The article mainly analyzes artifacts from the Gamma and Omicron burial chambers of the grave circle in Mycenaean royal burials for cultural links between Mycenaean and Scandinavian nobility of the early Bronze Age (mid - second half of the 2nd millennium BC). It is shown that the distribution of the characteristic ornamental motif of the running spiral and images of ships with rams in Scandinavia chronologically coincides with the beginning of the Mycenaean civilization. These facts, together with the discovery of Baltic amber in Greece of that era only in the burials of Mycenaean nobility in the Peloponnese (and their absence in Crete), allow us to conclude that it was the Mycenaean nobility that was the translator of these significant cultural elements to Scandinavia of the I-III periods of the northern Bronze Age according to O. Montelius.

Keywords: Bronze Age, ornamental running spiral motif, Scandinavia, Mycenae, grave circle In Mycenaean royal burials.

This work clearly demonstrates the intensity of cultural (possibly based on elite contacts or trade) ties in the Bronze Age of the population of Jutland and the Peloponnese-peninsulas in the far north and south of mainland Western Europe. The author raises the question of a complex cross-cultural system of relations in the middle of the second millennium BC. As not surprising for such an early time, it is characterized by peaceful coexistence and the presence of a wide network of cultural ties over large areas for several centuries. It seems that at this time similar cultural interactions were also characteristic of a number of other groups of the Eurasian continent's population.

The paper uses published materials from Mycenaean (grave circle B) and Scandinavian archaeological sites. The conclusions are based on the results of a chronological comparison of the existence of the double helix ornamental motif, which is identical in both regions. We also used data on the simultaneous appearance of Baltic amber in the funerary complexes of the Mycenaean royal house.

The materials from the early grave circle in Mycenaean royal burials are extremely revealing in the context of the links between the Eastern Mediterranean and Scandinavia in the Bronze Age. This grave circle was discovered quite accidentally during the restoration work on the partially overlapping "tolos Clytemnestra", which was carried out by A. Orlandos and E. Stikas with the permission of the district mayor I. Papademetriou. The richest materials obtained during the excavations of 1952-1954 are due to the expedition of the Greek Archaeological Society under the leadership of G. Mylonas, I. Papademetriou, A. Keramopoulos and S. Marinatos. Today, only a small segment and single stones remain from the wall of grave circle B, located 130 m west of the Lion Gate, near the road to the citadel. All 24 burials of Circle B are described in the works of G. Mylonas and T. V. Blavatsky. Especially for us

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important artefacts from two magnificent burial chambers of the first half of the XVI century BC - Gamma and Omicron (Mylonas, 1957, p. 128-176; 1966, p. 97-110; Blavatsky, 1966, p. 47-56).

The Gamma grave pit, which is one of the largest and best preserved, is oriented along the NE-SW line, its length is 3.8 m, width is 2.8 m, depth is 3.5 m. The stone lining of the walls has been preserved to a height of 0.8 m. It is also possible to reconstruct the wooden beams with a thickness of 0.25 m that supported the roof of the burial chamber [Mylonas, 1957, p. 133].

According to S. Marinatos, the broken ceramic dishes and animal bones found on the roof of the cell indicate a memorial feast. Quite a few painted ceramics were found in the grave - only nine vases, which probably resulted from the practice of making room for the next deceased [Ibid., p. 134].

Of particular importance for our research is the Gamma stele found in the burial chamber, which was later used as a pedestal (a quadrangular notch was cut in the center of the slab). Plate length approx. 1.05 m, width 0.62 m and height 0.6 m. On its lower field, in the technique of flat relief, a composition is carved, built on the principle of approximate symmetry: lions facing each other with their muzzles raised on their hind legs, possibly attacking a bull (according to S. Marinatos, this is a typical Cretan plot). G. Mylonas suggested a realistic interpretation of the plot: lions hunt cattle, one (right) is lying in ambush, and a man with a sword attacks him, the other (left) has killed a man and is shown in a tense attack pose on the bull. But perhaps we should compare this composition with the relief of symmetrical figures of lions in a similar pose on the Lion Gate of the Mycenaean citadel (simplification of iconography to canon?). In this case, there is an assumption about heraldic symbols. At the hind legs of the left lion figure, a stylized Egyptian Vaz sign is depicted. On the upper, larger field of the slab, a U-shaped composition of seven connected spirals is carved (Fig. 1). It resembles the ornament on Class II stelae from the later grave circle of A., discovered by G. Schliemann. There it adorns the upper field of the well-known stele No. 1428 with the image of a charioteer and a foot soldier, placed over the burial chamber V, in which a sword with a plate decorated with spiral ornaments (Fig. 2) and the famous golden "mask of Agamemnon" were found [Ibid., pp. 135-136].

