Review of Aegean Prehistory VI: the Palatial Bronze Age of the Southern and Central Greek Mainland Author(S): Cynthia W

Review of Aegean Prehistory VI: The Palatial Bronze Age of the Southern and Central Greek Mainland Author(s): Cynthia W. Shelmerdine Reviewed work(s): Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 101, No. 3 (Jul., 1997), pp. 537-585 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/507109 . Accessed: 14/05/2012 10:56

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http://www.jstor.org Review of Aegean Prehistory VI: The Palatial Bronze Age of the Southern and Central Greek Mainland

CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE

Dedicatedto John Chadwickand William A. McDonald

INTRODUCTION with emphasis on current scholarly views about My- cenaean culture in the palatial age.* Much of the This review of Aegean prehistory focuses on the evidence on which these views depend has emerged Late Bronze Age in southern and central Greece, or been reassessed during the last two decades. In

* My thanks to Fred Kleiner and Tracey Cullen for inson, A Gazetteer of Aegean Civilisation viting me to contribute to this series in AJA, and for their in the Bronze Age 1: The Mainland and editorial help. I owe a particular debt to J.L. Davis, who Islands (SIMA 52, G6teborg 1979). set the standard and showed the way in the first review Hdigg and R. Hdigg and N. Marinatos eds., Sanctu- of this series (AJA 96 [1992] 699-756), and to J.B. Rutter Marinatos aries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age for his coverage of the prepalatial Greek mainland (AJA (Stockholm 1981). 97 [1993] 745-97). This review is dedicated to two pioneers Hdigg and R. Hdigg and G.C. Nordquist eds., Cele- with whom I was privileged to work: John Chadwick in Nordquist brations of Death and Divinity in the textual matters, and William A. McDonald on the archae- Bronze Age Argolid (Stockholm 1990). ological side. Kardulias P.N. Kardulias ed., Beyond the Site: Re- Many colleagues have been generous in their response gional Studies in the AegeanArea (Lon- to pleas for information, permissions, and/or advice: Vas- don 1994). silis Aravantinos, Paul Astr6m,John Bennet, Emmett Ben- Killen J.T. Killen, "The Linear B Tablets and nett, Pierre Carlier, Eric Cline, Fred Cooper, Michael Cos- the Mycenaean Economy," in A. Mor- mopoulos, Jack Davis, Peter Day, Katie Demakopoulou, purgo Davies and Y. Duhoux eds., Oliver Dickinson, Elizabeth French, Robin Hdigg, Halford Linear B:A 1984 Survey (Bibliotheque Haskell, Spiros lakovides, John Killen, Eleni Konsolaki- des Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguis- Yannopoulou, Peter Kuniholm, Albert Leonard, Christo- tique de Louvain 26, Louvain 1985) pher Mee, Jose Melena, Penelope Mountjoy, Mike Nelson, 241-305. Jean-Pierre Olivier, Ruth Palmer, Ingo Pini, Cemal Pulak, Mykenaika J.-P. Olivier ed., Mykenaika:Actes du IX' David Curtis Reese, Runnels, Jerry Rutter, Kim Shelton, Colloqueinternational sur les textes myce- Carol Thomas, Gisela Walberg, Peter Warren, Berit Wells, niens et igeens, Athenes,2-6 octobre1990 Malcolm Wiener,Jim Wright, and Eberhard Zangger. I am (BCH Suppl. 25, Paris 1992). also grateful to those who provided technical and editori- Politeia R. Laffineur and W.-D. Niemeier eds., al and help general encouragement: John Bennet, Kate Politeia: Society and State in the Aegean Elaine Bracher, Jack Davis, Godwin, Sebastian Heath, Jan Bronze Age (Aegaeum 12, Liege 1995). Jackson,Jane Okrasinski, Pamela Russell,Jerry Rutter, Susan Rehak P. Rehak ed., The Role of the Ruler in the and Chris Williams. the best Shelmerdine, Despite efforts Prehistoric Aegean (Aegaeum 11, Liege of all these people, this review does not claim to be a com- 1995). treatment of all of LH III Greece. As prehensive aspects Rutter J.B. Rutter, "Review of Aegean Prehistory usual in such the choice of cases, topics included is idio- II: The Prepalatial Bronze Age of the syncratic, but I hope others too will find them important Southern and Central Greek Main- and interesting. land," AJA 97 (1993) 745-97. The following abbreviations are used in this review: Studies Bennett J.-P.Olivier and T.G. Palaima eds., Texts, des "Chronique" "Chronique fouilles," BCH. Tabletsand Scribes: Studies in Mycenae- Davis "Review of J.L. Davis, Aegean Prehistory an Epigraphy and Economy Offered to The Islands of the 96 I: Aegean," AJA EmmettL. Bennett,Jr. (Minos Suppl. 10, (1992) 699-756. Salamanca 1988). Documents2 M. Ventris and Documents J. Chadwick, Studies Chadwick J.T. Killen,J.L. Melena, andJ.-P. Olivier in Greek2 Mycenaean (Cambridge 1973). eds., Studies in Mycenaean and Classi- French and French and K.A. Wardle E.B. eds., Prob- cal Greek Presented to John Chadwick Wardle lems in Greek Prehistory (Bristol 1988). (Minos 20-22, Salamanca 1987). Gazetteer R. Hope Simpson and O.T.P.K.Dickin-

537 American Journal of Archaeology 101 (1997) 537-85 538 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Korakou lolkos Tsoungiza DiminiV 0 ZygouriesV Mycenae?V Berbati Prosymna* pendra Ayios Aros Midea Konstanilinos Argos~ Tirynsuro

D naVElateia o f Orchomenos SVDelphi V Gla* PolisCave Krisa Vlicha Amarynthos

Aetos Thebes V E uresis Teikhos V Kallithea * Panakton Dymaion * Chalandritsa v Derveni Eleusisrystos v-- AthensBra on o AreaPerati v inset map Perat

Mantinea * I orikos Palaiokastro VKakovat [ Peristeria

Mouriatada o

Volimidia VEllinika 4Routsi' Menelaion Tragana,os # . V'Kouk •Vunara k• . Amyklai• Step 2 anosA VSettlement andtomb * Mainlysettlement * Mainlytomb

0 25 50 75 100 km

Fig. 1. Map of archaeological sites in Greece mentioned in the text. (C.W.Shelmerdine and C. Williams) addition to new discoveries, new interpretations have ing islands except for Euboea. The chronological fo- been inspired by advances in technology and by cus is the high point of Mycenaean culture during changes in our own cultural attitudes, which influ- the 14th and 13th centuries B.C., defined in ceramic ence the way we look at the past. terms as the Late Helladic (LH) IIIA and LH IIIB The geographical scope (fig. 1) coincides with that periods. Any analysis of the Mycenaean states would of Rutter's review in AJA on the prepalatial Bronze be incomplete, however, without consideration of Age.' The northern limit of coverage extends from their rise and fall. Recent debate on the emergence the Gulf of Arta in the west to the mouth of the Sper- of statehood has included essential developments cheios River in the east. Below this line the entire during the Early Mycenaean period, LH I-II. Sim- mainland is included, and the immediately surround- ilarly, discussion of the destructions that ended the

I Rutter 746. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 539

Mycenaean palatial era ca. 1200 B.C. also requires through the invaluable yearly reviews in Archaeolog- consideration of their consequences for the follow- ical Reports and the "Chronique des fouilles" in the ing LH IIIC period. Bulletin de correspondancehellenique. Bibliographical Even with some flexibility in its chronological lim- access to developments in Linear B studies has been its, this review covers a shorter time period than most more difficult during the same period. The listings of the others in this series. By way of compensation, of books, articles, and reviews in Nestor include tex- an extra dimension is highlighted: the use of textual tual as well as archaeological contributions,3 but the evidence. Our ability to read Mycenaean Greek in- summary publication Studies in MycenaeanInscriptions creases the range of questions we can ask about the and Dialect was in hiatus from 1978 until its resur- period, and the Linear B tablets raise special prob- rection in 1995.4 Until very recently, new work on lems of their own. In combination with archaeolog- the Bronze Age has not been much summarized, as- ical discoveries, these texts also contribute to research sessed, or synthesized.5 A welcome change is now on a variety of cultural issues such as religion and evident, with the appearance of comprehensive economic administration. The material to be ad- studies of Bronze Age Crete and mainland Greece dressed is thus quite diverse, and is better suited to as well as analytical bibliographies of Mycenaean a thematic approach than to a strict chronological society.6 These publications, and the "Review of Ae- or geographical organization. This review is there- gean Prehistory" series itself, document how much fore arranged under the following headings: chronol- has happened in this field in two decades. ogy, work at palatial centers and other sites, regional CHRONOLOGY surveys and settlement patterns, technological advances, ceramic studies, development of Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIA-B chronology, both relative and states, new inscriptions, economic and political ad- absolute, is more straightforward than that of pre- ministration, religion, and destructions. ceding phases of the Bronze Age. Nonetheless, it is The publication of Hope Simpson and Dickinson's affected by several recent developments, and some Gazetteer in 1979 is the starting point for the review points remain in dispute. The alternative chronol- of fieldwork.2 Since then it has been possible to ogies of the Late Bronze Age are given in table 1.7 keep abreast of archaeological activity in Greece Ceramic synchronisms still play a role in the debate

2 with information 1977. Davis Gazetteer, through 700 a general audience. B. Eder, Staat, Herrschaft, Gesellschaft and Rutter 747 also this acknowledge publication as a ter- infriihgriechischer Zeit. Eine Bibliographie 1978-1991/92 (Anz- minus for their reviews. post quem Wien 611, Vienna 1994) is part of a handbook project on 3Nestor, published monthly September through May by State and Society of Early Greece by the Mykenische Kom- the of Department Classics, University of Cincinnati, and mission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, under the also available on diskette or FTP computer by (information editorship of S. Deger-Jalkotzy. It includes the Dark Ages and searchable database available on the World Wide Web and Homer as well as the Late Bronze Age. Its coverage at http://ucaswww.mcm.uc.edulclassics/nestor/nestor.html [22 of textual matters is quite broad; archaeological studies May 1997]). are included if they pertain to society and kingship. B. Feuer, 4The last compilation published was L. Baumbach, Mycenaean Civilization: A Research Guide (Research Guides to Studies in Mycenaean Inscriptions and Dialect, 1965-1978 (In- Ancient Civilizations 5, New York 1996) offers a brief intro- cunabula graeca 86, Rome 1986). Publication has now been duction to Mycenaean civilization and an annotated bib- resumed under the of the in auspices Program Aegean liography organized by topic. Other bibliographical re- and and the of Scripts Prehistory Department Classics, Uni- sources include Studies in Mycenaean Inscriptions and Dialect of Texas at Austin. The first versity volume to appear un- (supra n. 4) and Nestor (supra n. 3). der this rubric is E. ed., Studies in In- Sikkenga Mycenaean 7High chronology dates are taken from S.W. Manning, and 1979 Future volumes scriptions Dialect, (Austin 1995). The AbsoluteChronology of the AegeanEarly BronzeAge. Archaeol- are to fill the from planned gap 1980 to 1995, as well as ogy, Radiocarbon and History (Sheffield 1995) 217-29; and current years. S.W.Manning and B. Weninger, "ALight in the Dark: Archae- 5K. Kilian, to Trends and "Mycenaeans Up Date, ological Wiggle Matching and the Absolute Chronology in Recent in French and Wardle 115-52 Changes Research," of the Close of the Aegean Late Bronze Age," Antiquity 66 is an admirable ahead of its exception, characteristically (1992) 636-63. Manning and Weninger report the end of time. LH IIIC as 1125/1065/1060, but the reasoning behind the 6 R. Treuil et al., Les civilisations du egiennes N&olithique earliest figure, derived from A. Snodgrass, The Dark Age et de du Bronze is a fine textbook l'Age (Paris 1989) survey of Greece:An ArchaeologicalSurvey of the Eleventh to the of Crete and mainland Eighth Greece. O.T.P.K.Dickinson, TheAe- Centuries B.C. (Edinburgh 1971) 122-23, is not now consid- gean BronzeAge (Cambridge 1994) is impressive as one man's ered feasible. synoptic overview, organized thematically. Les myceniens: Low chronology dates are taken from P. Warren and V. Les du Paris grecs IFe millnaire (DossPar 195, 1994) addresses Hankey, AegeanBronze Age Chronology(Bristol 1989) 137-69. 540 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Table 1. Late Bronze Age Chronologies High Low Modified LH I ca. 1680-1600/1580 1600-1510/1500 LH IIA 1600/1580-1520/1480 1510/1500-1440 LH IIB 152011480-142511390 1440-1390+ LH IIIA1 142511390-139011370 1390+ -1370/1360 1390+ -ca. 1370 LH IIIA2 1390/1370-1340/1330 1370/1360-1340/1330 1370-1310/1300 LH IIIB 1340/1330-1190/1180 1340/1330-1185/1180 1310/1300-1190/1180 LH IIIC 1190/1180-1065/1060 1185/1180-1065 1190/1180-1065 over absolute chronology. In the last decade, how- years."' The traditional cutoff date of ca. 1340/1330 ever, the focus has been on radiocarbon and den- accommodated the view that Mycenaean pottery drochronological data, both of which have been from Tell el-Amarna in Egypt includes two stirrup refined in accuracy and augmented by new samples. jar fragments with LH IIIB features. The Egyptian An important recent discovery is a dramatic growth court abandoned Amarna in year 3 of Tutankha- anomaly in Anatolian trees, which may bear on the mun, who according to the currently favored mid- much-debated absolute date of the Minoan eruption dle chronology reigned from 1336 to 1327 B.C. A of the island of Thera." That debate is crucial for case has been made, however, that both jars can be our understanding of the Early Mycenaean period, dated to LH IIIA2." Support for an even later end but it has only indirect consequences for LH III.9 to LH IIIA2 comes from the shipwreck being exca- The point of transition between LH II and LH IIIAl vated off the coast of Turkey at Uluburun. A small will of course depend on which chronology is fol- log from the wreck that was firewood or dunnage, lowed, but the two necessarily converge in LH IIIA. and was cut not long before the ship sank, has a last The dates listed above do need one modification, ring of 1316 B.C.'2 The Mycenaean pottery on board in the length of LH IIIA2. There is widespread agree- is all compatible with a date in LH IIIA2 except for ment that this period lasted longer than 30-40 one jug, still being restored and studied, that may

The proposed modificationsfor LH IIIA-IIIBare explained cite his work. infra. Warren and Hankey provide a good summary of the 1) Manning (supra n. 7) 228; Wiener (supra n. 9). At ceramic and 14C data as of 1988. Proponents of a low or Nichoria, for example, it accommodates three phases of short Aegean chronology rely chiefly on proposed synchro- ceramic development, which occur in a stratified sequence nisms between the Aegean and Egypt in dating the erup- in area IV: C.W. Shelmerdine, "Mycenaean Pottery from tion on Thera to the later 16th century B.C. The high or the Settlement, Part III: Late Helladic IIIA2-IIIB2 Pottery," long chronology rests primarily on scientific evidence (tree- in W.A. McDonald and N. Wilkie eds., Excavations at Nichoria rings, ice cores, and 14C dates) that documents a "frost II: The Bronze Age Occupation (Minneapolis 1992) 495. event" in 1628 B.C. Supporters draw the inference that the " In favor of a LH IIIB date: V. Hankey, "Stirrup Jars eruption of Thera caused this event. at El-Amarna," in WV. Davies and L. Schofield eds., 8 Egypt, P.I. Kuniholm et al., "Anatolian Tree Rings and the Ab- the Aegean and the Levant. Interconnections in the Second Mil- solute Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean, 2220-718 lennium BC (London 1995) 116-24, nos. 6, 8; cf. Warren and B.C.,"Nature 381 (27June 1996) 780-83; an update on the Hankey (supra n. 7) 149-51, 150 figs. 8-9. In favor of a LH number of trees observed is reported by Kuniholm, "'Aegean IIIA2 date: Elizabeth French, personal communication, also Dendrochronology Project December 1996 Progress Re- cited by Wiener (supra n. 9). Hankey no. 6 is FS 171 (LH port" (unpublished), a newsletter circulated by the project IIIA2-C1) or FS 173 (LH IIIB). The distinction rests on director. The growth spike occurs at and just following rel- the relationship between height and diameter, which can- ative ring/year 854 of 54 trees from the site of Porsuk in not be determined in this case from the amount preserved. south-central Anatolia. The radiocarbon date range is com- The lozenge FM 73 is primarily a LH IIIB motif, which patible with linking this event to the 1628/1627 B.C. event appears in LH IIIA2 chiefly as an accessory: E.B. French, observed in dendrochronologies of Europe and the United "Late Helladic IIIA 2 Pottery from Mycenae," BSA 60 (1965) States. A second event 470 years later also links up plaus- 181, 190. As for Hankey no. 8, French (personal commu- ibly with an anomaly seen in Europe; together the two nication) reports Mountjoy's view that it may be FS 166 would anchor a formerly floating 1,503-year dendrochrono- (LH IIIA2-IIIB) rather than FS 182 (LH IIIB). logical sequence from Anatolia. The Aegean chronology 12 Kuniholm et al. (supra n. 8) 782; C. Pulak, "The Ulu- is tied in by the further inference that the Minoan erup- burun Shipwreck," in R. Hohlfelder and S. Swiny eds., Res tion of Thera caused the growth event of 1628 B.C. Maritima 1994: Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean,Prehis- Davis 736 with n. 160; Manning (supra n. 7) 30-31, tory through the Roman Period (BASOR -' Archaeological Reports 200-29; M. Wiener, The Chronologyof Late Bronze Age Egypt 4, Atlanta 1997). I thank Peter Kuniholm and Cemal Pulak and the Aegean: Science, Texts,Interconnections (unpublished for discussing the matter with me and providing this defin- manuscript). I thank Malcolm Wiener for allowing me to itive date. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 541 be early LH IIIB.'" With an absolute date for the much less attention has been paid to smaller settle- shipwreck in or shortly after 1316 B.C., it would ap- ments. This section summarizes recent work at pa- pear that LH IIIA2 must continue almost to the end latial and other settlements, but discoveries at many of the 14th century B.C. Furthermore, if one vessel of the sites receive further attention below in the really belongs to the following phase, the transition relevant thematic sections. to LH IIIB (a process, after all, not a moment) is be- Mycenae. The site of Mycenae is now under the ginning at about that time. general supervision of George Mylonas's successor, One other chronological issue needs only brief Spyros lakovides, who has conducted some explor- mention. A recent attempt to lower the dates of the ations inside the citadel, in the vicinity of the Lion Dark Ages would bring the conventional second- Gate and in the northwest corner of the acropolis.'7 millennium chronology down by 250 years, with the There is still an active British presence here as well, Egyptian 18th Dynasty beginningjust after 1300 B.C. directed by Elizabeth French. Activity during the and ending just after 1050 B.C.4"This radical redat- 1980s and 1990s at this well-explored site has chiefly ing draws attention to some valid difficulties with involved study and publication, rather than new ex- the conventional chronology for the Dark Ages. As cavations. The latest joint Greek-British effort is a far as the Late Bronze Age is concerned, though, survey project that began in 1991, and will soon be the attempt flies in the face of sound scientific evi- published by the Archaeological Society of Ath- dence and has met with significant criticism.15 The ens.'8 This is not a regional survey, and no syste- present framework for continued refinement and matic collection of material was attempted. Rather, debate on Aegean chronology is still confined to the like the earlier Knossos survey,'" it was designed to alternatives presented in table 1. locate, identify, and map all visible remains throughout the settlement of Mycenae- an area of about 32 ha-after more than a of WORK AT PALATIALCENTERS AND OTHER SITES century exploration. The effort is especially valuable in the case of struc- Palaces and Citadels tures whose location or identity had been forgotten In the past 20 years exploration has been renewed over time, as for a number of chamber tombs ex- or continued at most of the known Mycenaean pa- cavated in the 1880s and 1890s by Tsountas. Most latial centers and citadels.16 The result is a better of Tsountas's tomb groups have now been reiden- understanding of the nature of such sites and of their tified, and over half of the individual tombs have history, especially during LH IIIB. Many cemeteries been matched to their old excavation numbers."2 and isolated tombs have also been excavated, but The project has also retraced the network of roads

'1 Rutter has retracted the statement cited by Kuniholm 1992-1993, 47; AR 1994-1995, 35-36. Though to date only et al. (supra n. 8) 782 that the wreck certainly contains a street and private houses have been found, the excava- LH IIIB pottery, but the possibility remains for the jug tors have proposed that Dimini is a better candidate for mentioned here: C. Pulak, personal communication, and Iolkos. Presumably future work will strengthen or weaken Pulak (supra n. 12). this possibility. There is 17 nothing inconsistent with a late 14th-century Above and east of the Lion Gate, building N and end to LH IIIA2 in the Kuniholm rooms I-IX: G.E. and S. unpublished report by Mylonas Iakovides, "Avaoaaq•il (supra n. 8) of a date of 1353 B.C. for wood (without bark) MuoKrlvv,"Prakt 1984, 233-40; AR 1985-1986, 27. North- in the upper Hittite level at Magat H6yuik. The wood is east of the Lion Gate: lakovides, "Avaowaqil MuKo•v(ov," from a building that contains a Mycenaean stirrup jar and Prakt 1989, 38-43; AR 1992-1993, 18. Northwest corner of flask, both of which appear to date to the transition be- the acropolis: AR 1986-1987, 17. Southwest corner of the tween LH IIIA and IIIB (personal communication, Elizabeth site: Ergon 1989, 8-12; AR 1989-1990, 15. For overviews, French). The wood dates construction of the building to see also Mylonas, Mycenae, Rich in Gold (Athens 1983); and soon after 1353 B.C., while the to the time of "H pots belong lakovides, ApXatoXoytKilETatpsia otM; MuKoilvq,"ArchEph its destruction. 1987, 339-59. 14 P. James et al., Centuries of Darkness (London 1991). 18 S. and E.B. French, Atlas '5 Iakovides Archaeological of CambridgeArchaeological Journal 1 (1991) 227-53; Man- Mycenae (Athens, forthcoming); cf. AR 1991-1992, 16-17; and n. n. ning Weninger (supra 7); Manning (supra 7) 23-24. AR 1992-1993, 18. I thank Elizabeth French for allowing 16The in regional sequence the Gazetteer is adopted me to see a preliminary draft of the publication text. here in discussion of sites and A 19 throughout surveys. M.S.E Hood and D. Smyth, Archaeological Survey of the possible change in the list of palatial centers is worth men- Knossos Area (London 1981). it falls outside of the review area. tioning, though The Kas- 20 K.S. Shelton, "Tsountas' Chamber Tombs at Mycenae," tro site at Volos (Gazetteer H1) had previously been iden- ArchEph 1993, 187-210. The known tombs and their finds tified as on the of Iolkos, strength two successive large had already been restudied, and the problems of identifica- buildings. Recent excavation has revealed an extensive tion A. Myce- noted, by Xenaki-Sakellariou, 01 6aAapcoroi rdq'po naean settlement at Dimini: AR 1991-1992, 39; AR rcov MuK17vchV (Paris 1985). 542 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Fig. 2. Panoramic view southwest from citadel. From left to right, Treasuryof Atreus (dromos into hillside visible), Panayia Houses on ridge just to the north, and the House of the Oil Merchant group (lower right of figure, east of road). in the Mycenae area, and established that the loca- Oil Merchant, and the House of Sphinxes), and all tion of cemeteries is related to it.21 were destroyed by fire near the middle of the period. Two groups of houses outside the citadel walls Tournavitou provides a full account of the houses have now been fully published, the Panayia Houses themselves and the materials found in them.23 north of the Treasury of Atreus, and the Oil Mer- Whatever other purposes these houses may have chant group some 200 m further north and across served, they were at least repositories for oil and the modern road (fig. 2). The first group consists worked ivories, and probably for perishable com- of three LH IIIB houses, of modest domestic char- modities as well. This is suggested by the presence acter.22 Panayia House I, built first, was destroyed of Linear B tablets, which deal, among other issues, shortly before the end of LH IIIB1. The cause was with the collection of spices (Ge series), disburse- apparently an earthquake: a woman's body was found ments of wool (Oe), and maintenance of male and in a doorway, her skull crushed, buried by the de- female personnel (Au).24These topics are character- struction debris. The same earthquake damaged istic of palatial concerns elsewhere, and Tournavi- House II, a somewhat later construction with a more tou is right, in my view, to regard these buildings elaborate plan. It was then partially repaired and as an integral part of the palace administration. reoccupied for a time before succumbing to a fire. Excavations of the South House and Cult Center House III, a small building belatedly squeezed be- (Citadel House area) during the 1960s are being tween Houses I and II, continued in use well after presented in a series of fascicles, the first of which House I, at least, was abandoned. summarizes the work year by year and briefly de- The Oil Merchant group of houses has a very scribes the LH IIIB2 remains.25 In addition to these different character. These four houses were con- publication projects, a new museum has been constructed early in LH IIIB (first the West House, then structed below and north of the citadel. The galler- in sequence the House of Shields, the House of the ies should be ready by the end of 1997; they will house

21 23 A. Jansen, Stations along the Roads in the Area of Myce- I. Tournavitou, The 'Ivory Houses' at Mycenae (BSA nae: An Analysis of the Mycenaean Road Systemand Its Relation Suppl. 24, London 1995). 24 to the Mycenaean State (Diss. Univ. of Pennsylvania 1994); The tablets receive admirably thorough and profes- J. Lavery, "Some 'New' Mycenaean Roads at Mycenae: sional treatment in C. Varias Garcia, Los documentosen Lineal EU'puyuctaMuK1'vrf," BICS 40 (1995) 264-65. The correla- B de Micenas: Ensayo de interpretaci6nglobal (Diss. Univ. of tion of tomb placement and roads had been doubted by Barcelona 1993). C.B. Mee and Distribution of 25W.D. WellBuilt The Helleno-British Ex- W.G.Cavanagh, "Spatial Myce- Taylour, Mycenae: naean Tombs," BSA 85 (1990) 228-29. cavations within the Citadel at Mycenae, 1959-1969 1: The 22 I.M. Shear, The Panagia Houses at Mycenae (University Excavations (Warminster 1981). Museum Monograph 68, Philadelphia 1987). 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 543

all finds from the site, except those on display in the town was smaller in LH IIIB.Recent geophysical the National Museum at Athens. and soil studies, however,suggest a different view."3 Tiryns. The history of Tiryns has been greatly clar- It is now clear that the Manessi River near the site ified, in large part through the work of the late changed its course in late LH IIIB-early IIIC.A nat- Klaus Kilian.26 The LH IIIA and earlier remains are ural shift from the south to the north side of the discussed below. LH IIIB1 saw rebuilding on the citadel deposited as much as 4 m of alluvium, bury- upper citadel, and walls of mudbrick on stone foun- ing much of the Lower Town east and north of the dations were added around the Lower Citadel (Un- citadel under flash flood deposits. The inhabitants terburg). A conflagration at the end of LH IIIB1 subsequently diverted the river well to the south by necessitated another rebuilding in LH IIIB2. At this constructing a dam and canal, so that houses could point Cyclopean stone fortifications were extended be built in the former streambed. It is likely that the around the entire citadel. At the end of LH IIIB2 Lower Town was at least as large in LH IIIB as in the site was destroyed, according to Kilian, by an LH IIIC, even though much of it is obscured by sed- earthquake.7 The Lower Citadel was rebuilt and iment.I1The same investigations also show that the occupied into the Submycenaean period, ca. 1065/ coastline was only about 300 m southwest of Tiryns 1060-1020/1000 B.C.28 This area was a long- in the Early Bronze Age, ca. 2500 B.C.,but receded standing part of the Tiryns settlement, consisting to ca. 1 km from the citadel during EH II, where of domestic buildings and some cult structures as it remained throughout the Bronze Age.32 well, of both LH IIIB2 and LH IIIC date. In addi- Midea. Work at the citadel of Midea in the Argo- tion, a series of casements (38 at present count) pro- lid resumed as a Greek-Swedish project in 1983, vided additional space for storage and offerings. under the direction of K. Demakopoulou with the Both the west and east sides have been partially ex- collaboration of P. Astr6m.: The Swedish team has cavated. Meticulous attention to stratigraphy in the been working in the area of the East Gate and on Lower Citadel has also led to the refinement of ce- the lower terraces, and the Greek team in the area ramic phases from LH IIIA2 Late through LH IIIC of the West Gate. All three areas suffered a burning (see below). destruction late in LH 11IB2,and large fallen blocks Around the hill lay a Lower Town that was inhab- and collapsed walls suggest that the cause was an ited from the Early Helladic period through LH IIIC earthquake.Foundation trenches for the citadel wall Late. It expanded greatly in LH IIIB or IIIC; in LH near the East Gate and on a lower terrace contained IIIC Early-Middle (the 12th and early 11th centu- LH IIIB2 pottery,showing that at least some sections ries B.C.) it covered 24.5 Kilian thought that of the wall were constructed during that phase. A ha.2'-

