Mycenaean Greece Research Articles

Sicily without Mycenae

During the Middle Bronze Age in Sicily, there is evidence for material contact with several extra-insular societies, not least with the contemporary Mycenaean culture based in the Aegean. This Mycenaean connection typically receives the most attention, and has been used as the basis to posit the broad acculturation of Sicilian society to Aegean norms, despite a rather limited amount of evidence. To complement the empirical data of genuine imports, interpretations of Aegean influence have also been applied to Sicilian material expressions. In this study, I argue that such acculturation frameworks are too limited to analyse properly the material changes that occur in Sicily, as they rely heavily on the uncertain physical presence of ‘Mycenaeans’ on the island, and do not engage with Sicilian agency or motivations. Instead, I propose a framework borrowed from current globalisation studies, whereby what has been accepted, rejected, or heavily adapted from external sources is given equal interpretive weighting. This consumption-focused perspective also considers the likelihood of disparate systems of value and meaning. The result is an interpretive framework in which prehistoric Sicilians do not fade into the background during the Middle Bronze Age and are not overshadowed by the primary place given to Aegean influence and activity.

Working for a Feast: Textual Evidence for State-Organized Work Feasts in Mycenaean Greece

Working for a Feast: Textual Evidence for State-Organized Work Feasts in Mycenaean Greece

Foodways in Early Mycenaean Greece: Innovative Cooking Sets and Social Hierarchy at Mitrou and Other Settlements on the Greek Mainland

Foodways in Early Mycenaean Greece: Innovative Cooking Sets and Social Hierarchy at Mitrou and Other Settlements on the Greek Mainland

A MINERALOGICAL STUDY OF SOME MYCENAEAN SEALS EMPLOYING MOBILE RAMAN MICROSCOPY

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is the largest archaeological museum in Greece, and one of the most important museums in the world, devoted to Ancient Greek art and history. Among other exhibits, it owns a large collection of gemstones some of which were used during prehistoric times (Mycenaean period) as seals. Their shape varies from round to oval, flattish or cylindrical, and they are delicately engraved as intaglios with a variety of depictions (lions, bulls, man, etc). They show a wide range of colours from reddish, brown, to purplish and blue. The six sealstones described here come from the Chamber Tombs of Mycenae (15th-14th cent. BC). Museum exhibit labels recognize them as varieties of quartz such as jasper (NAM 3138), sardonyx (NAM 2316 & 2865), agate (NAM 4928), amazonite (NAM 2863) and gold-mounted carnelian (NAM 6489). Raman Spectroscopic analysis has been carried out with a new MRM (Mobile Raman Microscope) using a Kaiser Holoprobe with a NIR 785nm laser. The Raman spectra acquired from 1s-60s measurements confirmed that, in all six sealstones, quartz was the major mineral species clearly identified by its characteristic peaks. The second most important phase was moganite, a little-known polymorph of quartz. The amber-coloured sealstone (NAM 6489) was confirmed as carnelian, whereas the blue-green amazonite-coloured sealstone (NAM 2863) was not detected as amazonite. Small amounts of haematite were detected in the NAM 2865 & NAM 3138.

Mykenische Keramik in der Rhodopenregion. Herkunft, regionaler Kontext und sozialökonomische Grundlagen

This contribution is dealing with Mycenaean pottery from the settlement sites of Dragoyna in the Rhodopes and Koprivlen in the Mesta Valley. The production regions of that pottery could be established by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), and we compare the earlier results of Dragoyna with the new ones from Koprivlen. These results give us the opportunity to re-evaluate the development of contacts between the eastern Balkans, the northern Aegean and Mycenaean Greece. Two economic-historical periods can be discerned. The earlier one comprises the phases LH IIB and IIIA1 and is characterised by the importation of Mycenaean pottery and Mycenaean weapons from the regions of the rising and expanding Mycenaean palace state in the framework of directional exchange of products. This could have been linked to gold mining in the Rhodopes. The later period lasted from approximately LH IIIB to LH IIIC Early. During that time Mycenaean pottery from different production regions reached the eastern Balkans, some from northern Aegean workshops, some from the Mycenaean south. In contrast, imports or imitations of late palatial or post-palatial weapons are not attested.

Mycenaean words related to τρέπω and στρέφω

This paper deals with the Mycenaean representatives of three IE verbal roots: *terk u̯ - ‘twist’, *trep- ‘turn’ and *streg u̯h - ‘turn, rotate’. Mycenaean data show that the derivatives of *terk u̯ - were still differentiated before the loss of labiovelar stops in post-Mycenaean times and that the verb στρέφω ‘turn, twist, rotate’ stems from *streg u̯h -. Semantic interference among these roots is already underway in the Mycenaean period, anticipating the convergence of *terk u̯ - with *trep- and *streg u̯h - in the first millennium.

