Lerna

"This poster presents the first results of the radiocarbon analysis of human bones from MH Lerna, carried out at the Centre for Isotope Research, Groningen using the AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectroscop) method. The discussion will focus is on the problems arising when attempting to correlate radiocarbon results with the relative dates, based on the complex stratigraphy of MH Lerna.
This research is part of a large-scale programme of 14C analyses whose aim is to refine the MH sequence by providing a coherent set of radiocarbon data from different sites and different phases of the MH period. It is the first time that such a systematic programme is undertaken in the mainland which has been largely absent from the recent chronological debates in Aegean prehistory. We therefore hope that our analyses will not only contribute to a better understanding of mainland chronology, but also add a new dimension to the discussions around the chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age, especially the heated debate about the ‘High’ versus the ‘Low’ Chronology."

SUMMARY: Lecture 14 provides an overview of the Middle Helladic through Late Helladic societies in mainland Greece, with a progression from "Big Men" (tribal societies) to chiefdoms, and eventally to various kingdoms emerging via palace centres (i.e., the Mycenaeans). This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: March, 2024, new formatting, text modifications, etc., plus many selected sources.

The Early Helladic period on the Greek mainland is a time of complexity and innovation, characterized by a marked regionalism in settlement patterns and material culture, and the presence of myriad crossscale networks within which objects, technologies, ideas and individuals circulated. Nevertheless, much about the period remains unclear beyond the relative comfort of its long ‘middle’ phase, Early Helladic II (ca. 2950–2250 BC). Its emergence from the socio-cultural processes of the Final Neolithic, particularly, continues to be obscured by a ‘fourth-millennium gap’ which has proved frustratingly intransigent. Of those few Peloponnesian sites yielding radiocarbon dates which potentially fall within the fourth millennium, those of Franchthi (FCP 5.2, P-1659, ca. 4,230–3,790 cal. BC; see Vitelli 1999: table 9), Kouveleiki Caves A and B (ID1492; Kontaxi 2006) and Alepotrypa (Bronk-Ramsey et al. 2015: 200) fall well short of its mid-point. Halieis alone potentially bucks the trend (ca. 3,909–3,367 cal. BC; Pullen 2000: 184–86; see also Alram-Stern 2007), although the range on this sample is so great as to be problematic.

SUMMARY: Lecture 9 summarizes the Early Bronze Age in mainland Greece (Early Helladic), and the Cyclades (Early Cycladic). This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: New text, images, slides, many more sources, links, etc. (Feb., 2024).

Con su libro Karuo el secreto ibero, Enrique Cabrejas o Enric Cabrejas nos relata de modo llano su experiencia personal con lo extraordinario de un descubrimiento. El 21 de Abril de 2012 consiguió lo que parecía imposible: Descifrar la escritura ibérica. El hallazgo más relevante de la cultura universal en nuestro país de los últimos tiempos, sin lugar a dudas. Un hito en la historia de la escritura sin precedentes. Desde este mismo instante la obra Karuo de Enrique Cabrejas lo convierte en un referente destacado a nivel mundial en historia y lingüística. Los innumerables datos, explicaciones, pruebas y significados que nos reporta nunca conocidos antes, son una referencia obligada para todos aquellos que quieran comprender la historia, la lengua antigua e incluso también la moderna de nuestro país o para quienes en el futuro deseen estudiarla e investigarla en profundidad, más si cabe desde el mundo académico.

"Several funerary rituals coexist during the Bronze Age in Apulia, within small areas too. Collective burials in hypogean tombs or natural caves, dolmens under tumuli, pit graves under tumuli and cremation cemeteries could be mentioned. As regards the structural features, traits to be compared with the Transadriatic funerary structures are not lacking.
Intensive contacts between the Apulia and the eastern Adriatic coast are attested from the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. by several elements, and especially by the ceramic patterns of the Cetina culture. Particularly as regards the early phases of the Bronze Age, the presence in Apulia of small human groups of Transadriatic origin was suggested.
The variability of the funerary structures and rituals could reflect also the existence of privileged links between some indigenous groups and the Transadriatic communities.
Following this hypothesis, the Apulian funerary structures with a tumulus will be examined in detail, in a diachronic perspective."

