Description
Late Bronze Age tombs in Greece and their attendant mortuary practices have been a topic of scholarly debate for over a century, dominated by the idea of a monolithic culture with the same developmental trajectories throughout the region. This book contributes to that body of scholarship by exploring both the level of variety and of similarity that we see in the practices at each site and thereby highlights the differences between communities that otherwise look very similar.The introduction of wealthy burials in the transition from the Middle Helladic period and the building of elaborate tombs during the Late Bronze Age underscores a long-acknowledged change in cultural importance of burials and their locations for contemporary society. Initially archaeologists were interested in these tombs because of the impressive finds that were discovered in them, but as the body of literature on mortuary rituals has grown more recently these tombs have been utilized as lenses through which we can study the related society in novel ways.By bringing together an international group of scholars working on tombs and cemeteries on mainland Greece, Crete, and in the Dodecanese we are afforded a unique view of the development and diversity of these communities. The papers provide a penetrative analysis of the related issues by discussing tombs connected with sites ranging in size from palaces to towns to villages and in date from the start to the end of the Late Bronze Age. Death in Late Bronze Age Greece contextualizes the mortuary studies in recent debates on diversity at the main palatial and secondary sites and between the economic and political strategies and practices throughout Greece. The papers in the volume illustrate the pervasive connection between the mortuary sphere and society through the creation and expression of cultural narratives, and draw attention to the social tensions played out in the mortuary arena.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and Discussion of Late Bronze Age Mortuary PracticesJoanne M. A. Murphy2. Late Bronze Age Tombs at the Palace of Nestor, PylosJoanne M. A. Murphy, Sharon R. Stocker, Jack L. Davis, and Lynne A. Schepartz3. 'You Can't Take It With You.' The Socio-political Context of Changing Burial Traditions During the Mycenaean Palatial Period at Mycenae and ProsymnaKim Shelton4. The Mycenaean Cemetery of Deiras in a Local and Regional ContextNikolas Papadimitriou, Anna Philippa-Touchais, and Gilles Touchais5. The Mycenaean Cemetery at Ayia Sotira, Nemea R. Angus K. Smith, Mary K. Dabney, and James C. Wright6. The Mycenaean Cemetery at Clauss, near Patras. The Rise and Fall of a Local Society towards the End of an EraConstantinos Paschalidis7. Death in Early Mycenaean AchaeaLena Papazoglou-Manioudaki8. The Chamber Tombs of the Trapeza, Aigion: Preliminary Observations on Rituals of a Small Mycenaean CommunityElizabetta Borgna and Gaspare De Angeli9. Claiming Social Identities in the Mortuary Landscape of the Late Bronze Age Communities of Northern GreeceSevi Triantaphylou and Stelios Andreou10. Landscape, Feasting, and Ancestors in the Burial Tradition of Mycenaean RhodesMercourios Georgiadis11. Langada Revisited: Construction Practices, Space, and Socio-Cultural Identity in the Koan Burial Arena During the Mycenaean Palatial and Postpalatial PeriodsCalla Mc Namee and Salvatore Vitale12. Late Minoan I-IIIB Tombs and Funerary Landscapes in South-Central CreteLuca Girella13. The Power of the Dead: The Late Minoan III Cemeteries of Mochlos and MyrsiniR. Angus Smith14. Funerary Practices, Female Identities, and the Clay Pyxis in Late Minoan III CreteAnna Lucia D'Agata
