Μυκηναϊκά νεκροταφεία
στην Πελοπόννησο
Mycenaean Cemeteries
in the Peloponnese
Reviewed by Brendan Burke,
University of Victoria
The Mycenaean Cemetery at Agios Vasileios, Chalandritsa, in Achaea, by
Konstantina Aktypi, with contributions by Olivia A. Jones and Vivian Staikou.
Pp. xii + 296. Archaeopress, Oxford 2017. £42.00. ISBN 978-1-784916978
(cloth).
Ayia Sotira: A Mycenaean Chamber Tomb Cemetery in the Nemea Valley,
Greece, edited by R. Angus K. Smith, Mary K. Dabney, Evangelia Pappi, Sevasti
Triantaphyllou, and James C. Wright; with contributions by Panagiotis Karkanas,
Georgia Kotzamani, Alexandra Livarda, Camilla MacKay, Maria Ntinou, Maria
Roumpou, Alan M. Stahl, and Georgia Tsartsidou (Prehistory Monographs 56). Pp.
xxviii + 336. INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia 2017. $80. ISBN 978-1-931534901
(cloth).
The two volumes under review present state-of-the-field publications
analyzing one of the most important and foundational areas of Mycenaean
studies: death and burial. Growing from pioneering work in the 19th century
focused on tombs from Mycenae, the field of Mycenaean studies is heavily
dependent on the evidence provided by ancient burials, tomb architecture, human
remains, and associated grave goods. Great progress has been made since the
time of Heinrich Schliemann in scientific analysis, particularly with regard to
human osteology. Likewise, advances in archaeological theory have added greatly
to our understanding of what death and burial might have meant to people over
3,000 years ago. Scholars recognize that the tombs and burial patterns were
important in the construction of Mycenaean identity long after the burials
ceased and that the tombs played an active role in the landscapes of death and
negotiations of power.
The excavation of any cemetery is normally the work of specialists from
multiple disciplines, and these two case studies, at Agios Vasileios and Ayia
Sotira, provide clear examples of the fruitfulness of collaboration in the
final analyses. The report on Agios Vasileios has three authors but builds on
the work of several earlier excavators and collaborators. The Ayia Sotira
publication has five main authors and eight contributing specialists. Both
works address the challenges archaeologists face when dealing with bodies of
material that have been subject to plunder and illegal excavation. They also
deal with rescue excavations, which at times provide their own challenges in
terms of limited record keeping and incomplete information on deposition,
excavation, and context.
It has now been 100 years since the first chamber tomb cemetery in
Achaea was excavated by Nikolaos Kyparissis. Achaea was once thought of as a
kind of backwater where there was an absence of coherent evidence for Mycenaean
polities, in contrast to other parts of Greece, such as the Argolid, Messenia,
and Boeotia. In the past, the region was often overlooked, perhaps since no
definitive evidence was found for a regional center or palace. The unique
fortifications and settlement architecture at Teichos Dymaion, 40 km to the
west, offer, for now, the closest possible evidence for something like a
regional center. It is, however, not entirely clear from the fortified site
what kind of settlement was here.
The excavations and publication by Aktypi et al. of the cemetery at
Agios Vasileios in Chalandritsa in the northwest Peloponnese have much to
contribute to our revised understanding of the Mycenaean age in Achaea. The
Mycenaean chamber tomb cemetery is located a few kilometers west of the village
of Chalandritsa near a small eponymous chapel. It is cut into limestone,
covering an area of 1.3 ha. Locally, the site is called Alepotrypes after the
many foxes found in the area. The first excavations at Agios Vasileios
(1928–1930) were conducted by Kyparissis, who uncovered four chamber tombs. In
1961, Efthimios Mastrokostas excavated three tombs at Chalandritsa, and Aktypi
does as much as possible to publish this work from the excavator’s notes. New
excavations by Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi and Michalis Petropoulos of the (then)
sixth Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities resumed in 1989 and
continued until 2001. This work revealed 29 additional chamber tombs and forms
the main focus of the present publication. The full extent of the cemetery has
not yet been revealed, and it is important to remember that additional tombs
may be found in the future. The area has suffered from illegal digging and
looting, and this makes the systematic excavation presented here that much more
valuable. Lying approximately 15 minutes away by foot, the site of Stavros at
Chalandritsa is identified as the settlement connected to the cemetery at Agios
Vasileios. The material shows that the cemetery was in use from Late Helladic
(LH) IIIA1 to the end of the LH IIIC period. The absence of evidence, however,
for material dating to the LH IIIB period, the high point of Mycenaean palatial
culture elsewhere, is notable. This poses interesting questions for shifting
power dynamics in Mycenaean Achaea and the greater Peloponnese while other
centers of Mycenaean culture were thriving and Achaea was not.
