Economic Interplay Among Households And States

This Forum has made progress on both its stated research themes: control of craft production and the newer topic of markets. My comments take up the issues of household economy, state control, and markets. First, I discuss developments at the second-order center of Nichoria, which show both independent activity and the effect of incorporation into the state of Pylos. Excavation of another such settlement at Iklaina promises to support and expand on the findings from Nichoria. State control is another subject for discussion; the evidence suggests some differences between prestige goods and ordinary pottery, concerning both production and consumption. Finally, I argue that the existence of markets is well supported by both archaeological and textual data.Classic

The Nature of the Mycenaean Wanax: Non-Indo-European Origins and Priestly Functions

The wanax is the central figure of authority in Mycenaean society. This much is clear from studies of the references to wanax in the Linear B tablets, interpretation of the history of the use of the term wanax in Homer and later Greek, and reconstruction of the development of the institution of kingship from the end of the Bronze Age through the Archaic to Hellenistic period. Scholars want to know the same things about the Mycenaean wanax that we do about power figures -- "big men", chieftains, shamans, kings -- in any society: how and when did the wanax originate? How were the institution and authority of the wanax legitimized and maintained? What cultural needs did the wanax satisfy and what powers and responsibilities did he have in different spheres of daily life: religious, political, economic, military, and social? What led to the disappearance of the institution of the wanax in post-palatial Greek culture? Each of these questions is major and multi-faceted. Here Palaima discusses them and problems connected with them in two parts. In the first part he rejects the Indo-European model of a warrior-king in favor of a priest-king more along the lines of Hittite models. In the second part he pursues several speculative arguments related to the paraphernalia of Mycenaean kingship.Classic

Euripides, Cresphontes and the Messenian Mythical Tradition

Given the scarcity of information literary and archaeological regarding the archaic history of Messenia the available versions generally brief and incomplete are also controversial Our purpose is to focus in particular on Euripides dramatic creations inspired by the myths associated with Messenia While taking into account the dramatic and scenic features that the fragments suggest we will attempt to underline Euripides contribution to its political reading and its influence on later versions on the same subjec

Chemical analysis of Mycenaean pottery from the Menelaion and its vicinity

A chemical characterisation of the Mycenaean pottery from the major prehistoric site of the Menelaion in Laconia. The study defines the the lcoal pottery production and identifies the imports from various centres

The Last Days of the Pylos Polity

A conference paper published in Aegaeum, vol. 12, entitled "Politeia: Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age." This volume comprises the proceedings of the 5th International Aegean Conference, held at the University of Heidelberg from April 10-13, 1994. In his contribution, Palaima deconstructs the old state-of-emergency theory around Pylos tablet Tn 316, and constructs an alternative reading of the evidence.Classic

Pausanias’ Messenian Itinerary and the Journeys of the Past

Messene was unusual among ancient poleis. It was one of the few major settlements on the Greek mainland to be founded in the Hellenistic period. Moreover, on account of this, its claim to a culturally authoritative past rooted in the mythic period could not rest on suppositions about the continuity of knowledge handed down through the continuation of civic, cultic, and communal institutions. This chapter examines how Pausanias’ account of Messenia (book four of his Periegesis) approaches this dilemma by making knowledge both an artefact preserved unchanged in texts, and a conceptual possession encountered and attained through travel. It goes on to argue that the interplay between these two forms of knowledge is specifically relevant to this text, since the Periegesis also serves as a fixed, written object, which nonetheless offers opportunities for autonomous exploration and experience to the hodological reader-traveler

Voces : la voz de los mesenios bajo el dominio espartano

Se trata de poner de relieve hasta qué punto durante la dominación espartana existen formas de expresión propiamente mesenias y cuáles serían los medios utilizados para darlas a conocer, en la religión y en los mitos. De este modo, puede reivindicarse la validez de las fuentes sobre una interpretación de las mismas que tenga en cuenta las condiciones de su creación.______________________________The aim of this paper is underline how during the spartan domination there are forms of expression what are strictly messenian and which would be the means used to make them known, in religion and in myths. So, it is possible to claim the validity of the sources on an interpretation that considers the character of their creation

ΘÛµις in the Mycenaean Lexicon and the Etymology of the Place-Name *ti-mi-to a-ko

Reassessing work by Spanish scholars Martín S. Ruipérez and Mercedes Aguirre de Castro, this paper examines words in the Linear B texts that have been connected with the later Greek word themis. New readings of several key texts and a fuller understanding of the still much-debated tablet KN V(2) 280 argue against interpreting any words as connected with themis. This is consistent with the general absence of references to legal procedures in the Mycenaean records and the conspicuous absence in the Linear B inscriptions of any derivatives of the word for the notion of 'justice' äÝëè, which occurs so prominently in historical Greek literature and even as a formative element in historical personal names. The paper further explores the significance of these conclusions for the interpretation of the toponym *ti-mi-to a-ko, a prominent provincial capital in the Pylos tablets which has been identified archaeologically as the site of Nichoria. Using the results of three separate surveys and archaeobotanical studies of the region and the work of José L. Melena and José Fortes Fortes with botanical terms from the Mycenaean and historical periods, I propose that the interpretation 'agkos of the terebinth trees' would fit both the topography of the environs of Nichoria and the attested high exploitation of products from the terebinth trees in late palatial Crete and Messenia. Stephanus of Byzantium cites the toponym Tremithous in Cyprus, and there are other examples.Estudiando de nuevo los trabajos de los investigadores españoles Martín S. Ruipérez y Mercedes Aguirre de Castro, este artículo examina los términos que en los textos en lineal B se han puesto en relación con la palabra themis del griego alfabético. Nuevas lecturas de varios textos clave y una comprensión más exacta de la tablilla KN V(2) 280, objeto todavía de una viva discusión, sirven de argumento contra la interpretación de cualquier palabra como emparentada con themis. Esto concuerda con la ausencia general de referencias a procedimientos legales en los registros micénicos y con la llamativa ausencia en las inscripciones en lineal B de cualquier derivado de la palabra que designa la noción de 'justicia': äÝëè, que aparece de forma tan destacada en la literatura del griego histórico e incluso como elemento formador de antropónimos de época histórica. El artículo investiga también el alcance de estas conclusiones para la interpretación del topónimo *ti-mi-to a-ko, una capital de provincia importante en las tablillas de Pilo, que ha sido identificada arqueológicamente con el yacimiento de Nijoria. Utilizando los resultados de tres prospecciones separadas y de estudios arqueobotánicos en la región y los trabajos de José Melena y de José Fortes Fortes con términos botánicos de los períodos micénico e histórico, propongo que la interpretación 'agkos de los árboles terebinto' se adecuaría con la topografía de los alre-dedores de Nijoria así como con la intensa explotación de productos de los árboles terebinto ates-tiguada en el último período palacial de Creta y de Mesenia. Esteban de Bizancio menciona el topónimo Tremithous en Chipre, y hay más ejemplos de tales topónimos fitonímicos. of such phytonymic toponyms