PLEASE CHECK GOOGLE EARTH)

Note the position of ARGOS in relation to other Mycenean Argolid settelements 

A clear line of sight across the plain to Tiryns Nauplia and Mycenae and roads to the west and south plus a view of the gulf and surrounding farmlands.

Aspis Hill 

The area within the dotted line is an estimate of the Classical Era walls 

Whatever the extent of the Mycenaean city was it seems that the Aspis had a clear view over it and the main roads into the city and onwards to other places.

A different speculation as to the layout of the ancient city. 

Bear in mind there could have been more than one agora or large open areas used for cattle or sheep yards or other purposes perhaps where the modern plaza in front of the town hall is? .

In the citadels shown so far the Mycenaeans show a preference for placing citadels on one side of a settlement the most vulnerable side or the side with the best view of the surrounding area and both ideally but not too high up and not right on the sea shore or a cliff's edge.

They also seemed to have wanted to watch over cities for signs of unrest or to control populations?

Next time more Argolid sites