THE MYCENAEAN SEMINAR 2017–18

18 October 2017

RECONSTRUCTING THE ARCHITECTURAL SEQUENCE OF THE PALACE AT MALIA

Maud Devolder

Discovered in 1915 by Joseph Hazzidakis, the Palace at Malia has been under excavation by the French School at Athens since 1921. During the various campaigns, traces of occupation ranging from the Prepalatial to the Final Palatial period were noted, the chronological intricacies of which have occupied several generations of French School archaeologists. Indeed, after the general clearing of the ruins, a high number of stratigraphic tests were made under the latest floors, starting with F. Chapouthier, P. Demargne and, above all, continued by O. Pelon until 1992. Although at times rather discrete, stratigraphical evidence attested a long sequence of occupation at the location of the Palace at Malia. Remains of several structures dating to the second half of the third millennium bc were identified, some of which were even incorporated in the Protopalatial building that was constructed at the onset of the second millennium bc. Knowledge of the Protopalatial Palace was significantly reinforced by both the early excavations and recent sondages. Published studies have suggested a marked continuity between some areas of the Palace (i.e. the Central Court, Hypostyle Hall, Eastern Magazines) from the Proto- to the Neopalatial period, as well as significant differences, in particular the abandonment of the northwestern area after the Protopalatial period, a wing which sheltered activities related to storage and production. As is the case for other Palaces on the island, the transition between the Proto- and Neopalatial periods is accompanied by drastic changes in the Palace at Malia, especially where the construction of new façades, internal walls, and entire sets of rooms is concerned, often incorporating new building materials and techniques. An ongoing architectural study of the Palace at Malia focuses on the detailed understanding of the nature, plan, and appearance of the First Palace, and of the modifications that were made to it at the end of the Protopalatial period, as well as of the extent of the Neopalatial reconstruction. Based on detailed observations of the architectural remains, this paper sheds light on the successive stages within the architectural sequence of the building. The state of the West Wing before and after the 1700 bc destruction is explored, providing relevant data for discussing the use of various building materials and techniques during the Proto- and Neopalatial periods, and the role of specific architectural features such as masons’ marks in the organization of the building project.

15 November 2017

BONES, ISOTOPES, AND LIFE-HISTORIES

Argyro Nafplioti

The study of archaeological human skeletal remains can offer direct insights into the life and death of past people which are not possible through other lines of archaeological research alone. In particular, isotope ratio analysis of human remains is a powerful tool for reconstructing past life-histories. Until about forty years ago archaeologists, particularly those specializing in Prehistoric periods, largely relied on material culture to reconstruct life-histories and describe human behavior. Since the 1980s, however, the application of isotopic analytical techniques and methods that are borrowed from other disciplines has extended the analytical scope of archaeological investigations, generated significant new knowledge, and offered a nuanced understanding of the human past. The competitive advantage of isotope ratio analysis over other lines of archaeological research is that it offers direct insights into the actual lives of past people, and that this work can focus on the individual rather than the broader group he/she belongs to. The information generated relates to a broad range of topics; the most popular of these are people’s diet, geographical origins, and residential mobility.

This paper draws from my extensive database of over 750 human and animal strontium, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon isotope ratio signatures from my research in Aegean Archaeology.¹ In addition to the applications mentioned above I use the research to present the potential and limitations of isotopic archaeological research using human skeletal remains and to discuss specific, long-debated archaeological questions. The focus is on past diet and residential mobility in relation to social variation, culture change, and discontinuity respectively, and the sites investigated are Early Helladic Manika and Middle and Late Minoan Knossos.

Manika on Euboea is a very good example of an Early Bronze Age site in the Mainland that shows material culture characteristics which are most typical in the Cyclades. Based on the observed inter-regional cultural affinities and the presence of imports from the Cyclades, Manika has been identified as an EH II Cycladic colony. Since interpretations are not unequivocal, strontium isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) analysis was applied to sixty-five individuals from the site to investigate this theory and the biological constitution of the site. Results show that although non-locals, possibly originating from the Central Cyclades and/or the northeastern Aegean, were present at Manika during the EH II and the EH III periods, their proportional representation was too low to suggest that EH II Manika was a Cycladic colony. Further interesting findings include evidence for the grouping of the non-local burials within a specific sector of the cemetery and the fact that non-local pottery was not strictly associated with the burials of non-locals.

