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Dr. Zucker: The approach to Mycenae is substantial
and if you were not a friend
it was going to be tough to get in.
Mycenae is one the great citadels
of Mycenaean Culture,
that is this Bronze Age culture on mainland Greece
that traded throughout the Mediterranean
and became quite wealthy and quite powerful
between the years of about 1600 and 1100 BCE.
Dr. Harris: Right, and there were several cultures
that thrive in this area
during this Bronze Age period.
One being Cycladic located on the Cycladic Islands.
Another being Minoan Culture
which was the on the island of Crete.
Here on the mainland we refer to Mycenaean Culture
named after the most powerful
of the Mycenaean City States
and that Mycenae.
Dr. Zucker: Mycenae is located on the top of a small mountain.
It is a very steep approach
and so it is naturally defensible.
In fact, there are two larger mountains on the back,
a huge valley leading down to the Aegean Sea
in front.
Just a glorious space
but also one where enemies approach
can be seen at a very great distance.
Dr. Harris: Walking up this ramp way,
we're surrounded by enormous blocks of stones
creating very high walls
on either side of us.
Dr. Zucker: In fact they're so large
that they were known as Cyclopean Masonry.
That is only the giant Cyclops
was large enough to move stones this big.
Dr. Harris: Right. The Cyclops was a legendary giant
from Homer's Odyssey.
This became known as Cyclopean
because who could imagine moving these massive stones?
Dr. Zucker: I have to tell you, I can't imagine.
As you said, we're surrounded by these walls
on three sides
which means that we are completely unprotected.
If we were an enemy approaching,
it would be easy to rain arrows, spears,
anything down on us.
Dr. Harris: Exactly. I would have felt very safe
I think in the Mycenaean citadel.
We're looking up at the famous so-called Lion Gate.
Dr. Zucker: It is perched above a standard
ancient building system of post and lintel.
On both sides we have uprights post
and spanning it across a horizontal lintel.
Dr. Harris: The Mycenaean architects
wanted to build this wall very high
and they used a technique called corbelling.
That is, they constructed the stones
so that each successive higher layer
moved in just slightly
and that left this triangular space in the center
right over the lintel.
Dr. Zucker: The relief above the Lion Gate
is the first monumental sculpture
that we found on mainland Greece.
Since we know what happens in Ancient Greece
and Historical Greece much later,
we look back to this as art historians and say,
"Here is the earliest representation
"that we find from Greece.
"This is in a sense the great grandfather
"of the extraordinary work
"that the Greeks will produce."
Dr. Harris: In sculpture, absolutely.
Dr. Zucker: Right, in sculpture and in architecture.
Dr. Harris: Here we have 2 animals facing one another.
Their fore paws seemed to be on 2 altar like tables
and between them is a column
that seems to get wider as it moves upward.
Dr. Zucker: Now, that's opposite to the way we understand
Greek architecture at a later period
but it is very similar to the way that
the Minoan's constructed their architecture.
So archaeologists often look at that and say,
"This is a Minoan style column."
Dr. Harris: We know that the Minoan's
really influenced Mycenaean culture,
so this makes sense.
That capital also is reminiscent of Minoan culture.
Dr. Zucker: Now, just below the capital
archaeologists have hypothesized
that the two blocks that the animals
have their fore paws on
and that the column rest on are two altars.
These are also of Minoan form we think.
Of course, we have no written records.
We really have no solid evidence
for any kind of interpretation.
But that hasn't stopped archaeologists
and art historians from making a lot of
very clever guesses about what this might represent.
Dr. Harris: Well, we do have objects from Mycenae.
We have objects that were found in the graves.
It does hep us to conjecture
what these animals were
and what their lost heads looked like.
Dr. Zucker: we can guess that the lost heads
turned outward because of the way the dowel holes
are placed in the stone.
Dr. Harris: And that they were likely of a different material
placed on to the bodies of these animals.
Dr. Zucker: And at least one scholar has suggested
that they might have been bird heads
and that these might have been griffins
and that the composite nature of the animal
might also be reflected
by the composite nature of the materials.
Again, these are guesses.
Dr. Harris: What do the animals mean?
What does the column mean?
What do the altars mean?
Why are they up on their fore paws?
You can see all the questions that arise.
Dr. Zucker: There is a tradition of having powerful animals
standing guard at a gate,
and so we might think of these
as warding off evil.
Also as a terrifying representations
that might scare off and terrify enemies.
Dr. Harris: If they had that kind of supernatural power
we might also conjecture
that the column has meaning as well.
And we know that in some cases
columns could represent deities.
Now, it also could be that the columns
just represent a city or the idea of the king.
Dr. Zucker: Well, the column is above the altar
so there is that sense of divinity that seems logical.
The fact that there are two altars
has led some scholars to suggest
that perhaps this has to do with
becoming together of two cultures.
Again, these are all conjectures.
Dr. Harris: These animals do have leonine bodies,
or bodies like lions.
Dr. Zucker: Or lionesses.
Dr. Harris: And they are sculpted with great subtlety.
I get a sense of the muscles in legs of the lions
and the kind of subtle modelling of the anatomy
of these animals.
Dr. Zucker: There's something else that's going on here.
These are not animals that are represented
as animals are naturally.
That is they're not on all fore paws.
They are standing upright,
they are becoming human like.
There is nobility.
Dr. Harris: It's hard not to think
that these also speak to the power of the king
who resided inside these Cyclopean walls.
Dr. Zucker: Here now, at the end of 2013,
the sense of power and majesty is clear to me.
One can only imagine how this felt
to somebody in 1250 BCE.
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