Mycenaean social structure: a view from simple graves

The 12th c. BC is a period that witnessed the aftermath of the collapse of the Mycenaean palatial administration, with major socio-political, economic and cultural changes. Local communities were completely disrupted and resettled and as a consequence funerary customs and rituals were radically reframed . In this socio-political turbulence, children become very important in the strategies of descent, lineage and kinship. The aim of this study is to provide an archaeological insight into the rites associated with infant/child death and burial in LH IIIC Greece and to reconstruct the response of the adult community to the death of a child in the 12th c. BC.

The paper examines the changes in the mortuary practices of mainland Greece from the Middle to the early Late Bronze Age from the perspective of social space. Emphasis is laid on the spatial relations between habitation areas and cemeteries, the layout of cemeteries and the design of tombs. The paper explores how spatial configurations may affect, define or simply reflect social relations within an Early Mycenaean community. In. A. Dakouri-Hild - M.J. Boyd 2016: Staging Death. Funerary Performance, Architecture and Landscape in the Aegean (Berlin: De Gruyter), 335-360

AEGAEUM 33 Annales liégeoises et PASPiennes d’archéologie égéenne, 2012

"In 1930, during construction works at Koukaki, Athens, a Mycenaean chamber tomb was unearthed. The few finds that escaped looting included some impressive pieces of gold, amber and glass jewellery and a seal stone, which were published half a century later in the monograph: Ai Proistorikai Athinai by M. Pandelidou-Gofa. During the recent works for the renovation of the National Archaeological Museum, some unknown Mycenaean bronzes and pieces of jewellery deriving from the same tomb were located. These objects altogether, seem to comprise the context of a richly buried Athenian lady, who lived and died in the early 14th c.BC. Furthermore, the presence of precious ornaments together with a complete set of toilet equipment in the tomb, reveal the personal articles of a deceased, who was honoured and intended to be remembered especially for her elegance and beauty. Together with the re-evaluation of the Koukaki context, this paper deals with the inconceivable – in contemporary terms – coexistence of beauty and death, in many female burials of the Mycenaean and the Minoan World. In order to shed light on this matter, this paper examines the presence of mirrors and beauty articles in contemporary burials of Egypt and the Orient, as well as in some significantly similar burials of Classic Athens, where the custom of reflecting eternal beauty seems to have survived"

2002

The aim is to set out the evidence for burial practices in the southern and western Peloponnese of Greece during the Middle Helladic and Early Mycenaean periods (circa 2050/2000BC to 1445/1415BC), and to interpret the evidence in terms of human agency and in relation to wider social structures. The analytical methodology allows for examination of the evidence in terms of four main areas of human activity: grave location, grave construction, pre-mortuary rites, and rites in the tomb. Evidence from 62 sites is analysed in order to provide answers to the following questions: where were tombs situated, how were they occupied and what was their place in the encultured landscape; what was the meaning and effect of architecture; what did people do in tombs and as part of mortuary rites; how were practices and structures maintained and altered through time, and what brought about their widespread reproduction? Themes include the place of the grave in the landscape, funerary architecture, evidence for preparatory acts before funerals, and mortuary practices. The conclusions trace the inception and proliferation of different practices at different times, questioning the notion of a uniform early Mycenaean culture, and offering ways in which instances of burial practice can be understood in local and regional, rather than global, contexts.

Gathered in Death. Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives on Collective Burial and Social Organization, 2018

An extensive review of bio-archaeological research in Middle Bronze Age and Mycenaean burials over the past 20 years, focusing on theoretical/methodological issues and on data processing and interpretation. The paper identifies the strengths and shortcomings of new analytical methods, and suggests ways to improve our understanding of the character and composition of burial groups.

2014