The Public Plumbing of the Citadal of Mycenae

I have gazed upon the chamber pot of Agamemnon

Mycenae, or Μυκήνες in Greek, was first settled by Neolithic people in the 6th millennium BC (although unlike at Skara Brae, we don't seem to have any evidence of their plumbing). It's a hilltop site, pretty barren today, below Mount Agios Ilias (750m) and Mount Zara (600m).

The red star shows the approximate location of Mycenae and Tiryns.

Between about 2100 and 1900 BC, during the Old Bronze Age, Indo-European people crossed Anatolia, moved through Troy, and continued across the Dardanelles to the west and then south through Greece.

The existing settlements in the mainland were primitive, and the new arrivals brought an advanced culture. A number of small kingdoms were established — in addition to the one at Mycenae, there were kingdoms in nearby Tiryns, Pylos, Argos, and Korinthos.

The kingdom of Mycenae became the most powerful by far, leading to the entire civilization of that area being called Mycenaean. For the 400 years from 1600 to 1200 BC, Mycenae was the most powerful kingdom in Greece.

Ancient Mycenae in sunlight with the mountain behind shadowed by cloud.

Mycenaean power began to decline around 1200 BC. Its palace was burned around 1100 BC. It's not known if this was caused by an attack from outside Greece, or if it was warfare within the many Mycenaean kingdoms.

It's hard to distinguish history from myth in Mycenae. According to Homer, the city was founded by Perseus, the son of Danae and Zeus. The dynasty of Perseus was eventually overthrown by Pelops, a son of Tanalus.

The real Mycenaean Royal House of Atreus was probably descended from this Pelops, although it's hard to tell what was mythical as opposed to merely mythic. But somewhere around the 14th Century BC, there seems to have been a King Agamemnon of Mycenae.

Agamemnon (or Άγαμέμνων) is said to be the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae. Agamemnon's brother was Menelaus.

Menelaus' wife Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy and taken back to his city on the northwest coast of Anatolia. Agamemnon then commanded the Achaean forces (what we often mis-label as "Greek" today) in the Trojan War.

When Agamemnon returned home from the Trojan War, his wife, Clytemnestra, had taken a lover, Aegisthus. Agamemnon and his concubine, Cassandra, were killed by Aegisthus, or by Clytemnestra, or by the both of them, depending on which version you read.

Entrance to the tomb.

The tholos or "beehive" tomb from the middle 14th century BC, called the "Treasury of Atreus" or the "Tomb of Agamemnon".

Skipping ahead to the 1800s AD, Heinrich Schliemann was a history-obsessed businessman turned archaeologist who believed that Homer's Illiad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aenid described real historical events. Few historians and archaeologists thought that these were anything more than myth.

Schliemann got involved in the excavation at the tell or mounded hill of Hissarlık, in Turkey, in 1871. Archaeology was crude in those days. Believing that Homeric Troy must be the oldest, thus the lowest, level, Schliemann and his workers dug quickly through the layers until they reached fortifications that matched his expectations of Troy. As it later turned out, Hissarlık was Homeric Troy. He did find Troy, but dug straight through the part he was looking for.

In 1873 Schliemann found a cache of gold objects, which he named "Priam's Treasure". He smuggled it out of Turkey, angering the Ottoman Empire to the point that he lost permission to dig further at Troy.

In 1876, he began excavating at Mycenae. Given his record in Turkey, the Greek government made sure they had someone there to watch him. He quickly found the Shaft Graves, finding skeletons and regal gold objects. This included what he immediately named the Mask of Agamemnon, and he supposedly sent a cable to the Greek King:
I HAVE GAZED UPON THE FACE OF AGAMEMNON

The main palace at Mycenae.

The royal inner chamber in the palace.

Agamemnon's bed and chamber pot would have been in this innermost chamber of the main palace.
I HAVE GAZED UPON THE CHAMBER POT OF AGAMEMNON

The main palace complex was built at the summit of Mycenae's hilltop site. Some remains date back to the Early Helladic period of 3000-2000 BC, but most of what you see here today is from 1300-1200 BC.

There was a large court and megaron, made up of an entrance portico, a prodromos or antechamber, and the domos or main hall with a large circular hearth at its center.

The throne was in the middle of the south wall, the wall at the far right in the upper picture at right. The megaron was the center of political, administrative, military, and economic power at Mycenae.

The inner royal chambers were off the north side of the main hall, opposite the throne. They consisted of a medium sized room and two smaller chambers at the rear. There seems to have been no Royal Latrine, so Agamemnon would have kept his chamber pot here.

This could be a latrine drain at the House of Columns.

The House of Columns was the most important building on the east slope of the Mycenaean citadel. It is beyond the main palace, at the edge of the fortified city where the slope falls away rapidly. It dates to 1250-1200 BC.