The second case-study relates to Knossos and the theory of a Mycenaean invasion of the island and political domination of the site following the LM IB destructions on Crete, which I have also discussed elsewhere.² This paper uses integrated ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and biodistance analyses and discusses negative evidence for the presence of either first generation immigrants from the Argolid or their descendants inside tombs at Knossos, which are associated in the literature with Mainlanders. The emphasis is on the results of biodistance analysis that suggest continuity in the biological history of the Knossos population throughout the Middle and Late Minoan periods. Here I argue that, even if at some time in the LM II-III period non-locals from the Argolid were present at Knossos, neither did their presence there take the form of invasion and imposed political domination, nor were these people responsible for the LMIB destructions on the island. I conclude this study by exploring alternative theories for the question investigated.

Finally, the paper presents the first stable isotope evidence of diet from Protopalatial to Neopalatial Knossos.³ Diet is used here as a measure of quality of life and a means of social differentiation. Isotopic data from the site follow a comparatively broad distribution that reflects a range of diets, where animal protein, including marine in addition to terrestrial, was consumed at different levels. In Neopalatial times in particular, people at Knossos lived on a diet that was comparatively rich in terms of the different types of protein consumed and the proportional contribution of animal protein. The higher availability of animal protein over the course of the Middle Bronze Age is broadly coincidental with socio-economic and political developments and the supremacy of the site during Neopalatial times.

6 December 2017

A LOCATIONAL ANALYSIS OF SEALINGS AND TABLETS IN THE LATE MINOAN I PERIOD (c. 1700/1675–1470/1460 BC)

Ilse Schoep

Neopalatial clay sealings⁴ and tablets have traditionally been studied from a modernist perspective that pays attention in the first place to their economic aspects. They are considered to be economic documents, a record-keeping apparatus that was used to control the management of goods. Inscribed metal objects, stone offering tables, figurines, plaster, etc., on the other hand, are considered to be non-economic and thus ritual in nature. Such a dichotomy between economic/ secular and sacred/ritual has encouraged and strengthened the idea that the main purpose of Linear A tablets and sealings was economic and thus secular. This dichotomy is misleading and it can be argued that there are ritual aspects to Linear A sealing and writing practices in the Neopalatial period. This is suggested by the occurrence of administrative documents in structured depositions. The best examples of this practice are the two stone cists in the Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos, the so-called Temple Repositories, which were filled with an astonishing quantity of ritual objects in faience and gold and rock-crystal, as well as shells and vases and about 85 sealings and at least one Linear A tablet. Other examples of such depositions from Knossos are the MM IIA Vat Room Deposit and the Olive Press Room. Further examples are the Dépôt Hiéroglypique (Malia) and Vano 25 and room LI at Phaistos. At Akrotiri, a flat-based nodule was found in a wooden box with a balance set and stone and lead weights. The fact that sealings and tablets could form part of structured depositions suggests that they were not exclusively economic in nature but had ritual connotations.

