From: Subject: OLYMPIA Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 17:58:03 +0300 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://localhost:8780/pubs/journals/kronos/vol0104/003olymp.htm X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198 =EF=BB=BF OLYMPIA

Olympia

IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY

Copyright =C2=A9 1976 by IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY

"Olympia" is a section of the soon to be completed Volume II = (The=20 Time of Isaiah and Homer) of the series Ages in Chaos. The = entire=20 series will consist of four volumes (the other volumes, since = sometime=20 in printer's proofs, are titled Ramses II and His Time and = Peoples=20 of the Sea) ."Olympia" follows the section, "The Scandal of Enkomi" = that=20 was printed in Pensee X (Winter, 1974-75), pp. 21-23. = Both of=20 these sections were written more than a quarter of a century = ago, and=20 set in print in 1952 as part of the second volume of Ages = in Chaos=20 when the entire work was thought to be comprised of two = volumes,=20 the plan that was later changed by extending the second volume, = alone,=20 into three.

This February, Velikovsky turned once more his attention to = the=20 incomplete intermediary volume. It consists of two parts, "The Dark = Age=20 of Greece" and "Assyrian Conquest." With the completion of this = volume, the=20 entire series will be complete as well.

The scholarly world without any further deliberation decided not to = bring the=20 Mycenaean Age down to the first millennium, but this decision did not = eliminate=20 the disturbing facts. At the same time another one-man battle was being = carried=20 on at the other end of the front. Greek antiquities, commonly regarded = as=20 belonging to the eighth and seventh centuries, were declared by a = dissenting=20 authority to date from the second millennium, to have been = contemporaneous with=20 the Mycenaean Age, and even to have partly preceded it.

The dissenting scholar, W. D=C3=B6rpfeld, from 1882 on participated = with=20 Schliemann in the excavations at Mycenae. When the Mycenaean tombs were=20 discovered and opened, and the rich inlaid designs in bronze and the = ceramics=20 with pictures of marine life were unearthed, the scientific world was = amazed by=20 the fact that the ground of Greece should conceal oriental art so unlike = the=20 Greek. At that time the idea was expressed that the art objects and the = tombs=20 that contained them were of Carian origin of the time of King Minos,(1) = or of=20 Phoenician origin,(2) but some scholars would ascribe them to the = Achaeans=20 .(3)

After a time one of the progenitors of this last view, A. = F=C3=BCrtw=C3=A4ngler,=20 changed his mind. He declared that Mycenaean culture was of greater = antiquity=20 than that of the Achaeans and connected it with Minoan art in its later = stage=20 discovered on Crete by A. J. Evans. According to this view, the = Mycenaean Age=20 came to an end in the second millennium, and the Dorian invasion = subsequently=20 brought a primitive art reflected in pottery without designs or with = incised=20 designs. A pattern of painted geometric designs developed little by = little,=20 reaching its full expression at the end of the eighth and the beginning = of the=20 seventh century. Thereafter new motifs were brought into Greek = art-griffins,=20 sphinxes, and other oriental figures; this is the period of the = orientalization=20 of the art of Greece in the seventh century. The sixth century is the = time of=20 "archaic" art, and in due course "archaic" art developed into = "classical"=20 art.

This scheme was accepted, and today, with only slight variations, it = is the=20 credo of archaeological art.

D=C3=B6rpfeld insisted that the geometric ware ascribed to the first = millennium=20 was actually contemporaneous with, and even antecedent to, the Mycenaean = art of=20 the second millennium, and that the "primitive" pottery was also of the = second=20 millennium. The latter was actually found in Mycenaean tombs together = with the=20 Mycenaean ware. This should signify that in the second millennium two or = three=20 different cultures met in Greece. Mycenaean art was, according to the = dissident,=20 an imported Phoenician art of the second millennium; Homer, in the = Iliad=20 and the Odyssey, gave ample testimony that rich oriental = ware and=20 arms were exported by the Phoenicians and also brought from Sidon to = Greece by=20 wandering Greeks. A Phoenician crater was the most precious possession = in=20 Menelaus' palace.(4) The "Mycenaean ware" that is met all around the=20 Mediterranean was this Phoenician export. Achaeans dwelt in the = Mycenaean=20 palaces in Greece, but these palaces were built in a style brought from = the=20 Orient.

There exists no similarity between the Minoan art of Crete and = Mycenaean art,=20 Dorpfeld proceeded,(5) and it is impossible that the latter was = developed from=20 the former. The "Mycenaean" culture was imported not only into Greece = but into=20 Crete as well, but it was not born in either place.