26S. Iakovides,"Das Werk Klaus Kilians,"AM 108 (1993) 33"ArchDelt38 (1983) Chron. 76-78; P. Astr6m and K. 9-27 provides a good summary of Kilian'swork at the site. Demakopoulou, "NewExcavations in the Citadel of Midea Reports by K. Kilian of the 1976-1983 seasons appear in 1983-1984," OpAth16 (1986) 19-25; Astr6m, AA Demakopou- 1978, 449-70; AA 1979, 379-411; AA 1981, 149-94; AA lou, and G. Walberg, "Excavationsin Midea, 1985," AA OpAth 1982, 393-430; 1983, 277-328; and AA 1988, 105-51. 17 (1988) 7-11; Astr6m et al., "Excavationsin Midea, 1987," are accounts of They accompanied by LH III ceramics by OpAth18 (1990) 9-22; et al., "Excavationsin Midea, C. Podzuweit in AA AA Astr6m 1978,471-98; 1979,412-40; AA 1981, 1989-1990,"OpAth 19 (1992) 11-22; Walberg,"Excavations AA andAA 194-220; 1983,359-402; 1988, 213-25; G. Hiesel on the Lower Terraces at Midea,"OpAth 19 (1992) 23-39; in AA 1982, and G. in AA 431-39; Sch6nfeld 1988, 153-211. Demakopoulou, N. Divari-Valakou,and Walberg,"Excava- The 1984 and 1985 seasons are in reported "Chronique" tions and Restoration Work in Midea 1990-1992," OpAth 1985, 776-78; "Chronique"1986, 689-91; AR 1984-1985, 20 (1994) 19-41; Demakopoulou, "MycenaeanCitadels: Re- 20-21; and AR 1985-1986, 26-27. cent Excavations on the Acropolis of Midea in the Argo- 27Kilian 1981 n. Kilian (supra 26) 192; 1983 (supra lid,"BICS 1995, 151-61; Astr6m, "The Mycenaean Citadel n. 26) 277; E. around Zangger,"Landscape Changes Tiryns of Midea,"Journal of Prehistoric Religion 8 (1994) 5-6; and the Bronze 98 207-10. during Age,"AJA (1994) Walberg,"The 1995 Excavation of the Megaron at 28The most recent statement on Midea," Tiryns chronology is World Wide Web at http://ucaswww.mcm.uc.edu/classics/ P.A. by Mountjoy, MycenaeanPottery:An Introduction (Oxford midea.html (23 May 1997). My thanks to Katie Demako- 1993) 160. poulou and Gisela Walberg for me see the follow- 29 n. letting Zangger (supra 27) 197, fig. 8. ing progress reports on the excavations in advance of n. pub- :0 Zangger (supra 27) 189-212;J.M. Balcer, "The My- lication:Demakopoulou, "Excavations in Midea 1994," cenaean Dam at 78 OpAth Tiryns,"AJA (1974) 141-49. (forthcoming);Demakopoulou, "Excavations in Midea 1995," 31 n. Zangger (supra 27) 211-12, with reference to Kil- (unpublished report submitted to the Institute for ian 1978 n. 470. Aegean (supra 26) Prehistory);and Walberg,"The Excavationof the 32 Zangger n. 4. Megaron (supra 27) 194-98, fig. at Midea"(unpublished report). 544 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

MH-LH II• LHIIIB

LH IIIB and IIIC LHIIIC

r i / 1 -

"_ ------r,,

--i ......

Megaron

Drain 0 1 2 3 4 5m .

Fig. 3. Midea. Plan of the lower terraces. (C.W.Shelmerdine and C. Williams, after plan courtesy G. Walberg) section near the West Gate was apparently built in Both produced stratified deposits of LH IIIB and LH IIIB1, however, since no later pottery was found LH IIIC below Roman occupation layers, as well as in the foundation trench explored there. earlier material. Sherds in a foundation trench for A complex of six rooms abutting the citadel wall the citadel wall in area M confirm a LH IIIB2 con- inside the West Gate served as workshops and store- struction date for that section, matching findings rooms. Among the finds were remains of foodstuffs from the upper gate areas. A large (14 x 7.5 m) mega- such as figs, olive stones, shellfish, small animal bones, ron complex is emerging in area N (fig. 3), but few and grain. Evidence of workshop activity includes details have yet been published.36 It had long been grinding stones and pestles, a steatite jewelry mold, assumed that a megaron had stood on the summit pieces of fluorite and mother-of-pearl, and a bronze of the hill, as at other Mycenaean palaces, although knife of leather-working type.34 Pottery in the de- no architectural traces of such a building were ever struction level is generally of typical LH IIIB2 vari- found. The off-center and less prominent position eties, with good parallels from Mycenae and Tiryns, of the newly discovered structure is thus of interest. but with a few features conventionally assigned to The megaron at Midea has two LH IIIB floor levels. early LH IIIC. This mixture defines a transitional Five buttresses against the south wall are an unusual LH IIIB2/IIIC Early phase recently identified by feature, with a parallel in the LH 111B2 "mansion" Mountjoy (see below).35 at the Menelaion.7 The excavator suggests that they The lower terraces of the citadel have also been may have been intended to protect against earth- the focus of attention, especially in areas M and N. quakes. In this they were unsuccessful, for a tilted

34Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. 33) fig. 36 (fluo- Walberg,World Wide Web (supra n. 33). The following ac- rite), fig. 37 (jewelry mold). count is based chiefly on Walberg,unpublished (supra n. 35Demakopoulou 1995 (supra n. 33) 155; Demakopou- 33). lou, forthcoming (supra n. 33). 37H.W. Catling, "Excavationsat the Menelaion, Sparta, 36Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. 33) 41, fig. 65; 1973-76,"AR 1976-1977, 29, fig. 2. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 545

wall and fallen stones agree with evidence from the propylon 2 is in a suitable place to have been a footer upper gate areas that an earthquake severely dam- under the threshold of such a door.43 aged the site at the end of LH IIIB.38The debris in- Stratigraphical investigations by the Minnesota cludes pottery of the transitional types found in the team also indicate a more complex relative chronol- West Gate area.39 The building was subsequently re- ogy for the site. The sequence of construction is now paired and remodeled: in this LH IIIC reuse a row clear for the northeastern side of the palace. Five of three column bases bisected the main room, rebuilding phases, beginning in the MH period, pre- placing the hearth and four column bases of the date construction of the Main Building and the Wine LH IIIB phase. Among the finds of interest from Magazine, which Blegen dated to the beginning of the LH IIIB2 floor levels of the lower terraces are LH IIIB. Subsequently (phase 7), courts 42 and 47 a large lead vessel and a stirrup jar decorated with were created by the construction of a rubble wall. a body zone of double axes and horns of consecra- A branch of the water channel to the east was diverted tion.4i Linear B inscriptions have been found on to run parallel to the northeast wall of court 47, and both upper and lower terraces (see below). the corridor between the two (ramp 91) was then Pylos. In 1990, members of the project Minnesota paved with plaster. The Northeast Workshop is a still Archaeological Researches in the Western Pelopon- later construction (phase 8), for its southwest wall nese (MARWP) began work at the palatial site of Ano rests on the edge of the water channel. Phase 9 rep- Englianos under the direction of EA. Cooper, with resents post-Mycenaean (Dark Age) habitation of the M.C. Nelson as field director.4' With a view to pre- site, for which there is increasing evidence.44 paring a complete site plan of the architectural re- In addition to this work on the site itself, the vi- mains, the project members are removing backfill, cinity of the palace was intensively surveyed by mem- clearing walls and floors down to the lowest course bers of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project of stone or the lowest level reached by the original in order to determine the size of the settlement. Ar- excavators. A state plan of the Main Building is in tifact densities indicate that habitation extended for progress (fig. 4). Remains uncovered to date reveal about 1 km along the Englianos Ridge and covered some discrepancies from the older published plans its full width (ca. 200-300 m), so that the area of the in a number of areas. For example, the excavator of town was between 20 and 30 ha.43 Geophysical ex- Pylos, Carl Blegen, restored a door between outer ploration by the project has also produced some wel- propylon 1 and room 7 of the Archive Complex, in come surprises. Chief among them is a substantial a wall that had been destroyed by post-Mycenaean subsurface lineament, detected by magnetometry and robbing. Recently it has been suggested that access electric resistivity, on the steep northwestern side to the Archive Complex was more likely to have been of the Epano Englianos ridge. In computer models from the interior of the palace, from inner propy- the upper boundary of the source causing the anom- lon 2 to room 8.42Work in this area during 1995 has aly has been determined to be 1.0-1.5 m below the brought to light some confirmation of this sugges- surface. The lineament is 60 m in length and 2.0- tion: a stone found under the plaster floor of inner 2.7 m wide. Since it runs parallel to the contours of

38 Walberg 1992 (supra n. 33) 31, 38; Walberg, unpub- chives Rooms at Pylos:Form and Function in a Mycenaean lished (supra n. 33); Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. Palace,"AJA 89 (1985) 251-62. 43 33) 39. Cooper (supra n. 41); and EA. Cooper, "Preliminary ""Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. 33) 35. Report: 1995 Season," unpublished report to the Greek 40 Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. 33) 36, fig. 48 Archaeological Service, 6th Classical Ephoreia. My thanks (lead vessel), 36-37, fig. 53 (stirrup jar). to Fred Cooper for giving me a copy of this report. 41AR 44 1991-1992, 27-28; AR 1992-1993, 32-34; AR C. Griebel and M.C. Nelson, "Post-MycenaeanOccu- 1993-1994, 29-30; "Chronique"1993, 796; "Chronique" 1994, pation at the Palace of Nestor,"AJA 97 (1993) 331 (abstract; Nelson and 717; M.C. EA. Cooper, "Excavationsof the text of paper on the World Wide Web at http://marwp.cla. Bronze Palace of Age Nestor, Pylos,"AJA 96 (1992) 362 (ab- umn.edu/PYLOS/aia1992.html[6 June 1997]). See also P. stract);EA. Cooper and E. Swain, "MinnesotaArchaeolog- Cassola Guida, "Considerazionisulla crisi della civilta mi- ical Researchesat Pylos, 1991-1993 Seasons,"AJA 98 (1994) cenea: II palazzo di Pilo,"in E. De Miro, L. Godart, and A. 288 (abstract; text of paper on the World Wide Web Sacconi eds., Atti e memoriedel secondo internazion- at congresso http://marwp.cla.umn.edu/PYLOS/aial993.html[6 June ale di micenologia2 (Incunabula graeca 98.2, Rome 1996) 1997]); and EA. Cooper, "Minnesota Archaeological Re- 693-700. searches at 1994-1995 100 Pylos, Seasons,"AJA (1996) 388 45J.L.Davis et al., "The Pylos Regional Archaeological text of on the World Wide Web (abstract; paper at http:// Project, Part I: Overview and the Archaeological Survey," marwp.cla.umn.edu/PYLOS/aial995.html[6 June 1997]). Hesperia(forthcoming). 42T.G. Palaima andJ.C. Wright,"Ins and Outs of the Ar- 0 0, '2--i ------

trl LAi tTl

' a, ?a 3 d ?1 A-,l UA

LI LI I LI I I t-l 0 0

MARWPPylos Project M.C.Nesn92

Fig. 4. Pylos. State plan of Main Building; draft in progress by M.C. Nelson. Walls reconstructed by Blegen are marked with A (anastylosis). (Courtesy EA. Cooper and M.C. Nelson) 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 547

~ t: ::~:1 ------:~:?;: ~ ...... !:w::;~?:~:: ...... ~ ...... ?1 ...... , :::?...... ? ...... 5~? Lake:~:~ ~?:?:: ~ g ~t ...... ~:~~:::::~-s17 ......

Port :~...... :; ? jii~ii~j~~i :~:~::?t~:i~ ( i: ???::::::2:: l?;i:?::: 5? ...... yg::e%:?:: ~ ,,:;:;...,, ~ii...... ii ??. ?~.s...... r::?:??I...... : ? I:~~ "'':::~...... Cove ...??:?2:?s????~~~~:::~.. ~ ...... JSfl '' . . x ...... ~3:~...... ~ ...... ' ...... ;;tr ?t~i?I ~:~m?:: X.I.I..., ...... S ?;;;.... i i ...... ;:~::~ ~.....~. ~ i~ ~9iiii~~iir~ii ~...... i~WA ...... j:: . . . ::~'::~:~:~jg:~~:?:~s?:...... sr: . ::??::?.. ? :::ii::~:::~,, :::"...... ::...??.. ??...?;?.. ??..::: i:#~ -:?:~:?~:C~ -~5?~ 1:?..:?,:??;??:s:?:??:~?:F::~' ..?:~ present::??:: ?i i::.l:::?::: ~ ..:??: ::i...... jj ?:??::??:??::??..... coast:I::...... 1.;:??.??.?????? ......

Fig. 5. Port basin southwest of the palace at Pylos. (Courtesy E. Zangger) the hill, it is conjectured to be a substantial terrace by Mycenaean engineers. They diverted the Selas or fortification wall, perhaps marking the limit of River from its natural course southward to the Os- the Late Bronze Age settlement in this direction.46 managa Lagoon, cutting a channel through the bed- If confirmed, this discovery would solve the long- rock knoll so that the river would flow through the standing puzzle of why Pylos, alone among Late basin and prevent its outlet to the sea from clogging Bronze Age palatial centers, seemed to be unwalled. with sand. Most of the sediment carried by the river Blegen failed to find traces of such a wall despite would be trapped in the lake. Thus, a relatively clear extensive test excavations, but he looked only in the stream was directed through the basin, and the re- immediate vicinity of the palace, while the distance mainder kept its original course to the lagoon. Cores between the westernmost corner of the palace and from the lagoon, dated by radiocarbon, show that this anomaly is between 50 and 110 m. the deposition rate of riverine sediment there di- Landscape and soil analysis in the Pylos area has minished ca. 1400 B.C., confirming the date at which also resulted in the identification, just inland from the diversion was effected. It was reduced even the west coast near Romanou, of a man-made rect- further ca. 1200 B.C. The best explanation is that angular basin that is interpreted as a protected port when the Mycenaean palace was destroyed and care- for the Palace of Nestor (fig. 5).47 The sediments in ful control of the area ceased, all of the current sim- cores taken from the basin contained marine organ- ply took the shorter route to the sea through the isms, showing that it was once linked to the sea. In- basin--a course it has followed ever since. land of the basin, and separated from it by a bed- Athens. No new excavation of Mycenaean levels has rock knoll, was a lake also apparently constructed taken place on the Acropolis since 1978, but a re-

46 E. Zangger et al., "The Pylos Regional Archaeologi- source of the anomaly and its date have not yet been ver- cal Project, Part II: Landscape Evolution and Site Preser- ified by excavation. vation in the Pylos Region,"Hesperia (forthcoming). The 47Zangger et al., forthcoming (supra n. 46). 548 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

study of the entrance system of the citadel clarifies surrounded an area of 20 ha, but architectural re- many elements and offers a new and convincing remains are confined to a 2-ha enclosure on the high- construction.48 It supports the idea of an oblique est part of the site. The northern building consists entrance similar to the Lion Gate at Mycenae: vis- of two wings, of similar size and construction. They itors would first head westward, with the bastion on are two-storied, and are made up mostly of two- and their right and a terrace on their left, and then turn three-room units bordered by corridors. The build- north to pass through the gate. ing is sometimes referred to as palatial, and the Thebes. The considerable obstacle of a thriving large units at each free corner as megaron-like. modern town obscures the full plan of Mycenaean Neither unit shows traces of a hearth or columns, Thebes, but limited probes in various locations con- however, and the one in the northwest corner has tinue to show that the site was an important center an uncanonical polythyron between rooms 2 and during LH III.49 The old debate over the existence 3. The southern building complex includes long, nar- of one or two palaces seems to have been resolved in row storerooms oriented north-south, with a total favor of two successive structures on the acropolis, area of 2,500 m2. Finds include storage jars and a and the site was fortified at least from LH IIIA. Sev- quantity of grain. Iakovides estimates the storage eral important groups of Mycenaean remains have capacity of these rooms to be at least 2,000 tons.53 been excavated since the publication of the Gazetteer. It appears that the construction of Gla was connected An ivory workshop was found on the M. Loukos plot with the Mycenaean system of dikes and canals that across Pelopidou Street from the so-called Arsenal, controlled drainage of the Copaic Basin, and made destroyed at the end of LH IIIB1.50 Two more exca- up to 20,000 ha available for cultivation.54 As Iako- vations have unearthed important groups of in- vides suggests, the site may have housed overseers scribed Linear B documents (discussed infra). for the area, and also provided storage space for the Gla. Spyros lakovides has summarized the pres- resulting crops.55 ent state of research at Gla in several recent and forthcoming publications.5' The huge acropolis was con- Other Settlements structed at the end of LH IIIA2, and occupied into Only the more important settlement work receives LH IIIB2.52 Its 3-km circuit of fortification walls attention here.56 On the hill of Tsoungiza at Nemea

48J.C.Wright, "The Mycenaean Entrance System at the vides 1995 (supra n. 51) 76. West End of the Akropolis of Athens," Hesperia 63 (1994) 54J.Knauss, B. Heinrich, and H. Kalcyk,Die Wasserbauten 323-60. P.A. Mountjoy, MycenaeanAthens (SIMA-PB 127,Jon- der Minyer in der Kopais: Die iilteste Flussregulierung Europas sered 1995) offers a summary of what is known of Myce- (Munich 1984);J. Knauss, "Die Wasserbau-Kultur der Minyer naean Athens generally, with special emphasis on pottery. in der Kopais (ein Rekonstruktionversuch)," in H. Beister 49 S. Symeonoglou, The Topography of Thebes from the and J. Buckler eds., Boiotika, Vortrdgevom 5. internationalen Bronze Age to Modern Times (Princeton 1985) 26-63; V. Ara- Bootien-Kolloquiumzu Ehren von ProfessorDr. Siegfried Lauffer vantinos, "Old and New Evidence for the Palatial Society (Munich 1989) 269-74 on the Mycenaean period, with of Mycenaean Thebes: An Outline," in Politeia 613-22. I further references. have not seen the more recent reports by K. Demakopou- 55 lakovides 1995 (supra n. 51) 76. lou, C. Piteros, and V. Aravantinos in A.P. Bekiaris ed., 56Notices of work at other settlements include the fol- EwrxerpigrTq Eraipvia; BotwortKcv Me;xrc0iv 1 (1988) 75-136. lowing: Aetos on Ithaca: S. Symeonoglou, "The Third Sea- A good summary of the various Mycenaean remains has son at Aetos: A Summary of the Results," The Siren: News- been provided by Demakopoulou, "Palatialand Domestic letter of the OdysseyProject 3 (1986); and S. Symeonoglou and Architecture in Mycenaean Thebes," in P. Darcque and R. N. Symeonoglou, "The Excavation of 1992 (Aetos, Ithaca)," Treuil eds., L'habitategeen prehistorique.Actes de la table ronde Siren 8 (1992-1993). A fortified Mycenaean acropolis at Man- internationale,Athenes, 23-25juin 1987 (BCH Suppl. 19, Paris tinea: AR 1993-1994, 17; T. Karayiorya-Stathakopoulou, "H 307-17. 1990) pavctlivtxi t6X;tg," in HpaKTrKIdroy 4 AlEOvoq ZvvE6piov 51 Demakopoulou (supra n. 49) 314, site 13;A. Sampson, HeAowrovvolaKciOvZrov&6dv 2, 97-115, esp. 98-101 on pre- "Ladestruction d'un atelier palatial mycenien a Theibes," historic remains. BCH 109 (1985) 21-29. A number of Mycenaean tombs have also come to light 51 S. Iakovides, I (Athens 1989); lakovides, TA'd II during the years under review. They are numerous and FA,; (Athens, forthcoming); lakovides, "The Mycenaean Fortress not as distinctive as settlements, and since most have an of Gla," in Mykenai'ka 607-15; and lakovides, "F'X; Kai Early Mycenaean component they appear in Rutter 788-89; Opxo4Lcv6q,"ErerTqpig Eratpdiag BotcorTdiv MEErdwv 2 thus I do not attempt to chronicle them here. New finds 69-81. Forrrqq the (Athens 1995) 1990 work (northern build- are regularly reported in AR, and a comprehensive study of east of = ing wing central structure building M): AR of Bronze Age burials and burial customs is in progress: 1990-1991, 34; Ergon 1990, 10-11. For the 1991 work (build- W.G. Cavanagh and C.B. Mee, Death in Prehistoric Greece AR ing K): 1991-1992, 29; Ergon 1991, 8-11. (SIMA, Jonsered, forthcoming). I thank Christopher Mee 52Size: lakovides 1995 (supra n. 51) 69. Date range: lak- for letting me see an advance copy of the chapter on LH ovides 1989 (supra n. 51) 258, 321. IIIA-B. 5 lakovides 1989 (supra n. 51) 220-23, 306-307; lako- 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 549

Fig. 6. View from Nichoria across the Messenian valley. (Photo C.W.Shelmerdine)

is a settlement occupied in the Neolithic-Early ordinary town, like Tsoungiza the largest in its Bronze Age and again from Late MH through LH area.59 Simple houses are the norm, some lined up IIIB.57An early LH IIIA2 deposit with religious sig- along a street in area III. A new tholos was constructed nificance is interesting (see below), but the settle- at the site in LH IIIA2, with prestigious grave goods ment is most extensive during LH IIIB, when it like jewelry, sealstones, and a matched set of bronze reaches 7.5 ha and houses are packed closely together vessels. These signs of wealth and some shared ves- on the sides of the hill.58 They are purely domestic sel types of unusual form show that Nichoria profited in character, like the Panayia Houses at Mycenae, from its association with Pylos. Furthermore, its and thus give a good picture of an ordinary My- geographical position above the southwest corner cenaean settlement. Methana is another area with of the Messenian valley (fig. 6), along a natural route Mycenaean settlement remains, but the only details across the peninsula, fits the profile of one partic- so far published concern a Mycenaean sanctuary at ular lookout site mentioned in the Pylos tablets. Ad- Ayios Konstantinos (see below). The ridgetop settle- ditional points of similarity are the bronze-working ment of Nichoria sported a megaron in LH IIIA1, and establishment that operated here in LH IIIB and the it may therefore have been an independent center suitability of the site's location for flax production. of power at that time. During LH IIIA2-IIIB it is an Nichoria can thus be identified with some confidence

57J.C.Wright et al., "The Nemea Valley Archaeological than 2 ha. On the site in this period, see M.K. Dabney, Project:A PreliminaryReport," Hesperia 59 (1990) 579-659; "Craft Product Consumption as an Economic Indicator "The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project, Archaeologi- of Site Status in Regional Studies,"in P. Betancourt and cal Survey:Internet Edition," on the World Wide Web at R. Laffineur eds., Ti~vrl: Craftsmen,Craftswomen and Crafts- http:llclassics.lsa.umich.edu/NVAP.html(23 May 1997), with manship in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum 16, Liege 1997). complete bibliography. On the Early Mycenaean period, In addition to architecture, a large deposit (over 20,000 see Wright, "AnEarly Mycenaean Hamlet on Tsoungiza at sherds) of early LH IIIB1 pottery was found in a rubbish AncientNemea," in Darcqueand Treuil(supra n. 49) 347-57. pit near a building of the same date. P.Thomas, "ADeposit Some activity in LH IIIC is suggested by a few sherds not of Late Helladic IIIB:1Pottery from Tsoungiza,"Hesperia from architectural contexts. (forthcoming). 58The size estimate I owe to J.L. Davis (personal com- 59McDonald and Wilkie (supra n. 10). munication). Other sites found by the project are smaller 550 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 as the site of ti-mi-to-a-ke-e,one of the seven main eco- realized the need for survey work of this kind as early nomic centers of the further province in the Pylos as 1941.65 kingdom.60 The seed Blegen planted took some time to flour- Current investigations of the prehistoric remains ish: the broadening of interest from the Mycenaean at Eleusis have established two Late Helladic phases king to his subjects, and from the center to its sur- on the southwest side of the hill, LH IIIA1 with some roundings, did not occur until the 1960s and 1970s, LH I-IIA admixture, and LH IIIAI-IIIB1; no archi- beginning with the pioneering extensive survey proj- tecture is associated with the finds.61 Glipha (Vlicha) ect known as the Minnesota Messenia Expedition.66 on the eastern Boeotian coast near Chalkis was in- The broad-brush approach of extensive survey has habited from EH to LH IIIC; the LH III remains been overshadowed by intensive survey, where se- include a fortification wall and cist graves. The sug- lected areas are covered at a level of detail designed gestion has been made that it was a local capital and to insure that no significant archaeological material the port for Thebes, perhaps even the Mycenaean goes unnoticed. Rutter has provided a thorough re- Aulis.62 An excellent summary of the Mycenaean review of the way in which intensive survey has devel- mains at Delphi is now available, along with com- oped during the last two decades, with references ments on the region, and on cult remains.63 The site to a number of recent and current projects.67 Com- itself has traces of occupation from LH I, and the ments here are therefore restricted to an update on LH IIIB-early IIIC periods are especially well rep- recent results and their particular relevance to the resented ceramically. The only Mycenaean architec- political geography of the Late Bronze Age. It is ap- tural feature uncovered since 1978 is a terrace wall propriate to keep in mind recent warnings about under the cella of the Temple of Apollo, which may the variability of goals and methods in different sur- have served also as a fortification wall.64 vey projects, and the difficulties inherent in interpreting ceramic and other data.68 Nevertheless, the REGIONAL SURVEYS AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS final reports so far published explain clearly their Over the last quarter-century, there has been a sub- approach to such issues as site definition, functional stantial change in the study of Mycenaean settle- types, and settlement hierarchy. ment. As is clear from the preceding section, this Survey data can be especially useful for compar- change is not much reflected in excavations, which ing site densities in different regions. Table 2 shows have continued to concentrate mainly on palaces and the numbers of Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age tombs. The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project is sites found by nine recent intensive survey projects, one of the few projects to follow the model of the and densities per 10 km2 to facilitate comparisons Minnesota Messenia Project at Nichoria in explor- among the different project areas and periods.69 In ing an ordinary habitation site (Tsoungiza) and its the following discussion the emphasis is on the Late environs. The real innovation is a broadening of per- Helladic settlement patterns, with some comparison spective from single sites to regional settlement pat- to the Middle Helladic period. terns. Closely tied to this change is the coming of The fluctuation of the number of sites in differ- age of intensive survey as a productive archaeolog- ent regions from the Early to the Late Helladic period ical tactic. It is a tribute to Carl Blegen, one of the has interesting historical implications. Particularly great pioneers of Mycenaean archaeology, that he noticeable is a striking increase from MH Early-

6 C.W. Shelmerdine, "Nichoria in Context: A Major brating the bicentennial of the University of Pennsylvania, Town in the Pylos Kingdom," AJA 85 (1981) 319-25. called for "a systematic comprehensive survey of the dis- 61 M.B. Cosmopoulos, "Recherches sur la stratigraphie tricts of Greece,"after which "weshall know infinitely more prehistorique d'Eleusis: Travaux 1995," EchCl 40, n.s. 15 than we now do regarding the extent of occupation and (1996) 1-26; a report will also appear in Prakt1995. I thank the movements and distribution of population from period Michael Cosmopoulos for information on the dates of the to period" (pp. 12-13). two phases. 66W.A. McDonald and G.R.Rapp, Jr., eds., TheMinnesota 62 AR 1985-1986, 40; E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki,"F)6tpa 11 Messenia Expedition: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Regional En- H AAA 20 vironment BX,6XcaBototia;: •uorlvai•Ki Auki8a?" (1987) (Minneapolis 1972). 191-210. 67Rutter 747-58. 63 S. Miuller, "Delphes et sa r6gion a l'6poque myc6- 68Rutter 752-58;J.E Cherry, "Regional Survey in the Ae- nienne," BCH 116 (1992) 445-96. gean: The 'New Wave' (and After)," in Kardulias 91-112. 64 "Chronique" 1991, 688-90; Mfiller (supra n. 63) 69Bibliography up to 1992 is provided by Rutter 748-49. 457-58. Subsequent publications are noted in relevant footnotes 65C.W. Blegen, "Preclassical Greece," in Studies in the Arts infra. and Architecture (Philadelphia 1941) 1-14, a volume cele- 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 551

Table 2. Comparative Settlement Patterns from Survey Results

Area Surveyed Sites Site Density per 10 km2 Project (km2) (EH/MH/LH) (EH/MH/LH) Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey 25 13 - /19 05.20/ - /07.60 Cambridge/Bradford Boeotian Expedition 45 19/16/16 04.22/03.56/03.56 Laconia Survey 70 29/11/10 04.14/01.57/01.43 Methana Survey 10 21/01/05 21.00/01.00/05.00 Nemea Valley Archaeological Project 50 21/02/10 04.20/00.40/02.00 Oropos Survey 22 10/01/02 04.55/00.45/00.91 Pylos Regional Archaeological Project 40 06/11 / 14 01.50/02.75/03.50 Southern Argolid Exploration Project 44 37/05/27 08.41/01.14/06.14 Stanford Skourta Plain Project 32 15/03/14 04.69/00.94/04.38 Data are taken from Rutter 748, table 1 except for the following; in all cases minimum rather than maximum possible figures are used: Cambridge/Bradford Boeotian Expedition: Information from Oliver Dickinson. Laconia Survey: W.G. Cavanagh et al., The Laconia Survey II: Continuity and Change in a Greek Rural Landscape: Archaeological Data (BSA Suppl. 27, London 1996) 315-438. Figures reflect securely dated sites within the survey area. R291 should be added to the list of 10 MH sites listed by Cavanagh in Politeia84; cf. 85, and Cavanagh et al. 1996, 413. Nemea Valley Archaeological Project: LH figure raised from 8 to 10 according to information fromJ.L. Davis. Oropos Survey:M. Cosmopoulos, "ArchSiologische Forschungen im Gebiet von Oropos: Die vorgeschichtliche Besiedlung,"PZ (in press). Pylos Regional Archaeological Proj- ect: personal information. Figures include revisited sites outside the 40-km2area intensively surveyed. Southern Argolid Exploration Project: M.H. Jameson, C.N. Runnels, and T.H. van Andel, A Greek Countryside: The Southern Argolid from Pre- history to the Present Day (Stanford 1994) 415-526.

