When Schliemann, excavated a Mycenaean grave shaft, he discovered this mask and thought he had "gazed upon the face of Agamemnon," the great king from The Iliad. Although the Mycenaeans flourished around 1500 or 1600 BCE, earlier than the supposed time of Trojan War, this great civilization from the past probably did inspire the later Homeric tales. There may well have been a war between the Mycenaeans and Troy of Asia Minor over trade dominance. But the shaft graves themselves date from the early Mycenaean period and were certainly not the graves of Mycenaean warriors who went to Troy. The graves actually date from the very beginnings of Mycenaean civilization in 1800-1700 BCE, when there is no evidence of contact with Troy. The walls of Mycenae were built later, in the 1400s BCE, and the shaft graves had long been there.... More • http://www.historywi ... memnon.htm View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Discoveries • Archaeology • Greece • Greek • Mycenaeans • Troy • All Events