ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΧΡΟΝΟ: Η ΚΟΣΜΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΓΡΑΜΜΙΚΗΣ Β ΣΤΗΝ ΚΝΩΣΟ


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

Share on Google Plus

About ΑΡΧΕΙΟΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ

    ΣΧΟΛΙΑ
    ΣΧΟΛΙΑ ΜΕΣΩ Facebook

ΑΚΟΛΟΥΘΗΣΤΕ ΜΑΣ ΣΤΑ ΜΕΣΑ ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗΣ ΔΙΚΤΥΩΣΗΣ