Mycenaean Armor Tested in Epic Combat Simulation Shows Homer’s Iliad Wasn’t Pure Fantasy After All
Ha! Mycenaean are Minoan, after all, and they are definitely REAL! ...Trace
This armor wasn't just for show. It could have seen deadly combat during the epic Trojan War.
The Bronze Age Mycenaeans were an ancient civilization from the Greek mainland known for their impressive architecture, rich culture, and mysterious decline. Perhaps most famously, the Mycenaeans were the lead cast in Homer’s stories of the Trojan War, The Iliad and The Odyssey. These include Agamemnon, the legendary king of Mycenae who led the Greek forces in the Trojan War; Menelaus, king of Sparta and husband of Helen, whose abduction sparked the war; and the cunning Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who had to face numerous challenges during his long voyage home after the Trojan War.
While the epic poem The Iliad is generally recognized as a work of fiction, some of Homer’s accounts are nevertheless considered historically accurate. For instance, Troy was real, with most historians agreeing that it used to be located in Hisarlik, Turkey. The Mycenaean Greeks were also real people, although the legendary characters in Homer’s works are fictitious, acting as literary devices meant to explore themes of heroism, war, and human nature.
Now, a new and exciting study suggests that some of Homer’s accounts of Mycenaean warfare, long thought to be mere artistic embellishments, are plausible and may have been historically accurate. The findings center around one of the oldest European suits of armor, a marvelous 3,500-year-old suit discovered in the village of Dendra in 1960.
For their study, researchers at the University of Thessaly in Greece and the University of Birmingham in the UK recreated the Dendra armor and equipped modern-day soldiers with it for a simulated combat protocol.
They found that the armor wasn’t just some fancy decorative piece for the Mycenaean aristocracy, as previously believed. Rather, it is a formidable armor suitable for extended combat. This discovery offers new insights into the military prowess of the Mycenaeans and reshapes our understanding of ancient warfare.
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