Four skeletons were found in the burial chamber of Gamma. Two of them, in the eastern part (N 2 and 3, possibly male and female), are moved to the wall to make room for the last buried person in the row (skeleton N 1). Skeletons N 1-3 are oriented with skulls to the north. In the southern part of the burial chamber, a gracile skeleton of a young man of approximately 28 years old was found (according to the conclusion of an anthropologist, a doctoral student).-

1. A stele decorated with a running spiral from the burial chamber of the Gamma Mycenaean circle in (Mylonas, 1957, p. 228, fig. 45).

2. Ornament in the form of a running spiral on the lining of a sword from the burial chamber of the V circle A. Bronze, gilt. Greece. Mycenae. XVI century BC [Kago, 1930, Taf. LXXXII,726].

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Fig. 3. Axe-palstab, decorated with a running spiral. Drawing. Early Scandinavian Bronze Age, First period. Bronze. Denmark. Mid-second millennium BC (Broholm, 1952, fig. 32].

Fig. 4. Axe-palstab with an ornament in the form of a running spiral. Early Scandinavian Bronze Age, II period. Bronze. Denmark. The second half of the second millennium BC (Broholm, 1952, fig. 109].

ra Angel), buried in an extended position on his back, with his head facing east, with his hands folded on his stomach to the right, and his head turned sideways - facing north. Near the skull (from the side of the front part) there was a funeral offering: two characteristic cups of the "Minian" type with high handles and a hydria with a matte painting of four concentric circles (the circles at the handles are smaller) [Ibid., p. 137-138, fig. 46; Blavatsky, 1966, p. 52]. The complete absence of bronze burial equipment, unlike the rest of those buried in the Gamma cell, makes us think about the status and circumstances of this young man's death.

Skeleton No. 1, which occupies almost half of the tomb, is the latest in the burial. This is a typical burial of a royal warrior: to the right of the skeleton were a long bronze rapier and a dagger with an ivory handle. The deceased was laid on his back, with his legs spread wide apart and bent at the knees. S. Marinatos suggested that a huge tower-shaped shield of Cretan-Mycenaean times was held in this position by means of his hands and feet. However, its remains were not detected. In addition, during the excavations of Circle B in 1953, a rich burial site of a girl buried in this position ("princess" from the tomb of Chi) was discovered [Mylonas, 1957, p. 137, 146-148]. Nevertheless, it is difficult to get rid of the impression that the dead warrior (his height reached 1.8 m) froze in some kind of intimidating fighting technique, ready to deliver a piercing blow with his bronze rapier. Perhaps the poses of the dead really imitated readiness for battle, and the physical presence of shields is not necessary here.

In the northern part of the chamber, near the skulls of skeletons N 1 - 3, a rich burial inventory was found: various kinds of vessels, both made of metal (for example, a golden cup), and ceramic, painted and polychrome (for example, a large polychrome hydria); a precious (from electrum) funeral mask of a bearded man of typical Mycenaean appearance (possibly originally placed in a wooden box), resembling the famous later masks of circle A (for example, the so-called Agamemnon mask), but less detailed; swords; a large amethyst bead with a gem, which masterfully depicts a high-cheekboned male face with a "skipper" beard, without a mustache, framed by long hair [Ibid., p. 137 - 140, fig. 49].

Especially noteworthy is a large jug decorated with an ornament of four strips of running spirals along the body and one under the corolla (Mylonas, 1957, p. 139, fig. 47). He was standing near the north wall of the cell, almost centered next to a large polychrome hydria. The characteristic ornamentation of the vessel is important for our theme of spreading iconic Mediterranean cultural elements. In this context, mention should be made of a jug decorated with a black double running spiral, which stood in the south-western corner of the Beta chamber at the feet of a man buried without excessive luxury for about 40 years [Ibid., p. 132 - 133, fig. 43b].

