Pottery usage and societal restauration after the demise of the Mycenaean palaces: The northwestern Lower Town of TIryns as a case example

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Joseph Maran
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 514177427

The destruction of the Mycenaean palaces around 1200 BCE marks one of the most momentous historical breaks in the early history of Greece, since with the palaces not only the political order dominated by the wanaktes and the use of writing and administration disappeared, but also the construction of monumental architecture and the products of many artisanal crafts. Yet, precisely the find category that is found most frequently during excavations, namely pottery, seems to have remained strangely unaffected by these drastic changes. Since Mycenaean painted pottery was used as a tableware in both everyday and non-everyday commensal practices, these clear lines of continuity suggest that some of the occasions in which this pottery was involved must have survived the destruction of the palaces. The present research project is guided by the idea that the continuity of commensal practices from the palatial to the post-palatial period was one of the factors contributing to the success of the efforts towards social restoration, which were particularly evident in Tiryns after the destruction of the palaces around 1200 BCE. Through these forms of social communication practiced at different levels of a settlement community, a new normality was created, which stabilized and consolidated social conditions due to the chain of tradition which it seemed to continue by using pottery that looked similar to the one of the late palatial period. The starting point for investigating this central idea of the research project are the excavations in the northwestern Lower Town, whose structures and finds currently form the key material for studying the early postpalatial period in all of central and southern Greece. By analyzing the changes in the composition of sets of ceramic tableware in closed find contexts of the transition from the palatial to the post-palatial period, insights into the synchronic variability and the diachronic change in the practices of the storage, preparation and consumption of food as well as conclusions about the possible intentions of social actors will be gained. In this way, new insights into the changes of commensal practices and the social conditions on which they were based will emerge.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants