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Aegeus Society For Aegean Prehistory

ARTICLES | 2017

Variability of ceramic production and consumption on the Greek mainland during the middle stages of the Late Bronze Age: the waterpots from the Menelaion, Sparta

Bartłomiej Lis Oxford Journal of Archaeology 36.3 (2017): 243-266

The study highlights survival of pottery traditions with roots in the Middle Helladic period well into the Late Bronze Age, a fact that has not received appropriate attention in the scholarly discourse. It captures the very last stage of their existence, as just a few decades later the production and consumption are entirely dominated by Mycenaean pottery.

I will follow you into the dark: death and emotion in a Mycenaean royal funeral

Guy D. Middleton Oxford Journal of Archaeology 36.4 (2017): 395-412

In this paper, I introduce the various categories of evidence and draw on them to support an imaginative reconstruction of an event that happened, but which is not recorded in any historical sources – the death and burial of a great king of Mycenae.

Early ceramics in Anatolia: implications for the production and use of the earliest pottery. The evidence from Boncuklu Höyük

A. Fletcher, D. Baird, M. Spataro & A. Fairbairn Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27.2 (May 2017): 351-369

Fragments of possible fired clay found at Boncuklu Höyük, central Turkey, appear to derive from rudimentary vessels, despite the later ninth- and early eighth-millennium cal. bc and thus ‘Aceramic’ dates for the site. This paper will examine the evidence for such fired clay vessels at Boncuklu and consider their implications as examples of some of the earliest pottery in Anatolia.

Contrasting histories in Early Bronze Age Aegean: uniformity, regionalism and the resilience of societies in the northeast Peloponnese and central Crete

Erika Weiberg Cambridge Archaeological Society 27.3 (August 2017): 479-494

Late Early Bronze Age (EB IIB–III, 2500–2000 bc ) evidence from the northeast Peloponnese and central Crete present two coeval sequences of events with very different societal outcomes. By drawing on resilience theory and the model of adaptive cycles, this article explores when and why the paths of mainland Greece and Crete diverged around 2200 bc, leading to an eventually destabilizing change on the mainland and a more sustainable one on Crete.

Interactions and -isations in the Aegean and beyond

Anthony Harding Antiquity 91.355 (2017): 250-253

The question of ‘-isations’, such as ‘Romanisation’, has been a concern of archaeologists for many years; here it is ‘-isations’ of the prehistoric Aegean world that are the focus of attention.

Mycenaeans in Bavaria? Amber and gold from the Bronze Age site of Bernstorf

Antony Harding & Helen Hughes-Brock Antiquity 91.359 (2017): 1382-1385

In August 1998 the German archaeological world was stunned when two amateur archaeologists found decorated gold-sheet ornaments on a hill in Bavaria north of Munich, near a farm named Bernstorf, in the commune of Kranzberg. A Bronze Age fortified enclosure was known there, local amateurs having excavated it earlier in the 1990s; later, permission was granted for gravel extraction, trees were cleared and it was in this disturbed area that the gold appeared.

Working for a feast: textual evidence for state-organized work feasts in Mycenaean Greece

Jörg Weilhartner American Journal of Archaeology 121.2 (April 2017): 219-236

Communal feasting has provoked much interest among scholars of Aegean prehistory. Discussions of the archaeological, archaeozoological, and textual data of the Mycenaean Palatial period have provided important insights into the role of this ritual practice as part of a sociopolitical strategy of the Mycenaean elite.

Communication networks, interactions, and social negotiation in Prepalatial south-central Crete

Sylviane Dédérix American Journal of Archaeology 121.1 (January 2017): 5-37

The results of the GIS analyses emphasize that circular tombs were as a rule constructed near optimal paths. Nevertheless, the spatial pattern testifies to synchronic and diachronic variations, which, examined in the light of the distribution of non-Cretan grave goods, support the conclusion of previous research that different social strategies underlay the appearance and adoption of this burial type throughout the study area.

Foodways in Early Mycenaean Greece: innovative cooking sets and social hierarchy at Mitrou and other settlements on the Greek mainland

Bartłomiej Lis American Journal of Archaeology 121.2 (April 2017): 183-217

Through the analysis of the cooking pottery repertoire, I investigate the issue of how food was manipulated by those competing for status. I argue that the appearance of innovative cooking utensils and their sets can be associated with changes in food-preparation practices, leading to more elaborate cuisine.

Late Bronze Age climate change and the destruction of the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Martin Finné, Karin Holmgren, Chuan-Chou Shen, Hsun-Ming Hu, Meighan Boyd & Sharon Stocker PLoS ONE12(12): e0189447 (December 27, 2017)

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This paper offers new high-resolution oxygen and carbon isotope data from Stalagmite S1 from Mavri Trypa Cave, SW Peloponnese. Our data provide the climate background to the destruction of the nearby Mycenaean Palace of Nestor at Pylos at the transition from Late Helladic (LH) IIIB to LH IIIC, ~3150–3130 years before present (before AD 1950, hereafter yrs BP) and the subsequent period.