Aegean Late Bronze Age

This paper brings a (mainly) statistically fonded answer to some central questions of mycenology. The questions, whether one may speak about a Mycenean centralised state headed by a great king and the question, where the center of such a hypothetical state has to be looked for. The answers are : yes, Myceanae and later for a rather short interval Thebes, and yes, the question is settled. The main statistical input comes from the treatment of Mycenaean ceramic exports, viewed as a result of repackaging tribute products into retail quantities before their shipment to Eastern destinations.

THE MYCΕNAEAN CEMETERY AT PORTES
The prehistoric cemetery at Portes lies in SW Achaea on the border with Elis. The site comprised part of a wider communication network that connected central Greece and western Peloponnese via the Gulf of Corinth. Archaeological research has revealed all types of burial monuments spanning the Mycenaean times. The architecture, the burial customs, and the rich burial offerings are representative of a complex social and political structure.

Sympozjum Egejskie - 7th Conference in Aegean Archaeology
University of Warsaw, Poland, June 6th - 7th 2019

In comparison to the rest of Europe, the Aegean has comparatively few Late Bronze Age hoards; the Aegean hoards also tend to be much smaller and appear in more disparate locations, such as the discovery of one hoard in a well at Orchomenos. This particular hoard consisted of approximately one hundred metal objects, including tools, weapons and fragments of vessels. There are many feasible reasons for its deposition; perhaps it was a votive offering, or hidden during a period of social unrest. Generally scholars have attempted to use the objects themselves to narrow the range of possibilities with a strong reliance on archaeological theories that were originally developed to study the very different hoarding phenomena across the rest of Prehistoric Europe. I believe that, in order to understand how and why the Orchomenos hoard was deposited in a well, it is first necessary to investigate what evidence we have concerning the use of wells in Late Bronze Age Aegean societies and how and why objects may have entered them. This paper compares excavated wells from various different sites to ascertain answers to these questions and thus provide an important element of contextual analysis that has so far been absent from the investigation of the Orchomenos hoard.

The wreck of the Uluburun offers the possibility of understanding the dynamics of trade in the Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age. In the first part of the paper, the approaches that have been proposed about the destination, function and origin of the vessel are analysed. Secondly, the small objects that were transported and which tend to be “forgotten” are examined. The study of these objects can provide answers to dynamics and commercial interests or policies, the exchange of ideas and shared manifestations of devoutness in the Eastern Mediterranean that can be considered in some respects as a cultural koiné at the end of the Bronze Age.

Sixty years after similar discovery author brings an information about new hoards of the Liptov-type swords recently discovered in Bošáca (Western Slovakia), in which tens of bronze artefacts with rich typological-chronological features appeared. This knowledge can help to clarify long-distance contacts in the transitional horizon Trenčianske Bohuslavice/Somotor – Lúčky (Ha A2/Ha B1), e.g.  which passes have been used in the  Western Carpathians, and to increase knowledge of an exchange of social and cultural influences in the Late and Final Bronze Age. Illegally stolen hoards from Bošáca, site Špania dolina, are probably related to the massive hilltop settlement Zemianske Podhradie, site Hradiská, and it seems that this place  as a significant and strategic place of the Lusatian culture – a centre of concentrated military forces and the elites of the society.

Résumé
En 1975 a été fouillée une tombe à chambre taillée, à Galia Kainourgiou, dans la plaine de la Messara. Dans cette tombe ont été découverts quatre défunts dont trois (I, II, III) avaient été déposés sur des brancards en bois. La défunte de la sépulture IV avait été placée dans une larnax en terre cuite sans décor. La sépulture I (« sépulture de guerrier»)  présente un intérêt tout particulier, du fait que le défunt était accompagné d’un poignard, d’une pointe, d’un couteau, d’un rasoir, d’une perle en os et de deux
vases en terre cuite. Les brancards de bois et le mobilier funéraire en bronze de la tombe de Galia montrent que les pratiques funéraires de la phase palatiale finale se poursuivaient dans la Crète post-palatiale et prouvent de façon indéniable que les élites locales voulaient, de cette manière, afficher leur statut social.

