Aegean Late Bronze Age

Research Seminar at the University of Groningen, 8 May 2018.

In this seminar we present our research on Early Mycenaean (1700-1450 BC) labour investment and labour mobilization, to be published in an edited volume on Construction Economies in the Ancient World. It is based on a 2017 EAA conference session at which we asked to reflect on human investment in large-scale construction, to find ways to measure labour input, and to discuss the impact of building projects on economic and social relations.

While most discussion of labour investment focus on monumental structures, we propose to pay attention also to more modest constructions, especially those carried out in periods where the division of labour and the circulation of resources undergo radical change. We argue that the initiation of building projects is an important component in the transformation of reciprocal, segmentary, kin-based social networks to asymmetrical, centralised and competitive political entities, moving beyond architectural energetics approaches based on absolute measurements and towards a new methodology based on relative measures.

Our discussion will be based on the North Cemetery at Ayios Vasilios, southern Greece, which predates the Mycenaean palace on the same site. The Early Mycenaean period witnesses pervasive changes, expressed mostly in the mortuary practices: extramural, formal cemeteries replace intramural burials; larger, deeper, and more complex built graves replace simple cists and pits; multiple graves replace earlier single inhumations; rich offerings accompany the dead. It is generally accepted that these changes are part and parcel of the transformation of the mainland societies, i.e. the emergence of social asymmetries and political hierarchies. We focus on variation in the size and construction of the tombs. Indeed the tombs in this period show substantial labour input in the quarrying, transporting and rough working of different types of stone. Our aim is to reconstruct the labour input in the tombs and the cemetery as a whole, and to attempt to reconstruct changing social and kin relations.

During the first season of excavations in 2014 at the Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, a bronze knife with an unusually decorated handle was found. Kaymakçı is a recently discovered citadel located ca. 100 km east of the Aegean coast in the Gediz Valley and is one of the few excavated sites from interior central western Anatolia. The knife was recovered in the tower-like structure attached to the fortifications at the northwestern extent of the citadel. It belongs to a small group of solid-hilted knives (Sandars Class 4) known until recently only from elite graves and cultic contexts in the Peloponnese, Crete, Psara, and Troy. The knife shares decorative ribbing, a solid bronze knob at the end of its handle, and some other features with its Aegean counterparts. However, the geometric style of its decoration, such as the central herringbone-pattern, is unparalleled among Minoan and Mycenaean art, instead it corresponds with geometric designs known from other western Anatolian finds. Therefore, the herringbone knife from Kaymakçı, most probably the property of a member of the western Anatolian elite, is an outcome of the fusion of Aegean and western Anatolian traditions. Simultaneously it is one of the first known examples of local ornamental style, still poorly known due to the state of research in interior western Anatolia.

Tel Reḥov, identified with Reḥob, was one of the largest Canaanite cities in the southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age (15–13th centuries B.C.E.). Unlike many other Canaanite settlements, the city was founded in the 15th century after a hiatus beginning in Early Bronze Age III. In this article, four major Late Bronze Age occupation strata are described. Notable is a monumental structure dated to the 14th century B.C.E. with unusual architectural features which could be either the residence of a high-ranking family or an administrative building. During the 13th century B.C.E., this building was replaced by a new structure containing a metalsmith’s workshop, inspired by Egyptian 19th Dynasty techniques, while later building phases belong to the final stages of the Late Bronze Age. No destruction layers were found, and the Late Bronze Age city was rebuilt and continued to thrive throughout the Iron Age I. Five Late Bronze Age plaque figurines, some of particular interest, are also described. An appendix discusses a rare funeral scarab of an Egyptian high official found in the 14th-century B.C.E. edifice.