W.M.Ramsey stated that the end of the Phrygian kingdom is a fixed date, 675 BC. Therefore, on the basis of the striking similarity of the Phrygian and Mycenaean lion gate both must belong to the 9th and 8th century BC. In these two examples the lions rear up on their hind legs and face each other with the pillar of a temple between them and their front paws resting on the base of the pillar. The lion gate of the Hittite rock capital varies in that the lions are not rearing up and do not face each other but face the onlooker. Though different in design, the idea of lions guarding a city gate do these three examples have in common.
Sir Flinders Petrie objected and stated that he had found a single wooden lion among late 18th dynasty remains in that same stance proving that there was another precedent example of such a design from the 14th century according to the conventional time scheme.
Here is a case where evidence from Anatolia pointed to the 8th century BC, but Egyptian scholars demanded to disregard this in favor of the time scale of Egypt.
Ramsey, `A Study of Phrygian Art', Journal of Hellenic Studies IX (1888), p. 369.
Also note the Phrygian Lion Rock Monument at Arslan Kaya where two lions feature the same upraised pose surrounding the figure of the goddess `Matar'. [`Archaeology', Jul/Aug. 2001, p. 33]
Sir F.W.M.Petrie, `Notes on the Antiquities of Mykenae', Journal of Hellenic Studies XII (1891), pp. 202-203. See the lion gate of Mycenae in BAR, Nov/Dec 2006, p. 33.
N.K.Sanders, `The Sea Peoples', Plate 32-4, p. 64.
N. Papahatzis, `Mycenae-Epidaurus, Tiryns-Nauplion', pp. 62-68.
Elizabeth Simpson, `Celebrating Midas', Archaeology, Jul/Aug 2001, p. 26-33; presenting numerous images and drawings of the 7th century BC treasures found in the undisturbed tomb of a king inside the `Midas Mound', Phrygia. The star object is an exquisite, inlaid table made of walnut, boxwood and juniper and featured diamonds, triangles, hooks, rosettes and mazes.
As we pointed out on the basis of other evidence the 18th Dynasty ended in the 8th century and that the capital of the Hittites is that of the Chaldeans of the 7th century and therefore all of these examples are in close proximity time wise and there is no gap reaching back into the 14th century BC. The Phrygian example therefore is of great help in dating all of these examples. What we have here is that these lions represent a check on a false Egyptian time reckoning.
II) The Walls of Ancient Troy Compared to Gordion, Capital of Phrygia
Troy VI belongs into the time of the mid-18th Dynasty according to in situ evidence. It was so dated by W. Dörpfeld. Troy VI also showed evidence of destruction by earthquake. C. Blegen identified Troy VIIa as that of Homer's Illiad since he did not look for earthquake damage apparently being unaware that Homer states that an earthquake took place at the time of the Illiad.
Blegen wrote: "In their batter as well as their masonry construction the walls of the Phrygian Gate at Gordion find their closest parallel in the wall of the 6th city at Troy." But a gulf of centuries separates these two locations according to conventional thinking.
In actuality we know already that all of these events and cross checks in time belong into a narrow time frame and that only the Egyptian evidence has been misdated by several centuries. Later we shall present evidence that the siege of Troy took place in the 8th century, namely 788 BC. [For a B&W image of the walls of Troy see `Wycliffe's Historical Geography', Chicago, 1967, p. 321]
III) Pottery schemes
Mycenaean ware comes to an end in 1100 BC, next came a more primitive Geometric ware. After that in the 7th century came new oriental motifs of art -griffins, sphinxes - into vogue.
W. Dörpfeld spent a life time excavating in Greece. He knew the Geometric and Mycenaean ware was contemporaneous and both belonged into the time before 1000 BC in order to bring them in line with Egyptian evidence.
Furtwängler and Curtius excavating the temple of Hera [Heraion] at Olympia, Greece, dated the bronzes and pottery found there beneath the temple into the 12th or 13th century BC despite some occasional find indicating a much younger age. Later Furtwängler insisted that these and subsequent finds of geometric ware point to the 9th and 8th centuries.
These disputes between Dörpfeld and Furtwängler were waged with previously unheard of verbal abuses between these two esteemed scholars which was later carried on even by their pupils. In the end and after the deaths of both the pupils of Dörpfeld went over to the camp of Furtwängler.