Another argument in favour of tablets and sealings forming part of ritualization is their spatial pattern in Neopalatial contexts: they were preserved or kept on the upper floor of spaces that have a pronounced ritual character (Minoan Halls, polythyra, light-wells) and they are stored together with high-value goods that are often explicitly ritual in nature. The rooms on the upper floor communicate with the rooms on the ground floor and consequently the objects on the upper floor, including sealings and tablets, can be associated with ritual practices taking place on the ground floor, suggesting that the production, consumption, and preservation of sealings and tablets may be related to ritualization. This pattern can be identified at LM I Sklavokambos, Tylissos, Myrtos Pyrgos, Zakro, and Ayia Triada. Architecture does not form a passive backdrop but provides cues for certain types of practices and functions as a focus or frame for social interaction, regulating its temporality and participation, and thus playing an important role in social reproduction. The best example of this practice is provided by the c. 1000 sealings and 10 Linear A tablets from the North-West Quarter at Ayia Triada, which had fallen from the upper floor into a complex of ritual rooms (Minoan Halls, light-wells, windows, the shrine with frescoes, etc.) together with stone vases, metal objects, inlays for (wooden) furniture, loomweights, bronze vases, fine pottery, lamps, plates, lids, etc. These objects were stored and presumably used in rituals on the ground floor rooms and/or in the Piazzale Superiore. The artefactual and architectural context of sealings and their inherent ritual characteristics allow us to advance the hypothesis that sealings played a role in the preparation and performance of rituals (rites of passage, calendrical and commemorative rites, rites of sacrifice and offering, rites of feasting, fasting, festivals, etc.), which could have involved the procurement, preparation, and consumption of food, drink, tableware, ointments, festive garments, as well as the preparation of the architectural location, participants and objects used, etc.

17 January 2018

PROTO-URBANIZATION, RISING ELITES, AND THE ROLE OF METALLURGY IN THE EARLY BRONZE AGE AEGEAN-ANATOLIAN WORLD(S)

Barbara Horejs

The third millennium BC is known and broadly discussed as a highly dynamic time in the Aegean and in Anatolia, not at least since Colin Renfrew’s designation of that period as a time of ‘international spirit’. New scales and intensities of connectivity and related social complexity are attested for the Early Bronze Age, especially for 2600 BC onwards, demonstrated for example in far-reaching Aegean-Anatolian-Mesopotamian networks. The parallel phenomena of proto-urbanization, the rising of social elites, and new metal technologies are discussed in this presentation to re-evaluate their potential entanglements and impact on Early Bronze Age societies, and the postulated general dynamic. A closer investigation of the details of these processes on a regional and interregional level is used to locate their potential origins and to demonstrate regional and chronological varieties.

This contribution is based on new primary data provided by a range of long-term field projects and new material analyses by interdisciplinary teams: excavations at Çukuriçi Höyük and related regional geoarchaeological investigations; surveys in the Kaykos Valley around Pergamon (both funded by the European Research Council and the Austrian Science Fund); and ongoing analyses of EBA golden treasures (funded by the Austrian Academy Innovation Fund). Aspects of these recently investigated case studies are discussed and contextualized within a broader Aegean and Anatolian perspective to demonstrate the diverse and complex development of the Early Bronze Age.⁵

The presented model for proto-urbanization in western Anatolia as a long-term process is based on developments starting already in Chalcolithic times (fifth/fourth millennium BC). This phenomenon seems closely related to an intensification of connectivities, surplus production and storage installations, enclosures and fortifications, as well as to the rising of new technologies. The data scarcity in western Anatolia does not allow demographic analysis so far, but an increasing population appears plausible, at least in the fourth millennium BC. The Çukuriçi results demonstrate an increasing density within an established settlement very well, at the dawn of the EBA, around 3000 cal BC. This process of aggregation of settlements and perhaps also of centralization is connected with a boom in copper metallurgy in EBA 1 (around 2900 cal BC), when the site developed into a metal production centre. The metal workshops provide not only the complete chaîne opératoire of metallurgical melting and smelting, these new data also demonstrate technological know-how and skills, indicating a specialists’ society embedded in a broad inter-regional network. The idea of potential rising elites is discussed as a subsequent phenomenon in relation to aspects of the status of gold objects and the creation of new fortified centres.

21 February 2018

Seminar sponsored by INSTAP

MYCENAEAN ELEON IN EASTERN BOEOTIA: FROM THE SHAFT GRAVE ERA TO THE POST-PALATIAL PERIOD

Brendan Burke

Bryan Burns

The Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project (EBAP) has been excavating at the site of ancient Eleon in the village of Arma since 2011. This project is a synergasia between the CIG and Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia, under the direction of Dr. Alexandra Charami (Ephorate of Antiquities of Boeotia) and co-direction of Brendan Burke (University of Victoria) and Bryan Burns (Wellesley College). Drs Olga Kyriazi and Kiki Kalliga are also key partners in our research project. Research funding received in 2017 was from an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada (#435-2012-0185), the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, and the University of Victoria and Wellesley College. The Canadian Institute in Greece has facilitated and supported the permit process each year.

