HESPERIA 74 (2005) A DEPOSIT OF LATE Pages 45I~573 HELLADIC IIIB1 POTTERY FROMTSOUNGIZA ABSTRACT a This article presents the pottery and figurines recovered from Mycenaean rubbish pit excavated by the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project atTsoungiza in 1984-1985. The deposit appears to preserve a complete range of vessels used for and other household personal consumption, serving, cooking, storage, activities, with nearly all diagnostic sherds dating to Late Helladic IIIB1. Analysis of this material suggests that, despite variations in the frequencies of some closed vessels and the residents of this small com kraters, Mycenaean had access to the same of ceramics in use at the centers. munity range palace The production and distribution of much Mycenaean pottery therefore may not have been controlled directly by the palaces. seasons Excavations atTsoungiza during the 1984 and 1985 recovered the a a contents of large rubbish pit (pit 1) next to partially preserved house in near area excavation unit 2 (EU 2), located the southeastern edge of the investigated by the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (Figs. 1, 2).1 was A large quantity of domestic refuse recovered from this pit, including 1. a am to the has The Tsoungiza excavations, part 1992). I extremely grateful James me; present manuscript me benefited from his meticulous criti of the Nemea Valley Archaeological Wright for entrusting with the were cism. I also thank Project (NVAP), sponsored by material for publication and for all his John Cherry, over s Bryn Mawr College under the auspices help the years. I thank NVAP Mary Dabney, JackDavis, Elizabeth of the American School of Classical conservators, Helen Alden, Alexandra French, Sara Immerwahr, Stephen at G Ken Studies Athens and the Greek Trone, and John Maseman, for cleaning Miller, Penelope Mountjoy, a amount neth and Shelmerdine Ministry of Culture and Sciences. and mending huge of pottery. Sams, Cynthia was for their advice and Funding for the project provided I also thank the long-suffering Julia encouragement. the National Endowment for the most Three readers for Hes by Pfaff and Lyla Pinch for drawing anonymous made numerous valuable Humanities, the Institute for Aegean of the pieces illustrated here. Pfaff peria sug and corrections as well. A Prehistory, the National Geographic inked all figures except Fig. 3, which gestions was debt is owed to Society, and private donors. A grant inked by the author. special Panayiotis I am to Schoinochoritis and his for from the 1984 Foundation helped with immensely indebted Jeremy family me on as an their house in living and travel expenses connected Rutter, who willingly took generously opening at Ancient Nemea to me for with the research. The material pre apprentice Tsoungiza during 1985 lengthy in an earlier some vast research. sented here appeared form 1987 and imparted of his stays during my to in my doctoral dissertation (Thomas knowledge of Bronze Age ceramics ? The American School of Classical Studies at Athens American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org UCBexcavations NVAP excavations "Of 1926/27 excavations approximate locations + -!" -! "I" "I" -J-63K) 6310-j20630 20640 20650 20660 20670 20680 20690 20700 20710 +20730 20740-I- 20790 20760-I- 20770-I" 20780 20790-!- 20800-i- 208K) 20830+ 20840 20890 20860 20870 20880 A DEPOSIT OF LATE HELLADIC IIIBI POTTERY 453 1 more Figure (opposite). Tsoungiza, gen animal bones, chipped and ground stone tools, and than 20,000 eral site W. and E. Pfaff plan. Payne J. potsherds. The ceramic contents of the pit date to the early part of Late Helladic (LH) IIIBI, around the end of the 14th century B.c., and are of no or remarkable chronological homogeneity, with later contamination to apparent disturbance. In contrast many other published large deposits none was of Mycenaean pottery, of the material culled before analysis, and the whole body of ceramics has been stored in the Nemea Museum for future study. an The ceramics from EU 2 pit 1 preserve excellent record of the types a and frequencies of vessels used in small Mycenaean settlement of this time. The contents of the deposit show clearly that the inhabitants of this same sorts non-elite site employed the of small open and cooking vessels as intended for eating, drinking, and food preparation those used at elite as sites such Mycenae. Quantitative analyses reveal small but significant some differences, however, between the frequencies of pottery types ob served inTsoungiza pit 1 and those from palatial contexts. More specifi were cally, decorated closed vessels and kraters somewhat less abundant in the Tsoungiza rubbish pit than in select deposits atMycenae, presumably reflecting varying patterns in the consumption and display of goods at elite and non-elite sites. Given the high degree