After the palace and before the polis : study cases from the centre and the periphery : the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age in the Argolid and Central Greece
Date
2007Author
Livieratou, Antonia
Metadata
Abstract
The thesis examines the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age, i.e.
the periods from Late Helladic IIIC (LHIIIC) to Protogeometric (PG) ( 1200-900 BC) in two
areas of the Greek Mainland, the Argolid and Phokis-East Lokris. The Argolid, and in
particular the Argive plain, which included among others the citadel of Mycenae, could be
described as the core area of the Mycenaean world par excellence, while Phokis -East Lokris
could be conventionally thought to belong to the Mycenaean periphery, since no palatial
establishment was ever developed in the area. Through the comparative study of the
evidence from ·the two areas, the different course of their post-palatial development is
studied, and the factors that affected this development are carefully examined and discussed.
In particular, the thesis investigates whether and how the different Mycenaean past of the
two areas, and more specifically the different role of each one of them in the Mycenaean
world affected their evolution in the period not only immediately after the palatial collapse
but also in the transition to the Early Iron Age. The analysis of all the published evidence
from LHIIIC to PG period (settlement remains, burials and cult evidence) offers a detailed
view of the occupation of the areas in each phase of the transitional period and helps us gain
a general, long-term understanding of settlement patterns, burial customs, cult practices and
material culture. The study of continuity and changes in all these aspects also allows us to
follow the socio-political evolution. In general, it is shown that the transition from the Late
Bronze to the Early Iron Age was experienced very differently in each of the two areas under
examination. The long-term view of the evidence as adopted by the present study, bridges
the divide that scholarly literature has created between the two eras, while at the same time
places the two areas in the general context of the Aegean. It also takes into account the
significant role that external factors such as trade contacts or population movements played
in this crucial period. Overall, this study stresses the individuality of each area and of each
site of the Greek mainland, and demonstrates the complex historical reality of the transitional
period and its many different components. The final aim of the thesis is to enlighten the
transformation process that two different areas of the Greek mainland underwent from the
post-palatial times until the beginning of the Early Iron Age, a process believed to carry the
seeds for the rise of the most typical political formation of ancient Greece, the polis.