The Late Helladic IIB to IIIA2 Pottery Sequence from the Mycenaean Palace at Ayios Vasileios, Laconia

The ongoing excavations at Ayios Vasileios have revealed one of the most important Mycenaean palatial centres in the Peloponnese. The following study aims to establish the sequence of pottery phases of the site from the early Mycenaean period up to the conflagration that destroyed the palace at the end of the 14th or at the beginning of the 13th century BC. One of the main tasks has been the detailed analysis of well stratified material, which will clarify the development of the local pottery styles including evidence for continuity or discontinuity in the commonest pottery types and fabrics from the site. Based on the preliminary results from this study the developments and changes in the pottery tradition have been compared to those known from other centres in Laconia and beyond. An attempt has also been made to date the most important building horizons represented in the palace and to correlate them with those from the other known major sites of the region, the Menelaion in the north and Ayios Stephanos to the south.

Searching for a Source of the Coptic Hemerology

The article offers a study of the known Coptic calendars with favorable and unfavorable days, entitled hemerologies, and compares the given information with the information presented in earlier calendars from Egypt and Mycenaean Greece and also with later sources written in Arabic and Latin. The starting point of this study is Pap. Heidelberg Inv. Kopt. 236, a newly edited Coptic hemerology which forms the second oldest example of this type known so far. In comparison, the material clearly shows that predictions for certain days are not necessarily results of direct influences and can be seen as examples of cultural convergences.

Status and Prospects for Quasi-Non-Destructive Analysis of Ancient Artefacts via LA–ICP–MS

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) combines a low degree of invasiveness (termed quasi-non-destructive) with measurements of concentrations of elements and/or their isotopic compositions in artefacts. The technique has risen to prominence in archaeometric research. Successful applications include the use of trace elements to document the trade of raw glass from Egypt and Mesopotamia to Mycenaean Greece during the Late Bronze Age and the use of Pb isotope ratios to show that a common source of metal was used to mint bronze coins in an ancient Roman city on the Iberian Peninsula during the reigns of Emperors Augustus to Claudius. Prospects for using LA–ICP–MS for elemental mapping (imaging) and for extending the application of isotopic tracing for archaeometry are evaluated.

Evidence of a short-lived episode of olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivation during the Early Bronze Age in western Mediterranean (southern Italy)

Anthracological analysis was carried out in the archaeological site of Punta di Zambrone on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria in southern Italy. Archaeological excavation documented at the site settlement deposits dated mainly to Early Bronze Age (EBA, 21st–18th century BC) and the Recent Bronze Age (RBA, 13th to early 12th century BC). In the phase of the EBA village, the high frequency of Olea europaea in the charcoal data suggests the tree may well have been cultivated by favouring the spread of the scant olive trees growing wild. Comparison with existing archaeobotanical data indicates that olive cultivation spread over a large portion of southern Italy from the EBA and the early Middle Bronze Age (MBA, 17th–15th century BC), thus calling into question the hypothesis of its first cultivation related to the interaction between Mycenaean Greece and local cultures in southern Italy. The early domestication event at Punta di Zambrone supports the idea of multiple independent primary events of olive domestication throughout the Mediterranean basin. In the following phase of the fortified settlement dated to the RBA, the frequency of olive charcoal diminished and the expansion of a more or less dense forest dominated by Quercus was judged to be a consequence of human depopulation that characterises the end of MBA and also a different land use of RBA. This forest increase, also recorded by other archaeobotanical proxies in the central and southern Italian peninsula, is found to be related to the diffusion in southern Calabria of the Subapennine culture, spreading from more northerly areas of Italy and bringing different economic systems and agronomic knowledge. These far-reaching changes appear to have brought to a halt the first event of olive cultivation recorded at Punta di Zambrone.

THE LUWIANS: STUDIES ON AN ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATION

A catalogue of Middle and Late Bronze Age sites in western Asia Minor is currently established in the framework of a project supported by the University of Zurich. By the end of 2016, information about at least 340 sites will be available online and thus accessible to researchers and the general public. The sites are systematically registered for the first time and brought into context with rivers, lakes, arable floodplains, ore deposits, and trade routes. The sites’ coordinates have been entered into a Geographic Information System to analyze human-landscape interrelations. These settlements provide evidence that western Asia Minor was densely inhabited during the 2nd millennium BCE. A network of petty states and cities existed between the Mycenaean civilization on mainland Greece and the Hittite civilization in central Anatolia.