Middle to MH Late and LH in the northeastern Pelo- heres mountain range.7' The 44-km2 area intensively ponnese and Boeotia, in contrast to Messenia and surveyed shows a dramatic increase from five MH Laconia. For useful comparison among regions it habitation sites to 27 in the LH period. All of the is necessary to go beyond numbers of dots on a map, LH sites are habitations except C1 and C3 (quarries; and to consider several other factors. When within possible habitations).72 LH III remains are most the LH period are sites founded or abandoned? abundant, but the growth begins in the Shaft Grave Where are the new sites in relation to earlier ones? period (MH III-LH I).7: Increased population and Are they habitations or other types? Do sites that intensified land use correlate with a wide dispersal continue from MH to LH grow or decline in size, of sites across the landscape and a settlement hier- or do they continue unchanged? How do such archy of "villages and smaller satellites."74 changes relate to developments in the political land- The same pattern of development was observed scape? A thorough inquiry goes beyond the scope in the Nemea Valley area, where the number of sites of this review, but some observations can be made increases substantially, beginning in the Shaft Grave for survey areas for which sufficient information is period. This trend continues through the Early Myce- available. naean period to LH IIIA1.75/These new sites tend The northeastern Peloponnese has been the fo- to be fairly large, and are evenly distributed through- cus of a number of recent studies.7" Members of the out the study area. The onset of this period of growth Southern Argolid Exploration Project surveyed the coincides with the new prosperity of Mycenae in southern end of the Akte peninsula, south of the Ad- LH I. Perhaps more interesting in terms of the re-

70 Information comparable to that discussed here is 73C.N. Runnels and T.H. van Andel, "The Evolution of now available for the Berbati-Limnesproject: B. Wells ed., Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic The Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey 1988-1990 (SkrAth Explanation,"Hesperia 56 (1987) 315. 40, 44, Jonsered 1996). v4Runnels and van Andel (supra n. 73) 323, who also 1 M.H.Jameson, C.N. Runnels, and T.H. van Andel, A note (328) that the reverse pattern applies in Melos, where Greek Countryside: The Southern Argolidfrom Prehistory to the nucleation occurs in periods of growth and prosperity. PresentDay (Stanford 1994); and C.N. Runnels, D.J.Pullen, 5"J.L. Davis, "IfThere's a Room at the Top What'sat the and S. Langdon, Artifact and Assemblage: The Finds from a Bottom: Settlement and Hierarchy in Early Mycenaean Regional Survey of the Southern Argolid, Greece 1: The Prehis- Greece"'unpublished paper presented to the Institute for toric and Early Iron Age Pottery and the Lithic Artifacts (Stan- Aegean Prehistory, 6 April 1988; the summary of an ear- ford 1995). lier version appears under the same title in BICS35 (1988) 72 MH sites: A6, E9, E13, E76, F5. LH sites: A6, B2, B5, 164-65. My thanks to the author for allowing me to cite B9, B21, B24, B25, B38, B41, B89, B97, B98, Cl, C3, C11, this paper. Updated data available on the Nemea Valley C24, E5, E9, E13, E74, F4, F5, F21, F29, F32, G13, G23. Archaeological Project WorldWide Web site (supra n. 57). 552 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 lationship between the two areas, though, is the situ- lid, with growth in both size and numbers of sites ation in LH IIIB. As is well known, there is an em- in the Early Mycenaean period, and the strongest barrassment of important Mycenaean citadels in the presence in LH III. Argolid, especially during LH IIIB when Mideajoins In other areas settlement patterns do not follow Mycenae and Tiryns as a fortified acropolis with a the trend just described. The Laconia Survey has lo- megaron complex.76 In the Nemea Valley, Tsoungiza cated a large number of chiefly small rural sites in is the only site to exhibit substantial growth at this central Laconia, in a 70-km2 area extending from time. A recent study by Dabney also suggests that the Eurotas River on the west to the village of Chrys- its expansion was due to the economic development apha on the east, and from the Menelaion north- stimulated by Mycenae, and that its ability to acquire ward to the site of Palaiogoulas.81 The few that show finely decorated pottery depended on its integration signs of Middle and Late Bronze Age occupation into the kingdom of Mycenae.77 Indeed, with more are located in the southern part of the survey area. than one center perhaps competing for dominance The Middle Bronze Age is much better represented of the Argive plain, Mycenae may have been able to there, with 11 inhabited sites. Of these, four were increase its power by reaching north into the Nemea abandoned by the end of that period, and one by Valley.7wIt still remains unclear, however, whether the end of LH II. Six MH sites were inhabited into Mycenae, Tiryns, and Midea each controlled a sepa- LH IIIB, although two of them (R291, S478) seem rate state. The status of Midea is especially uncer- diminished in LH III from their earlier extent.82 tain; the megaron complex is suggestive of power, Only three LH III sites surveyed have no MH-LH II but to date no tablets have been found there. A few remains. The small hamlet of Melathria is one of inscribed nodules attest to an administrative pres- these, inhabited from LH IIIA1 to IIIB2.8"This gen- ence (see below), but if the inhabitants of the site eral stability over time is interesting, given an ap- did not generate their own tablets, Midea could have parent break in occupation of the Menelaion itself been a literate outpost of one of the other two centers. during LH IIIA2-B1.84 Monumental buildings exist The Methana peninsula also exhibits growth but at the Menelaion in the Early Mycenaean period, to a lesser extent.79 Of four possible MH habitations and again in LH IIIB2, making it the likeliest can- only MS10 is certain, and it is sizeable, covering 1.1 didate yet known in Laconia to have been a center ha. All continue into LH, with a particular increase of power. The LH IIIA2-B1 hiatus is rather surpris- in site size in LH III, when both MS67 and MS124 ing, as is the fact that it had no apparent effect on grow to over 1 ha. Only one new site is founded in settlement in the surrounding area. LH IIIA, albeit an important one: excavations at Ayios Exploration in the survey area continues in the Konstantinos (MS13) have revealed a shrine complex form of the Laconia Rural Sites Project."5 Twenty as well as part of the settlement.80 All of these sites single-period sites of different periods were inves- are on or near the coast, and two (MS10, MS67) are tigated in 1993-1994 to determine their form and described as typical Mycenaean acropolis sites. The function. The project includes geophysical prospec- picture corresponds to that in the southern Argo- tion and soil studies, as well as analysis of artifacts

76 A building "sur plan de megaron" has also been re- 81 W.G. Cavanagh, "Development of the Mycenaean State ported on the east side of the Aspis at Argos by G. Tou- in Laconia: Evidence from the Laconia Survey," in Politeia chais: "Chronique" 1978, 664. Only preliminary reports are 81-87; Cavanagh et al., The Laconia Survey II: Continuity and available for the proposed megaron at Midea, which is not Change in a GreekRural Landscape:Archaeological Data (BSA yet fully excavated: Demakopoulou et al. 1994 (supra n. Suppl. 27, London 1996); and Cavanagh et al., The Laconia 33) 41, fig. 65; Walberg, World Wide Web (supra n. 33). Survey I (London, forthcoming). 77Dabney (supra n. 58). 82 MH sites: M322, N191, R292, R457 (abandoned after 7 Wright et al. (supra n. 57) 637-38, 641-42; Davis, un- MH); N413 (abandoned after LH II); M349, Q360 - the Men- published (supra n. 75); cf. O.T.P.K.Dickinson, "Parallels elaion site, R291, S434, S478, U514 (continuing into LH and Contrasts in the Bronze Age of the Peloponnese," OJA IIIB). New LH III sites: H45, R424, U490. 1 (1982) 134; cf. E. Vermeule, "Baby Aigisthos and the Bronze 83 W.G. Cavanagh and J.H. Crouwel, "Melathria: A Small PCPS Age," 213 (1987) 133. Mycenaean Rural Settlement in Laconia," in J.M. Sanders C.B. Mee et A 7, al., Rough and RockyPlace: The Landscape ed., •IAoAdacov: Lakonian Studies in Honour of Hector Catling and Settlement History of the Methana Peninsula, Greece(Liver- (London 1992) 77-86; for the cemetery, see Gazetteer C5, I thank Mee for pool, forthcoming). Christopher allowing and K. Demakopoulou, "MuKlIvaLK6vv KpoTa(Pfiov MOEa- me to use a draft of the chapter on prehistory. Opidq AaKcoviaq,"ArchEph 1977, 29-60. MH sites: 84 8s MS10 is certain; MS67, MS103, and MS124 Catling (supra n. 37) 24-42, esp. 32-33. are possible. LH sites: MS10, MS13, MS67, MS103, and 85AR 1993-1994, 19; AR 1994-1995, 14-15. MS124 are certain; MS14, MS106, and MS108 are possible. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 553

and their distribution. This multifaceted approach it may be that people moved out of these remote is exemplary, and the concentration on rural sites valleys and closer to the center of power in LH IIIA addresses a gap in current knowledge.86 (probably LH IIIA2), as Pylos annexed the area be- Work by the Pylos Regional Archaeological Proj- yond Aigaleon.9o ect reveals yet another pattern of settlement in west- Several other observations support this inference. ern Messenia.87 Intensive field-walking covered ap- Tholos tombs proliferate in Messenia during the proximately 40 km2 within a larger area extending Early Mycenaean period, suggesting the presence from just north of modern Koryphasion northward of rival elites, but fewer tholoi are in use in LH to just beyond Gargaliani, and from the coast east- IIIA2-IIIB, when they are limited to Pylos itself and ward across the Aigaleon mountain range to the mod- to sites with probable administrative links to the ern village of Maryeli. Eleven sites showed signs of center, like Nichoria.91 The megaron there goes out MH occupation. Eight of these were inhabited into of use after LH IIIA1, and a tholos is constructed LH IIIB, while three were apparently abandoned after in LH IIIA2; both developments may indicate the LH II/early IIIA.X8 It may be that no new sites were time when local autonomy ended and Nichoria be- founded in LH, though at three places earlier (MH) came part of the Pylos kingdom, as the power of the occupation is uncertain. Analysis of the data is still latter expanded to include the Messenian valley.'' in progress, but some points are already clear. The It is not yet possible to make definitive statements MH period is better represented in Messenia than about the Cambridge/Bradford project in southern elsewhere, and there is no upsurge in the number Boeotia. Analysis to date, however, indicates no ma- of sites in the Early Mycenaean period. The time jor drop in settlement during the MH period and of greatest change in the region is not the Shaft Grave no major expansion thereafter. At most sites all three period, but the beginning ofLH III, which is marked, phases of the Bronze Age are represented.9" It is to not by the founding of new sites as in the Argolid be hoped that when all the results are in, survey data and the Nemea Valley, but by the abandonment of from this area will contribute to the analysis of po- earlier ones. It is hard to avoid the inference that litical history as they have done in the northeastern this trend is connected with the rising power of the Peloponnese and Messenia. For the moment, the Pylian center. Furthermore, two of the abandoned boundaries of the Theban kingdom are still unclear sites (A2 and Li) lie in valleys just east of the Aiga- in most directions, though the appearance of the leon range, which probably formed the provincial place-names Karystos, Amarynthos, and now Eleon boundary of the Pylos kingdom.89 Border zones on tablets from Thebes suggests that it controlled tend to be more heavily occupied during periods the southern half of Euboea-and therefore pre- when there is no strong central power. When the sumably the intervening territory of southeastern center is strong, people leave the liminal zones, and Worth noting in this connection is the set- Boeotia.-4

86 n. Cherry (supra 68) 97. (supra n. 66) 100-16; Chadwick, The Mycenaean World(Cam- 87 "Chronique"1993, 795-96; "Chronique"1994, 715-17; bridge 1976) 36-40; andJ. Bintliff ed., Mycenaean Geography AR 1992-1993, 31-32; AR 1993-1994, 30; AR 1994-1995, (Cambridge 1977) 55-62. Davis et 25; J.L. al., "The Pylos Regional Archaeological 90 D.J.L. Bennet, "Space through Time: Diachronic Per- on the Project: Preliminary Report 1992 Season," AJA 97 spectives on the Spatial Organization of the Pylian State," (1993) 330-31 (abstract); Davis et al., "The Pylos Regional in Politeia 600. Archaeological Project: Preliminary Report on the 1993 91 The megaron (unit IV-4A): S. Aschenbrenner, "Late 98 Season," AJA (1994) 287-88 (abstract); Davis et al., "The Helladic Settlement: Stratigraphy and Architecture: Unit Pylos Regional Archaeological Project: Preliminary Report IV-4a. The Megaron Complex," in McDonald and Wilkie on the 1994 99 Season," AJA (1995) 341-42 (abstract); Davis (supra n. 10) 433-39, figs. 7-58 and 7-59, pl. 7-119. The et al. (supra n. 45); Zangger et al. (supra n. 46); and Davis tholos: N.C. Wilkie, "The MME Tholos Tomb," in McDon- et al., "The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project: Internet ald and Wilkie 231-60. on the Edition," World Wide Web at http://classics.lsa. 92 Bennet (supra n. 90) 601. 93 umich.edu/PRAP/html/PRAP.html (23 May 1997). O.T.P.K.Dickinson, personal communication. 88 MH sites: B7 = Palace of 94 A2, Nestor, C3, D1, D2, I1, Karystos: Wu 55.3; Amarynthos: Of 25, Wu 58.y; El- there is also a 13, KI, K2, K3, L1; possible MH presence eon: new tablet 149. V. Aravantinos, "Mycenaean Place- at G3, 14, and 121. Of the certain MH sites, A2, C3, and Names from Thebes: The New Evidence," in Studies Chad- L1 are abandoned after LH II/early IIIA; the rest continue wick 33-40 also finds evidence for Theban interest on the LH IIIB, and the three MH sites through possible are island of Aegina and in the vicinity of Thespiae; see also LH as well. occupied during Aravantinos, in Politeia (supra n. 49) 616-17. See also S. Hil- 89 the of On geography the Pylos kingdom, seeJ. Chad- ler, "Die Stellung B6otiens im mykenischen Staatenver- wick, "The in Mycenaean Documents," McDonald and Rapp band," in Beister and Buckler (supra n. 54) 51-64. Thebes 554 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 tlement of Glipha/Vlicha, on the mainland across Age studies are discussed in the relevant sections from Chalkis, which may have served Thebes as a of this review. Among new hardware, the Global Po- port. sitioning System (GPS), developed for military use, Some recent assessments make extravagant claims has been enthusiastically adopted by some as a means about survey work: one commentator perceives a of pinpointing sites and other features. On the threat that practicalities will force a shift from ex- ground, advances in surveying equipment like total cavation to survey, while another goes so far as to stations greatly ease the process of mapping sites call the development of regional studies a Kuhnian and surveying architectural remains.98 Geophysical paradigm shift.95 However, the detailed results now prospection is also a valuable complement to sur- appearing in survey publications indicate the advan- face exploration, whether or not excavation is to fol- tages and limitations of this technique more fairly low (as we have seen in the detection of the probable than either its most enthusiastic supporters or its wall at Pylos). Landscape and soil studies have also strongest detractors. Surface survey is not a substi- proven invaluable,99 and have contributed greatly tute for excavation, but it offers a regional perspec- to our understanding of Mycenaean engineering: two tive that excavation cannot give. The preceding analy- Late Bronze Age examples are described above, per- sis illustrates how diachronic survey data can clarify taining to Tiryns and Pylos. Ceramic study of the the history of an area, and how regional compari- Late Bronze Age too has been greatly enhanced by son, even at a fairly basic level, can reveal meaning- advances in provenience analysis, combining petrog- ful synchronic variations.96 raphy and chemical spectrography, and in the analysis of organic residue (see below). TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES Finally, a word should be said about computer ap- In 1941, when Blegen discussed the value of sur- plications in archaeology. Computer Aided Drafting/ vey archaeology, he also predicted quite correctly Design (CAD) software transforms the coordinates that "we shall come more and more to on of into a three-dimensional rely pure surveyed points recon- science for help in solving many of the problems struction of a structure or a topographical site that face us."'97Scientific contributions to archaeo- An even more powerful tool for expressing logical projects have indeed become essential both datamap..'0 in terms of spatial relationships is the Geo- in fieldwork and in the subsequent analysis of data. graphical Information System (GIS), which allows Some new kinds of tools and techniques are listed spatial data to be stored, manipulated, mapped, and here, and examples of their impact on Late Bronze visualized on a computer in two or three dimen-

8 has a potential rival to the northwest in Orchomenos, where GPS: Cherry (supra n. 68) 98; AR 1991-1992, 27-28 a complex of three alleged "megaron units" has a LH IIIA2 (Minnesota Archaeological Researches in the Western Pel- and a LH IIIB stage: GazetteerG 1; AR 1984-1985, 31; and oponnese). Total Station: P.M. Fischer, "The Cyclopean Built T. Spyropoulos, "ToAvdtKopo TouMtv6ou nt; TovBotu0TtK6v Wall of the Mycenaean Citadel of Midea: A Survey Using Optogiev6v," AAA 7 (1974) 313-25. Each unit has elements Electronic Distance Measuring Equipment,"JFA 13 (1986) labeled as vestibule, porch, and megaron, but no column 499-503; Davis et al. (supra n. 45). bases survive and only in one "megaron" was a hearth found. 9?1The bibliography in these fields has grown too fast as a 5 Survey threat: M. Popham, "Reflections on 'An to do it full justice here. Good starting points with further of Archaeology Greece': Surveys and Excavations," OJA 9 references include E. Zangger, The Geoarchaeologyof the Ar- 29-35. is (1990) Popham reacting to A. Snodgrass, An Ar- golid (Argolis 2, Berlin 1993); T.H. van Andel, E. Zangger, chaeologyof Greece:The Present State and Future Scope of a Dis- and A. Demitrack, "Land Use and Soil Erosion in Prehis- Classical Lectures cipline (Sather 53, Berkeley 1987), esp. toric and Historical Greece,"JFA 17 (1990) 379-96; and Zang- 96-131; Snodgrass in fact never makes such an extreme ger, "Neolithic to Present Soil Erosion in Greece," in M. claim as Popham attributes to him, though he does extol Bell and J. Boardman eds., Past and Present Soil Erosion. the virtues of survey archaeology. Survey as a paradigm Archaeological and Geographical Perspectives (Oxford 1992) shift: P.N. of the Past Kardulias, "Paradigms in Greek Ar- 133-47. Recent discussions of the results of geophysical in Kardulias 1-24. chaeology," prospection and soil studies: Cavanagh et al. 1996 (supra 96 Bennet and M. "Classical D.J.L. Galaty, Archaeology: n. 81) 235-61; Jameson et al. (supra n. 71) passim. These Recent in the of the Prehistoric Developments Archaeology and other scientific topics are covered by several papers Aegean and Regional Studies,"Journal of Archaeological Re- in N.C. Wilkie and W.D. Coulson eds., Contributions to Ae- search 5 76-120. (1997) gean Archaeology:Studies in Honor of WilliamA. McDonald (Min- 7 Blegen (supra n. 65) 13. P.E. McGovern, "Science in neapolis 1985). A 99 Archaeology: Review," AJA (1995) 79-142, while not 1("M.G. Stys, "The Site within the Region: Architectural directed at the Bronze a specifically Age, surveys range of Reconstruction Using Computer Technology," in Kardulias scientific approaches and their application to archaeolog- 265-87. ical research. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 555

...... -.-.-. , "1 '" 1.•:. .

...... ~44

Key: 0 Onsite + Offsite 0 , • •Kilometers5 kiA

Fig. 7. Pylos Regional Archaeological Project. Distribution of LH III finds. (Courtesy Pylos Regional Archaeological Project) sions.""l Sites or artifact types can thus be plotted dimensional map of the survey area (fig. 7). More in relation to general topography, including eleva- complicated plots can include not only the spatial tion, slope angle, drainage, water resources, and other information listed above, but also factors such as trav- geographical information. Projects with a Greek eling distance from one site to its nearest neighbor, Bronze Age component are just beginning to take factoring in the ruggedness of the intervening terrain. advantage of these resources, and they will become CERAMIC STUDIES more visible as projects present themselves on computer through the Internet and on compact discs, as As noted above, ceramic studies have benefited well as or instead of in printed publications. To date, greatly from scientific applications. Notable in Late the most extensive use of GIS technology for Bronze Bronze Age studies is an ongoing project under the Age data has been by the Pylos Regional Archaeo- overall direction of Halford Haskell."113One aspect logical Project."" As a simple example, the distribu- of the investigation is an interdisciplinary study of tion of LH III finds can be plotted on a two- or three- transport stirrup jars from eastern Mediterranean

V. Gaffney and Z. Stan'ii, GIS Approaches to Regional 102Davis et al. (supra n. 45); and Davis et al., World Wide ll A Case the Island Analysis: Study of of Hvar (Ljubljana 1991), Web (supra n. 87). See also the Nemea Valley Archaeolog- reviewed enthusiastically by J.L. Davis in AJA 97 (1993) ical Project site on the World Wide Web (supra n. 57); and Dann and R.W. 799-800; M.A. Yerkes, "Use of Geographic J. Wiseman and A. Dousougli-Zachos, "The Nikopolis Proj- Information for the of Systems Spatial Analysis Frankish ect 1991-1993: Overview of the Multidisciplinary Study Settlements in the in Korinthia, Greece," Kardulias 289-311, of Southern Epirus," AJA 98 (1994) 315 (abstract). with further references. Useful sites on the World Wide 103H.W. Haskell et al., TransportStirrup Jars of the Bronze Web are "Global Positioning System Overview,"at http:// Age Aegean and East Mediterranean (Fitch Laboratory Occa- www.utexas.eduldepts/grg/gcraft/notes/gps/gps.html(23 May sional Papers 5, Athens, forthcoming). What follows is based and "Internet Resources for 1997); Geography and GIS," on information kindly provided by Halford Haskell and at http://perseus.holycross.edulPAP/General/Resources- Peter Day. GIS.html (9 June 1997). 556 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 contexts, using a combination of typological, petro- Nicolle Hirschfeld of Aegean and Canaanite vessels graphical, and chemical analyses to determine pro- with incised and painted signs.10s The majority of venience. This work has important consequences for marked Mycenaean vessels are LH IIIA-B stirrup the study of intra- and extra-Aegean trade. For ex- and piriformjars, with the signs incised after firing. ample, Cretan stirrup jars at mainland sites are a The markings are in the Cypriot system, and such well-known phenomenon.104 Haskell's study, how- vessels from the Argolid may have been marked there ever, adds several refinements. Petrographic analysis but intended for export. of stirrup jars from Thebes and Mycenae has shown Traditional pottery studies have not been entirely that, in addition to west Cretan vessels, some jars displaced, and they continue to prove valuable in previously thought to have been produced locally their own right.'09 P. Mountjoy has provided an up- originated in central Crete.'05 Most, indeed, are in date of Furumark's monumental classification for a south-central Cretan fabric, newly distinguished decorated pottery, as well as a more general intro- by petrographic analysis and also prevalent at Knos- duction to Mycenaean pottery.11"0The stratigraphy sos. Both sites contain examples of fabrics that were at Tiryns has led to an extensive refinement of phases previously considered Knossian, occurring in quan- there from LH IIIA2 Late through LH IIIC. Early, tity at Knossos and other sites in the Aegean and Middle, Developed, and Late phases have been dis- beyond. But these same fabrics also appear at other tinguished within LH IIIB, and Early, Developed, Ad- Cretan sites such as Malia,o06 and further recent vanced, and Late phases for LH IIIC."111The LH IIIB work on Crete has shown that at least some of these phases have been described and correlated with stan- fabrics have their origin in the south-central part dard definitions of LH IIIB 1 and LH IIIB2, and with of the island. Among the project's future plans is the pottery groups from Mycenae on which these analysis of the organic residue preserved on the clay are traditionally based. Within each phase, variants of such stirrup jars. Thesejars are known to be con- of shapes and motifs are further labeled Fading, tainers for olive oil, but the further investigation Floruit, or Innovative, based on their percentages should confirm whether this oil came in different within each LH IIIA and IIIB phase. It remains to grades, whether it was plain or perfumed, and be seen how far such fine distinctions can be applied whether the jars carried any other commodities. elsewhere, but the phases themselves do have par- Other ongoing efforts also pertain to the move- allels at other sites. LH IIIBI Early includes features ment of pottery in international trade. One contri- of both LH IIIA2 and LH IIIB1 as those phases are bution is the cataloguing of corpora of Aegean pot- conventionally defined. Such a transitional phase tery found outside Greece; the most recent study has also been recognized at other sites (e.g., Nichoria covers Syria-Palestine."17 Another is the study by and Korakou),"2 and correlated with the latest LH