Artifacts decorated with a running spiral from the Gamma burial chamber are about 100 years younger than the image of a Mediterranean-type ship with a battering ram on a ritual sword from Rerby in Western Zealand (which dates back to the beginning of the first period of the Scandinavian Bronze Age according to O. Montelius, i.e. approximately 1700 BC). They coincide in time with the First period of the Northern Bronzes according to O. Montelius, when things ornamented with a running spiral appeared on the territory of Denmark, such as exquisitely decorated palyptabs of the First and second periods of the Scandinavian Bronze Age (according to O. Montelius) [Broholm, 1952, p. 46, 50, ill. 32, 109] (Fig. 3), and are about a century and a half ahead of the widest distribution of this ornament on bronze weapons and ornaments of the II period (which lasted from about 1400 to 1250 BC) [Ibid., p. 42, 47-57, ill. 63, 66, 77, 78, 83, 109, 110, 111, 114, 142, 144, 168, 170, 177, 178, 195 - 197, 199] (4). Thus, the period of

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The functioning of the circles B and A of Mycenaean royal burials (XVII-XVI centuries BC) was a time of intense relations between the nobility of both regions (contacts that may also have been of a cult nature).

If the materials from the Gamma burial chamber show a spiral ornament that is so indicative of the ancient Mediterranean culture, then the rich inventory of the Omicron women's chamber burial is interesting for us primarily because of the early appearance of artifacts from Baltic amber, a characteristic feature of Mycenaean mine tombs. Omicron burial chamber (grave pit depth approx. 3 m, the floor, like most burials, is paved with pebbles) was covered by a roof made of woven rods, smeared with clay, on wooden beams. Fragments of a triangular stele without relief and shards of vessels left after the trizna were found on it. Animal bones were found under one fragment of the stele and, which is especially significant for the dating of this burial and all the late burials of Complex B, a fragment of a Vafio-style goblet decorated with spirals, dating back to the Late Helladic I period (Mylonas, 1957, p.144). In the Egyptian tombs of Useramun and Rahmer during the reign of Thutmose III, frescoes have been found showing "people from Keftiya "(Crete) presenting gifts to the Pharaoh. They carry vessels that were known at the beginning of the Late Minoan and Late Hellenic periods, but are not found later. Thus, the beginning of the Late Hellenic I period is dated to approximately 1580 BC (for pottery samples from this period, see [Mylonas, 1966, p. 147]). Consequently, the Omicron burial chamber belongs (taking into account the general dating of the complex in 1650-1550 BC) to the first half of the XVI century BC. It belongs to the late luxurious burials of the grave circle in [Mylonas, 1957, p. 236]. It should be noted that they are very different in design and inventory from the early, still Middle Hellenic burials of the XVII century BC of the same circle. The latter represent a typical Middle Hellenic cyst, carved in stone, with a person buried in the position of a "praying embryo" (in a crouched position, with folded hands). Burials are accompanied by monochrome vessels of the same period (for example, in one of these male burials, two perfectly preserved cups with handles, a small jug, a large "sauce pan" and a bowl with two handles were found) [Ibid., p. 143-144, fig. 55]. The presence of Middle Hellenic pottery in the modest early graves of Circle B proves that the ancestors of the Mycenaean kings were not at all carriers of the traditions of the turn of the XVII-XVI centuries. People included in the Middle Hellenic cultural context, possibly representatives of the Indo-European population, which, according to J. R. R. Tolkien, is the same as in the Middle Hellenic cultural context. It came to Troy III (destroying Troy II c. 2300 BC) and Greece (c. 1900 BC) at the beginning of the Middle Hellenic period via Asia Minor (Mellaart, 1958, p. 28-33).

The clothes of Omicron buried in the chamber are striking in their pomp and splendor. Several pins with spherical crystal heads (similar to those found by G. Schliemann in the women's burial of the third grave circle A) were found here, and a magnificent rock crystal ladle in the shape of a duck was found near the northern wall of the burial chamber, next to a four-handled jug decorated with a zigzag pattern in three stripes [Mylonas, 1957, p. 146; Mylonas, 1966, pi. 99]. Due to the abundance of rock crystal products, researchers named the Omicron Crystal burial. Archaeologists reconstructed the headdress from gold ribbons embossed in the form of a circular and rosette ornament. A wider ribbon ran from temple to temple, and a narrower one was placed crosswise on it. A rosette of 10 unornamented gold petals is interpreted as an ornament attached to the right shoulder with a silver pin with a wooden head inlaid with gold foil (Mylonas, 1957, p. 144-145; 1966, pi. 101). Pins with spherical heads made of rock crystal were used to attach a cloak, mantle or cape on the left shoulder. Bracelets made of gold beads in the form of birds and wire in the form of a running spiral were also found on the left humerus of the deceased [Mylonas, 1957, p. 145; 1966, pi. 138]. Earrings made of faceted gold wire were also found in the grave (Mylonas, 1957, p. 145, fig. 58). Of particular interest to our topic is a necklace made of amber beads and plates (Mylonas, 1957, p. 145; 1966, pi. 102).