Commingled burials and shifting notions of the self at the onset of the Mycenaean era (1700–1500 BCE): The case of the Ayios Vasilios North Cemetery, Laconia

Mortuary practices in southern Greece undergo a radical transformation at the beginning of the Mycenaean era (or Late Bronze Age, around 1700BCE). This period sees the introduction of formal cemeteries, larger tombs, richer burials and a more complex ritual sequence involving multiple interments, tomb re-use and the ‘secondary treatment’ of earlier burials. ‘Secondary treatment’ is a rather vague, all-inclusive term, which includes various practices, such as disarticulating skeletons, mingling the bones and relocating them in piles or scatters either inside or outside the tomb (completely or selectively). Two questions arise: Why is this practice introduced? Why does it take different forms? The recent excavation of Ayios Vasilios North Cemetery in Laconia was designed on the basis of an integrated bioarchaeological strategy in order to provide the opportunity to fully explore these issues. While our ultimate goal is to understand the causes and consequences of the wider transformations in funerary practices, the focus of this paper is on one aspect: the re-use of graves and the secondary treatment of earlier burials. Through an integrated approach which aims to reconcile archaeological theory with current methodological advances in bioarchaeology and funerary taphonomy, we seek to reconstruct the funerary activities in great detail, in order to fully observe variation and change, and, ultimately, understand how this considerable variation may inform us on the re-definition of social relations at death, or shifting notions of the self.Beyond the specifics of the Mycenaean case-study, our aim is also to address broader methodological and theoretical questions, stressing the need for a true integration in the study of mortuary assemblages. To this end, we propose a taphonomy-oriented, methodological approach for the field recording and lab analysis of the human remains, drawing on current advances in archaeothanatology, forensic science, and analysis of commingled remains. This approach works best if placed within a clear theoretical framework, which recognises the manipulation of the dead body as closely associated with notions of personhood, and at the same time respects the historical specificity of the mortuary context and engages with the full complexity of contextual empirical data. Using the case of Ayios Vasilios in order to illustrate this process, our specific questions include: the formation characteristics of funerary assemblages, frequency and sequence of tomb use, diversity of secondary treatment, and age and sex differences in funerary treatment.Our results demonstrate a considerable extent of variation in funerary disposal and secondary treatment during this transitional period. Shifts of emphasis within this diverse treatment, especially regarding bodily fragmentation and modes of dispersal, suggest that, in Ayios Vasilios, a) age, but not sex, differences in funerary treatment were at play, b) mortuary transformation embodies the transformation from narrower (possibly household-based) associations to increasingly wider concepts of lineage and descent, c) tensions between tradition and innovation, as well as integration and differentiation, are evident in the variation of secondary treatment and co-existence of different forms (as already attested in other funerary and daily practices).

Reciprocity in Aegean Palatial Societies

This collection of papers is the third and final installment in a series meant to update the archaeological study of Aegean Bronze Age economies based on current research in economic anthropology and new archaeological and textual data from Minoan and Mycenaean states. The first collection, titled ‘Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies’, was published in the American Journal of Archaeology in 2011 (volume 115.2). The second, titled ‘Crafts, Specialists, and Markets in Mycenaean Greece,’ was published in the American Journal of Archaeology in 2013 (volume 117.3). In these first two collections, we argued that studies of ‘redistribution’ in Aegean palatial societies, whether archaeological, textual, or both, fail to capture the totality of economic activity that must have occurred in Late Bronze Age states and largely ignore the social implications of such activity. Rather, in order to explain the regional distribution of artifacts, some form of ‘market’-based exchange must have occurred. In this introduction we suggest that systems of ‘reciprocity’ preceded and underpinned modes of redistribution and market exchange, and also served to integrate Bronze Age social structures.

From Reciprocity to Centricity

In this paper, I examine the role of reciprocal relations in processes of social change. More precisely, I discuss the transformation of modes of interaction and sumptuary behavior across a long period, from the collapse of the Early Bronze Age proto-urban societies, through the slow recovery during the Middle Bronze Age, to the intensification of social change during the transition to the Mycenaean period. A deep crisis swept across the southern Aegean at around 2200–2000 bc, bringing an end to the prosperous Early Helladic societies. While the causes of this crisis have been hotly debated, its consequences for the social fabric of the mainland communities have not been addressed systematically. In this study, I suggest that depopulation, social regression, and the ensuing fragmentation of the social body during Middle Helladic (MH) I–II (ca. 2100–1800 bc) were countered by two sets of practices: on the one hand, the establishment of reciprocal and segmentary networks of exchange that held together domestic groups, communities, and entire regions, and on the other, an emphasis on the continuity of the household that ensured its survival in this unstable period. The incorporation of the mainland into wider networks of interaction during the transition to the Mycenaean period (ca. 1800–1600 bc) brought about the transformation of kin-based MH societies to the differentiated Mycenaean polities. It is argued that this transformation relied on the manipulation of reciprocal exchanges and the subtle redefinition of modes of cooperation between households and kin groups.