104 E. Hallager, "The Inscribed StirrupJars: Implications Canaanite vessels of the Late Bronze Age. for Late Minoan IIIB Crete," AJA 91 (1987) 171-90; H.W. 19' Groups of material published or restudied include Catling et al., "The Linear B Inscribed Stirrup Jars and the following: P.A. Mountjoy, OrchomenosV: Mycenaean Pot- West Crete," BSA 75 (1980) 49-114; R.E. Jones, Greek and teryfrom Orchomenos,Eutresis and Other Boeotian Sites (Bay- Cypriot Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies (Athens 1986) erische Akademie der Wissenschaft, Philosophisch- 477-93. historische Klasse, N.F 89, Munich 1983); A. Akerstr6m, 105 Mycenae: appendices by P.M. Day, R.E. Jones, and Berbati II: The Pictorial Pottery (Stockholm 1987); B. Santillo J. Tomlinson in Tournavitou (supra n. 23) 301-20. Thebes: Frizell, Asine II: Results of the Excavations East of the Acropolis, P.M. Day and H.W. Haskell, "Transport Stirrup Jars as Evi- 1970-1974 2: The Late and Final Mycenaean Periods (Stock- dence for Trade in Late Bronze Age Greece," in C. Gillis, holm 1986); K.S. Shelton, The Late Helladic Potteryfrom Pro- C. Risberg, and B. Sjoberg eds., Tradeand Production in Pre- symna (Jonsered 1996). Another valuable compilation is monetaryGreece: Aspects of Trade(SIMA-PB 134,Jonsered 1995) E. Vermeule and V. Karageorghis, Mycenaean Pictorial Vase 87-109. Painting (Cambridge, Mass. 1982). 16 Appendix by P.M. Day and R.E. Jones in A. Farnoux 110P.A. Mountjoy, Mycenaean DecoratedPottery: A Guide to and J. Driessen, "Inscriptions peintes en Lin6aire B it Identification (SIMA 73, G6teborg 1986); Mountjoy, Mycenae- Malia," BCH 115 (1991) 94-97. an Pottery: An Introduction (Oxford 1993). 111 107 A. Leonard, Jr., An Index to the Late Bronze Age Aegean Cf. Kilian 1988 (supra n. 26) fig. 27; Kilian in French Potteryfrom Syria-Palestine (SIMA 114, Jonsered 1994); ref- and Wardle (supra n. 5) 117-18, fig. 3. LH IIIA2 Late-IIIB erences to other corpora of Aegean pottery outside Greece Middle: Schonfeld (supra n. 26). LH IIIB Late: Podzuweit are collected on p. 1, n. 4. Leonard also maintains a reg- 1981 (supra n. 26). LH IIIC phases: Podzuweit (supra n. ularly updated computer database. 26) all entries. 108 N. Hirschfeld, "Cypriot Marks on Mycenaean Pot- 112Nichoria, the LH 111A2/B1 phase: Shelmerdine (su- in 315-19. Hirschfeld this tery," Mykenaika expands study pra n. 10) 503-508. Korakou, the East Alley Deposit: J.B. in her dissertation (Univ. of Texas at Austin, in progress) Rutter, The Late Helladic IIIB and IIIC Periods at Korakouand to include and incised painted marks on both Aegean and Gonia in the Corinthia (Diss. Univ. of Pennsylvania 1974). 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 557

IIIA2 groups at Mycenae, from the terrace on the entities of the Early Mycenaean period are best clas- Atreus Ridge and the terrace below the House of sified as chiefdoms, wherein chiefs wielding inher- Shields.3" LH IIIB Middle corresponds to LH IIIB1 ited power coordinated economic, social, and reli- groups at Mycenae, and the Developed phase to gious activities, and maintained authority through canonical LH IIIB2."4 The Late phase at Tiryns is ritual and the display of prestige goods and symbols part of a transitional LH IIIB2/LH IIIC Early phase of power."9 The later states exhibit a much higher that Mountjoy has recently identified."5 It is char- degree of political and social complexity. The tablets acterized by features that are assigned convention- suggest a fairly elaborate official hierarchy, and dem- ally to LH IIIC in the Argolid, like coated deep bowls, onstrate the high degree to which economic control Group A deep bowls with monochrome interiors, is essential to political power (see below). As Wright and medium-band deep bowls, but that appear at notes, the essential difference between a chiefdom other sites in contexts dated to LH IIIB2. and a state is that in the latter offices are "abstracted, Another trend in ceramic studies has been the formally defined and independent of the individual increasing awareness of variations from site to site who fills them."'21oIt is widely believed that it took and region to region in the palatial period."16 For the Mycenaeans all of LH I-II to achieve this level example, some LH 111B2 features like Group B deep of social, economic, and political development. Con- bowls are much less common in Messenia and La- ventional measures of statehood include the defini- conia than in the Argolid. The LH 11IB2 and early tion of an administrative center through the construc- LH IIIC periods are well represented at Delphi, and tion of a palatial building complex, the development exhibit some typical Argolid features, but again with of writing, and the establishment of state institutions local peculiarities.117 such as a state religion. Additional criteria such as complexity of social ranking- best reflected archaeo- DEVELOPMENT OF MYCENAEAN STATES logically in burials-- and trade in prestige goods can One of the important questions occupying schol- characterize chiefdoms as well as states, but they ars of Mycenaean Greece in the last decade concerns too are useful indicators of the development that the transformation of scattered enclaves of power, took place in Greece from Early Mycenaean times characteristic of the Middle Helladic period, into to LH III. A comparison of the Early Mycenaean situ- the centralized states of LH IIIA-B."" The political ation with that in LH IIIA-B in these various areas

Sch6nfeld 11" (supra n. 26) 163, table 4; French (supra joy, forthcoming (supra n. 115). n. 11) 174-84, 185-92. 117 Miller (supra n. 63) 461, n. 42, 463-65. 114LH first IIIBI Middle, half: E.B. French, "AGroup of 118K. Kilian, "The Emergence of Wanax Ideology in the Late Helladic IIIB from BSA 61 1 Pottery Mycenae," (1966) Mycenaean Palaces," OJA 7 (1988) 291-302; M.K. Dabney from Late 216-38; French,"Pottery Helladic IIIB 1 Destruc- and J.C. Wright, "MortuaryCustoms, Palatial Society and tion Contexts at BSA62 149-93. LH Mycenae," (1967) IIIB1 State Formation in the Aegean Area: A Comparative Study," second P.A. Middle, half: Mountjoy,"Late Helladic IIIB 1 in Hiigg and Nordquist 45-53; and the recent volumes Po- the Construction of the South Pottery Dating House at liteia and Rehak. Wright, "From Chief to King in Mycenae- BSA 71 K. "A Mycenae," (1976) 77-111; Wardle, Group of an Society," in Rehak 63-82 provides a particularly thought- LH IIIB 1 Pottery from within the Citadel at Mycenae," ful theoretical framework for discussion. BSA 64 261-97. Canonical LH (1969) 11IB2at Mycenae is 119Wright (supra n. 118), esp. 69 with references; C.W. the and represented by Causeway Deposit that from the Shelmerdine, "AComparative Look at Mycenaean Admin- Perseia West Trench L: "A of LH IIIB Wardle, Group 2 Pot- istration(s):' in S. Hiller, S. Jalkotzy, and 0. Panagl eds., from within the Citadel at 'The tery Mycenae: Causeway Floreant Studia Mycenaea. Proceedings of the 10th Mycenaean 68 "A of LH Deposit',"BSA (1973) 297-348; French, Group Colloquium, Salzburg, May 1995 (Salzburg, forthcoming). A IIIB 2 from BSA 64 Pottery Mycenae," (1969) 71-93. few would put the development of kingship, at least, much 11 P.A. Decorated Mountjoy, Regional Mycenaean Pottery earlier: for the idea that the wanax ideology was formed (Berlin, forthcoming); Mountjoy, "Thorikos Mine No. 3: by the end of the Shaft Grave period, see I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, The BSA 90 195-212. In addi- Mycenaean Pottery," (1995) "Beobachtungen zu den Schachtgrfibern von Mykenai und tion to the sites mentioned in this article (Thorikos, Iria, zu den Schmuckbeigaben mykenischer Mdinnergriber: Korakou, and the North houses at Mount- Slope Athens), Untersuchungen zur Sozialstruktur in spathelladischer joy confirms that the transitional existed at phase Tiryns, Zeit,"JRGZM 33 (1986) 159-98; Kilian (supra n. 5) 292-94; Midea, and Nichoria (personal communication). French T.G.Palaima, "The Nature of the Mycenaean Wanax,"in has now this at in the lat- recognized phase Mycenae also, Rehak 126; and Palaima, "The Origin and Ideology of Myce- est material in the destruction level of the Citadel House naean Kingship: Homeric, and Minoan area Indo-European (personal communication). Priest-KingModels," in Palaima ed., Kingshipand theOrgani- 116 Variation in E.S. Sherratt, "Regional the Pottery of zation of Power in Greek Society (Austin, Late Helladic BSA75 forthcoming). IIIB," (1980) 175-202; PA. Mountjoy, 120Wright (supra n. 118) 66. "Regional Mycenaean Pottery,"BSA 85 (1990) 245-70; Mount- 558 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 may be a useful way to organize information and los, several phases of walls and stucco flooring under- to indicate current thinking on Mycenaean states lie the extant LH IIIB palace (notably in rooms 7, and their development. 55-57), with similar orientation and poros facade. These are probably part of an earlier palace pre- Constructionof an AdministrativeBuilding Complex sumed to date to LH IIIA, although there is little The strict architectural definition of a Mycenaean or no ceramic evidence. 25 There is as yet no con- palace is a large ashlar construction centered on a firmation that still earlier structures at the site were megaron unit: a rectangular room with four columns palatial.126 The chronology of Thebes is especially surrounding a hearth, its long walls extending to form difficult, and the architectural remnants sparse. No a porch and a vestibule.'21 Extant traces show that canonical megaron unit is yet attested, but there do such building complexes existed from LH IIIA at seem to have been two successive structures on the most of the centers that are important in LH IIIB: acropolis. The earlier palace, the House of Kadmos, Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, and perhaps Thebes.'22 Sug- may go back to LH II.127If so, and if it were truly gestions of still earlier palaces at these sites remain a megaron, it would stand out as the earliest exam- unproven, mainly because later construction has ple on the mainland. The site was fortified at least obliterated all or most of the architecture that might from LH IIIA.128 have existed. Wace demonstrated the existence of As just noted, the nature of Early Mycenaean struc- a structure on the Mycenae hilltop in LH I-II, tures at later palace sites is not clear from the exist- adapted to the contours of the terrain, but there is ing architectural traces. Some possibilities are sug- nothing to show whether it included a megaron.123 gested, however, by evidence from contemporary The earliest identifiable megaron unit at Tiryns, sit- nonpalatial sites whose architecture was not obscured uated under the later main megaron (rooms V-VII), by later construction.129 After all, the Early Myce- dates to LH IIIA1.124 The subsidiary megaron naean chiefs who occupied the known palatial cen- (rooms XXI-XXII) also had a predecessor in early ters were the winners in the competition among lo- LH IIIA, and the first fortifications also appear in cal powers to extend their authority over a wider this phase, at the south end of the acropolis. At Py- area. At other sites, less successful rivals also left be-

121 The word megaron -with or without mitigating quo- Town;Tholoi, Grave Circle,and ChamberTombs; Discoveries out- tation marks -is variously and loosely applied to rectan- side the Citadel (Princeton 1973) 34-36; Kilian 1987 (supra gular buildings of many different places and periods. It n. 124) 209. LH IIIA pottery predominates in debris cov- would be better to restrict it to the definition given here, ering the earlier wall in room 7, though there are a few if it is to be used at all: cf. P. Darcque, "Pour l'abandon possibly earlier pieces, and some sherds ofLH IIIB. About du terme 'megaron'," in Darcque and Treuil (supra n. 49) the material from under rooms 55-57, which had been 21-31. badly disturbed before excavation, Blegen et al. 36 could 122R.L.N. Barber, "The Origins of the Mycenaean Pal- report only that "we felt that we were dealing with wares ace," in Sanders (supra n. 83) 11-23; this section is a sum- of Mycenaean III A." mary of the relevant portion of Shelmerdine (supra n. 119). 126The Minnesota Pylos Project has reported walls 123A.J.B. Wace, Mycenae: An Archaeological History and forming "a megaron-like plan" beside the Wine Magazine Guide (Princeton 1949) 87; G.E. Mylonas, Mycenae and the (rooms 104-105): AR 1992-1993, 33, phase 3; Cooper and Mycenaean Age (Princeton 1966) 59, fig. 14 assumes that this Swain (supra n. 41). These walls predate the extant palace building would have had a megaron unit. by several phases, but no date has yet been assigned to them. 124 LH IIIA palace: AR 1984-1985, 20-21; AR 1985-1986, There is nothing to recommend the theory of Kilian 1987 26-27; K. Kilian, "L'architecture des residences myce- (supra n. 124) 213-17, figs. 5, 12a that a Minoan-style pal- niennes: Origine et extension d'une structure du pouvoir ace stood on the hilltop in LH I; doubts are also expressed politique pendant I'Age de Bronze," in E. Levy ed., Le systeme by O.T.P.K.Dickinson, "'The Origins of Mycenaean Civili- palatial en Orient, en Greceet ti Rome.Actes du Colloquede Stras- sation' Revisited," in R. Laffineur ed., Transition: Le monde bourg19-22juin 1985 (Strasbourg 1987) 209, figs. 6-7. There igeen du Bronze moyenau Bronzericent (Aegaeum3, Liege 1989) was a throne installation at this early stage also: Kilian, 131, and by Rutter 796, n. 213. "Die 'Thronfolge' in Tiryns," AM 103 (1988) 1-9; T. Schulz, 127Symeonoglou (supra n. 49) 40-50, table 2.3, figs. 9-10 "Die Rekonstruktion des Thronpodestes im ersten grossen (reconstructed "megaron" of the first palace); see also dis- Megaron von Tiryns," AM 103 (1988) 11-23. Claims of a cussion by Demakopoulou (supra n. 49) 316-17. MH palace rest on fresco fragments allegedly associated 128AR 1984-1985, 30; I have not seen the reports by V. with MH II-III levels: K. Tiryns III: Die Architektur Aravantinos, "H in Bek- Miller, JiUKrVaiVKfilOX•'pOrix Tring KaSt6piaq," der Burgund des Palastes (Mainz 1930) 78; Kilian 1987 (supra) iaris (supra n. 49) 113-36; and Aravantinos, "La fortifica- 213. Fortifications: Kilian (supra n. 5) 134, fig. 9. zione micenea di Tebe. I risultati degli scavi recenti sulla 125C.W. Blegen and M. Rawson, The Palace of Nestor at Cadmeia," Colloquidel Sodaliziotra studiosi dell'arte9-11 (Rome Pylos in WesternMessenia I: The Buildings and Their Contents 1991) 89-104. (Princeton 1966) 44, 94, 226-27; C.W.Blegen et al., The Pal- 129Barber (supra n. 122) 19-21. ace of Nestor at Pylos in WesternMessenia III: Acropolisand Lower 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 559

hind residential architecture, and it is unlikely that the 89 Linear B syllabograms have no Linear A pre- Early Mycenaean buildings obscured by the later com- decessor. However, the syllabograms are generally plexes at palatial centers were much different from simplified and regularized, many new ideograms these better-preserved examples. In many cases there were added and most of the Minoan ones abandoned, are features that prefigure those of the canonical and a different fractional system was adopted. The Mycenaean megaron complex, but none meets the Mycenaean tendency to impose their own style on strict definition. The earliest example is a likely MH what they borrowed is as clear in their writing sys- prototype of the megaron unit in house D at Asine, tem as it is in their art. Palaima has recently argued which had a rectangular room and porch, but no on palaeographical grounds that LH IIA/LM IB was hearth or column bases.130Several prominent Early the most likely time for the adaptation, but a stone Mycenaean buildings also have rooms that approx- with incised Linear B syllabograms has been reported imate megaron units. The LH II mansion I at the from a late MH context at Kafkania, 7 km north of Menelaion in Laconia is usually the first building Olympia.'37 No numbers or logograms appear on to be suggested in such a context.'31 Building F at this isolated find, however, and it shows at best an Krisa in Phocis is earlier, however, constructed in early stage of Mycenaean writing, not the kind of LH I.132 At Kakovatos in Elis a LH II building in- written administration seen later. Like the altered cludes a large room with two preserved column syllabary, restriction of writing to administrative use bases.'"1 None of these structures achieves the ca- in the Mycenaean palatial era is another change from nonical form of the later palaces. Even unit IV-4A Minoan practice. Minoan inscriptions appear on at Nichoria, which is confined in date to LH IIIA1 a variety of artifacts of different materials, and in a and thus contemporary with the earliest true mega- variety of contexts. At the same time, their adminis- ron at has Tiryns, only one anteroom (not a true trative uses appear to be limited. By contrast, Linear and and two column bases porch vestibule) only at B inscriptions are found only on clay, either painted either end of a hearth.134 The true Mycenaean pal- on transport jars or incised on tablets, labels, and is a of as ace, then, product long evolution, may also sealings at major centers, but the range of their uses be true of its Minoan counterpart.'35 Though we within the administrative sphere is extensive. can identify early megaron complexes and their pre- As far as is known, the first clear use of Linear the at which such decessors, point a structure be- B writing for administrative purposes was on Crete. gins to represent palatial authority remains a differ- The Room of the Chariot Tablets at Knossos, con- ent and challenging question. taining a cache of Linear B tablets, is currently understood to date to LM II.13 The Mycenaean adminis- Development of Writing tration that these early documents reveal is not much A process of selection and adaptation is visible different from that seen in the later Knossian doc- in the derivation of the Linear B script from Minoan uments. We know nothing comparable on the main- Linear A.136There is a considerable in overlap the land until the end of LH IIIB1, in the Ug tablets and sign repertories of the two scripts: only about 16 of the Wu nodules from Thebes, and the tablets from

Barber 130 (supra n. 122) 20-21, fig. 10; 0. Fr6din and figs. 7-58 and 7-59, pl. 7-119. Persson, Asine: Results the Swedish 135 A.W. of Excavations, L.V.Watrous, "Review of Aegean Prehistory III: Crete 1922-1930 49. (1938) 72-73, 102-103, fig. from Earliest Prehistory through the Protopalatial Period," 131 Rutter 796. Barber n. 8 offers (supra 122) 11-12, fig. AJA 98 (1994) 741-42 gives a brief summary of alternative the that it had a hearth and column suggestion bases, views on the development of Minoan palaces. this is not certain. though 136The most recent study is by T.G. Palaima, "The De- 132Gazetteer G and H. van 56; J. Jannoray Effenterre, velopment of the Mycenaean Writing System," in Studies "Fouilles de Krisa,"BCH 61 (1937) 318-22, fig. 16. Here there Bennett 269-342. is no but two flat porch, stones are likely to have served 137Palaima (supra n. 136); L. Godart, "Una iscrizione in as column bases. I omit from consideration two successive Lineare B del XVII secolo a.c. ad Olimpia," RendLinc ser. LH I from each with a hearth and buildings Tsoungiza, 9, 6.3 (1995) 445-47; P. Arapoyianni, J. Rambach, and L. a stone support for a central in one room. post rectangular Godart, "H vtUKrlVaUK1i'&tlypacpil PraktAkAth These are called Rutter n. but not TrlgKauKavtt," "megara"by 788, 176, 70 (1995) 251-54; and Godart, "L'inscription de Kafkania- the excavator: et al. n. 19. by Wright (supra 57) 631-32, fig. Olympie," AA 1995 (forthcoming). 133Gazetteer B 94; K. Kilian, "Zur Funktion der myke- 138J. Driessen, An Early Destruction in the Mycenaean Pal- nischen Residenzen auf dem in R. griechischen Festland," ace at Knossos: A New Interpretation of the Excavation Field- and N. Marinatos eds., TheFunction the Minoan Palaces Hiigg of Notes of the South-EastArea of the WestWing (ActaArchLovMono- 9. (Stockholm 1987) 33, fig. graph 2, Louvain 1990). 134Gazetteer D 100; Aschenbrenner (supra n. 91) 433-39, 560 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 the Oil Merchant group of houses at Mycenae. The was quite limited. Another notable feature during only tablets that could be dated earlier are five dis- this period is the diversity of tomb types and burial carded fragments found at Pylos, below the south- customs. Cists and pits coexist with chamber tombs western edge of the hill. These certainly predate the and even at times with tholoi, and Dickinson has main archive of late LH IIIB, and their distinc- warned against the equation of cist tombs with a tive palaeography suggests that they may belong to poorer element of society.142On a regional basis the LH IIIA.139 tholoi themselves are common in Messenia but vir- tually unknown in Boeotia, while for chamber tombs Complexity of Social Ranking the reverse is true. Tomb types, grave goods, and tomb placement can In LH IIIA2-IIIB, by contrast, some standardiza- all differentiate elite from nonelite members of a tion of tomb types can be seen, and the number of society. For the Early Mycenaean period, tombs are large tholoi in use drops significantly. They are con- much better attested than settlement material. Ex- centrated at palatial centers, chiefly in Messenia and cavation priorities are part of the reason, but it is the Argolid, though small ones are built on a regional also true that elite burials are often highly visible basis, especially in peripheral areas.143 These phe- in the archaeological landscape, and in LH I-I there nomena can very plausibly be linked with the rise are many of these. The prime example is the tholos in power of the Mycenaean states.144The general de- tomb. It used to be tempting to assume that these cline in large tholoi coincides with increasingly elab- must be "royal" graves, but their early proliferation orate architecture in the form of palatial complexes, and their tendency to occur in pairs or triplets mil- suggesting a shift in how the elite chose to invest itate against this view. At Mycenae itself they first their human and material resources.'45 At the same appear only in LH IIA, but in Messenia the earliest time, the distribution of these large tombs suggests are contemporary with the Mycenae Shaft Graves that the ruling class annexed the tholos tomb as a in MH III-LH I.140The Early Mycenaean tholos is symbol of power. This does not mean simply that now understood to be a symbol of elite status, and tholoi may at last have become truly royal tombs. thus certainly a precursor to statehood, but not an The construction of a tholos at Nichoria in LH IIIA2, indicator that it begins this early.141The nature of for example, could be directly associated with its as- the power wielded by the elite members of Early similation into the Pylian state. As the site lost its Mycenaean societies is impossible to discern, but position as an independent center, the status of its wealthy burials are sufficiently numerous and widely leaders may have risen by virtue of their relation- dispersed to suggest that the reach of each center ship to the central administration, and a tholos may

139Thebes Ug series: J. Chadwick, "Linear B Tablets 1976) 392-403. 141 from Thebes," Minos 10 (1970) 116 reported a preliminary P. Darcque, "Les tholoi et l'organisation socio- date of LH IIIA2, but this has been corrected by Syme- politique du monde mycenien," in R. Laffineur ed., Tha- onoglou (supra n. 49) 40, 231, site 3 and by Demakopoulou natos. Les coutt2mesfundrairesen Egie i l'Age du Bronze (Aegae- (supra n. 49) 312-13, site 4. Thebes Wu series: C. Piteros, um 1, Liege 1987) 185-205; WG. Cavanaghand C.B. Mee, J.L. Melena, andJ.-P. Olivier, "Les inscriptions en Lineaire "Mycenaean Tombs as Evidence for Social and Political B des nodules de Thebes (1982): La fouille, les documents, Organisation," OJA 3:3 (1984) 45-64; Cavanagh and Mee, les possibilites d'interpretation," BCH 114 (1990) 104-105. "The Location of Mycenaean Chamber Tombs in the Mycenae: Tournavitou (supra n. 23) with references. Pylos: Argolid," in Higg and Nordquist 55-64;J.C. Wright, "Death T.G. Palaima, "Evidence for the Influence of the Knossian and Power at Mycenae: Changing Symbols in Mortuary Prac- Graphic Tradition at Pylos," in P. Oliva and A. Frolikova tice," in Laffineur 1987 (supra) 171-84; and Cavanagh and eds., Concilium Eirene 16 (Prague 1983) 80-84; and Palaima, Mee (supra n. 56). The ScribesofPylos (Incunabula graeca 87, Rome 1988) 111-13 142Dickinson (supra n. 6) 228; cf. O.T.P.K. Dickinson, (Hand 91), 133 (Class iv). "Cist Graves and Chamber Tombs"' BSA 78 (1983) 55-67. 140 On the LH II date of the first six Mycenae tholoi, 143Cavanagh and Mee 1984 (supra n. 141) 51; Darcque see O.T.P.K.Dickinson, The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation (supra n. 141) 200-205; Pelon (supra n. 140) 392-423. (SIMA 49, Goteborg 1977) 63. The earliest canonical tho- 144S. Voutsaki, "Social and Political Processes in the los is the MH III example at ancient Koryphasion Haratsari Mycenaean Argolid," in Politeia 62; G. Kopcke, "The Argo- (also referred to as Osmanaga): GazetteerD5; Y. Lolos, "The lid in 1400 -What Happened?" in Politeia 89; Bennet (supra Tholos Tomb at Koryphasion: Evidence for the Transition n. 90) 596-98; Wright (supra n. 118) 73. from Middle to Late Helladic in Messenia," in Laffineur 145 An analogous shift in priorities may have taken place (supra n. 126) 171-75. On Messenian tombs and their non- in Neopalatial Crete: the rich tombs of LM II-IIIA1 mark royal status, see 0. Pelon, Tholoi, tumuli, et cerclesfundraires: a distinct change from the heyday of the Minoan palaces Recherchessur les monumentsfundraires de plan circulaire dans in LM IA-IB, when funerary architecture is very poorly l'Egie de l'Age du Bronze (IIIe et lie millinaires av. J.-C.) (Paris documented. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 561

have been a status symbol - tangible proof of a new Mycenae and the Cretan palace sites, particularly kind of power and of the leaders' ties to Pylos.146 Knossos, but funerary wealth and Cretan contact go hand in hand in Messenia at the same time.'14 In Tradein Prestige Goods any case, Minoan artistic influence is clear, and for Trade in prestige goods implies a market among much of the Early Mycenaean period it is difficult a society's elite for goods indicative of status as well to distinguish Minoan from Mycenaean work. Never- as wealth. It further means that the society is orga- theless, for assessing the impact of this relationship nized enough to control mechanisms for acquiring on emerging Mycenaean states, this long-standing such goods, and producing objects to offer in ex- difficulty is not crucial: the fact of close contact is change. The imported riches in the Shaft Graves at the point.149 In LH IIB/LM II, however, recognizable Mycenae are the first signs of such items reaching Mycenaean artifacts and styles are seen in Crete, Mycenaean Greece, but it is likely that at this stage mainland burial practices are adopted in the Cre- Minoans, not Mycenaeans, were responsible for Ae- tan "Warrior Graves," especially in the Knossos area, gean access to them. Throughout the Early Myce- and Mycenaean administrators are keeping records naean period very few Aegean objects found abroad in Greek at the Palace of Minos itself.15s are demonstrably mainland products. Crete had There is a marked difference between this contin- the dominant Aegean role in foreign trade, and for uum of growth in external contacts, chiefly with mainland Greece itself the Minoan connection was Crete, and what we know of Aegean trade in LH clearly the most significant. Relevant here is the IIIA2-LH IIIB. Bronze Age exchange systems have model of secondary state formation, in which a less recently received much attention. They took a vari- highly organized society is stimulated to further de- ety of forms, and only aspects directly relevant to Myce- contact with a more advanced velopment by state. naean Greek states are summarized here.'"• The In particular, a chief's special access to external pres- Mycenaean presence abroad becomes far more ex- tige goods demonstrates and thereby reinforces his tensive than before, by the measures of pottery traded and superiority to, authority over, those whom he and actual outposts, and signs of Minoan presence rules. Wright shows that this model applies well to simultaneously diminish. Imports from the East show the contact between mainland Greece and Crete, the same shift in the balance of Aegean power: they which is demonstrated by the contents of the Shaft are much more common in Crete than mainland Graves.147A special link has been posited between Greece until LH IIIA2, at which time the situation