I'm not certain, but the structure at left sure looks like it could be a latrine drain. It is parallel to and just inside the outer wall, and would have drained down the steep hillside outside the defensive wall.

This could really use some disinfectant.

A critical part of defensive siege warfare is the maintenance of the water supply. Water is more critical then food, it's almost always the lack of water that ends a siege. That small pestilential cistern at left was obviously inadequate!

The Mycenaeans had something much better.

Mycenae had a large underground water cistern. The cistern actually laid outside the fortress walls. A corbelled tunnel leads down from inside the fortress, with its entrance near the northeastern corner.

The tunnel passes down through and underneath the fortress walls and continues on down toward the cistern. Eighteen meters down, you reach the large cistern.

The water was collected from a natural spring well outside the fortress walls, and carried along buried clay conduits to the cistern.

The Perseia Fountain House was named for the natural spring supplying water to the citadel's aquaducts in ancient times. It had a porous stone retaining wall extending a row of water tanks.

Now there are steel grates keeping visitors from falling down into the tanks.

The Perseia Fountain House was next to a sacred building dedicated to either the hero Perseus or the goddess Hera. It's relatively recent for Mycenae — what you see here dates to Hellenic times, 300-100 BC.

And yes, if you visit the museum at Mycenae, there is a modern toilet.

The Public Latrines and Cisterns of Tiryns

The exterior of Tiryns' walls.

Tiryns is another nearby Mycenaean site. It's just 4 kilometers west of Nafplio on the road to Argos.

The Ancient Greek name was Tiryns, Τίρυνς, and that's what we English speakers use. In modern Greek it's Tirintha, Τίρυνθα.

Plan of Tiryns:
1: Entry ramp
2: Entry toward palace
3: East casemates
4: Great propylaia
5: Inner court
6: Megaron
7: Postern
8: Inner courtyard?
* Latrines
* Cisterns
— Original from Wikimedia Commons

Tiryns dates back to the beginning of the Bronze Age. Like Mycenae, it reached its height in 1400-1200 BC. Homer referred to it as "wall-girt Tiryns" and "mighty-walled Tiryns". The walls are enormous — up to twenty meters thick and made from stones weighing up to 14 tons. The entire complex is 300 meters long and 45 to 100 meters wide. The palace was on an upper level, occupying about half of the citadel.

It's built on a limestone outcropping only about twenty meters high, but its construction and its isolated position made it almost impregnable.

See the plan at left — the area marked as 9 was for military, religious, and economic use, plus housing of the military service members.

Looking north across Tiryns citadel from the north interior wall dividing the palace from the public area.

Looking up the entrance ramp. Watch out for arrows coming from your unshielded right!

Also notice the orange and red stars. The red star marks the pair of passageways leading to underground cisterns just outside the wall, much like at Mycenae.

The orange star marks what I believe was a public latrine. It is at the far end of the fortress, with a stone trough draining out through a small diameter passage through the thick walls.

The picture at right shows the view from close to the number 8 on the plan toward the far end of the citadel.

The entrance ramp was cleverly designed. While it was broad enough for a chariot, an attacker would have been exposed on his right side, where he carried his sword, not his shield. There were multiple heavy doors along the ramp, with plenty of room on top of the broad walls for defenders to gather and hurl weapons or just large rocks on any attacker.

The casemates were used for garrison stores or barracks.

Visitors passed through the Great Propylia and the Smaller Propylia, a gradual passage through spaces highlighting the significance of what was happening — in this case, moving toward the seat of power. The same design was later used for religious purposes on the Acropolis in Athens.

The Megaron was very similar to the one at Mycenae. There was a porch, a vestibule, a central circular hearth, and the king's throne against the right wall.

The postern gate through the wall looks like a weakness in this overview plan. However, if an attacking force managed to breach the sturdy door that would have been in place, they then would have to ascend a flight of 80 steps. They would then be hit from all sides by the defenders. Even if some made it to the top of the steps, they would find themselves in a sort of trap. And beyond that, another bastion to pass through before getting into the palace.

At right is the southern or left-hand passage leading out through the walls to the underground cisterns.

This is the very similar northern or right-hand passage to the cisterns.

These tunnels were only discovered fairly recently. A 1987 Michelin guide describes them as "only recently discovered".

Recent excavations have broken into the top of the tunnels where they exit the walls. That is why you see sunlight shining through these tunnels. They would, of course, have been completely buried back in the day.

Here is what I believe to be public latrine.

If this wasn't a latrine, then it was some very similar sort of waste drain.

The picture at left below is a view from well outside the walls, looking toward the area immediately outside the latrine and cistern entrances.

The picture to its right is looking directly toward the exterior wall and shows the postern doorway.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box."

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

• Travel suggestions
• To Bob's main site