By that time the new generation of archaeologists was now "properly" trained and could tell at a glance from which period sherds of pottery came from. They "knew" that the Mycenaean age came to a close in 1100 BC and that Geometric Ware belongs into the 9th and 8th centuries. For a long time now these issues have not been under additional dispute. But that doesn't mean that archaeological, factual evidence ceased to perplex excavators. According to E.A.Gardner, "fragments of geometrical vases ... have been found on various sites in Greece together with late examples of Mycenaean pottery." So, when did the Mycenaean age end, in the 11th or 7th century?
W.Dörpfeld, `Homers Odyssee, die Wiederherstellung des ursprünglichen Epos', (Munich, 1925), I, pp.340ff.
A. Furtwängler, `Das Alter des Heraion und das Alter des Heilgtums von Olympia', Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Philologischen Klasse der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1906, reprinted in `Kleine Schriften', Munich, 1912.
E. Curtius and F. Adler, `Olympia, die Ergebnisse der von dem deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabungen', [10 volumes] Berlin, 1890-1897.
IV) The Scandal of the village of Enkomi on Cyprus, not far from Famagusta - 1896
"From first to last there was no question that this whole burying-ground belonged to what is called the Mycenaean Age, the characteristics of which are already abundantly known from the tombs of Mycenae ... and many other places in the Greek islands and in Egypt."
However, the pottery, porcelain, gems, glass, ivory, bronze, and gold found in the tombs all presented one and the same difficulty. From the Egyptiological point of view they belonged into the time of Amenhotep III and Akhnaton, supposedly of the 15th and 14th centuries. From the Assyrian, Phoenician, and Greek point of view the same objects belong to the period of the ninth to the 8th centuries. The excavator in 1896 was A.S. Murray of the British Museum.
The now famous white dotted lines of the vases of Enkomi are also found on examples from Caere in Etruria signed by the Greek potter Aristothenes, and which cannot be older than the 7th century BC. This same pattern of white dotted lines is again seen on a pinax (vase) from Cameiros on the island of Rhodes which is now in the British Museum. It shows the combat of Menelaos and Hector over the body of Euphorbos, with their names inscribed. This vase is also assigned to the 7th century. Is it possible that the Mycenae and Enkomi vases are seven centuries older?
Analyzing the workmanship and design of the sphinxes or griffins with human forelegs on the vase, the archaeologist stressed "its relationship, on the one hand, to the fragmentary vase of Tel El Amarna" [Petrie, `Tell El-Amarna,' Plate 27], and a fragment of fresco from Tiryns near Korinth, Greece, and on the other hand, to the pattern on a terracotta sarcophagus from Clazomenae in Ionia, which is now in Berlin, a work of the early 6th century. The connection between the Mycenaean and Aristonothos vases caused "a remarkable divergence of opinion, even among those who defended systematically the high antiquity of Mycenaean art."
The problem of pottery which belongs to two different ages is repeated in ivory.
Layard found the ivories of the Enkomi tombs which are very similar to those of the palace of Nimrod, the ancient capital of Assyria. There is an example of a carving of a man slaying a griffin, "... the man being remarkable for the helmet with chin strap which he wears. It is a subject which appears frequently on the metal bowls of the Phoenicians, and is found in two instances among the ivories discovered by Layard in the palace of Nimrod. The date of the palace is given as 850-700 BC."
"Among the Nimrod ivories is also a fragmentary relief of a chariot in pursuit of a lion to the left, with a dog running alongside the horses as at Enkomi, the harness of the horses is being also similar."
Comparing these two objects, I.J. Winter wrote:
"A hunting scene depicted on a rectangular panel from an ivory gaming board of `Crypto-Mycenaean' style found at Enkomi, with its blanketed horses and chariot with six spoked wheels, so closely resembles a similar hunting scene on one of the pyxides from Nimrod that only the details such as the hairdo of one of the chariot followers or the flying gallop of the animals mark the Enkomi piece as a work of the 2nd millenium BC, separated by some four centuries from the Nimrod pyxis."
And so it goes on with gold, silver, porcelain, bronzes, gems and glass objects.
Murray, `Excavations at Enkomi', in A.S. Murray, A.H. Smith, H.B. Walters, `Excavations in Cyprus', London: British Museum, 1900.
Observation: The evidence here presented in a shortened form comes from a diversity of archaeological discoveries: city gates, masonry and objects of art. We could add to this evidence from language studies, Homeric poetry and so on. It all points to the same problem. Because of reliance on Egyptian chronology some five centuries had to be introduced into Greek history which never happened and which only in modern text books separate the Mycenaean age from the 7th century BC.
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