You are invited to an IIHSA Online Lecture on Thursday, 24th February 2022 at 5.30 pm (Irish time) / 7.30 pm (Greek time) by Piotr Zeman, Ph.D. Candidate, Adam Mickiewicz University at Poznan, Poland.
Abstract: The Late Bronze Age palatial town of Mycenae went through a long formative process, to reach a more stable settlement pattern in the second part of the Late Helladic IIIA phase (ca. 1410-1300 BC), when its acropolis was fortified for the first time. Together with the construction of the first palace it led to establishing the citadel - an elite palatial zone, separated from the lower town. This area concentrated most of the archaeological research on the site for the last 150 years, and its history has often been equated with that of the entire settlement. However, multiple traces of the Late Bronze Age occupation were uncovered outside the walls of the citadel, since the 1950s, currently reaching the number of 20 identifiable buildings. This paper presents a summary of an analysis of each of those contexts, based on a study of their architecture, finds, and stratigraphical sequences. It serves as a basis for an attempt to reconstruct the history and organization of the lower town of Mycenae during the palatial and post-palatial period of the Mycenaean era. Analysis of the changes in the occupational pattern of the site leads to defining key moments in the settlement’s history, including a disastrous earthquake that occurred in the middle of LH IIIB phase (ca. 1300-11190 BC), after which the town shrinks in size from over 20 ha to only around 10 ha. This event had a tremendous impact, beginning a long period of a decline and gradual loss of political and economic status by Mycenae. In the same time, a careful restudy of the buildings of the lower town allows me to formulate some more general thoughts on the Late Helladic domestic architecture, as well as on the economic and social organization of the community of Late Bronze Age Mycenae. The latter is based on profound reinterpretation of some of the structures, including for example the Panagia Houses, which has so far been defined in most of the literature as three separate, ordinary residences of the poor, but can be seen rather as a single architectural complex developed around a middle-class family household.
Please register via Eventbrite where you will find a Zoom link to attend the lecture. You will also receive it in your email after your registration.
Email for any further information: irishinstitutegr@gmail.com