Late Bronze Age Greek Pottery
Late Bronze Age Mycenean vase
In the Late Bronze Age, or the Mycenean period, around 1500 BC, Greek potters began to make pottery with designs on it. As in the earlier Dimini period the background is usually cream-colored and the design is painted on in black and red. Sometimes the designs are just geometric patterns. Other times they show a painting of a man fighting, or people driving a chariot, or imaginary wild animals inspired by the art of West Asia.
In the end of the Mycenean period, after the Greeks had conquered Crete, Mycenean potters began to imitate Minoan (Cretan) pottery styles. But where the Minoans liked to paint wildly flowing sea creatures, fish, seaweed, and octopuses, the Mycenean imitations of these are much stiffer and more symmetrical (and don't look so much like octopuses or seaweed!).
Here is a Minoan octopus vase.
And here is a Mycenean version of the
same thing (this is sometimes called the Palace style)
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To find out more about Late Bronze Age Greek pottery, check out these books from Amazon.com or your library:
Hands-On
Ancient People, Volume 2 : Art Activities about Minoans, Mycenaeans,
Trojans, Ancient Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans (2004) For kids ages
9-12.
The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction, by William R. Biers (1996) This is NOT a children's book, but Biers writes very clearly and has a lot of good pictures.
Greek Art and Archaeology (3rd Edition), by John G. Pedley (2002) This is also NOT a children's book, but it has a lot of good information and is pretty readable. Plus, the author is really an expert in this field.
The Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge World Archaeology) by Oliver Dickinson, Norman Yoffee (Editor) (1994)
Minoan and Mycenaean Art, by Reynold Higgins (2nd revised edition 1997) The standard book for college students.
This page was reviewed for accuracy by Ioannis Georganas in March 2005.