"Mycenaean" vessels can be recognized in the tribute of the Keftiu as = depicted in the tomb of Rekhmire, the vizier of Thutmose III, but = Keftiu,=20 Dorpfeld claimed, is not Crete, as is often asserted,(6) and the Canopus = Decree=20 of -238, preserved in Egyptian and Greek, supposedly proves that it was = the name=20 for the off-shore islands on which Sidon and Tyre were built.(7)

The archaeological evidence of the contemporaneity of the geometric = and=20 Mycenaean ware and of all other products of these two cultures, and even = of the=20 partial precedence of the geometric ware, was the basic issue of = Dorpfeld, who=20 spent a lifetime digging in Greece. Observing that the Mycenaean Age is=20 contemporaneous with the period of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and that the=20 geometric ware is contemporaneous with the Mycenaean ware, he referred = the=20 geometric ware also to the second millennium.(8) This aroused much = wrath.

Furtwangler, who, during the excavations of Olympia in the western=20 Peloponnesus, under the direction of Curtius, was the first to attach = importance=20 to bits of pottery and who spent over a quarter of a century classifying = small=20 finds, bronzes, ceramics, and other products of art, and devised the = system of=20 their development, disagreed on all points.

Dorpfeld chose to prove his thesis on the excavations of Olympia, on = which he=20 and Furtwangler had both worked since the eighties of the last century. = In those=20 early days Curtius was strongly impressed by proofs of the great = antiquity of=20 the bronze and pottery discovered under the Heraion (temple of Hera) of = Olympia;=20 he was inclined to date the temple in the twelfth or thirteenth century = and the=20 bronze and pottery found beneath it in a still earlier period, and this = view is=20 reflected in the monumental volumes containing the report of = excavation.(9) At=20 that time Furtwangler was also inclined to disregard the chronological = value of=20 occasional younger objects found there.(10)

New excavations under the Heraion were undertaken by Dorpfeld for the = special=20 purpose of establishing that the finds, as well as the Heraion, date = from the=20 second millennium. But the excavated bronze and pottery strengthened = each side=20 still more in its convictions. Each of the two scholars brought a mass = of=20 material to prove his own point--one, that the geometric ware was=20 contemporaneous with the Mycenaean ware and therefore belongs to the = second=20 millennium; the other, that the geometric ware is a product of the first = millennium, and especially of the eighth to the seventh centuries, and = is=20 therefore separated from the Mycenaean age by "einer ungeheueren = Kluft"=20 (a tremendous chasm).

Who but an ignoramus would place in the second millennium the = geometric=20 vases, found in the necropolis near the Dipylon Gate at Athens? Were = there not=20 found, in this same necropolis, porcelain lions of Egyptian manufacture = dating=20 from the Twenty-sixth, the Saitic, Dynasty of Psammetich and Necho?

Were not also a great number of iron tools found beneath the Heraion = in=20 Olympia? The Mycenaean Age is the Late Bronze Age; the Geometric Age, = that of=20 iron. No true Mycenaean ware was found in Olympia. It is true that a few = iron=20 objects have been found in the Mycenaean tombs, but they only show that = iron was=20 very precious at the time these tombs were built, claimed = Furtwangler.

Both sides linked the question of the date of origin of the Homeric = epic to=20 the question at hand. Most scholars claimed that the epics originated in = the=20 eighth century. They originated five or six centuries earlier, in the = Mycenaean=20 Age, which is also the Geometric Age, maintained the dissident and his=20 followers.

The dispute was waged with "ungehorigen personlichen Beleidigungen" = (personal=20 abuse);(11) and a quarter of a century after one of the disputants was = resting=20 in his grave, the other, then an octogenarian, filled two volumes with=20 arguments. They vilified each other on their deathbeds, and their pupils = participated in the quarrel. In the end the followers of Dorpfeld, the = dissident=20 scholar, deserted him and went over to the camp of his detractors.

But by that time he had already been completely discredited, and his=20 obstinacy only made him a target for further attacks by younger scholars = properly trained in the science of archaeology, who are able at a glance = to tell=20 the exact age and provenience of a shard. They have no doubt whatsoever = that the=20 Mycenaean Age came to a close before - 1200 and that the real Geometric = Age=20 belongs to the eighth and seventh centuries, and for a long time now the = issue=20 has not been open to dispute.

But this does not mean that the facts ceased to perplex. It is stated = that=20 "fragments of geometrical vases, undistinguishable from the Dipylon = type, have=20 been found on various sites in Greece together with late examples of = Mycenaean=20 pottery."(12) But Dipylon vases have been found together with porcelain = lions of=20 Egyptian manufacture of the Saitic or Twenty-sixth Dynasty of the = seventh=20 century. When, then, did the Mycenaean Age end, in -1200 or -700?

