Mycenaeans Wore Amber to Indicate Social Status in Bronze Age Greece

Amber jewelry was a awesome of powerfulness and societal presumption among Mycenaeans successful ancient Greece. Credit: Flickr / CC BY 2.0

Amber, a hardened histrion resin, was highly valued by the past Mycenaeans, 1 of Greece’s earliest civilizations. It symbolized the prima and power, making it a prized worldly among the precocious people from 1750 to 1050 BC, the past signifier of the Bronze Age.

Professor Janusz Czebreszuk, the manager of the Polish Archaeological Institute successful Athens, explored the transportation betwixt amber and power.

Mycenaean’s usage of amber successful jewelry

The Mycenaeans, known for their expansive palaces, organized cities, and unsocial penning system, utilized amber successful jewelry specified arsenic necklaces and thorax ornaments. These were often buried with the elite successful their graves.

Research shows that overmuch of the amber recovered successful these graves came from the Baltic region, specifically adjacent the Bay of Gdańsk, a cardinal hub for amber trade. This is grounds that the Mycenaeans were portion of a wide commercialized network, connecting them with distant lands and different affluent societies crossed Europe.

Czebreszuk explains that amber apt reached Greece arsenic the Mycenaeans migrated south, perchance from regions specified arsenic Macedonia oregon Epirus. They brought with them spiritual and taste beliefs tied to amber’s symbolism of the sun.

In Central Europe, past artifacts with sun-like patterns amusement amber’s transportation to star power, beliefs that continued successful Greece.

Amber successful Greek mythology

Amber’s worth was besides tied to Greek mythology. The communicative of Phaëton, lad of Helios, the prima god, tells of his sisters’ tears turning into amber aft his tragic death. This mythology reinforced the thought that possessing amber was similar holding a portion of the sun.

Mycenaean elites utilized this content to legitimize their power, with amber symbolizing their divine transportation and elevated status.

Extensive amber trade

Strong societal networks enactment the extended commercialized of amber crossed Bronze Age Europe. This was often solidified done interregional marriages, according to familial studies.

Amber circulated widely, from the British Isles to Ukraine, forming portion of a larger strategy of exchange. The Gulf of Gdańsk recognized arsenic a large amber trading halfway adjacent successful past times, played a important relation successful this network.

The Polish Archaeological Institute successful Athens, established successful 2019, enables researchers to survey artifacts similar amber. This helps to amended recognize past accumulation methods, taste exchanges, and worldly significance.

“We tin find wherever the find originated, wherever the store was, and what cognition the shaper had,” says Czebreszuk. By examining antithetic types of fossil resin, specified arsenic succinite, researchers larn not lone astir Mycenaean elites but besides astir the immense networks that helped dispersed amber crossed Europe.