146 This discussion does not include burial rituals, and D. Doxey, "Causes and Effects of the Fall of Knossos which are much the same in different kinds of tombs:Dick- in 1375 B.C.,"OJA 6 (1987) 301-24. Greek administration inson (supra n. 6) 228. Discussions of such rituals usually at Knossos: Driessen (supra n. 138). focus on the Early Mycenaean period when the funerary 151 In general and for further references, see N.H. Gale material is most abundant: several in and papers Hagg ed., BronzeAge Tradein the Mediterranean (SIMA 90,Jonsered Nordquist;M.J. Boyd, "Mortuary Archaeology: Performance, 1991); A.B. Knapp and J.E Cherry, ProvenanceStudies and Architecture, Time, Memory,"Archaeo 2 (1994) 83-94. Bronze Age Cyprus:Production, Exchange,and Politico-Economic 147 Wright (supra n. 118). Change (Madison 1994); R. Laffineur and L. Basch eds., Tha- 148Crete and n. Mycenae:Wright (supra 118) 70; Dick- lassa: L'Ege prehistorique et la mer (Aegaeum 7, Liege 1990). inson n. Dickinson n. (supra 140) 54-55; (supra 126) 136. On Mycenaean pottery abroad, see Leonard (supra n. 107). Crete and Messenia: G. Korres, "The Relations between A handy summary of Mycenaeanforeign contact, with fur- Crete and Messenia in the Late Middle Helladic and Early ther references, may be found in Dickinson (supra n. 6) Late Helladic Period," in R. and N. Marinatos Hagg eds., 250-56. An intriguing addition to the evidence for Egyp- The Minoan and Thalassocracy:Myth Reality (Stockholm 1984) tian contact is a papyrus from Amarna warriors, "On depicting 141-52; Hdigg, the Nature of the Minoan Influence some of whom wear and boar's in Mycenaean-looking clothing Early Mycenaean Messenia,"OpAth 14 (1982) 27-37. tooth helmets: L. Schofield and R. Parkinson, "Of Helmets 149Rutter 791 with n. 194. On artistic see E. contact, and Heretics: A Possible Egyptian Representation of Myce- Davis, "The One Vapheio Cups: Minoan and One Myce- naean Warriors on a Papyrus from El-Amarna," BSA 89 naean?"ArtB 56 (1974) 472-87; J. Hurwit, "The Dendra Oc- (1994) 157-70. Twodifferent views of Mycenaeanrelations and the Problem of in topus Cup Style the Fifteenth Cen- with Europe are presented by J. Bouzek, The Ana- 83 Aegean, tury Aegean,"AJA (1979) 413-26; and several papers in tolia and Europe: Cultural Interrelations in the Second Millen- and Hagg Marinatos (supra n. 148). nium B.C.(Prague 1985), who believes the re- 150"Warrior Graves":H. Mycenaeans Matthaus, "Minoische Krie- lied on northern sources for such raw materials as amber, gergraber,"in and L. Nixon Minoan O. Krzyszkowska eds., and by A.E Harding, The Mycenaeans and Europe (London Society(Bristol 1983) 203-15; I. Kilian-Dirlmeier,"Noch ein- 1984), who argues that direct contact was minimal; see also mal zu den von 32 'Kriegergraber' Knossos,"JRGZM (1985) B.P. Hallager, "Crete and Italy in the Late Bronze Age III 196-214; Kilian-Dirlmeier, '"Jewelleryin Mycenaean and Period," AJA 89 (1985) 293-305. Minoan 'Warrior in French and Wardle Graves'," 161-71; 562 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

is reversed.152 More important, the foreign goods of foreign contacts.156 Mainland states may not have found in Greece in LH IIIA-B include royal artifacts, controlled all of Mycenaean trade with Canaanites, suggesting the possibility of exchange between rul- Egyptians, and others, but they did organize the pro- ers. Nine of the 14 objects from the Aegean inscribed duction of goods for export, not all of them visible with the cartouche of Amenhotep III or his wife in the archaeological record. They also retained the Queen Tiy were found at Mycenae.'53 Most are heir- Semitic names of the spices, gold, and ivory they re- looms in LH IIIB contexts, but this pharaoh's reign ceived, among other commodities, in return. A num- overlaps with LH IIIA1-2, and the presence of ar- ber of ethnics in the tablets also reflect associations tifacts with the royal cartouche may suggest contact with other lands. Sometimes these appear to be men's with Mycenae at the highest diplomatic level. Sim- names: mi-sa-ra-joIMisraiosl (Knossos), "Egyptian"; ai- ilarly, the cache of lapis lazuli cylinder seals discov- ku-pi-tijo lAiguptiosl (Knossos), "Memphite"; ku-pi-rijo ered in a LH IIIB context in Thebes has been inter- IKupriosl (Knossos, Pylos; also adjectival), and pos- preted by one scholar as a gift from the king sibly a-ra-sijo IAlagiosl(Knossos, Mycenae), "Cypriot." Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria.'54 Some of the dependent textile workers at Pylos (A- The Linear B tablets occasionally refer to textiles series) are groups of women designated by foreign (Knossos) and perfumed oil (Pylos) as ke-se-nu-wija ethnics: a-si-wi-jaI a-*64-ja IAswiail,"Asians," ki-ni-dija Ixenwial.The root suggests a connection with the Clas- IKnidiail, "Knidians," mi-ra-ti-jaIMilaitiail, "Milesians," sical Greek Svoq, "host, guest, stranger," and thus and ze-pu2-ra3IZephyrail, "Halikarnassians" (cf. Strabo with the world of hospitality and formal gift ex- 14.2.16). These references raise the interesting pos- change. 55 The term seems to characterize a type or sibility that Pylos was able to conscript groups of for- quality of the product; the oil in question (Fr 1231) is eigners into full-time service.'57 Apart from these actually designated for a goddess. Nor do the tablets few textual points, however, the chief evidence for contain any direct evidence for extra-kingdom trade, a Mycenaean role in Aegean trade remains the an omission that continues to surprise and to attract Mycenaean pottery found abroad, especially in various explanations. They do, however, contain hints Cyprus, Syria-Palestine, Egypt, and Italy.'58

152E.H. Cline, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: International 156Cline (supra n. 152) 128-31 offers a list of "Linear Tradeand the Late BronzeAge Aegean (BAR-IS591, Oxford 1994) B references to Egypt and the Near East." This heading 9-10. Cline generally contrasts LH IIIA with LH IIIB, but is misleading; it is actually a list of words in the tablets on pp. xvii, 10-11, and in personal communication he ac- for which a specific foreign origin can be suggested. Not knowledges his belief that the shift takes place in LH IIIA2. all the suggestions are equally attractive to a Linear B 15 E.H. Cline, "Amenhotep III and the Aegean: A Re- scholar, and not all imply direct or indirect contact with assessment of Egypto-Aegean Relations in the 14th Cen- the place in question. tury B.C.,"Orientalia 56 (1987) 1-36; Cline, "An Unpublished 157 On the status of the female textile workers, see J. Amenhotep III Faience Plaque from Mycenae,"JAOS 110 Chadwick, "The Women of Pylos," in Studies Bennett 43-95; (1990) 200-12; Cline (supra n. 152) 39 (further references also among those listed are women from Lemnos (ra-mi- in catalogue); and Cline, "Contact and Trade or Coloniza- nija), and possibly Khios (ki-si-wi-ja).The masculine forms tion: Egypt and the Aegean in the 14th-13th Centuries of"Asian" and "Halikarnassian" also appear: ze-pu2-rois the B.C.,"Minos 25-26 (1990-1991) 7-36. Also important in as- name of a Pylian tailor who holds land on Ea 56, while sessing the relations of this pharaoh with the Aegean is the name a-si-wijola-*64jo, "Aswios,"recurs more than once the list of place-names on a statue base from Kom el-Hetan: each at Pylos, Knossos, and Mycenae. Cline n. (supra 152) 38-39 (further references in catalogue). 158Also of critical importance to an understanding of 154 E. Porada, "The Cylinder Seals Found at Thebes in Aegean trade are the excavated shipwrecks. That off Point Boeotia,' AfO 28 (1981) 1-70, 77, esp. 68-70, 77. Others dis- Iria in the Argolid dates to the end of the LH IIIB period, this discussion in pute claim; Cline (supra n. 152) 25-26 with Cypriot (LC IIIIIIA), Minoan (LM IIIB), and Myce- (further references in catalogue). Our appreciation of the naean (LH IIIB2) pottery: C. Pennas, Y. Vichos, and Y. way in which Mycenaean Greece was regarded by other Lolos, "Point Iria Wreck 1992," Enalia Annual 1992:4 (1996) political leaders is greatly affected by whether it or any 4-5; Pennas, Vichos, and Lolos, "Point Iria Wreck 1993," part of it was the entity known as Ahhijawa. On this issue, Enalia Annual 1992:4 (1996) 6-31. On the earlier Uluburun which falls outside the scope of the present review, see wreck in southern Turkey, see G. Bass, "Evidence of Trade Niemeier's "Review of W.-D. forthcoming Aegean Prehistory from Bronze Age Shipwrecks," in Gale (supra n. 151) 69-82, in on the in Anatolia. VIII" AJA Mycenaeans and Pulak (supra n. 12), with further bibliography. It ap- 155The two certain in only imports among pottery the pears to have sunk while traveling westward, yet it contains are small from the oil Pylos palace stirrup jars, perfumed some Mycenaean pottery and swords in addition to large storeroom room which similar in fabric and 32, appear quantities of Cypriot pottery and metal ingots, and Syro- of decoration to and Raw- quality Argolid pottery: Blegen Palestinian amphoras. The combination suggests a generally son (supra n. 125) 407-408 nos. 411-12, with the explicit circular trade route in the eastern Mediterranean, show- suggestion that no. 411 is an Argolid import. ing equal favor to a number of clients. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 563 Religion and Other State Institutions Recent discussions of Minoan influence on main- Relations between Crete and mainland Greece land religion are also relevant to the institution of in LH I-II have already been mentioned in the sec- kingship, since the Mycenaean king played an im- tions above on trade and the development of writ- portant role in religious affairs (see below). Palaima ing. Several scholars have suggested that the Myce- has offered the idea that the later Greek skiptron, or naeans were equally receptive to Minoan ideas and staff of office, goes back to Mycenaean times, and beliefs. Many institutions of the later states- is derived from Crete along with the ideology of the written administration, religious rituals, perhaps wanax, or king.164So little evidence exists about Mi- even the Mycenaean form of kingship itself- may noan rulers that this idea is difficult to evaluate, espe- reflect the influence of Minoan concepts and prac- cially since what we know of later mainland kings tices. However, there is no reason to think in terms presumably represents a substantial transformation of wholesale adoption. The process of reasoned se- into Mycenaean form.'65 It does seem likely, as lection and adaptation already observed applies Wright observes, that Minoan influence on evolving equally well to the world of ideas, and the transfor- Mycenaean institutions and ideology set the Myce- mation of Middle Helladic chiefdoms into Late naean elites apart from the rest of their society.1'" Mycenaean polities resulted in a new and distinc- The process of development, however, served equally tive culture. Religion has been the most productive to distinguish them from their Cretan neighbors. area of scrutiny, because Minoan influence there takes a tangible form in iconography (see be- NEW INSCRIPTIONS low).'59 Social institutions are harder to discern, but Wright has proposed that a wine-drinking rit- Recent work at palatial centers has brought to ual was adapted from Crete by the Mycenaeans.160 light a number of inscriptions. Those from Tiryns, The ceremony is most clearly depicted in the LM Thebes (except those from Pelopidou Street), and IIIA Campstool Fresco from Knossos, where one Mycenae are now conveniently brought together in man holds a Mycenaean goblet and another a stem a single publication, and so do not need a full de- restored as a Minoan chalice.61 These are two of scription here.167 The 24 examples from Tiryns are the three gold vessel shapes offered to deities on extremely fragmentary, but the topics are familiar: the later Pylos tablet Tn 316, and the fresco itself lists of men, wheels and armor, animals, and land. is similar to the banquet scene depicted in the Py- A number of these come from a LH IIIB2 context los megaron. It should be noted, though, that all of in a building with religious significance in the Lower the evidence for this ritual belongs to the Mycena- Citadel, but their contents are routinely administra- ean period,162 so its Minoan origin is still speculative. Ef 2 and Ef 3, from the southeastern part of tion. The chalice itself is a Minoan shape in stone, the Upper Citadel, are land-tenure tablets: one re- and its presence in the Shaft Graves demonstrates fers to ke-ke-me[-naland, a class of landholding also the Mycenaeans' early interest in it, but there is no known at Pylos, and the other gives an amount of evidence from the Cretan Neopalatial period con- land in terms of the amount of seed-grain that would cerning the way in which it was used.163 be needed to sow it, a convention also known at Py-

159 Rutter 793; C. Renfrew et al., The Archaeologyof Cult: 324-25, fig. 2. The at 162 Sanctuary Phylakopi (BSA Suppl. 18, Oxford 1985) Or later, from the sanctuary at Kato Syme: Wright 393-94; R. Hdigg, "Mycenaean Religion: The Helladic and (supra n. 160) 289, with references. the Minoan Components," in A. Morpurgo Davies and Y. 16 S. Hiller, "Levanto-Mykenische Kelche-Zur Her- Duhoux eds., Linear B:A 1984 Survey (Bibliotheque des Ca- kunft der Geffissform," RDAC 1978, 91-102. 164 hiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 26, Louvain Palaima, in Rehak (supra n. 119); Palaima, forth- 1985) 203-25;J.C. Wright, "The Archaeological Correlates coming (supra n. 119). On the staff of office Palaima is sup- of Case Studies in Religion: the Aegean," in Politeia 341-48; ported by Wright (supra n. 159) 345; a cautionary note is Wright (supra n. 118), esp. 70-72, 74; Palaima, in Rehak sounded in C.W.Shelmerdine, review of Rehak, Minos (forth- (supra n. 119), esp. 127; Palaima, forthcoming (supra n. 119). coming). 160J.C. Wright, "Empty Cups and Empty Jugs: The So- 165Kilian (supra n. 118); on Minoan rulers see Rehak cial Role of Wine in Minoan and Mycenaean Societies," passim. in P.E. McGovern, S.J. Fleming, and S.H. Katz eds., The Or- 166Wright (supra n. 118) 72. and Ancient Wine 287-309. igins Historyof (Philadelphia 1995) 167J.L. Melena and J.-P. Olivier, TITHEMY: The Tablets 161 "An Addition M.A.S. Cameron, to La Parisienne," and Nodules in Linear B from Tiryns, Thebes and Mycenae (Mi- CretChron 1964, 38-53, esp. 51-52; Cameron, "The'Palatial' nos Suppl. 12, Salamanca 1991). A sequel, TITHEMY+ Thematic System in the Knossos Murals: Last Notes on MIKHA, is in progress; it will include tablets and nodules Knossos Frescoes," in Higg and Marinatos (supra n. 133) from Midea and Khania. 564 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Fig. 8. Thebes. Excavation on Pelopidou Street. (Photo E. Godwin) los. This discovery suggests that administrative sys- but divine offerings are also attested. The tablets tems operated in generally similar ways from king- are still undergoing restoration and study, but pre- dom to kingdom, though differences in details can liminary reports show that they have the capacity be observed as well.168 to advance our knowledge in several ways, from Published in the same volume is an important further attestation and better transliteration of rare cache of 56 sealings at Thebes that comes from a syllabograms, to some possible new theonyms and small room in a house on Oidipodos Street.169 The occupational terms. Especially interesting for geo- sealings belong to the earlier of two destruction lev- graphical relations is the term ra-ke-da-mo-ni-jo-u-jo els, with a reported ceramic date near the end of ILakedaimonioshuiosl, "son of Lakedaimon," along with LH IIIB1. The subject of the inscriptions is a variety three attestations of the ethnic ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo.A Lake- of animals and other foodstuffs sent to the palace daimonian connection, even if confined to the pres- from outlying areas, probably for a state banquet. ence at Thebes of individuals from that area, raises Still more recently, excavations from 1993 to 1996 the issue of interstate relations in an interesting way. under Pelopidou Street have unearthed some 250 Two more tablets were found in 1994 during further tablets, dramatically increasing the number of texts exploration of the Arsenal area. The longer docu- from Thebes.170 The new location, approximately ment, TH 149, lists quantities of grain and olives 200 m2 in area, is very near the "Arsenal" site where against various names. At least two of these are place- the Ug tablets had previously been found (fig. 8). names in the dative-locative: Thebes itself, and e-re- The tablets are not in situ, but they are associated o-ni, thought to represent Eleon, a Boeotian place- with a pavement, in a destruction level reported to name attested in Homer and later authors. date to the second half of the 13th century B.C. The Three inscribed sealings now confirm the status texts deal chiefly with rations, especially wine, figs, of Midea as an administrative center of some kind, and grain. These are given to both men and women, though no tablets have yet been found there. One

168A brief account of some representative differences, L. Godart, and A. Sacconi, "Sui nuovi testi del palazzo di with further bibliography, is provided by Shelmerdine Cadmo a Tebe:Noti preliminari,"RendLinc ser. 9, 6.4 (1995) (supra n. 119). 809-45; Godart and Sacconi, "La triade tebana nei doc- 169V. Aravantinos,"The Mycenaean Inscribed Sealings umenti in Lineare B del Palazzo di Cadmo,"RendLinc ser. from Thebes: Problems of Content and Function"'in T.G. 9, 7.2 (1996) 283-85; and Aravantinos,"New Linear B Tab- Palaima ed., AegeanSeals, Sealings and Administration (Aegae- lets from Thebes:Texts and Contexts,"in Hiller et al. (supra um5, Libge 1990)149-74; Piteros et al. (supran. 139) 103-84. n. 119).I thank VassilisAravantinos for letting me examine 170 Aravantinos (supra n. 49) 619, 621; V. Aravantinos, the new tablets in 1994 and 1996. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 565 nodule (Wv 3), with the ideogram GRA(num), comes from room VI in the West Gate area; the other two finds are from a room north of the megaron complex in area N of the lower terraces.171 Face .a of the nodule Wv 1 bears the ideogram CYP(erus), and facet .0 the syllabograms ro and zo, while the newly discovered sealing Wv 5 is reportedly inscribed .a OLE(um) and .Bpa-zo-we. All three inscriptions date to LH IIIB2. At Pylos, three tablet fragments have been found in the course of clearing backfill and reexcavating Blegen's dump near the south corner of the site. An inscribed nodule (Wr 1480) was also recovered from the site by a guard.'72 The nodule refers to javelin handles. Only personal names are preserved on Xn 1481 (fig. 9), while Un 1482 lists beds and baskets, both items familiar from other Pylos texts. The third fragment, which includes ideograms for honey and unguent, probably goes with previously known Un fragments to comprise a tablet listing banquet supplies. Such documents are understood to have special political and religious importance, so it is especially interesting that the word wanax appears here in the dative (for further discussion, see below). The painted signs and sign groups occasionally found on pottery-usually coarse stirrup jars- belong in a different category from these administrative documents. Ceramic fragments with painted signs are known from Tiryns, Mycenae, Eleusis, Fig. 9. Pylos. Tablet Xn 1481. (Photo T. McKern,courtesy Thebes, Gla, and now Midea.173 This new find, MI Pylos Regional Archaeological Project) Z 4, is one of many storage stirrup jars from the LH IIIB2 floor level of room VI in the West Gate area. (KN Z 1716), and on the inscribed stirrup jar from It is inscribed with the name wi-na-jo,which also ap- Armenoi.174 All three inscriptions appear to be in pears on a locally made stirrup jar from Knossos the same hand.

171 West Gate area: K. Demakopoulou and N. Divari- see H. D6hl, "Bronzezeitliche Graffiti und Dipinti aus Valakou, "New Finds with Linear B Inscriptions from Tiryns," Kadmos18 (1979) 67-69; J.-P.Olivier, "Tirynthi- Midea (MI Z 2, Wv 3, Z 4),"Minos 29-30 (1994-1995 [forth- an Graffiti,"AA 1988, 262; S. Iakovides, "Eventypacp6q coming]). Lower Terraces:Demakopoulou et al. (supra n. a76 TovtFd," in . orov ••su860oio41o Apia6v& Aqpm•pogpa 33) 39, figs. 58-60; G.Walberg, "A Linear B Inscription from ),rvzaav6 A?~seiov (Athens 1989) 39-43; and Demakopou- Midea,"Kadmos 31 (1992) 93. GRA is traditionally under- lou and Divari-Valakou(supra n. 171).In the last mentioned stood to represent "wheat,"though R. Palmer,"Wheat and article, the authors also publish a join showing that the Barley in MycenaeanSociety," in Mykenaika475-97 prefers stirrupjar previously published as MI Z 2 (K.Demakopou- "barley." lou and N. Divari-Valakou,"A Linear B Inscribed Stirrup 172Wr 1480 and Xn 1481 are published by C.W.Shel- Jar from Midea(MI Z 2),"Minos 27-28 [1992-1993]303-305) merdine and D.J.L.Bennet, "TwoNew Linear B Documents is not inscribed after all. Three new fragmentsfrom Thebes from Bronze Age Pylos,"Kadmos 34 (1995) 123-36. Study are mentioned by Piteros et al. (supra n. 139) 107, n. 18. of the other tablets is in progress byJohn Bennet, Emmett A summary of all painted inscriptions then known is pro- Bennett, and Cynthia Shelmerdine. The proposed join of vided by Farnoux and Driessen (supra n. 106) 87-88. one new fragment is Jose Melena'ssuggestion; the pieces 174Hallager (supra n. 104) 187; photographs in K. De- have not yet been brought together to confirm the joins. makopoulou ed., TheMycenaean World:Five Centuriesof Early In addition to these new discoveries, the definitive study Greek Culture 1600-1100 B.C. (Athens 1988) 208-209, nos. of scribalhands at Pylos has appeared,Palaima 1988 (supra 186, 187.The Knossosjar is published by M. Popham, "An n. 139). LMIII B Inscription from Knossos,"Kadmos 8 (1969) 43-45, 173 A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in Lineare and by Sacconi (supra n. 173) 59-60, 178.Its Knossian pro- B (Incunabulagraeca 57, Rome 1974).For subsequent finds, venience is certified by Catling et al. (supra n. 104) 83. 566 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION understood: we cannot with certainty demonstrate for him a or a role, or that of an Much can be inferred about economic and polit- judicial military ical matters from the Linear B tablets, but it is nec- international statesman."75 He seems, however, to have had a role in affairs essary to remember that these are concerned exclu- presiding religious (infra), and the of certain craftsmen as sively with palatial affairs. The tablets existed as an designation "royal" aide-memoire for the central administration, and suggests either that they served his personal or pro- fessional or that he had they say nothing explicit about any activities not un- requirements, particularly direct over one branch of the der its control. A further limiting factor is that the authority palatial workforce."76 In addition, he makes an official tablets we possess refer to a single year-the last ap- on tablet Ta and few would before the destruction that baked and preserved pointment Pylos 711, deny that he has secular as well as them. Scholars must generalize from these tablets religious authority.177 Debate on the status and of other to develop any picture of Mycenaean economy in responsibilities officials is still less conclusive, even when the title LH IIIB, without clear knowledge of how represen- is Greek, like tative they are of the 13th century B.C. as a whole. transparently qa-si-re-uIgwasileusl (cf. Classical Greek Poat•s6q) or ra-wa-ke-taIlawagetaisl Political Classical Greek from + On Organization (cf. kayCTaq, hadq ,yo0). The Linear B tablets contain a number of titles the Pylos Jn tablets three gwasileis act as overseers with clear political significance. The relative hier- of working groups of bronzesmiths. Most of the archical position of a few officials has been known groups in this series do not have an overseer, and since before the publication of the second edition it is not clear why only three are thus provided."17 of Ventris and Chadwick's Documents in Mycenaean More frequently attested is the derivative qa-si-re- Greek, but the status of others remains uncertain. wi-ja Igwasileial.Three such groups, designated by the As usual, most of our information from the main- name of the man responsible for them, receive ra- land comes from the Pylos archive, but we have noth- tions on Pylos tablet Fn 50 (cf. also Fn 867.3). For ing to suggest that other kingdoms were organized Carlier, the presence of religious personnel on both differently. The paramount figure is the wanax, and tablets is significant, suggesting that gwasileis played second in importance is the ra-wa-ke-taIlawagetiisl, a role in religious affairs.179Nonreligious recipients "leader of the people." Among the figures at a lower are listed as well, however, so the inference seems level are the qa-si-re-uIgwasileusl (see below), the e-qe- unwarranted. As for the lawagetas, it has been tra- ta Ihekwetasl,"companion" (presumably of the king), ditional to view him as second in power to the king, the te-re-taItelestasl, "officials," and the ko-re-teIkoretirl and a military leader. The first point has not been and po-ro-ko-re-teIprokorit-rl, "mayor" and "vice-mayor" challenged, but some scholars have recently pointed of the 16 major economic districts of the kingdom. out, rightly I believe, that there is no necessary con- Beyond this much remains uncertain. In particular, nection of this official to military matters.18" despite much fruitful debate over the last 20 years, The larger political questions of importance are there is not a single official about whose functions what kind of polity the Mycenaean state was, and all are in complete agreement. Discussion has fo- how directly it was controlled by the king and his cused principally on the first three figures listed palace officials. In this context "political" control is above. hardly separable from economic control, and one The wanax presents less difficulty than the others, must turn to the realm of economic administration yet the extent even of his responsibilities is not fully for the partial answers reached to date. In general,

