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Mycenaean

Mycenaean

2 9.9
Relating to the people, language, or culture of ancient Mycenae in Bronze Age Greece
  • adjective
  • /ˌmaɪsəˈniːən/
translation icon : micénico
  • We know a lot about Mycenaean palaces and also about isolated houses, farmsteads, and small villages.
  • Mycenaean level

Examples

  • The artifacts discovered at the site provided valuable insights into Mycenaean culture.

  • So this is going to be Mycenaean Greece with these centers, these palatial centers in the middle.

  • Was it the world of the Mycenaean Bronze Age?

  • You have the destruction completely of the Mycenaean Bronze Age culture.

  • The fall of the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland.

    Blog text (19)
  • We have found all these Mycenaean cemeteries full of dead people.

    Academic text (2008)
  • We know that the Mycenaean elite flourished thanks to their control of rich farmland and ample food supplies, which were protected by rugged mountain ranges.

    Academic text (2008)
  • The Minoan-Mycenaean civilization declined with the arrival of the Dorians, warriors from the mainland who settled on Crete between 1100 and 900 B.C.

    Academic text (2010)
  • In 1939, a team from the University of Cincinnati led by Carl Blegen began to excavate a Mycenaean site called the Palace of Nestor in the southwest of the Greek mainland near the modern town of Pylos.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Scholars have long debated the impact of the Mycenaean civilization on later Greek societies.

Synonyms

Grecian
vsMycenaean
  • Literature
8 6.9

Relating to Greece, its people or culture, often seen in art and buildings

focuses on the late Bronze Age culture rather than art or style
Hellenic
vsMycenaean
3 8.6

Relating to ancient Greece, its people, or culture

refers to an earlier Bronze Age culture rather than classical Greece
Achaean
vsMycenaean
  • Literature
1 9.9

Relating to the ancient Greek region of Achaea or its people

is centered on a late Bronze Age society rather than a region only
Aegean
vsMycenaean
8.8

Relating to the ancient Bronze Age cultures that lived around the sea between Greece and Turkey

is the specific late Bronze Age culture in mainland Greece

Compounds

An ancient Greek culture from about 1400 to 1100 BC with large palaces, art, and a way of writing

A Bronze Age Greek society near Mycenae that built large palaces and used early Greek writing

Surface Forms

Mycenaean positive

Morphology

Mycenaean = Mycenae (transparent) = Mycenae + an

Standard adjectival/demonymic formation from the place name 'Mycenae' using '-an', so the relation 'relating to Mycenae' is straightforward for learners who know the place name.

Etymology

Mycenaean comes from the city name Mycenae plus the ending -ean meaning 'of' or 'from'. So Mycenaean describes things (like art, language, or buildings) that are 'of Mycenae' or relate to that ancient culture.