In this dispute between the two scholars both were guided by the = chronology=20 of the Egyptologists, according to which the Eighteenth Dynasty ended in = the=20 fourteenth century, the Nineteenth Dynasty came to a close before -1200, = and the=20 Twenty-sixth Dynasty belongs to the seventh and sixth centuries.(13) In = their=20 application of these undisputed facts to the past of Greece, both = disputant=20 scholars agreed that the Mycenaean Age belongs to the second = millennium.

The Geometric Age did not follow the Mycenaean Age, but was of the = same time=20 or even earlier, argued one scholar, and was he wrong? The Geometric Age = belongs=20 to the first millennium, argued the other scholar, and was he wrong? = Wrong was=20 their common borrowing of dates for the Mycenaean Age from the=20 Egyptologists.

In view of the fact that the later generations of archaeologists = followed=20 Furtwangler and not Dorpfeld, it is worthwhile to reproduce the = assessment of=20 the latter by one who knew him and his work, herself a great figure in = classical=20 studies built on Mycenaean and Classical archaeology, H. L. Lorimer, = author of=20 Homer and the Monuments (1950). In the Preface to the book, = Lorimer=20 writes:

"I wish to record the deep debt which in common with all Homeric=20 archaeologists I owe to a great figure, forgotten to-day in some = quarters and in=20 others the object of an ill-informed contempt. To Wilhelm Dorpfeld, the=20 coadjutor of Schliemann in his later years and long associated with the = German=20 Archaeological Institute in Athens, scholars owe not only that basic = elucidation=20 of the sites of Tiryns and Troy which ensured their further fruitful=20 exploration, but the establishment of rigidly scientific standards in = the=20 business of excavation, an innovation which has preserved for us untold=20 treasures all over the Aegaean area. That in later years he became the = exponent=20 of many wild theories is true but irrelevant and does not diminish our = debt. In=20 his own realm his work, as those testify who have had access to the = daily=20 records of his digs, was as nearly impeccable as anything human can be. = . . .=20 "

This is an evaluation of Dorpfeld as an archaeologist from the hand = of a=20 scholar who did not follow the lonely scholar on his "wild theories." = The=20 archaeological work that brought him to his theories was impeccable; and = his=20 theories were wild mainly because he did not make the final step and = free the=20 Greek archaeology and chronology from the erroneous Egyptian timetable. = The=20 contemporaneity of the Mycenaean and early Geometric wares, if true, = contains=20 the clue to the removal of the last argument for the preservation of the = Dark=20 Ages between the Mycenaean and the Greek periods of history.

REFERENCES

1. U. Kohler, Athenische Mitteilungen, III (1878), 1-13.
2. W. = Helbig,=20 Das Homerische Epos, aus den Denkmalern erlautert (Leipzig, = 1887).
3.=20 A. Furtwangler and G. Loschcke, Mykenische Vasen (Berlin, 1886), = p.=20 ix.
4. Odyssey, IV, 615-19.
5. W. Dorpfeld, Homers = Odyssee, die=20 Wiederherstellung des Ursprunglichen Epos (Munich, 1925),I, = 304ff.
6.=20 Ibid., p. 314ff.
7. See G. A. Wainwright in Annals of = Archaeology=20 and Anthropology (Liverpool, 1914), VI, 24-83.
8. "Dieser = geometrische=20 Stil sei uralt, habe vor und neben der mykenischen Kunst bestanden und = sei=20 auch durch diese nicht verdrangt worden." W. Dorpfeld, = Alt-Olympia=20 (Berlin, 1935), 1, 12.
9. Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der von dem=20 Deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabungen, ed. E. Curtias and F. = Adler, 10=20 vols. (Berlin, 1890-97).
10. A. Furtwangler, "Das Alter des Heraion = und das=20 Alter des Heiligtums von Olympia," Sitzungsberichte der=20 Philosophisch-Philologischen Klasse der Koniglich Bayerischen = Akademie der=20 Wissenschaften, 1906, reprinted in Kleine Schriften (Munich,=20 1912).
11. Dorpfeld, Aft-Olympia, I, 12.
12. E. A. Gardner, = Ancient Athens (New York, 1902), pp. 157-58.
13. In Ages in = Chaos,=20 III ("Ramses II and His Time") the identity of the Nineteenth and = the=20 Twenty-sixth Dynasties will be documented.

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