175For an even more pessimistic view of our ability to always does signify the king. Another question is whether interpret this and other titles, see J.T. Hooker, "Titles and or not the man e-ke-ra2-woIEnkhelidw6nl is the wanax of Py- Functions in the Pylian State," in Studies Chadwick 257-67. los at the time of the tablets. For a recent argument in sup- On the wanax,see P. Carlier, La royaut?en Greceavant Alex- port of this view, see Palaima, in Rehak (supra n. 119) 129-35, andre (Strasbourg 1984) pt. 1, esp. 44-101; several papers passim. in Palaima, forthcoming (supra n. 119) and in Rehak. 178 P. Carlier, "Qa-si-re-uet qa-si-re-wi-ja,"in Politeia 355-64; 176Carlier (supra n. 175) 63-72 prefers the first alter- Carlier (supra n. 175) 108-16. native. 179Carlier (supra n. 178) 359, 360-61, 364; Carlier does 177As Hooker (supra n. 175) 258-59 and others have bring other evidence to bear also, but none of it seems noted, it is not possible to prove that the term wanax always conclusive. refers to a single individual, or even that it always refers 180Carlier (supra n. 175) 106-107; Hooker (supra n. 175) to a human rather than a divine lord. Each student of the 262. tablets must develop a personal view; my own is that wanax 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 567 there is a growing trend toward acknowledging that beings.183 There are also a few cases where the value the of state officials is not authority absolute, and of one commodity is expressed in terms of others that considerable went at least in the activity on, Py- in what appear to be payment records: cloth is val- los where records are most kingdom plentiful, in- ued in terms of wheat and figs (Pylos Un 1322), and of control.181 dependent palatial alum in terms of several commodities (Pylos An 35, Un 443.1).184 Thus, it does not appear that staples EconomicAdministration and prestige goods were handled in completely sep- The economic themes reflected in the tablets are, arate exchange systems, as happens in some cul- limited to generally speaking, agricultural produc- tures.'85 Nevertheless, the overall picture is clear: tion, taxation, industries (the manufacture and dis- the palace was the focal point of a redistributive sys- tribution of of goods, chiefly goods high economic tem, mobilizing both goods and services. It exercised status), and To a or lesser personnel. greater degree, minimal control over the production of staple goods, all these are better understood than topics today they though it acquired these selectively for such uses as were 20 and form a years ago, together they fairly ration payments to workers and suppliers. By con- coherent of picture Mycenaean administration. trast, it did directly oversee the production of par- There is that the widespread agreement Mycenaean ticular agricultural resources, such as flax for the sites were redistributive in palatial centers, taking linen industry, and over the industrial processes a variety of commodities from their dependencies, themselves. them and them storing centrally, allocating (or prod- Animal husbandry and agricultural production. ucts made from them) within the again kingdom. Records of livestock indicate that the palace con- The tablets document each the collection of stage: trolled large flocks and herds. The prominence of goods, the allocation of resources to work- dependent records pertaining to sheep at Knossos is due to the ers, and the distribution of a of commodi- variety importance of the wool industry there, and listings ties. Redistributive economies be al- may primarily of thousands of animals (more than 19,200 on Dn truistic, needed or desirable and pooling goods 1088 alone) are without parallel on the mainland. services to ensure access to or the widespread them, The Pylos archive also records extensive holdings motive be rather to mobilize such resources may up- of sheep and goats, and refers as well to other im- ward to the elite. In the case of the Mycenaeans both portant animals like oxen.'8is6Much of the direct impulses have been at work, the Linear may though written evidence for agricultural production con- B evidence is slanted toward concerns of the central cerns grapevines, figs, olives, and grain, particularly elite, so that we observe the economic only activity one variety of wheat.'87 A recent study by Palmer has that it The even dominates.182 complex, inconsistent, clarified both the place of wine in the economy, and details hinted at in the texts are a further deterrent documents relating to the assessment of vines and to understanding. A redistributive is nor- economy the collection and distribution of the finished prod- viewed as an alternative to a market mally economy, uct.188 The bulk of our information comes from in which the relative values of different commodi- Pylos, but the meager evidence from Knossos and ties make market Yet exchange possible. the Myce- Mycenae is consistent with it. Palmer shows that wine naean equivalent of Classical Greek ipiaoaOt, "buy," was a high-status item, stored perhaps at outlying is used at Knossos with reference to human centers as well as in the Wine Magazine (rooms 104-

181For good discussions of the issue, with further ref- lectors," in Politeia 217-19. erences, Chadwick,"Leconomie dans la seeJ. palatiale Grece 185Halstead, in PCPS (supra n. 181) 57-58. mycenienne," in Levy n. 124) 283-90; S. 186 (supra Deger- T.G. Palaima, "Perspectives on the Pylos Oxen Tab- Jalkotzy,"'Near Eastern Economies' versus'Feudal Society': lets: Textual (and Archaeological) Evidence for the Use Zum in Studies mykenischen Palaststaat," Chadwick 137-50; and Management of Oxen in Late Bronze P.Halstead, in the Bronze Age Messenia "Agriculture Age Aegean:Towards (and Crete)," in Palaima, C.W.Shelmerdine, and P.H. a Model of Palatial in B. Ilievski Economy," Wells ed., Agriculture eds., Studia Mycenaea (1988) Ancient Greece (ZivaAnt Monograph 7, Skopje in (Stockholm 1992) 105-17; Halstead, "The 1989) 85-124. Mycenaean Palatial Economy: Making the Most of the Gaps 187Halstead, in Wells (supra n. 181); Halstead, in PCPS in the Evidence," PCPS 38 (1992) 57-86; and Killen. (supra n. 181) 60-61, 64. As Halstead notes, the archae- 182 Cf. Halstead, in Wells (supra n. 181) 57. ological record is more diverse, suggesting that other 183J.-P. Olivier, "Des extraits de contrats de vente d'es- staples reached the center from the sector of claves dans les tablettes de in nonpalatial Knossos," Studies Chadwick the economy. 479-98; Killen 284-85, n. 39. 188R. Palmer, Wine in the Mycenaean Palace 184See now J.T. Killen, "Some Further Economy (Ae- Thoughts on Col- gaeum 10, Liege 1994). 568 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

105) at Pylos itself. Even if only some of the storage dividuals in one such town.192 This greater degree jars in room 105 contained wine, the sealings found of interest is at variance with the Ma series, and it in the building (four of 50 inscribed with the wine is appropriate for an industry under direct palatial ideogram) mark deliveries by those who owned the control. seals. Wine also figures along with other high-status Industries. Several recent studies have clarified the commodities like meat and honey in lists of elite ban- industrial activities supervised by the central ad- queting supplies and offerings to the gods. Among ministration. These chiefly involved bronze-working documents related to agriculture, landholding rec- and the production of prestige goods like perfumed ords are particularly numerous at Pylos (E- series), oil and fine textiles. The control of most industries and they indicate a close reciprocal relationship be- appears highly centralized, and most operate in a tween land tenure and obligations on the part of redistributive fashion referred to as the ta-ra-sija the holders to provide agricultural produce or ser- Italasial, or "allotment" system (cf. Classical Greek vices. So much is clear, but debate continues on TaaaoJia, "an amount [of wool] weighed out and al- the precise nature of the various kinds of plots located for processing"). Under this system the pal- themselves, and of the obligations associated with ace brought in the necessary raw materials for an them.'89 industry and allocated them to craftsmen. The term Taxation. The tablets record the flow of selected ta-ra-sija appears at Pylos in theJn series, which lists staple goods into the palace through taxes on the bronzesmiths with and without an allotment of production of various commodities. The bulk of our bronze, and at other sites in records of textiles (Knos- information comes from Pylos, where the Ma series sos, Mycenae) and chariot wheels (Knossos).193 The records assessments, collections and deficits of hides, only extant bronze collection record (Jn 829) seems honey, locally made cloth, and other goods not se- to be a tax document, recording contributions of curely identified. A consensus has emerged that these bronze from almost the same districts named in the collections were organized from the top down: that Ma series. Archaeological evidence that the palace is, an overall assessment was levied on each of the redistributed lump bronze to smiths around the king- two provinces into which the kingdom was divided, dom comes from Nichoria. If the identification with and the tax burden then distributed among regional ti-mi-to-a-ke-eis correct, Nichoria is one of the places subsections of these provinces.190 Halstead stresses with palatial smiths in residence. A LH IIIB2 smithy the decentralized nature of this system, and the dis- there, contemporary with the Pylos tablets, shows interest of the administration in the production of evidence of remelting and reworking of bronze, the commodities taxed.'19 He includes in this char- rather than the smelting of copper and its alloying acterization the assessment records of flax (N- series), with tin.194 but here the level of detail is much greater than in In the oil industry raw materials are similarly dis- the regular tax records of the Ma series. The fore- tributed to perfumers on several tablets from the casts of flax contributions in the Na records refer Archives Complex at Pylos.195 These tablets shed to individual towns, not whole districts, and Nn 831 some light on the manufacturing process, which re- goes into detail about the obligations of specific in- sembles that described in later Greek recipes. The

189Killen 243-50; S. Deger-Jalkotzy,"Zum Charakter und 191 Halstead, in PCPS (supra n. 181) 59. zur Herausbildung der mykenischen Sozialstruktur," in A. 192Killen 247-49; Shelmerdine (supra n. 190) 139-41. Heubeck and G. Neumann eds., Res Mycenaeae: Akten des 193 On the Jn series, see now J. Smith, "The Pylos Jn VII. internationalen mykenologischenColloquiums (G6ttingen Series," Minos 27-28 (1992-1993) 167-260. 194 1983) 89-111. Recent discussions of some landholding G.R. Rapp, Jr., et al., "Analysis of the Metal Artifacts," tablets, with further bibliography, are Deger-Jalkotzy, "Noch in G.R. Rapp, Jr., and S.E. Aschenbrenner eds., Excavations Einmal zur Ea-Serie von Pylos," in Studies Bennett 97-122; at Nichoria in Southwest GreeceI: Site, Environs, and Techniques and M. Carpenter, "ki-ti-me-naand ke-ke-me-na,"Minos 18 (1983) (Minneapolis 1978) 178-80. 81-88. 195The account that follows is based on C.W. Shelmer- P. de 190 Fidio, "Fiscalita, redistribuzione, equivalenze: dine, The Perfume Industry of Mycenaean Pylos (SIMA-PB 34, Per una discussione sull'economia SMEA micenea," 23 (1982) Goteborg 1985); see also I. Erard-Cerceau, "VeWgtaux,par- 83-136 suggested a kingdom-wide assessment of 200 units fums et parfumeurs A l'epoque mycenienne," SMEA 28 (1990) of each commodity. In a response, C.W. Shelmerdine, "My- 252-85. Collection records are not attested at Pylos, but cenaean Taxation," in Palaima et al. (supra n. 186) 125-48 they are known from Knossos and Mycenae: E. Foster, "An proposed a modification to 100 units, but de Fidio's figure Administrative Department at Knossos Concerned with now seems preferable: J.T. Killen, "Administering a Myce- Perfumery and Offerings," Minos 16 (1977) 19-51; and J.T. naean Kingdom: Some TaxingProblems," BICS (forthcom- Killen, "On the Mycenae Ge Tablets," in Heubeck and Neu- ing). I thank John Killen for discussing this paper with mann (supra n. 189) 216-33. me and providing a copy of the abstract. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 569

Fr tablets, records of finished products, are found the most attention, particularly from John Killen, elsewhere in the palace, in specialized storage con- who has also made some comparative observations texts. These tablets describe the oil both by variants about the Pylian industry.'9 It is interesting that of the oil ideogram and by adjectives like pa-ko-we production is centralized here to a greater degree Isphakowenl,"sage-scented"; wo-do-weIwordowenl, "rose- than at Knossos. Specialized personnel are located scented"; and e-ti-we lertiwenl, "henna-dyed." The ma- at a small number of places, chiefly Pylos itself, and jority were found in room 23, one of two oil store- there are small outlying groups of less-specialized rooms behind the megaron. Large storage jars set workers, one of them at the probable capital of the into benches along the walls contained oil, as is clear Further Province, Leuktron. The textile records from from residue found in and around them and from Thebes and most of those from Mycenae concern the intensity of the fire in this area at the time of wool that has been delivered to the center, and is the destruction.'96 Twelve twists of clay also pre- being disbursed for further treatment.20z At each served by the fire show that tablets were actually fash- site the relevant tablets were found in buildings that ioned and written here.197 Other perfume tablets apparently served as clearinghouses for wool. Like come from room 32, a well-finished storeroom, and the Wine Magazine at Pylos, these central collection from a location upstairs, above room 38. The Fr tab- and storage points complement the ample textual lets together constitute a scribal department con- evidence for the redistributive system at work. cerned with the perfumed oil industry."98 Many of What happened to the goods produced by these the entries are allocations, most of a religious char- industries? In Halstead's view, the tablets are much acter, but there are also disbursements to "attendants" less informative about the disbursement of finished who may well be secular, while still other tablets are products than about the previous stages of the in- inventory records. Several scribes wrote the tablets dustries,201 but actually, plenty of textual evidence concerned; each handled a specific variant of the exists for the use of these products within the king- oil ideogram, and for the most part each is repre- dom. The Pylos Fr records of the disbursement of sented in only one room. The notable exception is perfumed oil have already been mentioned, and Hand 2, who has a greater range of responsibilities, Jn 829 earmarks collected bronze for the manufac- and whose tablets appear in all three storerooms. ture of spearpoints and arrowheads. These weapons He also wrote a transaction of oil within the depart- are presumably for local use, like the chariots being ment, Fr 1184, which was found in the Archives Com- manufactured and repaired in the Northeast Work- plex. Thus, he seems to have been the head of this shop.202On three texts associated with this workshop, administrative department, in which other scribes the term e-qe-sijol-jais applied to wheels (as it is else- had very specific assignments, so that each could be where to cloth). The adjective derives from the term readily held accountable for the oil on which he e-qe-taIhekwettisl, "companion (of the king)," and may reported. designate elite goods of a kind belonging to or suit- The textile industry is equally central to the Myce- able for such officials. naean economy, and tablets referring to it were found Halstead is correct, however, in that there is al- at Thebes and Mycenae as well as Knossos and Py- most no textual evidence for the deployment of such los. The Cretan sheep and wool texts have received prestige goods outside the kingdom.203 Yet perfume

196 Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 135-36. (supra n. 58) considers the material from each site in re- 197 Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 137, fig. 267 nos. lation to its archaeological context, which in each case is 1-7. interpreted as a clearinghouse rather than a 198 workshop. The term was introduced by J.-P. Olivier, Les scribes On the general topic of prehistoric textiles, E.J.W.Barber, de Cnossos(Incunabula graeca 17,Rome 1967) 8, 125, to char- Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic acterize a group of tablets linked by findspot, scribal hand, and Bronze Ages, with Special Reference to the Aegean (Prince- and content to form an office; a department is a group ton 1991) is an invaluable resource for future studies. of related offices. 201 Halstead, in PCPS (supra n. 181) 62. 19 "The Textile 202 J.T.Killen, Industries at Pylos and Knos- The most recent study of the Northeast Workshop, sos,"in C.W.Shelmerdine and T.G.Palaima eds., PylosComes with references to earlier works,is R. Schon, "ChariotMan- Alive: Industry + Administration in a Mycenaean Palace (New ufacture and the Organization of Industry at Pylos,"in York 1984) 53-61. Betancourt and Laffineur (supra n. 58). 2o0 T. Spyropoulos and J. Chadwick, The Thebes Tablets 203The Mycenaeans'own written evidence is discussed II (MinosSuppl. 4, Salamanca 1975) published the Theban briefly above.Foreign textual evidence, apart from the Kom two recent studies that records; include the Mycenae ma- el-Hetan statue base (supra n. 153), depends largely on terial are VariasGarcia n. and (supra 24) Tournavitou(supra the equation of Mycenaean Greece with Ahhijawa (supra n. 23). C.W.Shelmerdine, "Workshopsand Record Keep- n. 154). Killen 264 outlines the few possible tablet refer- ing in the MycenaeanWorld," in Betancourt and Laffineur ences to external transactions. 570 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

was clearly an important trade item: the stirrup jars gion, but it has always been difficult to interpret,209 that functioned as oil containers are tangible signs in part because the various sources point in differ- of this commodity, and they are heavily represented ent directions. Linear B texts link the Late Bronze among Mycenaean pottery found abroad. It is as- Age to later Greek religion, recording a similar pan- sumed that textiles too were offered in trade, in re- theon and range of offerings. Iconography, on the turn for the metals, spices, ivory, and other raw other hand, particularly in Early Mycenaean glyptic materials that the Mycenaeans were interested in art, echoes the symbols of Minoan religion -without, importing.204 Indeed, the reticence of the tablets is however, indicating whether the beliefs behind them so much at variance with the archaeological evidence were also adopted on the mainland. Until recently, that it has tempted some to assume that records of little attention was paid to the third source of evi- foreign exchange were kept on leather or some other dence: archaeological remains of cult sites and ar- material that perished in the very fires that preserved tifacts. New finds and new interpretations have im- the tablets.205 It is worth noting that the largest ex- proved this situation in the 1980s and 1990s, so that tant archive - that from Pylos - dates to the very end more can now be said about where the Mycenaeans of LH IIIB when trade was dramatically reduced from worshipped, and a little about the forms their rit- its heyday of LH IIIA2-B1. Even under this circum- uals may have taken. These topics are addressed here; stance, however, the production of elite goods re- for information about the gods themselves, older mained, on present archival evidence, a high priority. bibliographical sources are still valid.210 Most of the people who worked in these industries Cult Places were fully dependent on the palace for their up- Cult environments range from separate shrines keep.206 In some cases the records of their support at palatial and other urban sites to simple open-air are extant: for instance, the Pylos Ab series records food rations allocated to textile workers and their settings, and it has been proposed that rituals also took place in the megaron itself. Some see in this children, and the Pylos Fn series lists rations given diversity a distinction between official and popular, to other personnel. The tablets also provide a few or urban and rural, religion; others interpret it as hints, however, that some work may have been done a continuum from the humblest expressions of piety by more independent workers, who received goods up to elaborate celebrations at the center of state in return for their services.207 Such indications sup- power. We begin with public or urban shrines at pa- port a growing awareness that, although our written latial and other sites, where it is easiest to evidence is limited to palace business, a wider eco- identify the trappings of cult.211The two shrine nomic sphere existed in the Mycenaean world that complexes most often discussed are the cult center at the palaces did not control.208 Mycenae and the sanctuary at Phylakopi on Melos. Though the latter site lies outside mainland Greece, it is use- RELIGION ful for purposes of analogy since the installation A fair amount of textual, iconographical, and ar- and its contents conform closely to those on the tifactual evidence can be cited for Mycenaean reli- mainland.212

204 in PCPS Halstead, (supra n. 181) 63 on exports. (Skopje 1987) 333-42; Killen (supra n. 184) 219. 205Shelmerdine (supra n. 195) 139-41. For other 208 Halstead, in PCPS (supra n. 181) 64. see Killen 265-70. Traces of leather possible explanations, 209 Renfrew et al. (supra n. 159) 11-26 provides a good or have been noticed on the back of parchment a single methodological framework for the investigation of Bronze (uninscribed) sealing from the House of Kadmos at Thebes: Age religion. Aravantinos n. n. 24a. the (supra 169) 151, 10, pl. However, 210Documents2; M. Gerard-Rousseau, Les mentions religi- claim Aravantinos n. 619 that this by (supra 49) sealing eusesdans les tablettesmyceniennes (Incunabula graeca 29, Rome is certain evidence for perishable texts "of non-economic 1986); L. Baumbach, "The Mycenaean Contribution to the character or... correspondence" is wholly speculative. Study of Greek Religion," SMEA 20 (1979) 143-60; E. Ver- 206 S. Hiller, Personnel in "Dependent Mycenaean Texts," meule, Gotterkult(ArchHom 3V, Gottingen 1974); andJ. Chad- in M. Heltzer and E. and in Lipinski eds., Society Economy wick, "What Do We Know about Mycenaean Religion?" in the Eastern Mediterranean 1500-1000 (c. B.C.) (Orientalia Lo- Morpurgo Davies and Duhoux (supra n. 159) 191-202. vaniensia Analecta 23, Louvain Killen 1988) 53-68; 252-53, 211G. Albers, SpdtmykenischeStadtheiligtiimer: Systematische 272-73; Chadwick n. 43-95. (supra 157) Analyse und vergleichende Auswertung der archdologischenBe- 207 Y. Duhoux, du vocabulaire Aspects economiquemycenien funde (BAR-IS 596, Oxford 1994) brings together the evi- (Amsterdam "Further 1976), esp. 147-49; J.L. Melena, dence for such shrines at Mycenae, Phylakopi, Tiryns (Lower on in Thoughts Mycenaean o-pa," Heubeck and Neumann Citadel), Asine, and Ayia Irini. I owe this reference to n. C.W. "Industrial (supra 189) 258-86; Shelmerdine, Ac- Robin Higg. at in P.H. Ilievski and L. tivity Pylos," Crepajac eds., Trac- 212Renfrew et al. (supra n. 159) 407-11 offers concise tata Mycenaea: the 8th International Proceedings of Colloquium comparisons to the installations at Mycenae, the Tiryns on Mycenean Studies, Held in Ohrid, 15-20 September 1985 Lower Citadel, and Asine. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 571

Fig. 10. Mycenae. Cult center. (Photo C.W.Shelmerdine)

Mycenae. Most of the complex at Mycenae was is entered from the south. A low dais occupies the built and used only in LH IIIB.213 Though the middle of the main room, and at the back is a series Tsountas House shrine may have been built in LH of stepped benches or platforms. These apparently IIIA2, the Temple, the Room with the Fresco, and served as altars, in the sense of offering places, for the Megaron all postdate the construction of the a clay tripod offering table was found at the north- South House in mature LH IIIB1.214 Some alter- east corner of the bench, next to a large female idol ations were made to the area in LH IIIB2, perhaps embedded in the bench. These were the only finds after an earthquake, and a final destruction took from the room, but a cache of large clay human and place at the end of that period. A brief summary snake figurines was found in a small sealed room of the most significant remains may serve to intro- up a flight of stairs, andjoining fragments came from duce most of the tangible elements of Mycenaean a triangular area behind the main room. Drinking cult. vessels and bowls were also found in the building. The Tsountas House shrine lies on the upper of The building containing the Room with the Fresco three terraces (fig. 10).215 A bolster-shaped altar in lies west of the Temple. The fresco in question dec- front of a bench belongs to the first of two phases. orated the southern part of the east wall of the room The altar has a hollow extension on the western side; (fig. 11). In front of it was a platform of clay and a runnel leads from it to ajar in the floor, suggesting rubble; a Minoan-style painting of horns of conse- that it was used for libations.216 A miniature kylix cration above a row of circles decorates the top of and a flat dish (FS 322) also belong to this phase. its north face. The upper surface of the platform The Temple lies in the center of the complex, and at the west end forms a ledge shaped into three shal-

214 213W.D. Taylour, "Mycenae 1968," Antiquity 43 (1969) French (supra n. 213) 43; Taylour (supra n. 25) 8-9. 91-97; Taylour, "New Light on Mycenaean Religion," An- The date of the Tsountas House shrine is based on infor- tiquity 44 (1970) 270-80; G.E. Mylonas, To mation from Elizabeth French. Opfa•KEvrnK6v 215 KIvrpov rcov MVoK7vOvlITheCult Center of Mycenae (Hpay- French (supra n. 213) 44-45. 216 AKa73tliaq 33, Athens 1972); Mylonas, A.J.B. Wace, "Mycenae 1950," JHS 71 (1951) 254; R. parEial rirq A6O7vtov "The Cult Center of Mycenae," Proceedingsof the British Acad- Higg, "The Role of Libations in Mycenaean Ceremony and emy 67 (1981) 307-20; and E.B. French, "Cult Places at My- Cult," in Hiigg and Nordquist 178. cenae," in Hiigg and Marinatos 41-48. 572 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Fig. 11. Mycenae. Fresco and platform from the Room with the Fresco. (Photo C.W.Shelmerdine) low discs. Ash in the discs suggests that this platform a dais in the southwestern corner. In front of it was too functioned as an altar.217The lower register of a pile of glass paste beads. However, the room also the fresco beside this altar depicts a female, prob- contained storage debris such as worked and un- ably divine, and an animal restored as a griffin. Above worked ivory fragments, and a variety of pottery. the altar the upper register depicts two females, also The variety in orientation and contents of these thought to represent deities, in an architectural set- three buildings suggests that they served different ting. They wear long robes of different types; one deities, but there is a certain consistency in the cult holds a sword and the other a staff, and between them installations themselves. The main rooms all contain hover two small human silhouettes.218 In the center a low central raised area. That in the Room with the of the room is a large elliptical hearth, and a bench Fresco was a hearth, while the dais in the Temple runs along the south side. A number of objects were and the altar in the Tsountas House shrine show no found in the fill of the bench, including kylikes, cups trace of burning, and both have been tied to liba- and cooking pots, worked ivories, and a faience tions.220 Another common feature is one or more plaque of Amenophis III. The adjacent room 32 may benches or platforms, where offerings were placed. have been a shrine or a related storage area.219The Large figures and small figurines are the most com- former interpretation is supported by the discovery mon offerings found in religious locales.221 The ex- of a terracotta figurine, probably a divine image, on amples from Mycenae are all large enough to be

217Taylour 1969 (supra n. 213) 94; P. Rehak, "New Ob- nae,"in R. Laffineur and J.L. Crowley eds., Etlc)v: Aegean servations on the Mycenaean'Warrior Goddess'," AA 1984, BronzeAge Iconography: Shaping a Methodology(Aegaeum 8, Liige 539; and R. HIgg, "Ritualin MycenaeanGreece," in E Graf 1992) 39-62. 219 ed., Ansichten griechischer Rituale: Geburtstags-Symposiumfiir French (supra n. 213) 45. WalterBurkert (Stuttgart, forthcoming). I thank the author 220Temple: Taylour (supra n. 25) 18; Tsountas House for sending me a draft of this paper. shrine: references supra n. 216. 218 N. Marinatos, "The Fresco from Room 31 at Myce- 221 For the distinction between figures and figurines, see nae: Problems of Method and Interpretation,"in French E.B. French, "MycenaeanFigures and Figurines, Their Ty- and Wardle 245-51; P. Rehak, "Traditionand Innovation pology and Function,"in Higg and Marinatos 173-77. in the Fresco from Room 31 in the 'Cult Center' at Myce- 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 573

called figures, though there are two sizes. The large east.228 Among the subjects are lists of personnel (50-60 cm tall) "grotesques," hollow human figures and chariot wheels, and the complex is clearly part of both female and ambiguous gender, probably de- of the palace administration. A cult building also pict celebrants rather than deities.222 Two smaller stood in the Lower Citadel during the post-palatial (ca. 30 cm tall) female figurines found with them era. R 117 was a small one-room structure built in are carefully shaped and finely painted. These LH IIIC Early against the interior of the fortification figurines and the similar example from room 32 wall. This simple building had a bench at the rear could represent goddesses. The third type found at and a column in the center of the room, as well as Mycenae consists of the snake figures from the three columns outside the entrance. R 110 was sub- Temple. sequently built, without columns, directly above the Tiryns. Several cult areas were identified at Tiryns ruins of R 117 in LH IIIC Developed; the two-room in addition to the megaron: the earliest date to LH structure R 10a in turn replaced R 110. At this point IIIB2.22" Three deposits in the Upper Citadel are a hearth occupied the center of the main room. In little more than concentrations of figurines. At the each phase the building had a bench at the back, north end of the colonnaded court above the east- on which clay figures were found. These portray a ern galleries, human and animal figurines were found known type of female deity with upraised arms; head- with a few other artifacts.224More diverse is a group dresses are preserved in some cases, as well as applied of material thought to come from pits 10 and 17 of and painted jewelry and other painted decoration. the Geometric bothros, south of court XXX.225 In Other cult paraphernalia include rhyta, miniature addition to Psi-figurines, this cache contains two ani- and regular-sized vessels, and animal bones in ash mal rhyta, a miniature throne, and a figurine per- layers. haps depicting a person on a bed. Most extensive Pylos. The small room 93 northeast of the Main is a deposit from the so-called epichosis-complex, in Building at Pylos has been interpreted as a shrine.229 the southern of the part palace quarters. This ma- Plowing had obliterated the floor level and only a few terial included several rhyta, five models of thrones, artifacts were found in the room. Among the chance 56 female figurines, and 126 miniature vessels.226 finds is a miniature kylix. Essential to the identifica- The installations in the Lower Citadel are better tion of this room as a shrine is a stuccoed block a preserved. Casement room 7 in the fortification wall few meters to the southeast in court 92, which the was a LH IIIB2 cult room, as is clear from debris excavators thought was an altar.231 accumulated outside in the courtyard- more than Phylakopi. The sanctuary at Phylakopi also con- 239 two Psi-figurines, larger figures (30 + cm), sev- sists of more than one building; the West Shrine was eral representations of thrones and chariots, and two built during LH IIIA2, and the small East Shrine animal VI seems to rhyta.27 Building nearby date was added in LH IIIB.23' The sanctuary continued from the same period. It contained an altar and ani- as before in LH IIIC. Bench altars in both shrines mal in room and Kilian rhyta 123, therefore inter- hold small human and animal figurines and chariot it as the preted house of the priestess of the cult groups, as well as large wheelmade bovids and hu- in room 7. Linear B tablets were practiced However, man figures. Of the human figures, the elaborately found in a at the end of the corridor in pit building shaped and decorated "Lady of Phylakopi" is unique VI; are to have fallen from a room they thought above at this site.232 Other figures are clearly delineated room which connects to VI on 130, building the as male or female, down to their genitalia. There

