Everyday Life in Ursa's World
One looks back into this distant period and wonders what everyday possessions people had and to what degree. How many dresses did a women have, how much jewelry? What did a man have and what was important to him. Most of our knowledge in this area comes from two sources; graves and sunken ships. Burial sites seem to indicate that people were interred with their favorite things, often of considerable value, or at least of remaining practical usefulness. It’s difficult to tell whether these objects were placed there for use after death in the next world or whether they were placed out of respect or sentimentality; we likely will never know for certain - the answer is probably, both. Burial sites are always difficult because the objects are not shown as they are used in normal context but as special things, a kind of ancient steamer trunk packed for a journey to the beyond. Sunken ships, on the other hand, are informative from a more practical perspective because the objects found are shown in context with the user’s lives, frozen time, so to speak, and represent those things which sailors carried with them and used every day. The Kyrenia wreck that formed the basis of the reconstructed Kyrenia II ship contains many such items, but particularly poignant were the four drinking cups, bowls and spoons found in the cabin. The crew was evidently four in number and on such a small ship the division between the officers and the sailors was likely blurred, as suggested by the fact that the utensils were of the same kind and in one spot; not officers aft and crew forward. This also tells us something in itself which has nothing to do with possessions but rather the social organization on a small ship - and only a few ships were really significantly larger in Ursa’s day. It suggests a more egalitarian arrangement, a kind of "we’re in this together" mentality rather than the very rigid hierarchal system of later times. No doubt the captain was lord and master (or mistress), but he may have been more of a leader among equals. We know, for example, that a Spartan king could be thrown off his throne by the warrior elders if he did not behave like a king. Divine right of kingship did not exist here. Perhaps the same was true in the maritime world.
It’s likely that possessions were few. For men they consisted of a few weapons and tools. Women are frequently depicted by, or described at, their looms. Her loom was her prize possession, along with her jewelry and her gowns and after that the furnishings of the home, but her jewelry is acknowledged as being what she cherished the most, that which made her beautiful and alluring. During threat of invasion, jewelry would be buried in jars and a significant jewelry hoard found at Troy by Schliemann led him to think he had found the jewels of Helen. Gowns were always carefully made and consisted of layers of fabric, all hand woven and embroidered. A woman’s beauty was her source of power as were weapons a man’s.
Many of the things we possess are only those which are indestructible, like pots, stone carvings and statuary, and silver and gold objects. Bronze and copper objects survive less well but do turn up much corroded and decayed. The perishable things are gone, but I think we have not missed much except for the written word on papyrus and the loss there is likely incalculable for those written words could have likely told us much about the life and times of ancient Aegis, as they do in Egypt.
We know of only a single instance of a people learning how to write and then forgetting, and that is here in Mycenaean times. By 1600 BC, the Minoans and reached their cultural high point. Palaces with silver water taps and indoor bathrooms with sewer piping existed, along with a form of writing we know as Linear B. Even earlier they had Linear A, of which we can translate nothing, but Linear B we can now largely decipher and on records imprinted on clay tablets we can tell something of their life. What destroyed the Minoan high culture is up for debate, but increasing evidence suggests a volcanic eruption combined with an invasion about 1500 or 1400 BC as most likely. The loss of writing was not immediate, it lasted until the time of the fall of Troy in 1250 BC, and then further barbarian invasions finished off the Mycenaean world and resulted in a great dark age which swept over the Mediterranean and lasted until the re-emergence of high culture once again about 800 BC by the Greeks. By 750 or so they were writing again, but now it was Greek, in essence the same alphabet and the same Greek we know today.
In this age of the warrior king with power and wealth derived almost wholly through conquest and raiding, there existed that unique and bothersome individual, the specialist. Ever since the emergence of the Shaman, who, with his or her magic (knowledge and technology) challenged the power of the sword, the specialist has annoyed as well as aided the warlord. He gives him better weapons, better ships, and tells him how to get places. These two are at odds but they work together in an uneasy truce for their mutual benefit. During Ursa’s time, the shipbuilder and the long-voyage mariner were examples of such specialists. A ship owner could exist independently of the warrior king and ply his trade to those who needed his services and wished to pay. Other specialists included metal workers and sword makers. A warlord’s wealth was his hoard of gold and silver and metal objects; armor, shields, swords, harnesses; all made by specialists. And, of course, there are the tavern owners who supply sailors with drink and women and an evening’s fun. The sailor specialist emerges as a distinct breed and remains so throughout history. Perhaps no form of human is so unique and socially distinct as the sailor; he has money, is always thirsty, perpetually horney and has no sense of discretion or proportion; and so the dockside tavern and brothel is born.
If anything characterizes the Mycenaean Age from its Neolithic predecessor it is the emergence of the specialist and the beginnings of trade and commerce on a large scale. A jeweler in Egypt or a sword maker working in Hittite steel in Anatolia could make things which were far better than any amateur at home could conjure up, and what woman did not want Phoenician purple cloth, ready made and of high quality, and those latest gold colored sandals from Knossos; and so developed weights and measures and money and the expected ship from Egypt or Sidon - routine trading, anticipation, investment, economics. We’re off and running; mankind had become civilized.