as formidable as any known from the ancient world. The Type II were evidently
in use from the end of the MH through the LH I period. Most of them were found
in Grave Circle A, but nos. 8, 10 and 11 came from Grave Circle B (Graves Alpha,
Iota and Nu). The Type II were followed by Avila’s Type III spearheads, including
the four poorly preserved specimens (nos. 37–40) found in the Dendra tholos tomb.
These Type III, known mostly from the LH/LM IIIA period, had a leaf-shaped
blade, and were almost as large as the Type II. The badly damaged no. 39 was
57 cm long, and no. 43, found in a richly equipped warrior grave at Knossos, was
56 cm long. With their elegant decoration these must have been very impressive
weapons.
For what were such great spears intended? A favorite theme in Mycenaean art
was of spearmen thrusting their weapons against a lion. The most famous of these
depictions were inlaid on the “lion hunt daggers” found in Grave Circle A. Since
Nancy Thomas has shown that the lion was indeed still present in Greece in the
second millennium BC, it may be that great spears were wielded with both hands
by hunters confronting a lion.^101 By the beginning of the LH IIIB period great
spears had given way to considerably smaller thrusting spears.^102 And because
killing a lion had for 300 years been the ultimate display of heroism it may be
that by the beginning of the LH IIIB period the lion population in Greece had
been much depleted.
Although the killing of a lion was perhaps especially praised by the local
population on the Greek mainland, spears as large as those found in the Shaft Graves
must also have been intended for combat. A lance was often carried on a chariot,
to be used against an enemy on foot who was menacing the crew or the horses
and was too close to be targeted with a bow. Another military use of the great
spear is indicated by the frescoes, carefully reconstructed from the fragments in
which they were found, in room 5 of the West House at Akrotiri. The frieze on
the south wall shows a fleet of seven ships, each carrying a contingent of helmeted
warriors, sailing from a small city on the left to a larger city on the right. In this
Flotilla Frieze fresco the larger ships are propelled by at least forty-two oarsmen,
who are assisted by rectangular sails.^103 The frieze on the north wall, the “Sea
Battle Fresco,” shows three naked men falling into the water or drowning while
eight warriors walk on the shore, evidently after a battle has ended in their favor.
The eight point their spears upward at a 45-degree angle, and the spears appear
to be some 4 m long. The men are armored with boar’s-tusk helmets and large
leather (oxhide) shields and are girded with swords, but the spear is their primary
weapon.
Several interpreters, beginning with Spyridon Marinatos who excavated the West
House at Akrotiri, have proposed that the spearmen wielded long thrusting spears
from their ships, against either the crewmen and marines of enemy ships or against
enemies who attacked the ships as they came ashore. Iliad15. 385–389 describes
the Achaeans using ναύμαχα to defend their beached ships against the Trojans
who were trying to board them. These naumachawere, as defined by Autenrieth,
“ship-pikes.” In the Iliadpassage the Trojans and Achaeans fight a battle at the
ships, the Trojans with their customary spears, but the Achaeans, in the translation
198 Militarism in Greece