222 "The A. Moore, Large Monochrome Terracotta Fig- W.Voigtlander, "Epichosis," in TirynsX (Mainz, forthcom- ures from The Problem of in Mycenae: Interpretation," ing); Muiller (supra n. 124) 45. French and Wardle 219-28. 227Kilian, in Higg and Marinatos (supra n. 223) 53; Kil- 22K. Kilian, in "Zeugnissemykenischer Kultausiibung ian 1981 (supra n. 26) 170-71; Kilian 1988 (supra n. 26) Tiryns," in Hagg and Marinatos 49-58; Kilian, "Patterns 142-45. in the Cult in the Activity Mycenaean Argolid: Haghia 228L. Godart, Killen, andJ.-P.Olivier, "EighteenMore Triada the Profitis Elias Cave Hadri- J.T. (Klenies), (Haghios Fragments of Linear B Tablets from Tiryns,"AA 1983, 413-26 anos) and the Citadel of in and Tiryns," Hagg Nordquist (fragments 7-24); 413 on the findspot. 193-96. 229 Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 303-305, fig. 223. 224Miiller (supra n. 124) 210; Kilian, in and Nord- Hagg 23o Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 301-302, figs. quist (supra n. 223) 193. 227-28. 225 Kilian, in Hagg and Nordquist (supra n. 223) 193. 231 Davis 729-30, with references. Some uncertainty about the arises from 232Renfrew findspot ambigu- et al. (supra n. 159) 215-16, SF 2660, fig. 6.4, ous labeling of boxes in the storeroom. 31. 226 pl. Kilian, in Higg and Nordquist (supra n. 223) 195; 574 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Fig. 12. Methana. Cult rooms A, B, and F at Ayios Konstantinos, from the south. (Courtesy E. Konsolaki) is some duplication of types in the two shrines, but at the north end of the room, which also contained within the West Shrine the genders are separated: two centrally placed column bases. A thick layer of male figures are associated with the northwest altar, ash and bones extended from near the bench along and female figures with those in the northeast and the east long wall.233A deliberately broken jug was southwest corners. The range of figures and figurines fixed upside down at the east end of the bench, sug- is closer to that at Tiryns than to the assemblage from gesting that libations were offered there. Two rooms Mycenae. The Lady of Phylakopi, though rather large in the Potter's Quarter at Berbati also had bench al- (45 cm tall), resembles the three finer figurines from tars in LH IIIB.234In room A, a broken amphora Mycenae and their counterparts from Tiryns, but and a clay spoon were found on the bench, and a no parallels exist here for the "grotesques"from Myce- Psi-figurine in the fill above. Room B, a subsequent nae. Phylakopi is unique in having clearly male idols, construction, has the more interesting installation: but some figurines from the newly discovered shrine a channel formed by two rows of stones, with part at Ayios Konstantinos on Methana are interpreted of a large kylix wedged under smaller blocking stones as male (see below). at one end. In addition, a separate room to the north Other indoor cult areas. A few other sites have cult (room C) features a pictorial krater fixed in the floor, places, all with features similar to those just de- its bottom pierced. scribed. House shrines are reported at both Asine The work at Ayios Konstantinos on Methana is and Berbati. The shrine in Asine House G dates to too recent to have been much discussed in print yet, LH IIIC. Pottery, female figurines, and a larger head and I only highlight here a few salient features of (the "Lord ofAsine," now understood as female) were the shrine (fig. 12).235All of the finds in this build- found near a bench in the corner near the entrance ing complex date to LH IIIA-B; the pottery includes

233 R. Higg, "The House Sanctuary at Asine Revisited," E. Konsolaki,"The Mycenaean Sanctuary on Methana,"BICS in Haiggand Marinatos 91-94, with references. Hagg ob- 1995,242; Konsolaki,"'A Mycenaean Sanctuary on Methana," serves (94) that the bench may have differed in appear- in R. Hagg ed., Peloponnesian Sanctuaries and Cults (Stock- ance and use from those at Mycenae and Tiryns. holm, forthcoming).I thank Eleni Konsolaki-Yannopoulou 234 A. Akerstr6m, "Cultic Installations in Mycenaean for providing information and abstractsof her forthcom- Rooms and Tombs,"in French and Wardle 201-202. ing publications. 235AR 1993-1994, 13; ArchDelt46 (1991) Chron. 71-74; 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 575

Fig. 13. Methana. Figurines, triton shell, and pottery on bench in room A at Ayios Konstantinos. (Courtesy E. Konsolaki) rhyta, kylikes, and tripod pots. The main room A, the crown of the hill, with which no architectural oriented east-west, features a stepped bench in the remains are associated, but the contents are thought northwest corner, a platform along the south wall, to have come from a structure higher up. The lower and a hearth in the southeast corner. Near the south- half of a figure was found here, along with numer- west corner a broken jar neck on the floor may have ous human and animal figurines, including two rep- been a receptacle for libations; a rhyton, cup, and resentations of breadmakers. Additional finds in- dipper were found with it. About 150 figurines were clude a limited range of pottery, chiefly kylikes and associated with the bench in the northwest part of bowls, and animal bones. the room. Many are bovids, but a number of rare Outdoor cult areas. Traces occasionally remain of types are also present, including chariot groups, hel- ritual activity conducted in the open air. The only meted riders on horseback, and people driving and certain Mycenaean cult installations predating LH riding oxen (fig. 13). The human figures are pre- III are those at the later site of the sanctuary of Apollo sumed from their activities to be male. The absence Maleatas at Epidauros.237 The Early Mycenaean re- of female figurines, apart from one Psi-type with a mains have been described by Rutter.238 In LH hollow stem, is notable. IIIA-B the large Early Mycenaean open-air altar ter- Finally, a LH IIIA2 Early deposit at Tsoungiza may race on the hilltop continues in use, with an exten- be mentioned here (fig. 14).236 It is a dump below sion to the east. A deep deposit of ash, animal bones

236 Wright et al. (supra n. 57) 635-37; J.C. Wright, "The ogy Today, 1990: Proceedings of the Second International Con- Spatial Configuration of Belief: The Archaeology of Myce- gress on Biblical Archaeology,Jerusalem, June-July 1990 (Jeru- naean Religion,"in S. Alcock and R. Osborne eds., Placing salem 1993) 191-92. the Gods: The Landscape of Greek Sanctuaries (Oxford 1994) 238Rutter 794. Rutter notes a complete absence of MH 69-70. cult remains, but Hagg (supra n. 237) 191 mentions a 237V. Lambrinoudakis, "Remains of the Mycenaean possible MH altar site at Nisakouli with sherds and animal Period in the Sanctuaryof Apollon Maleatas,"in Hdggand bones near Methoni, published by A. Choremis, "M.E. Marinatos59-65; R. Hdigg,"Open Cult Places in the Bronze Bog6q E1tq'NlCacKo6ULt' MEOd5vlq," AAA 2 (1969) 10-14. Age Aegean,"in A. Biran andJ.Aviram eds., BiblicalArchaeol- 576 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

Fig. 14. Tsoungiza. Figure and figurines, LH IIIA2 Early. (CourtesyJ.C. Wright)

(chiefly bull and goat), and pottery accumulated on three animal figurines, an animal rhyton, and pot- the hillside under the terrace. Among the other LH tery, including some deliberately broken drinking III offerings were large and small bovid figures, Psi- vessels. A naked male figurine was originally re- and Phi-figurines, and small horse figurines, includ- ported, but is now lost. The Profitis Elias cave lies ing one from a chariot group. Only a few meters away near a LH IIIB building on the hilltop. No figurines from the altar terrace is a settlement with three lay- were found there, but cookpots, a cup, and kylikes ers of Mycenaean habitation (above two of EH date). (some broken) lay on the floor and on a natural rock Thus, despite its lofty location on Mt. Kynortion, this bench. A more elaborate outdoor cult area is also installation is not a remote peak sanctuary of Mi- attested in the late LH IIIB or IIIC period at Amyk- noan type. lai, with finds similar to those from earlier indoor Two more open-air cult places of the palatial shrines and from Epidauros, including many female period are known, both in the vicinity of Tiryns. One and animal figurines and some figures.240 site is a surface deposit found near a chapel of Ayia The LH III iconographical evidence for the ap- Triada near Klenies, and the other is a cave on Profitis pearance of cult areas consists of a number of fresco Elias near Ayios Adrianos.239 The Klenies deposit fragments depicting shrine facades.241 Several ele- comprises 123 Phi-figurines of middle LH IIIB style, ments recalling Minoan shrine features appear on

239 Kilian, in Haiggand Nordquist (supra n. 223) 185-93, d'Eleusis,"BCH 105 (1981) 593-605. 240 with references. Finds of figurines and rhyta at Delphi sug- K. Demakopoulou, To puKrlvaii 6 ep6 oaro ApwKAa(lo gest the existence of a cult place, probably of the outdoor Kai ql YE IIITFrspioo6 acrl AaKtovia (Diss. Univ. of Athens type, but none has been located:Muiller (supra n. 63) 475-86. 1982); Wright (supra n. 236) 65. Nor is there any demonstrable ritual content to the Myce- 241Pylos: M. Lang, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western naean remains under the Telesterionat Eleusis:P. Darcque, MesseniaII: TheFrescoes (Princeton 1969) 131-40. Tiryns: "Les vestiges myc6niens d6couverts sous le T61esterion G. Rodenwaldt, TirynsII: Die Freskendes Palastes (Mainz 1912) 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 577

one or more of these: antas, central column, half- more common small figurines, which were some- rosettes, beam ends, and horns of consecration. The times placed on benches in the same way, often in last two designs recur on the side of the bench by the same shrines. Comparison of their distributions, the fresco in room 31 at Mycenae (see above, fig. 11). however, shows that the figurines had a wider range Two of the Pylos facades are crowned by pairs of ani- of uses.244 Figurines (human and animal) appear in mals, 1 A 2 by sphinxes and 2 A 2 by lions. The Linear tombs as funerary offerings, and were also deposited B tablets use several words for shrine, and make ref- near hearths and doorways, where they perhaps erence to particular cult places in the Pylos area, served an apotropaic function.245 They are the only but no information is offered about their layout or offerings, apart from cookpots and drinking vessels, contents.242 in the simplest cult places like Berbati, Klenies, and the Profitis Elias cave. It has been argued that this Cult Practices restricted ritual assemblage represents a popular Certain ritual practices can be deduced from the level of cult, as opposed to official cult places where layout and contents of cult places: the offering of figures and figurines appear together, along with ani- figurines/figures and other objects, libations, and animal figures and figurines, small clay models of fur- mal sacrifices. Frescoes and Linear B texts reinforce niture, rhyta, and miniature and full-sized vessels.246 the archaeological evidence, and extend the range If the range of offerings is the basis for such a dis- of information beyond it, particularly on ritual pro- tinction, location is not: official cult attributes occur cessions and ritual feasting. The most widely attested both at palatial sites (Mycenae, Tiryns) and elsewhere practice is the offering of various objects, particu- (Phylakopi, Asine),247 both indoors and outdoors larly animal and human figures and figurines. Not (Epidauros), both during the palatial period and all of the large anthropomorphic figures represent afterward (Tiryns, Phylakopi, Amyklai). deities. To date, the "grotesques" from Mycenae are Some frescoes show offerings of various kinds be- unique, and seem to represent worshippers. The ing carried in procession. Objects depicted include hands, in various positions, are thought to have held flowers (Thebes, Pylos), vessels of metal, stone, and either actual offerings, such as jewelry, or clay rep- clay (Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes), boxes or pyxides licas of them.243 Some of the other figures from var- (Mycenae, Tiryns), trays (Pylos), a necklace (Myce- ious more sites, finely shaped and decorated, may nae), and a frame or table (Pylos).248 Figures or also stand for human celebrants. One type, however, figurines have also recently been identified in pro- certainly depicts the goddess with upraised arms, cession frescoes from Mycenae and Tiryns. After the and it is to such an easy enough picture image draped procession, such offerings might have been placed with or holding offerings. on a bench in a shrine, though the figurine of a cel- These in function with figures clearly overlap the ebrant actually embedded in a bench in the Temple

18-19 no. 137-38 no. 24, pl. 1.1; 194, pl. XI.9; 137-38 no. and Popular Cults in Mycenaean Greece," in Hagg and Mar- XVI.5 beam 137-38 195,pl. (with ends); no. 196,fig. 58 (with inatos 35-39; Higg, "State and Religion in Mycenaean half-rosette?). Greece," in Politeia 387-91; and K. Kilian, "Mykenische Hei- 242 S. Hiller, "MykenischeHeiligtfimer: Das Zeugnis der ligtfimer der Peloponnes," in H. Froning, T. and Linear in Hilscher, B-Texte," Hagg and Marinatos 95-126; see also H. Mielsch eds., Kotinos: Festschriftfiir Erika Simon (Mainz P. et sanctuaire dans le Carlier, "Palais monde mycenien," 1992) 10-25. Wright (supra n. 236) 72-73 prefers to view in n. 255-82. The Levy (supra 124) range of terms is strik- the various manifestations of Mycenaean religion as a con- ing: ije-ro Ihieronl,"temple" (Knossos, Pylos); wo-(i-)koIwoikosl tinuum rather than a series of levels. and *do 247 I*do(n)/, "house" (Knossos, Pylos, Thebes); *e-do In addition to the sites discussed here, there is a "seat" Ihedosi, (Pylos). head from Nichoria, probably to be associated with a LH 243 One of the from is shown figures Mycenae actually IIIB2 building: H. Hughes-Brock, "The Metal Objects and holding an ax-hammer, and French long ago suggested that Miscellaneous Small Finds, Part II: Terracotta and Miscel- others have held necklaces: 1970 n. may Taylour (supra 213) laneous Small Finds," in McDonald and Wilkie (supra n. 277; French n. Moore (supra 221) 173; (supra n. 222); and 10) 631, 655 no. 2064, fig. 10-8, pl. 10-76. n. 217). 248 Hagg (supra Procession frescoes are attested from all the major 244 In my view, French n. 173 is to in- (supra 221) right palace sites. They are discussed, with references, by Lang sist that take their function from their figurines context, (supra n. 241) 38-40, 51-62; and Hiigg (supra n. 217). Ves- not the other around. On see also way figurines, E.B. French, sels in processions and other frescoes are discussed by E. "The of BSA 66 Development Mycenaean Figurines," (1971) Mantzourani, "Vases and Vessels in Aegean Wall 101-87. Painting," in C. Morris ed., in Honour Coldstream 245 Klados: Essays ofJ.N. Kilian (supra n. 5) 148, fig. 16. (BICS 63, London 123-41. 246 Suppl. 1995) On official and popular cults, see R. Higg, "Official 578 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

at Mycenae shows that not all idols were carried in to the megaron itself, and so have the two other rit- processions.249 Among the vessels carried in the uals detectable in the archaeological record, libation frescoes are two that from their yellow color appear and animal sacrifice. In addition to the rhyta discov- to be made of gold.250 Highly relevant, therefore, is ered at a number of cult places, permanent instal- Pylos tablet Tn 316, which itemizes donations of a lations discussed above at Mycenae (Tsountas House gold vessel and a man to several gods, and a gold shrine), Asine, and Berbati clearly point to the pour- vessel and a woman to goddesses. It was once sug- ing of libations.254 In the porch of the megaron at gested, well before the cumulative archaeological and Mycenae an alabaster slab beside a low rounded al- iconographical evidence for the offering of figures tar has a shallow oval depression that Hagg suggests and figurines was as substantial as it is now, that the may also have been for this purpose.255 This evi- "people" were actually figurines.25' The verb used, dence gives a meaningful context to the two round however, is not so should be led and a channel, in the floor next i~y0, (qpwo, they depressions, joined by not carried as figurines would be. The conventional to the cutting for a throne in the Pylos megaron. This view is preferable, that the men and women referred arrangement has long been tied to libations, and the to are real people, marked for sacrifice or for a relevance of a painting of a stone jug on the dado life of service to a deity, or simply detailed to carry immediately above has recently been observed.256 the vessels. Another notable offering mentioned in HSigg believes that tripod offering tables may have the tablets is perfumed oil. The majority of Fr tab- been receptacles for libations, and that kylikes, like lets from Pylos list disbursements of perfume to rhyta, were used as libation vessels.57 Significant for deities and sanctuaries, and for two festivals, one his argument is a pair of miniature kylikes found of which takes place at pa-ki-ja-na and is associated lying on an offering table in the Pylos megaron.258 with Poseidon.252 In only one case (Fr 1225) is the Both miniature and standard kylikes are common purpose of the oil stated: it was to serve as ointment in cult contexts; indeed, drinking vessels and bowls for clothing.253 are the only offerings besides figurines found in the The procession frescoes and the tablets bring us humblest shrines. Hagg also associates libations with into the Mycenaean palace proper, and to the high- animal sacrifice, which is clearly attested by the ac- est level of official cult- that associated with the pa- cumulation of animal bones in ash layers at Asine, latial elite, and in particular the wanax. Indeed, the Phylakopi, and Epidauros.259 presentation of offerings has been directly linked While the slaughtering of animals may represent

249 Kilian, in Higg and Marinatos (supra n. 223) 49. 254 The archaeological evidence is well laid out by Hagg On the Tiryns example, see Rodenwaldt (supra n. 241) 87 (supra n. 216) 177-84. 255 no. 103, pl. X.7; C. Boulotis, "ZurDeutung des Freskofrag- Hagg (supra n. 216) 180; I. Papadimitriou, "AvaoKaDpai mentes Nr. 103 aus der Tirynther Frauenprozession," Arch- ev MUKrlvati,"Prakt 1955, 230-31, fig. 7, pls. 77-79; K. Kilian, KorrBl9 (1979) 59-67, fig. 1; S.A. Immerwahr,Aegean Paint- "Der Hauptpalast von Mykenai," AM 103 (1987) 99-113. ing in theBronze Age (University Park 1990) 114, 202 TI no. 256 The channel: Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 4, fig. 33b. Mycenae: Mylonas 1972 (supra n. 213) pl. XIV; 85-88, fig. 70. Fresco fragment depicting a stone jug: Lang I. Kritseli-Providi, rov K5vrpov n. 241) 178-79 no. 2 M 6, 108, 141; Mantzourani TogioypaqrpiE Opa~KE•nr•Kot (supra pls. rcovMVKIvvcv (Athens 1982) 41-42, pl. 6a. Some think this (supra n. 248) 132 no. 37; P. Rehak, "Enthroned Figures image resembles a naturalistic doll rather than a figure: in Aegean Art and the Function of the Mycenaean Mega- Immerwahr (supra) 119. A sarcophagus from Tanagra de- ron," in Rehak 111. A similar stone jug is carried in the picts mourning women approaching a male holding a Tiryns procession fresco: H. Reusch, Die zeichnerische Re- figure: "Chronique"1975, 642, fig. 118. konstruktion des Frauenfrieses im b6otischen Theben (AbhBerl 250 Rodenwaldt (supra n. 241) 86-87 nos. 101-102, pl. 1955.1, Berlin 1956) 10 no. 29, 25-28, fig. 16, pl. 10; Im- X.2 (no. 101); Immerwahr (supra n. 249) 114, 202 TI no. merwahr (supra n. 249) 115, 200-201 Th. no. 1, fig. 32f; 4, fig. 32g; Mantzourani (supra n. 248) 133 nos. 41-42, 137. Mantzourani (supra n. 248) 130 no. 33, fig. 9. The other 251 Discussion in Documents2 284-89, 458-62. S. Hiller, parallels adduced by Rehak are rather different; there is in C. Nicolet ed., Aux origines de l'hellenisme: no variegated pattern indicating stone, and both have ver- La"Te-o-po-ri-ja," Crete et Grece. la Hommage a Henri van Effenterre (Paris tical handles from a rim or a false neck rather than a jug 139-50 has 1984) connected this practice with a term on neck. One is from Mycenae: Kritseli-Providi (supra n. 249) two Knossos tablets, te-o-po-ri-jaItheophorial, "carrying of gods." 51 no. B-25, pl. 7b; Mantzourani (supra n. 248) 132 no. 54. 252 Neither festival name is securely interpreted: E Aura The other is from Tiryns: Rodenwaldt no. 101 (references Jorro, Diccionario micdnico II (Madrid 1993) 237-38, s.v. re- supra n. 250). 257 ke-(e-)to-ro-te-rijo,362, s.v. to-no-e-ke-te-ri-jo.On the Fr tablets Higg (supra n. 216) 183. see Shelmerdine n. 258 (supra 195). Blegen and Rawson (supra n. 125) 89, fig. 68. Hagg 253 On this practice in the Mycenaean world and Ho- (supra n. 216) 183 notes that rhyta are similarly associated meric epic, see C.W. Shelmerdine, "Shining and Fragrant with offering tables at Akrotiri on Thera and on a seal Cloth in Homer," in S. Morris and J. Carter eds., The Ages from Naxos. ofHomer:A Tributeto Emily T Vermeule(Austin 1995) 99-107. 259Hagg (supra n. 217). 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 579 sacrifice in certain circumstances, it is also a nec- the king either undergoes or presides over.264Pa-ki- essary part of food preparation. Similarly, the kylix ja-na is an important Pylian sanctuary, and the pro- may be used for libations, but it is also the Myce- posed interpretation of its name as Isphagianal,"place naean drinking vessel par excellence. A growing body of slaughter," takes on new relevance in the light of of evidence suggests that communal feasting was an evidence for the slaughter and ritual consumption important feature of Mycenaean culture, and it may of animals.265 A recent find from Pylos further links thus be only a question of terminology whether one such banquets to the king. A fragment unearthed views animal bones in ash layers, and kylikes in cult from Blegen's dump in 1995 has been associated with settings, as evidence for sacrifice and libations or several fragmentary tablets of the Un series, all pre- for ritual meals.260In addition to the accumulations viously known. If the joins prove correct, the result- of animal bones already mentioned, others have been ing tablet, while still incomplete, includes the word directly tied to such feasts. One example comes from wanax in the dative, above a list of commodities, in- LH IIIC levels of the Tiryns Lower Citadel, where cluding wheat and barley, an ox, honey, unguent, and animal bones were found in the courtyard outside figs. It is hard to see here anything but another list the cult building.261 Another is the LH IIIA2 deposit of banquet supplies. Killen has identified similar lists at Tsoungiza, where the discard pattern of animal at Knossos, so it appears that ceremonial banquets bones is consistent with feasting.262 were a widespread Mycenaean phenomenon.266 One This archaeological evidence is significantly aug- occasion mentioned in writing is the Pylos ceremony mented by references to banquet supplies in the involving the king, and in many societies such meals Linear B texts. The liquid component of the ban- are mechanisms whereby a chief can assert and en- quet may be discernible in the gold vessels brought hance his authority by rewarding his dependents. to deities on Tn 316, the Pylos tablet mentioned above. It may have served this purpose in Bronze Age The three shapes listed are the conical cup, the gob- Greece, but the ceremony on Un 2 takes place at or let kylix, and the chalice. The last two were asso- a sanctuary, and most of the archaeological evidence ciated even in the Early Mycenaean period with rit- comes from nonpalatial and religious sites. It is safe ual drinking, and appear in the LM IIIA Campstool to say that such occasions always had a ritual di- Fresco from Knossos, which has been interpreted mension, even though it is not always possible to disas a ceremonial drinking scene. The 56 inscribed tinguish purely religious feasts from those that also sealings found at Thebes in 1982 document animals served a political purpose. and and two other (sheep, goats, pigs, oxen) food- An illustration of just such a ceremonial feast ap- stuffs into the It has been demon- coming palace. pears on the northeast wall of the Pylos megaron, strated that the types and numbers of the animals, the culmination of the procession with a bull in ves- and some of the are terminology, remarkably sim- tibule 5.267 At the right-hand end of the wall, the fa- ilar to those on tablets Un 2 and Un which Pylos 138, mous bard with a lyre entertains at least two pairs list animals and various other edibles.263 It is very of men seated at tables, while nearer the throne is that the likely commodities listed are ingredients a bull either standing or, in a more recent reconstruc- for a state the of banquet: heading Un 2 reveals the tion, recumbent and actually trussed for sacrifice. kind of occasion that would such a feast. prompt The setting by the throne suggests that the king him- It refers to a at special ceremony pa-kija-na, which self presides over the kind of event depicted, if in-