Chronological summary: Our work has identified four major periods of occupation at the site of ancient Eleon, located on an elevated plateau overlooking the Theban plain, en route to Chalkis and the Euboean Gulf. First, a prehistoric phase spans the early Mycenaean period (from the end of the Middle Helladic and beginning of the Mycenaean palatial period, c. 1700-1450 BC). In the second period, toward the end of the Mycenaean age, we have substantial levels dating to the Late Helladic IIIB and IIIC sub phases. The site seems to be abandoned by the Early Iron Age. The third phase is Post-Bronze Age, which varies in levels of occupation, but the earliest reoccupation does not occur until the sixth century BC. Also dating to the Archaic period is the construction of the large polygonal wall. After another long period of inactivity at the site we reach the fourth and latest archaeological phase in evidence: the Medieval period, from which material survives in surface levels and deeper pits only. These finds date consistently to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ce, which could indicate a relatively late date for the stone tower whose remains mark the western end of the site, beyond our permitted area of excavation.

Research Goals 2017: The majority of work in 2017 concentrated within and around an enclosure which we call the Blue Stone Structure (BSS), so named because of the polished blue limestone used to cap a large, rectangular perimeter wall. This structure was capped with a mound of clay marking an early Mycenaean cemetery of some significance dating to the formative period of Mycenaean society, c. seventeeth century BC. Our main goal is to excavate all of the burials within the perimeter wall. One of our research questions addresses the relationship between the construction of the BSS perimeter wall and individual burials. Although our work is not yet completed, we believe the earliest tombs were dug and built within this demarcated space prior to the construction of the BSS, and then subsequent tombs were constructed inside.

21 March 2018

ON THE SIDE OF RHADAMANTHUS: PHAISTOS AND ITS REGION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEOPALATIAL PERIOD

Luca Girella

After the period of the first excavations at the major palatial sites in Crete in the first half of the twentieth century (ad), there has been a general minimization of the MM III period, with a partial absorption into the preceding MM IIB and succeeding LM I periods. Research and publications of pottery material of the last decades have significantly clarified some issues, such as the distinction of the period in sub-phases, the pottery development of some regions or sites, and aspects of absolute chronology. There is still a tendency, however, to consider the Neopalatial period as a monolithic chronological block or to accept an abrupt growth of Knossian influence southwards, while the varied construction histories at different sites in central Crete indicate shifting configurations of political power diluted from MM IIIA to LM IB. Reviews of the main approaches to the political organisation of Neopalatial Crete have accumulated, promising new perspectives and offering possibilities of progress. However, one of the main aspects of the Neopalatial period which did not receive enough attention, at least until the Intermezzo workshop in 2008, is its beginning. In particular, little attention has been paid to the kind of transition that occurs from the Protopalatial to the Neopalatial period. The Intermezzo workshop helped to understand whether there was a smooth, contemporary, and island-wide transition, a radical shift, or something intermediate. Secondly, consensus seems hard to come by as to when the Neopalatial starts: MM IIIA, MM IIIB, and even LM I? Not to mention that some scholars prefer adopting an undistinguished MM III. Thirdly, it is still undecided what form of material culture played a role in differentiating the Protopalatial from the Neopalatial: architecture, pottery, iconography, and administrative documents? Fourthly, it is questionable what changes during the Protopalatial led to the Neopalatial: settlement organisation, type of power, role of court-centred buildings?

Starting from these premises, the seminar discusses the passage in the Mesara region from the Protopalatial to the Neopalatial period, with particular reference to the palace of Phaistos and MM III. The presentation is divided into several parts, as it dwells on recent research about the Protopalatial Mesara as the logical prologue to the following MM III period. Drawing on data from pottery and architecture it pays close attention to the vicissitudes of individual site construction phases that might align with changing political conditions. In this respect, the presentation will put some of the destructions from MM IIB to MM IIIB in south central Crete in perspective, in order to examine changes in material culture after destruction horizons, sometimes accompanied by social and political changes, and to compare and contrast development in the south and in north central Crete.