Aktypi, who edited the book and is the primary researcher for this
cemetery and its finds, deserves much of the credit for the research and
publication of the cemetery at Agios Vasileios. She is to be highly commended
for her Herculean efforts to bring order to and make sense of records and
inventories of excavations some of which were done in a hasty manner as rescue
projects. She has done a very good job of explaining what is certain from the
archaeological record and what is most likely, based on her best understanding
of the spotty records. Archaeologists who examine this material will be
extremely grateful for the detailed work and expert analysis she has put into
this publication.
The Agios Vasileios book consists of a preface and 22 chapters, which
are labeled in a somewhat peculiar way: some chapters contain subsections
(chapter D, e.g., has five: D.1, D.2, D.3, D.4, D.5, covering the excavation
seasons of 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1999–2000, respectively). The book
concludes with a short epilogue (284–85) and has a rich bibliography. As in the
Ayia Sotira volume, material related to each tomb is illustrated in the
relevant chapters throughout the text. In this volume, the illustrations are in
color and often are paired with their proper, scaled drawing. The finds are
especially well illustrated. There are also volumetric tomb reconstructions
that are helpful for visualizing the complete tombs and for understanding their
varying scales. The color maps are very clear and legible. There is no index.
The Ayia Sotira volume is a pioneering publication of six chamber tombs
excavated in the region of ancient Nemea and dating to the 14th and 13th
centuries B.C.E. The settlement with which these tombs are likely associated is
Tsoungiza, which two of the authors (Wright and Dabney) have spent a great deal
of their professional lives excavating, studying, and publishing. The book
opens with a short introduction (ch. 1) that discusses the location of
Mycenaean tombs in the Nemea Valley and the region’s problematic history of
illegal excavation and looting. The methodological and interdisciplinary
approach to the excavation and publication of the chamber tombs contributes to
an understanding of the multiple phases and sequence of use for each tomb. The
Ayia Sotira project builds on the surface survey of the Nemea Valley
Archaeological Project and expands to a wide range of fields to provide a rich
understanding of this important area of Greece.
One noteworthy aspect of this volume is the identification of commingled
remains, evidence indicating the postburial manipulation of human remains. It
is noted that 24 of the 34 burials in the chamber tombs with skeletal remains
showed evidence for secondary treatment, despite poor preservation. This
evidence helps us consider the importance of bone “curation” in Mycenaean
cemeteries. Clearly, bones had power and meaning, perhaps more so than complete
“bodies” or “skeletons.” The great challenge is to understand this meaning.
This publication provides a great deal of evidence for one site from which we
can now look for similarities in the Corinthia, the Argolid, and beyond.
The largest part of the book (chs. 2 and 3, covering 111 pages) is
dedicated to the six excavated chamber tombs. The results of the specialists’
studies, including geophysical survey, micromorphology, bioarchaeology,
archeobotany, archeomalacology, lithics, phytoliths, and residue analysis, are
presented in chapters 4 through 9. The implications of the micromorphological
studies pioneered by Karkanis are well evidenced. Karkanis provides focus on
the complicated stratigraphy in multiple-use tombs by isolating microlevels to
provide detailed reconstructions of reuse independent of ceramic analysis. His
methods have been employed successfully elsewhere in the Aegean (e.g., Mitrou),
and his work provides a model for what is possible with micomorphology. Plant
and other food remains have also revealed clear evidence for meals (for either
the living or the dead) as part of the burial performance. Among the
interesting analytical results are residues of fatty lipids and wood possibly
used for torches, which suggest lit lamps during the burial process. In chapter
10, the main authors bring all of the diverse data sets together, with a small
appendix on the medieval pottery and coins by MacKay and Stahl. A rich
bibliography is followed by an adequate index, 62 tables, and 54
black-and-white plates. The authors and all specialists are to be highly commended
for taking a truly multidisciplinary approach.
The Ayia Sotira volume is copiously illustrated, with ceramic drawings
and architectural plans and sections included within the chapters. The ceramic
illustrations, primarily of jugs and stirrup jars, seem somewhat uneven, and
the attributions suggest several team members were involved in the drawings.
The architectural and section drawings are more consistently and sharply
presented. Unlike in the Agios Vasileios volume, the use of color in the illustrations
is sparing. The volume’s authors have gone to great lengths to provide a
comprehensive and coherent presentation of the evidence from their excavation.
The work is truly very impressive.
As archaeologists continue to excavate and publish Mycenaean remains
from Greece, the two works reviewed here should provide models for how the data
can be successfully published and widely disseminated.
DOI: 10.3764/ajaonline1233.burke
ΛΕΞΕΙΣ: Μυκηναικο νεκροταφειο, Πελοποννησος, Αγιος Βασιλειος, Χαλανδριτσα, Αχαια, Αγια Σωτηρα, Νεμεα, Κορινθια
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