Περίληψη
Ταφή «πολεμιστή» σε Yστερομινωϊκό ΙΙΙ Α2-Β θαλαμωτό τάφο στη Γαλιά Μεσαράς

Το 1975 ανασκάφηκε ένας λαξευτός θαλαμοειδής τάφος στη Γαλιά Καινουρίου, στην πεδιάδα της Μεσαράς. Στον τάφο βρέθηκαν τέσσερις νεκροί από τους οποίους οι τρεις (I , II, III) είχαν αποτεθεί σε ξύλινα φορεία. Η νεκρή γυναίκα της ταφής IV είχε τοποθετηθεί σε μια ακόσμητη πήλινη λάρνακα. Ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η ταφή I (‘ταφή πολεμιστή’) καθώς ο νεκρός συνοδευόταν από ένα
εγχειρίδιο, μια αιχμή, ένα μαχαίρι, ένα ξυράφι, μια οστέινη ψήφο και δύο πήλινα αγγεία. Τα ξύλινα φορεία και τα χάλκινα κτερίσματα του τάφου στη Γαλιά αποτελούν ένδειξη ότι οι ταφικές πρακτικές της Tελικής Ανακτορικής φάσης εξακολουθούσαν να χρησιμοποιούνται στη μετανακτορική Κρήτη και αποτελούν αδιάψευστους μάρτυρες ότι οι τοπικές elites με αυτό τον τρόπο ήθελαν να εκφράσουν την ανώτερη κοινωνική τους θέση.

Summary
‘Warrior Grave’ in a Late Minoan A2-B Chamber Tomb at Galia in the Messara, Crete.

The LM IIIA2-B rock-cut chamber tomb at Stavros, east of the village of Galia in the Messara plain, was excavated in 1975. Tomb contained four burials of which I, II and III lay on wooden biers, fragments of which partly survived, while a female (burial IV) was buried in an undecorated larnax. Of particular interest is the male burial I (‘warrior grave’) which was accompanied by a bronze dagger, a spearhead, a knife, a razor, a bone bead and two clay vases. The use of wooden biers/coffins and the bronze grave
offerings show that the burial practices of the Final Palatial Period still existed in Post-Palatial Crete. It appears that the Post-Palatial regional elites wished to express through these practices their high social status.

Sacred sites in Minoan Crete are known from both archaeological remains and iconography. Glyptic art is the most extensive body of Aegean Bronze Age representational art and consists of carved seals in the form of engraved metal signet rings, stone seals, and the clay impressions (sealings) that these were used to produce. Gold signet rings from the Cretan Neopalatial period (1750–1490 BCE) depict various types of sacred site including mountain, rural, cave, and urban sanctuaries. How should we understand the built structures depicted in these miniature cult scenes? Do they all depict variations of walls or buildings, or are they altars? This paper differentiates the built structures depicted in cult scenes on Minoan gold rings, correlates them to archaeological remains at Minoan sacred sites, and proposes an explanation of ephemeral cult structures now only recorded in the iconographic evidence. It will be demonstrated that these miniature art forms represent Minoan sacred sites in three ways: as natural places characterised by the presence of trees and stones and the absence of architecture; as outdoor sanctuaries surrounded by ashlar stone walls; and as shrines and altars, the shapes of which evoke natural cult locations such as mountains and sacred groves through abstract form. It will be argued that representation of Minoan cult structures that evoked the natural landscape within prestigious art forms was a method whereby Neopalatial elites naturalised their authority by depicting themselves in special relationship with the animate landscape.

Bronze Age excavation finds offer a great number of information relating the naval architecture of Greek ships. Unfortunately depictions with war character are quite limited. In addition, the paucity of naval battles on illustrations and texts raise many difficulties to the study of naval warfare. Warriors onboard, who consisted a primitive type of marine corps of Late Bronze Age Greece, offers an obstructive but very exiting area for research.