of social stratification often posited forMyce naean Greece, in other respects, the generally small differences in the types are and relative quantities of specific ceramic forms striking. For example, the residents of Tsoungiza used kylikes (presumably for wine consumption) to in numbers reasonably comparable those used at palatial sites.Moreover, no or seems within the sample of decorated pottery, motif group of motifs to mark a difference between the vessels used at elite centers and those or as from villages hamlets such Tsoungiza and Korakou. This finding a invites consideration of how group of highly visible and frequently used artifacts may bind rather than differentiate communities at the center and a periphery of polity. The intensive study of the Tsoungiza pit 1 deposit presented here is reasons. important for several First, the chronological consistency of the a material permits the detailed characterization of LH IIIBI assemblage, supplementing and correcting previous stylistic and chronological obser vations about this period. Second, the quantification of the pottery from to a this large deposit may contribute better understanding of the ceramic a ecology of smaller Mycenaean settlement, in terms of patterns of ceramic over a one acquisition, usage, and discard period of approximately genera a on tion. Finally, the ceramics from this deposit have direct bearing prob lems of Mycenaean social and economic organization. These include not only the issue of ceramic consumption patterns noted above, but also the was question of how pottery production organized inMycenaean polities. The broad similarities observed between assemblages at elite and non-elite sites might have resulted less from the close control, standardization, and a distribution of pots by palace-dominated workshops than from response to consumer by producers general demand for vessels similar to those used at the palaces. 454 PATRICK M. THOMAS THE CONTEXT OF THE POTTERY FROM PIT 1 a Pit 1 is adjacent to house occupied in LHIIIA2/IIIB (Fig. 2). Associated are with this structure walls 10,11,12,13,17, and 24; the smaller partition a walls 19,20, 21, and 22, which form small compartment butted against to wall 10, also belong this house. The line of wall 12, running partially under the scarp, can be followed for a considerable distance to the southwest, was or although much of the foundation eroded damaged by modern plow was ing. The earth floor associated with this structure extremely difficult to trace, particularly in the western portion of the trench, but it is evident that wall 6 lay at least several centimeters beneath this floor and was not part of the LH IIIA2/IIIB1 house.2 The connection of these eastern LH IIIA2/IIIB walls with the other western sec walls exposed in the section of EU 2 is far from certain. A large as as was tion of wall 10, possibly running far to the west wall 2, robbed out some at point. It is clear from LH IIB debris running up to wall 3, but not was under it, that this wall belonged to the earlier structure and reused in the later structure. Wall 4, which definitely belonged to the LH IIIA2/IIIB a phase, forms right angle with wall 3, but does not bond with it.This may also have been the case with wall 2, but its articulation with wall 3 is not was preserved. Little precisely datable material recovered from the preserved a sections of the occupation floor, but few plain vessels and large fragments were of painted ones, mostly kylikes, recovered from the floor adjacent to walls 10, 11, and 13 and from the area of the doorway between walls 11 are a and 13.3 The rim profiles consistent with date of LH IIIA2/IIIB1. was Pit 1 located to the north of walls 2 and 3. It followed the sloping contour of the hill, as can be seen from the schematic section illustrated in was Figure 3, and in relation to this contour, it comparatively shallow. A hollow seems to have been cut into the slope of the hill to contain some ran of the fill, but the pit fill also directly up against walls 2 and 3. The pit, as a therefore, is perhaps best viewed dump. It cannot be proved that pit 1 was directly connected with the occupation of the adjacent house, but this is on likely, based the date of the material in both contexts. At least two other similar shallow refuse pits of comparable date were discovered in EU 8, located southwest of EU 2.4 It appears that such pits were a common feature nor of the LH IIIB settlement at Tsoungiza. Since neither pit 1 the pits are as or in EU 8 likely to have served terrace foundation fill, it is difficult to as regard them anything other than refuse dumps. are uncer Although the contents of pit 1 clearly domestic refuse, it is was over a or tain whether the pit filled gradually period of many years dug as a a amount repository into which large of refuse accumulated in other areas was once.