261 B. Bergquist, "The of Sacrifice: Minoan- I Archaeology (Madrid 1985) 80-81, s.v. a-pi-e-ke;459-60, s.v. mu-jo-me-no. versus Greek. A Brief into Two Sites with 265 Mycenaean Query Hiller (supra n. 242) 107-108; for the suggested Evidence," in R. N. and Nord- Contrary Hdgg, Marinatos, G.C. translation see Aura Jorro (supra n. 252) 72-74, s.v. pa-ki- eds., GreekCult Practice quist Early (Stockholm 1988) 21-34; ja-na, pa-kilja-ne. The toponym persists in the Pylos area: n. with references. Higg (supra 217), CYpayiais an alternative name for Sphakteria (Strabo 8.4.2), 261 Kilian 1981 n. the debris is charac- (supra 26) 150; though Mycenaean pa-kija-na is not thought to be that small, terized as "bone waste from meals" by Kilian (supra n. 5) barren island. 148. See also Albers n. 132-34. 266 (supra 211) 106-10, Killen 1994 (supra n. 263), adducing Inka and Clas- 262 n. Wright (supra 236) 69. sical Greek parallels. 263 Piteros et al. n. (supra 139), esp. 171-84;J.T. Killen, 267Lang (supra n. 241) 38-40, 192-93, reconstruction "Observations on the Thebes Sealings," in Mykenaika365-80; pl. 119. In the megaron itself L. McCallum, Decorative Pro- and Killen, "Thebes Knossos Tablets and Sealings, Myce- gram in the Mycenaean Palace of Pylos: The Megaron Frescoes naean State BICS Banquets," 1994, 67-84. (Diss. Univ. of Pennsylvania 1987) 68-141 reconstructs a 264 The most translation is "at plausible pa-kija-na, upon trussed bull lying on a table, but only the bull's shoul- the initiation of the there is some king...," though debate der actually survives: Lang (supra) 109-10 no. 19 C 6, about this: Documents2 440-41, 562, s.v. mujo-me-no; Killen pls. 53, 125. 1994 (supra n. 263) 72; E Aura Jorro, Diccionario micenico 580 CYNTHIA W SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

deed that was the seat of a king.268 That the fresco in sections, and several foundation trenches have now decorates the megaron is no guarantee that the cer- been excavated. Sections examined in the East Gate emony took place in this room. However, the cumu- area and lower terraces were built in LH IIIB2, ac- lative testimony of this painting, the miniature ky- cording to ceramic evidence. A foundation trench likes and an offering table near the hearth, and a in the West Gate area contains LH IIIB1 pottery but libation channel beside the throne offers strong no certain LH IIIB2 sherds; the construction date support to the view that the megaron was yet an- suggested for this section is near the middle of the other locus of ritual activity.269 The importance 13th century B.C., pointing to the latter part of LH of the bull as a high-status victim is borne out by IIIB1. The first half of this phase is also reported textual references other than its appearance on as the date of the fortification wall at Athens, but banquet lists.270 Wright has recently argued that the original plan was later modified. Subsequent alterations are made DESTRUCTIONS at Mycenae and Athens near the very end of LH IIIB, The destructions and abandonments that Myce- to ensure access to water from within the walls.271 naean sites suffered at about the end ofLH IIIB con- How closely were these redoubled efforts at for- tinue to fascinate. We now possess somewhat more tification building connected with the destructions information about these events and their aftermath that immediately preceded them? The disasters at than was available in 1978, but new data have not Tiryns and Mycenae have been attributed to earth- much changed the basis for debate. The search for quakes.272 Yet the building of massive Cyclopean explanations has continued too, but it must be said walls is not a useful response to the threat of earth- that the field is not much nearer consensus about quake: it is a clear indicator that human enemies either the immediate or the more remote cause(s) threatened the palatial centers in the Argolid, and responsible for the end of the palaces. The remarks perhaps at Athens. Other signs point in the same offered here are not an exhaustive review of the prob- direction. Within the citadel at Mycenae further con- lem, but a brief attempt to assess the more recent struction efforts include workshops and storage information and interpretations. areas, notably the House of Columns and the Artists' The historical sequence of construction and de- Workshop in the east wing of the palace. Most of struction at palatial centers in LH IIIB-C has already the cult center, which includes workshops and stor- been touched on above. The first signs of widespread age rooms, also postdates the mature LH IIIB1 South damage appear in the middle of LH IIIB, with de- House. At Pylos, nothing is yet known of the puta- structions in the citadel at Tiryns, in the Oil Mer- tive fortification/terrace wall now indicated by geo- chant group and Panayia Houses I and II outside physical prospection, but a number of alterations the walls at Mycenae, and at Gla (perhaps in LH to the original plan restricted access to the Main 11B2). The sequence of events at Thebes is not cer- Building and altered its character. The most obvious but a destruction tain, at the end of LH IIIB1 is ap- change was the walling in of courts 42 and 47, pre- parent at some locations, with Linear B tablets pre- venting entry through gateway 41. Room 27 and cor- served fire. by Fortification walls are substantially ridor 18 were added to the storage facilities, and room extended at and Mycenae Tiryns in the aftermath 32 was converted to a storeroom. Finally, the North- of the destructions there. At Midea the wall was built east Workshop was a very late addition to the overall

268 Rehak (supra n. 256) 109-12 argues from icono- posed that the Oil Merchant houses referred to were de- associations of seated and graphic figures griffins that the stroyed not at the end of LH IIIB1, but in a general disas- was in fact the seat of a "throne" priestess or queen, not ter in LH IIIB2 that was responsible for all the LH IIIB a king. destructions observed at Mycenae. The ceramic links on 269 As often suggested: see Hiller (supra n. 242) 117-19; which the argument is based, however, do not force this Kilian n. 17; and in n. (supra 246) HMigg, Politeia (supra 246) conclusion, and it has not met with universal approval. 389-90. Tiryns: lakovides 1983 (supra) 3-13, 19. Thebes: supra n. 270 Palaima n. The bones at (supra 186). Epidauros are 139. Midea: Walberg 1992 (supra n. 33) 33 (Lower Terraces); from bulls and mainly goats. Demakopoulou, forthcoming (supra n. 33) (West Gate area); 271 S. Late Helladic Citadels on Mycenae: Iakovides, Main- Astr6m et al. 1992 (supra n. 33) 11 (East Gate area). Ath- land Greece(Leiden 24-37, 70-72; Shear n. 1983) (supra 22). ens: lakovides 1983 (supra) 79-86, 90; Wright (supra n. 48) lakovides, "Destruction Horizons at Late Bronze Age Myce- 348-49. nae," in MvAovdv I liiAiaEru ESqI.E. (ApXlatooyutKiETaCpEia 272Tiryns: Kilian (supra n. 5) 134. Mycenae: lakovides TIlq AOijvaq, Bt3itoOTeij 103, Athens 1986) 233-60 has pro- 1986 (supra n. 271) 259. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 581

plan, postdating the walling-in of the courts.273 already well documented by 1978.275Since then evi- Thus, at both Mycenae and Pylos the latter part of dence has become clearer for destructions at Midea LH IIIB saw an increase of storage and work areas and Thebes, and the abandonment without destruc- close to the palace; at Mycenae this development was tion of Nichoria and Tsoungiza.276 The relative date correlated with the abandonment of an administra- of many of these events is only now emerging as the tive complex, the Oil Merchant group of houses, out- newly recognized transitional phase LH IIIB2/IIIC side the walls. The extramural settlement itself con- Early. The latest pottery in destruction levels at Ti- tinued in LH IIIB2, as it did at Tiryns, though at ryns, Midea, and in the Citadel House area at Myce- both sites houses were also built within the citadel. nae belongs to this phase, as does the latest Mycenae- The real change was directly connected to the cen- an material at Nichoria. The destruction date of Pylos tral administration. An increased centralization of is a matter of renewed debate, but there too the LH resources and personnel sends the same message IIIB/IIIC transition still seems most likely.277The im- as the building of new and massive fortifications: pact of these destructions on settlement patterns was Mycenaean officials perceived a very human threat, not uniform. In Messenia, the dramatic depopula- from quarters as yet unknown. The Pylos tablets tion previously documented is reflected in a dearth reflect only the administrative situation at the end of LH IIIC pottery among surface finds of the Pylos of LH IIIB, not its evolution, but they do demonstrate Regional Archaeological Project.7" Many sites in a highly centralized bureaucracy at that time.274 other regions also went out of use, but habitation It is against this background that the disasters that continued at the citadels of Mycenae, Tiryns, Midea, struck the greater Mycenaean world at the end of and Athens, and at other sites like Argos, Korakou, LH IIIB must be considered. Most of these were and Chalandritsa and Derveni in Achaea.279 Chain-

273J.C.Wright, "Changes in Form and Function of the from the Pylos palace, most of it anomalous. The motifs Palace at in Shelmerdine and Pylos," Palaima (supra n. 199) on a few vessels, including the five distinctive pithoid jars 19-29; C.W.Shelmerdine, "ArchitecturalChange and Eco- of shape 53, look early (LH IIIA2-IIIB1), while some deep nomic Decline at in Pylos," Studies Chadwick 557-68. The bowls with debased and sloppy designs would be more at of construction in sequence this area has been confirmed home in LH IIIC than in LH IIIB. On the strength of this by the Minnesota team. The assemblages in courts 42 and handful of pots, M. Popham, "Pylos: Reflections on the Date 47- broken and stirrupjars, discarded kylikes, and coarse of Its Destruction and on Its Iron Age Reoccupation," OJA kitchen ware-indicate that these courts were added to 10 (1991) 315-24 argued for a destruction in LH IIIB1 and serve mundane purposes, possibly including the manufac- a later reoccupation. Unfortunately he takes no account ture of oil n. perfumed (Shelmerdine [supra 195] 59-62). of the other 90+ % of the palace pottery, which is un- 274Shelmerdine n. P. de "Fattoridi (supra 273); Fidio, painted. The high proportion of unpainted ware, its range crisi nella Messenia della tarda Etaidel in Bronzo," Studies of shapes, and its profiles are all entirely typical of LH Chadwick 127-36. IIB2, and militate against an earlier destruction date. 2" Sites destroyed: Argolid: Mycenae, Tiryns, Midea, Popham's suggestion that the exterior wall of courts 42-47 and Iria; Laconia: Messenia: Achaea: Tei- Menelaion; Pylos; might be Geometric has now been conclusively disproven, chos Dymaion; Boeotia and Phocis: Thebes, Orchomenos, since the wall predates the construction of the Northeast and Krisa. Sites abandoned: and Corinthia: Ber- Argolid Workshop (supra n. 273). As he and others have suggested, and bati, Prosymna, Zygouries, Tsoungiza; Laconia: Avios however, a postpalatial reoccupation now seems certain Messenia: Attica: Boeotia Stephanos; Nichoria; Brauron; (supra n. 44); future work by the Minnesota project will, and Phocis: Eutresis. See Gazetteer.Sensible accounts are it is hoped, clarify its date. A response to Popham's article offered Greece by J.T. Hooker, Mycenaean (London 1976) by P.A. Mountjoy is forthcoming in BSA. 140-82; P. "The End of the Greek Bronze Betancourt, Age," 27 McDonald and Rapp (supra n. 66) 142-43; Davis et 50 Antiquity (1976) 40-47. al. (supra n. 45). 276Thebes: The insistence of Symeonoglou (supra n. 49) 279 Information from Gazetteer, unless otherwise noted. 47-50 on LH as the destruction date for the IIIB1 later Tiryns: further references supra n. 26. K. Kilian, "Zum Ende site refutation. Two of Linear B palace requires groups der mykenischen Epoche in der Argolis,"JRGZM 27 (1980) tablets, of the certainly part palatial bureaucracy, clearly 166-95; and Kilian, "La caduta dei palazzi micenei con- belong to a LH IIIB2 context. The Of tablets from the cor- tinentali: Aspetti archeologici," in D. Musti ed., Le origini ner of and Metaxas Streets were found with Epaminondas dei Greci:Dori e mondoegeo (Rome 1985) 73-95 propose that LH coated bowls: T. IIIB2 pottery including deep Spyro- Tiryns was a refuge center in LH IIIC. This idea, however, The Thebes poulos andJ. Chadwick, TabletsII (Minos Suppl. rests on the assumption that the Lower Town around the 4, Salamanca 1975), contra n. 48, Symeonoglou (supra 49) citadel reached its greatest size at this time. Zangger (supra 291. This is also the date of the new finds under Pelopidou n. 27) 189-212 has shown that the LH IIIB town was prob- Street: Aravantinos et al. n. 823. Nichoria: (supra 170) ably equally large. Midea: supra n. 33. Chalandritsa: Arch- McDonald and Wilkie n. 767-68. (supra 10) Tsoungiza: Delt 40 (1985) Chron. 136-38; AR 1992-1993, 23. Derveni Wright et al. n. 57) 638, 641. (supra and Achaea generally: T.J. Papadopoulos, Mycenaean Achaea There is little decorated 77 proportionally very pottery (SIMA 55, G6teborg 1979). 582 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101

ber tombs at Thebes are the only evidence so far What caused these events of the LH IIIB/C tran- of a LH IIIC presence there. Only a few other places sition is a question that may never receive a clear stand out as more prominent in this period than in answer. The theories proposed have all fallen into LH IIIB: the fortified settlement of Teichos Dymaion one of three categories: foreign attack, internal strife, in Achaea, Asine in the Argolid, Panakton in Boeotia, or natural disaster, and discussion continues along Elateia in Phokis, and cemeteries at Perati in Attica, these three lines.282 Those who favor natural causes Palaiokastro in Arcadia, and on Kephallenia.280 At now think in terms of earthquake rather than a the sites where settlement continues, a considerable change of climate.283 The Greek excavators of Myce- degree of continuity is evident: of the new elements nae have favored this explanation for the destruc- associated with LH IIIC, handmade burnished pot- tions there, though their British colleagues have not tery and the Naue II type sword are first attested in agreed. Kilian not only attributed all the LH IIIB LH IIIB before the destructions, while in burial cus- destructions at Tiryns to earthquake, but extended toms the change to cremation and the use of cist this theory beyond the Argolid to the entire Pelo- graves does not occur until the middle of LH IIIC.281 ponnese, specifically Pylos and the Menelaion. There The significant change from LH IIIB to LH IIIC is is no good evidence to justify including the last two the demise of palatial administration. Though life sites, but convincing signs of earthquake damage went on at Mycenae and Tiryns, the megaron units have been observed at Midea. Even if earthquakes went out of use. At Midea, the megaron itself was are accepted as the immediate cause of damage at remodeled and converted to other uses, while Pylos some sites, however, much remains unexplained. Why was abandoned, at least for a while. Fortunately for are their effects noticeable only at palatial centers students of ancient Greek, the end of Mycenaean (and not all of those)? Why, in their wake, were the bureaucracy meant the end of literacy, leaving the megaron units at Mycenae and Tiryns not rebuilt, Greeks of the mainland free to adapt a more ser- though plenty of construction took place in other viceable script in due course. parts of those sites? Why did palatial administration

280 Information from Gazetteer, unless otherwise noted. tury B.C. Aegean," JMA 3 (1990) 29-49. 282 Panakton: M.H. Munn, "New Light on Panakton and the Some general bibliography since 1978: Deger-Jalkotzy Attic-Boeotian Frontier," in Beister and Buckler (supra n. 1983 (supra n. 281); K. Lewartowski, The Decline of Myce- 54) 231-44; M.H. Munn and M.L.Z. Munn, "On the Fron- naean Civilization:An ArchaeologicalStudy of Events in the Greek tiers of Attica and Boeotia: The Results of the Stanford Mainland (ArchiwumFilologiczne 43, Wroclaw 1989); E Schach- Skourta Plain Project," in A. Schachter ed., Essays in the ermeyr, Die dgaische Friihzeit 4: Griechenland im Zeitalter der Topography,History, and Culture of Boeotia (Teiresias Suppl. Wanderungen:Von Ende der mykenischenAra bis auf die Dorier 3, Montreal 1990) 33-40. Elateia: S. Deger-Jalkotzy and P. (AnzWien 372, Vienna 1980); Schachermeyr, Die agaische Dakoronia, "Elateia (Phokis) und die friihe Geschichte der Friihzeit 5: Die Levante im Zeitalter der Wanderungen vom Griechen: Ein 6sterreichisch-griechisches Grabungspro- 13. bis zum 11. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (AnzWien 387, Vienna jekt," AnzWien 127 (1990 [1991]) 77-86. 1982); Schachermeyr, GriechischeFriihgeschichte (AnzWien 425, 281 Of these new elements, handmade burnished pottery Vienna 1984); E. Thomas ed., Forschungenzur dgdischen Vor- has received the most attention in recent years. It appears geschichte:Das Ende der mykenischenWelt (Cologne 1987); W.A. in very small quantities at a number of Mycenaean sites, Ward and M.S. Joukowsky eds., The Crisis Years:The 12th and though locally made it has been thought to come from Century B.C. (Dubuque 1992). both Italy and the central Danube region: J.B. Rutter, 283 In general, with special reference to Tiryns: Kilian "Ceramic Evidence for Northern Intruders in Southern 1980 (supra n. 279); Kilian 1985 (supra n. 279); Kilian (supra Greece at the Beginning of the Late Helladic IIIC Period," n. 5) 134, 151, n. 2, fig. 10. Mycenae: S. Iakovides, "The Pres- AJA 79 (1975) 17-32; S. Deger-Jalkotzy, Fremde Zuwanderer ent State of Research at the Citadel of Mycenae," BIALond im spdtmykenischenGriechenland (AnzWien 326, Vienna 1977). 1977, 134; lakovides 1986 (supra n. 271). Midea: Astr6m Debate on the of this significance pottery continues: H.A. et al. 1990 (supra n. 33) 9, 13; Astrom et al. 1992 (supra Bankoff and EA. "Northern Winter, Intruders in LH IIIC n. 33) 14; Walberg 1992 (supra n. 33) 31, 38; Demakopou- Greece: A View from the 12 North,"JIES (1984) 1-30; N.K. lou et al. 1994 (supra n. 33) 34, 39; and P. Astr6m and K. "North Sandars, and South at the End of the Mycenaean Demakopoulou, "Signs of an Earthquake at Midea?" in S. of an Old Age: Aspects Problem," OJA2 (1983) 43-68; Deger- Stiros and R.E. Jones eds., Archaeoseismology(Fitch Labora- Jalkotzy, "Das Problem der 'Handmade Burnished Ware' tory Occasional Paper 7, Athens 1996) 37-40. von in Myk. IIIC," Deger-Jalkotzy ed., Griechenland,die Agdis The theory of climatic change, revisited by R.A. Bryson, und die Levante wdhrend der "Dark Ages" vom 12. bis zum 9. H.H. Lamb, and D.L. Donley, "Drought and the Decline v. Chr. Vienna D.B. Jh. (AnzWien 418, 1983) 161-78; Small, of Mycenae," Antiquity 48 (1974) 46-50, is countered by "'Barbarian Ware' and Prehistoric Aegean Economics: An O.T.P.K.Dickinson, "Drought and the Decline of Mycenae: for Argument Indigenous Appearance,"JMA 3 (1990) 3-25; Some Comments," Antiquity 48 (1974) 228-30, and by G. "Some Rutter, Comments on Interpreting the Dark-surfaced Shrimpton, "Regional Drought and the Economic Decline Handmade Burnished Pottery of the 13th and 12th Cen- of Mycenae," EchCl 6 (1987) 137-76. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 583

collapse at this point, and not after the earthquake or pirates who, according to Egyptian sources, caused damage postulated for the end of LH IIIBI? Above a great deal of damage in Egypt, the Levant, Cyprus, all, this is not the disaster for which the Mycenaeans and Anatolia in the late 13th-early 12th century had been preparing. However intriguing the mystery B.C.287There is, however, no archaeological evidence of the demise of the Mycenaeans, an equally inter- that these pirates attacked the Greek mainland; nor esting question is what threat they perceived. The do the Aegean islands suffer destructions at this heavy fortifications of LH IIIB2 and protected ac- time.288The other candidates are invaders from the cess to water (Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens), the increas- north. The old view that these could be equated with ing restrictions on circulation (Pylos), and the ad- the Dorians of Greek tradition has given way to a dition of workshop and storage areas within the walls scenario of raiding, followed by the gradual infiltra- (Mycenae, Tiryns) or close to the megaron unit (Py- tion of West Greek speakers over the course of a cen- los) all suggest that an attack was anticipated. tury or more. At issue in recent discussions has been Thus, the theory that Mycenaean Greece suc- the difficulty of tying new customs and artifact types cumbed to raids or invasions by foreigners also has to the time of the destructions; as noted above, some its adherents.284 In addition to citing the archaeo- first appear in LH IIIB, and others not until the mid- logical evidence of preparations, some have at- dle of LH IIIC.289 tempted to discern signs of an imminent attack in Another approach to the problem has been to fo- the Linear B tablets from Pylos.285 The arguments cus on why the Mycenaeans were vulnerable, and why put forward focus on activities that may have been the setbacks of the LH IIIB/C transition had precisely prompted by an emergency. Chief among them are the kind and degree of impact that they did. Accord- the following: 1) the o-ka tablets in the An series de- ing to this line of reasoning, Mycenaean administra- tail watchers guarding the coast at various points; tion had been in trouble for a long time. The highly 2) bronzesmiths in theJn series are given small allo- centralized control of industries and resources doc- cations or none at all, while "temple bronze" is col- umented by the tablets, and their preoccupation with lected, suggesting a shortage at the center; 3) vari- detail, along with the construction of workshop and ous craftsmen are exempted from taxes; and 4) the storage areas in the immediate vicinity of the mega- sloppy execution of Tn 316, recording human offer- ron, all reflect a response to economic decline rather to ings deities, suggests urgent appeasement. In fact than to any immediate threat.2'•IA "systems collapse" there is no reason to view any of these phenomena of this kind could have involved competition for in- as extraordinary, or to connect them with the fall creasingly scarce resources of various kinds, from of Pylos. The arguments that an immediate crisis depleted agricultural supplies to metals and other can be inferred from the tablets have not convinced imported commodities. Some have even attributed those who work with the archive on a regular basis, attacks on palatial centers to local uprisings or inter- and several refutations have been offered.286 kingdom warfare resulting from this competition, If an assault on the Mycenaean world was a re- rather than to foreign incursions. An economic de- two are most often ality, groups proposed as the cul- cline does not explain everything that took place dur- One is the Sea a band of prits. Peoples, mercenaries ing the latter half of LH IIIB, from the building of

2 4 R. The End Drews, of the Bronze Age: Changes in War- '29The most recent proposal attributing the destruc- and the 1200 B.C. fare Catastropheca. (Princeton 1993), with tions to hostile action has the merit of seeking to explain a review of earlier theories. how it succeeded rather than simply who was responsible. 285 L. "An Examination of Baumbach, the Evidence for Drews (supra n. 284) argues that raids by the Sea Peoples a State of Emergency at Pylos c. 1200 B.C. from the Linear on the kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean succeeded B in Heubeck and Neumann n. Tablets," (supra 189) 28-40. because of a new type of warfare,which favored infantry "The End of and the Linear B 2"6J.T.Hooker, Pylos Evi- over chariots. Specifically, he sees evidence of this shift dence," SMEA 23 de Fidio (1982) 209-17; (supra n. 274); in military tactics in the advent of the Naue II slashing T.G. Palaima, "The Last of the in Days Pylos Polity," Politeia sword, and other changes in weaponry and armor, during 623-33. the 13th and early 12th centuries B.C. His for 287 arguments N.K. Sandars, The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient the change in tactics are well made and Mediterranean interesting, though (London 1978); Schachermeyr 1982 (supra his general thesis leaves open some essential questions, n. Die 282); G.A. Lehmann, mykenisch-friihgriechischeWelt und and is perhaps too monolithic. Early reviews have been der istliche Mittelmeerraumin der Zeit der "Seevolker"Invasionen mixed: those by D. Haggis in AJP 116 (1995) 321-24 and 1200 v. Chr. um (Opladen 1985). N.V.Sekunda in CR45 (1995) 119-21 are a study in contrasts. 28" D. Davis, passim; Schilardi, "Paros and the Cyclades 290 Betancourt (supra n. 275); de Fidio n. 274); after the Fall of (supra the Mycenaean Palaces," in Mykenaika Shelmerdine (supra n. 273). 621-39, esp. 638. 584 CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE [AJA 101 fortifications to the abandonment of most sites in formation. A good example is the practice of cere- Messenia, nor does this explanation indicate the monial banquets described above. Excavators have proximate cause of palatial collapse. Most useful reported suggestive caches of pottery and/or bones, about the notion of systems collapse, however, is that while tablet experts have found written evidence for it takes into account the fact that it was the top level such feasts, but the two kinds of evidence have not of Mycenaean society that suffered most directly. The yet been thoroughly discussed together. key elements lost in the disasters were the trappings Further indications of the importance of inter- of those in power: the megaron proper, the enrich- disciplinary research have come from the sciences. ing contact with other cultures, the elaborate admin- In particular, the combination of geophysical explora- istrative system, and, with nothing to record, the art tion and soil studies with intensive survey has already of writing. Thus, any plausible scenario for the tran- begun to generate new questions that can be asked sition to LH IIIC must take into account the architec- about the evolution of individual settlements, before tural modifications following LH IIIBI, the destruc- or in lieu of excavation. This is an area of great po- tions and abandonments at the LH IIIB/C transition tential for future research, as is the larger issue of itself, the end of palatial administration, and also regional settlement patterns. In terms of excavation the continuity of normal Mycenaean life at a lower itself, archaeologists interested in the palatial period level, with no immediate change either in material have continued to concentrate on the major centers, goods such as ceramics or in practices such as reli- and on cemeteries. New questions have been asked gion. It is improbable that all these phenomena, at and answered about the palatial sites themselves, re- all sites, could have had a single cause. Indeed, many garding the size of the towns and the territories that now agree that a combination of factors must have they controlled. There is still a shortage of knowl- been at work, and that the collapse of the Mycenae- edge about ordinary settlements, however, which can an states required both a process of decline and a only be filled by a willingness to forgo material re- precipitating event or events.291 wards and explore some of the many smaller habitation sites that surveys have identified. In addition A LOOK BACK AND FORWARD to the value of such knowledge for its own sake, it Writing this review has brought an appreciation can also shed light on the organization of the Myce- of the great progress made over the past 20 years naean states. The cases of Nichoria and Tsoungiza in the disciplines that contribute to the study of Late have shown how a combination of survey, excavation, Bronze Age Greece. At the same time, some avenues and textual study can clarify the relationship between for future work are emerging. The position of the a satellite and the center. Further work along these Mycenaean Greek dialect remains as ambiguous as lines could greatly improve our understanding of ever, but Linear B studies have continued to refine economic geography in Mycenaean Greece, the man- our understanding of specific issues like land ten- ner and degree to which different centers controlled ure, taxation, and industrial production, the general their territories, and the consequences of expand- outlines of which were in many cases already clear ing authority (and subsequently the end of that au- by 1978. A newer development has been an advance thority) for land use and settlement. in the study of institutions. The wanax himself has The painstaking analysis of artifacts remains es- been one focus of attention, in conjunction with an sential to the successful study of these and other the- interest in the formation of Mycenaean states. An- matic problems, notably foreign trade. Categories other has been the industrial operations of the like shell and bone, metalwork and glyptic art, and palaces, and the kinds of activities that took place even frescoes receive little or no coverage in this re- in specific areas. Here textual and archaeological view, but all continue to receive scholarly attention, studies have necessarily gone hand in hand, and this and all must form part of any consideration of Myce- sort of interdisciplinary approach will continue to naean culture. Assimilating and organizing the pro- be of great value. Of all topics that the tablets cover, liferation of published objects will pose an increas- the greatest progress can be seen in the field of Myce- ing challenge in the future. Rapid advances in naean religion. The discovery of new texts has been computer resources can be of great assistance, mak- partly responsible. Most of the strides, however, have ing it possible to assemble searchable illustrated come from new archaeological discoveries, and these databases of all sorts, from grave goods to Myce- are only beginning to be integrated with textual in- naean pottery found abroad to assemblages from

291 Dickinson (supra n. 6) 307-308. 1997] THE PALATIAL BRONZE AGE 585 specific excavations and surveys. Those wishing, for the analysis of specific artifact types and assemblages instance, to develop arguments about the growth of and the contemplation of broad theoretical prob- states based on metal finds in tombs, or about the lems. Only in this way will the achievements described rise of infantry tactics based on numbers of differ- above in bringing Mycenaean culture into focus be ent weapon types, must have comprehensive and re- matched by the gains of the next 20 years. liable figures on which to depend.292 So must those who wish to evaluate such arguments. It would be extremely useful if this kind of detailed information DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS were computerized and made widely available. At UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN the same time, students of Late Bronze Age Greece AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712 must continue to strike a graceful balance between [email protected]

29'2JimWright's forceful advocacy of databases (per- Of course computer access is not available to everyone. sonal communication) has prompted me to include the It is, however, less expensive both to "publish" and to "buy" point here. Leonard (supra n. 107) is an example of a use- a computer database than to publish or to buy a book. ful database now in existence. Argument based on metal Furthermore, towns and institutions worldwide that lack finds in tombs: Wright (supra n. 118).Argument based on both computers and libraries are perhaps more likely in changes in weapon types:Drews (supra n. 284), esp. 180-208. the future to acquire the former.