The MH period is caught between two peaks of economic prosperity, social differentiation and cultural connectivity, the Early Helladic and the Mycenaean periods. Moreover, the MH mainland has suffered from comparison with the Minoan palatial societies and the maritime Aegean polities. As a result, the MH period is generally perceived as undifferentiated, backward and stagnant. Recent research has demonstrated that important changes (population increase, intensified interaction, growing prosperity and differentiation)  occur  already in MH III-LH I.  The question remains: How and why did the supposedly  static, homogeneous and undifferentiated societies of the early MH period transform to the rapidly changing, competitive and interconnected early Mycenaean polities?
The aim of this paper  is to explore the  nature of social relations in the earlier phases of the MH period, and to reconstruct  processes of social change during the MH period. This paper presents the results of the integrated analyses of mortuary and domestic evidence carried out as part of the  Middle Helladic Argolid Project.
Our main conclusions are the following:
1) The contextual analysis of the mortuary data  indicated that the communities of the early MH period were differentiated primarily along age and kinship lines, while neither gender  nor  personal status were particularly pronounced. During the later MH period all dimensions of personal identity (status, age, gender and kinship) became more emphasized.
2) The analysis of the free-standing and small houses indicated that the emphasis  in the early MH phases was on the household. The relative homogeneity of the houses implies, however, that social control and conformity to norms countered the fragmentation of the social body. In the later MH period, the appearance of larger and complex houses suggests a growing emphasis on  wider kin relations, and  increasing differentiation among kin groups.
3) Changes occurred  already during MH I-II, e.g. the scaling up of mortuary practices, or the appearance of house complexes in Lerna. These are, however, subtle, uneven, and localized  changes, unlike the  linear  and irreversible processes we associate with emerging complexity.  The MH mainland societies are, therefore not stagnant – but they are characterized by an ethos of material austerity, conformity and reciprocity, which provide a mechanism of resistance against change and differentiation.
4) Our analyses have revealed significant differences between communities (e.g. between Lerna and Asine which undergo different trajectories), and within communities, as  different age, gender or kin groups respond differently to the changes around them. The mortuary data in particular allow us to reconstruct the norms, and deviations from the norm, innovation and experimentation (e.g. the few rich MH I-II burials in Lerna, or the early MH extramural cemeteries in Argos and Asine).
To conclude: We can only understand the nature of social relations in the MH period and the transformation of the MH societies,  if we  carry out systematic, contextual and integrated analyses of empirical data, and if we use a theoretical framework that allows to reconstruct  general processes as well as human agency.

The preliminary overview of the results of the excavations on the offshire Island of Palagruža, conducted from 2002-2008. The excavations heve yielded large quantity of artefacts from the period of early bronze age, greek, hellenistic, early and late roman age.Paper includes discussion about the site occupation through historical periods, bronze age knappers, Diomedes sanctuary and Late antiquity fort

Статья посвящена раскрытию символики серпа в греческой мифологии и ритуальной роли, которая отводилась ему в греческой религии. Автор приходит к выводу, что в культовой сфере серп функционировал как жертвенное оружие. Наиболее тесную связь этот предмет сохранил с теми культами, которые имели догреческие корни. Весьма вероятна его принадлежность сфере догреческой религиозной жизни.
The article is devoted to disclosure of the symbolism of the sickle in the Greek mythology and its ritual role in the Greek religion. The author concludes in the cult sphere the sickle functioned as a sacrificial weapon. This subject has kept the closest connection with the cults of pre-Greek origin. It is very likely that it belongs to the sphere of pre-Greek religious life.

A ruler of Early Helladic II Lerna, contemporaneous with Akkadian Sagron the Great (who was well-known in the Aegean world as a capturer of Cyprus), accepted his king title and depicted it in the seal which was found in the House of the Tiles at Lerna III