Prehistoric and historic hydraulic technologies in stormwater and wastewater management in Greece: a brief review

Development of urban settlements during ancient years in Greece created the need for sewerage and drainage system infrastructures. For the first time, open sewerage systems mainly stone-built are found in the Minoan Civilization. Back in those times, extensive collection systems and use of storm-water has been recorded. At the same time, wastewater was used in order to fertilize agricultural land. Developed knowledge and technology on hydraulic and sewerage systems was also found in Cycladic and Mycenaean Civilization where significant irrigation systems were found. After a period of stability, throughout the Geometric period, gradual progress was observed, which peaked in Classical and Hellenistic period from 479 BC until 67 BC. During Roman Era, baths, toilets, and sewerage systems were established.

Human-landscape interactions in Halkidiki (NC Greece) over the last 3.5 millennia, revealed through palynological, and archaeological-historical archives

The palynological investigation of a sediment core from the Tristinika coastal marsh reveals the strong correlation between vegetation development and human settlement in Halkidiki and provides the first complete record of vegetation transformations over the last 3.5 millennia. Taking into consideration the climatic variability of this period, the correlation of pollen data to the rich archaeological and historic archives elucidates the interactive human-environment relationship, in the vicinity of Torone an important ancient harbour of Halkidiki and Mount Athos with its great monastic history. The pollen record shows distinct landscape changes in which an impressive dominance of Erica heaths is succeeded by the expansion of Mediterranean pine woodlands and other maquis vegetation and different land uses (olive, cereal cultivation) show alternating phases of expansion and contraction. Signs of Olea and cereal cultivation appear in the Mycenaean era. Extensive Olea cultivation marks the Archaic/mid-Roman era and post-Byzantine/modern era. Systematic cereal cultivation starts in the Archaic but peaks in late-Roman/early-Byzantine era, it returns in the post-Byzantine era and peaks in Ottoman/Modern Times. Animal husbandry is the most regular human activity in the area and the cause of the great expansion of heaths. The most impressive phase of the diagram coincides with the period of the plague of Justinian (6th–8th century CE) that leads to a collapse of human activity in the area and to an abrupt expansion of Mediterranean pine and oak woodlands due to favorable climatic conditions and the lack of grazing pressure.

Grave Matters: Mediating Corporeal Objects and Subjects through Mortuary Practices

Grave Matters: Mediating Corporeal Objects and Subjects through Mortuary Practices

Sport in the Mycenaean civilization

Sport in the Mycenaean civilization

‘Manly hearted’ Mycenaeans (?): challenging preconceptions of warrior ideology in Mycenae’s Grave Circle B

This article investigates the distribution of weaponry in what is arguably one of the most important and distinctive archaeological sites in Greece, a funerary site that is seen as the starting point on the mainland for the expression and aggrandisement of the male Mycenaean warrior in death. The Shaft Graves are made up of two walled burial precincts, known as Grave Circle A, and Grave Circle B, the first located within and the other just outside the fortification walls of Mycenae in the region of the Argolid in the north-eastern Peloponnese on the Mainland of Greece. Most likely built by an elite kin group or groups vying to establish something akin to dynastic power, they are the richest graves documented on Mainland Greece up to that time and represent a momentous ideological shift in Mycenaean culture that took place on the mainland of Greece, c. 1700–1450 BC. Grave Circle B came into use first, and Grave Circle A shortly thereafter. Both cemeteries were active from the MHIII to LHII periods.

The Conglomerate Quarry at the Mycenaean Site of Vapheio-Palaiopyrgi in Laconia

Although many studies have been published on Minoan quarries, few details have ever been published on Mycenaean quarries. Here we present a conglomerate quarry discovered at the Bronze Age site of Vapheio-Palaiopyrgi in Laconia, best known for its tholos tomb. The quarry preserves many unusual features, including a column base in situ and curved cuttings indicating the removal of additional blocks of stone. It is proposed that the quarry should be associated with Late Bronze Age Mycenaean culture based on its topography, the importance of the Eurotas Valley in this era, and the material—namely conglomerate—that characterized and became symbolic of Mycenaean prestige architecture.