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

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

Mycenaean Militarism from a Textual Perspective. Onomastics in Context: lawos, damos, klewos

In this paper, after surveying the Linear B textual evidence that demonstrates palatial concern for centralized control and organization of military equipment and personnel, Palaima uses the evidence of onomastics and of textual/administrative context to explore the varying degrees to which fundamental cultural notions of 'militarism' permeated different levels and components of Mycenaean society. He particularly marks out: (1) the factors that must be taken into account in weighing the tablet evidence and (2) the tablet series and subject areas that are likely to yield meaningful results. Palaima concentrates on three terms (lawos, damos and klewos) that offer a view across social groups and divisions, and assesses the evidence in contrast to naming patterns in the historical period. He further examines the names of individuals who have been identified as 'collectors.'Classic

Special vs. Normal Mycenaean: Hand 24 and Writing in the Service of the King?

This paper given in honor of John T. Killen concerns the relationship between the written and the spoken word within the narrowly defined literate administrative record-keeping systems of Mycenaean palatial centers and focuses on questions connected with socio-linguistic stratification and information-gathering.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

New Physics Potential with a Neutrino Telescope

Active Galactic Nuclei are considered as sources of neutrinos, with neutrino energies extending up to 10^{18} eV. It is expected that these highly energetic cosmic neutrinos will be detected by the neutrino telescopes, presently under construction. The detection process is very sensitive to the total muon neutrino cross-section. We examine how the total cross section changes at high energies, by the single production of excited fermions (excited muon and muon-neutrino). For parameters (masses, couplings) of the excited fermions allowed by the experimental constraints, we find that for energies of the incoming muon-neutrino above 100 TeV the cross-section for single production of (excited muon and muon-neutrino) supersedes the standard total cross-section.Comment: 12 pages and 2 figures; typset using revtex; postscript files for the figures provide

Mycenaean Textile Memories in Homeric Terminology

The present paper aims at investigating continuity and disruption between Mycenaean and Homeric Greek in the field of technical terminology pertaining to the textile craft. The objective of the work is a reconsideration of the main verbs (ὑφαίνω, τολυπεύω, ῥάπτω, ἐπικλώθω), bearing the notion of "to weave", into these two phases of the Greek language. Surprisingly we can also highlight the semantic shift – in the reason of the different chronology and contexts of use – which characterises the textile terminology. We know, indeed, that the use of the terminology of work (particularly of the manual labour) in relation with the terminology for intellectual activities (planning, ideation, writing, playing music etc.) can be considered a topos in many Indo-European traditions. Following this path of reasoning, most of the terms in the Linear B tablets drawn for manufacturing crafts (such as carpentry or weaving) assume in the Homeric epics a metaphorical meaning

Shadowing of Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos

The rise with energy of the neutrino--nucleon cross section implies that at energies above few TeV the Earth is becoming opaque to cosmic neutrinos. The neutrinos interact with the nucleons through the weak charged current, resulting into absorption, and the weak neutral current, which provides a redistribution of the neutrino energy. We Mellin transform the neutrino transport equation and find its exact solution in the moment space. A simple analytical formula is provided, which describes accurately the neutrino spectrum, after the neutrinos have traversed the Earth. The effect of the weak neutral current is most prominent for an initial flat neutrino spectrum and we find that at low energies (around 1 TeV) the neutrino intensity is even enhanced.Comment: gziped, tar file of LaTeX paper plus 2 postscript figures, 13 page

Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing. The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing

Catalogue of an exhibition conducted in conjunction with the Eleventh International Mycenological Colloquium held at the University of Texas at Austin in 2000. This program features brief histories of the CIPEM Mycenological conferences and PASP, followed by comparative retrospectives on both Michael Ventris, who deciphered Linear B, and Linda Schele, who performed a similar feat for Mayan glyphs.Classic