ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΧΡΟΝΟ:
Η
ΚΟΣΜΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟ
ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΑ
ΤΗΣ ΓΡΑΜΜΙΚΗΣ Β ΣΤΗΝ ΚΝΩΣΟ
IT’S ABOUT TIME:
TEMPORALITY IN THE TEXT
AND ARCHAEOLOGY
OF LINEAR B KNOSSOS
Της ΑΓΓΕΛΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΡΑΓΙΑΝΝΗ
 |
| Συλλαβητάριο Γραμμικής Β, από την Κνωσό, του 1300 π.Χ. |
Archaeology has always been aware of its close relationship with time,
particularly with time as a unit, according to which material culture can be
arranged in a chronological order and through which rates of change,
development, and progress or decay can be measured and interrelated. From about
the 1970s, however, more informed methodologies and alternative theoretical
perspectives have shown that time, even as a dating tool, is never
theoretically objective, or neutral, but even our supposedly objective and
scientific methods of chronology essentially constitute meaningful attitudes
towards a particular conceptualization of time: that of the Western scientific
time as defined in classical physics.
In this seminar, I considered time not as chronology, but as
temporality, namely the qualitative (rather than quantitative) dimension of
temporal experience from a social and human perspective. Time usually refers to
a measurable unit – it is the succession of moments exemplified in the
‘before-after’ sequence – whereas temporality refers to the experiencing of the
changing time as duration – the relation of past, present, and future.
My aim was to explore time not as an abstract entity, but as a quality
of human involvement with the world, and with the world of a particular
historical period and geographical location – the palace of Knossos at its LM
II–IIIA phase, its latest phase as a dominant economic and administrative
centre on the island of Crete. The reason for concentrating on this site and at
this period is because it offers a rare opportunity to combine two largely
contemporaneous bodies of data, each indicative of different frameworks of action
and of temporality – on the one hand, the Linear B textual record that pertains
more to the short timescale of daily life and present-time action, and, on the
other, the archaeological material record (palatial fresco iconography and
architectural history) that relates more to the medium and longer timescales
and discloses attitudes towards different cultural constructions of
temporality. My belief was that by using two different sources of data from the
same site and of roughly the same period (Linear B texts and archaeology), independently
and combined, we could shed light onto issues of time and temporality as both
the lived dimension of everyday life and practice, as well as a mechanism for
social cohesion, ideological manipulation, and political power.
Taking the palace of Knossos, on the one hand and its Linear B
bureaucratic organization, on the other, I tried to show how different notions
of temporality could be tackled in our field. Using different types of material
evidence (architecture, fresco iconography and Linear B texts), I tried to show
how the social construction of time might have become entangled with other
cultural processes, in both ordinary, everyday matters, as well as in more
symbolically-loaded situations. I argued that the palace authority, being involved
in the short-term daily realities and seasonal occupations of a significant
number of people, as well as framing peoples’ lives in the longer term through
ideologically loaded material culture and ritual ceremonies that appropriated
the ‘local past’ (and present), essentially intervened and interacted with the
population in both quotidian affairs and in more ritualized instances,
affirming and reaffirming its dominant position within the LM II–III social
environment.
Finally, I argued that notions of time and temporality must be accounted
for in archaeological theory and practice because they are both inextricable
dimensions of the experience, perception, and existence of any human agent,
past or present. We must be able to grasp the fundamental presence of the past
in the past as embedded in every action and social reality when we speak of
ancestors, origins, structures, ethnicity, memory. We must be able to realize
the dynamics of the present when we speak of competition, resistance, consumption,
feasting, rituals. And we certainly must reflect on the strict unknowability of
the future when we speak about intentions, strategies, reproduction, and the
like.
14 November
2012
ΠΗΓΗ: THE MYCENAEAN SEMINAR
2012-13.
© 2014 Institute of Classical Studies
University of London.
ΛΕΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: ΚΝΩΣΟΣ, ΚΡΗΤΗ, ΚΝΩΣΣΟΣ, ΓΡΑΜΜΙΚΗ Β, ΚΑΡΑΓΙΑΝΝΗ, ΧΡΟΝΟΣ, ΚΟΣΜΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ,ΑΛΦΑΒΗΤΟ, ΣΥΛΛΑΒΗΤΑΡΙΟ
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