5. Distribution of Baltic amber products in Greece in the Late Hellenic I and II periods (the size of the circles is proportional to the number of finds in each place) [Harding, 1984, p. 69, fig. 13].

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Fig. 6. Image of a ship on a sword from Rerbu. Bronze. Denmark. About 1700 BC [Gubanov, 2006, p. 54].

Infrared spectral analysis performed by K. Beck showed that the decoration was made from Baltic amber (Beck, 1965, p. 109).

In the Eastern Mediterranean, Baltic amber artefacts were first recorded in Mycenaean mine tombs of circles B and A. As well as in the early tolos of the Pylos lords. It is extremely significant that they exist only in the Peloponnese, but not in Crete (Figure 5). Although the ornamental motif of the running spiral and the tradition of depicting ships with battering rams came to Mycenaean Greece from Crete, where these iconic elements of the Mediterranean culture appeared around the middle of the third millennium BC, at the end of the Early Minoan period (the time of the ancient Egyptian pyramids of the Ancient Kingdom), and existed until the Late Minoan period, corresponding to the Late Hellenic time of the Mycenaean civilization. The appearance of Baltic amber in the Omicron burial coincides with the beginning of the Late Hellenic I period (i.e. Mycenaean civilization) and the I period of the Scandinavian Bronze Age according to O. Montelius, when things with ornaments in the form of a running spiral appeared on the territory of Denmark. It should also be noted that the Hellenic chronology is now considered to be outdated. In fact, the Scandinavian Early Bronze Age and the Late Hellenic (Mycenaean) period are strikingly chronologically identical.

Apparently, the first contact between the Mycenaeans and the tribes inhabiting the territory of Denmark, which had a sacred significance, occurred around 1700 BC. e. Evidence of this interaction is ritual curved single-edged swords from Rerby (Zealand Island), one of which may have been engraved with the image of a ship with a battering ram - a Mediterranean-type warship (Fig 6). Therefore, the style of the ubiquitous running spiral in the Scandinavian culture of the early Bronze Age (periods I-III according to O. Montelius, especially II) probably owes its appearance to ideologically significant contacts between the first Mycenaean lords and the Scandinavian nobility of that era. The characteristic spiral ornament apparently had a sacred meaning and definitely acted as a marker of the social prestige of the nobility. These connections are also confirmed by the distribution of Baltic amber in the Late Hellenic I period, initially in Mycenaean royal burials in the Peloponnese.

List of literature

Blavatskaya T. V. Achaean Greece, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1966, 255 p.

Gubanov I. B. Bronze Age of the North and South of Europe: problems of interethnic contacts and reconstruction of the social structure of ancient society. Saint Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 2006, 106 p. (in Russian)

Beck C.W. Infrared Spectra of Amber and the Chemical Identification of Baltic Amber // Achaeometry: The bulletin of the Research laboratory for archaeology and the history of art. - Oxford: The Abbey Press, 1965. - Vol. 8. - P. 96 - 109.

Broholm H.C. Tildre bronzealder. - Kebenhavn: Nordisk forlag, 1952. - 65 p.

Harding A.F. The Mykenaeans and Europe. - Г.: Acad. Press, 1984. - 334 p.

Karo G. Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai: Tafeln. - Munchen: VerladD. Bruckmann, 1930. - [2 p.], 175 l. ill.

Mellaart J. The End of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Aegean //Am. J. of Archaeology. - 1958. - Vol. 62, N1. - P. 9 - 33.

Mylonas G.E. Ancient Mycenae: The Capital City of Agamemnon. - L.: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957. - 201 p.

Mylonas G.E. Mycenae and The Mycenaean Age. - N. J.: Princeton univ. press, 1966. - 251 p.

The article was submitted to the editorial Board on 30.03.11, in the final version-on 02.06.11.

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