It is shown that at the end of the MM IIB period there is an extensive destruction horizon in south central Crete and that, rather than unrest, the region shows an immediate reaction, although based on a different relocation of power. MM IIIA is a period of important architectural development in the south including new building and repairs at Phaistos and Kommos, which are followed by a realignment of power in MM IIIB in favour of Ayia Triada, and the foundation of a number of ‘country houses’.

16 May 2018

MYCENAE SHAFT GRAVE IV IN GRAVE CIRCLE A. NEW AND UNEXPECTED LIGHT ON A VERY OLD STORY

Kostas Paschalidis

The 9th November 2016 was the 140th anniversary of the beginning of the excavations conducted by Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann in Grave Circle A at Mycenae, which resulted in the birth of a new archaeology on Greek soil and the projection of archaeological chronology at least eight centuries further back into the past. This was a development that inevitably modified the presentation of the ancient remains, both in the bibliography and in the museums of the time. Suddenly, in other words, time had to be given more space.

The excavation of the rich cemetery at Mycenae, which ended on 4th December 1876, was completed in a particularly short period of time, without the necessary recording procedures, even by the standards of those times, and under severe weather conditions, with the result that everything we know from later publications is in fact fragmentary and incomplete. Nevertheless, investigations were supervised, on behalf of the Archaeological Service, by Panagiotis Stamatakis, the Ephor of Antiquities, a tireless, silent, and methodological archaeologist. From the very first day of the excavation he recorded all the details about the progress of the work in a handwritten diary, as stipulated by the law. He did try to limit the hurried mass removal of soil practised by Heinrich Schliemann, something which increased the tension and caused the cessation of communications between the two men. Stamatakis did everything he could to record what was happening in every detail and then to arrange and transport the portable finds to Athens, where they were exhibited at the Polytechnic School a year later.

The diary of Stamatakis, now kept at the National Archaeological Museum, was first used a few years ago by Dr. Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki, who conducted the reexamination of all the burials in Grave Circle A. This presentation concerns the study of Grave IV in detail. Thanks to the meticulous documentation of every single find of this tomb by Stamatakis, recorded at the time of the dig, we are able to attribute burial gifts to the dead and recreate the actual assemblages of the burials for the first time. Furthermore, we focus on the intriguing case of the so-called ‘Prince with the Battle Krater’, i.e. the eighteen-year-old man buried with the earliest recorded symposium set (a grand silver krater containing thirteen cups and two rhyta made of gold, silver, and alabaster), who appears to have lived a short life with great expectations. In brief, we present the chronicle of research and the detailed order of Shaft Grave IV, the most rich-in-gold sepulchre in Grave Circle A.

Footnotes

1

A. Nafplioti, ‘Tracing population mobility in the Aegean using isotope geochemistry: a first map of local biologically available 87Sr/86Sr signatures’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2011) 1560–70.

2

A. Nafplioti, Population Bio-cultural History in the South Aegean during the Bronze Age. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southampton (Southampton 2007); A. Nafplioti, ‘Mycenaean political domination of Knossos following the LMIB destructions on Crete: negative evidence from strontium isotope ratio analysis (87Sr/86Sr)’, Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 2307–17; A. Nafplioti, ‘Strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) analysis in past population mobility studies: Snails as local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr tracers’ in Strontium: Chemical Properties, Applications, and Health Effects, ed. Miahua Wai and Xu Guan Gong (New York 2012).

4

A. Nafplioti, ‘Eating in prosperity: First stable isotope evidence of diet from Palatial Knossos’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6 (2016) 42–52.

4

I will here use the generic term sealings for the different types of sealed documents, without implying that they all served the same function.

5

For further information including literature see: https://www.orea.oeaw.ac.at/en/research/anatolian-aegean-prehistoric-phenomena/.