Unit:
Specialty Greek and Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology: From the Bronze Age Palaces to the Hellenistic KingdomsLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Supervisors info:
Yiannis Papadatos, Associate Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, Department of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Original Title:
Weaponry Material Culture and Death in the Late Bronze Age: Mycenaean Militarism in the Argolid, Mainland Greece
Translated title:
Weaponry Material Culture and Death in the Late Bronze Age: Mycenaean Militarism in the Argolid, Mainland Greece
Summary:
Cross-culturally speaking, weapons are considered symbolic capitals closely linked with the
circulation of power and the creation of a civilisational order (Campbell 2014, 126). In other words, military power could be the central force to any Mycenaean palatial state. Specifically, the importance of military excellence to the social and political leadership was also typically manifested in Mycenaean burial customs. As such, we could observe a close connection between the monumental tombs and the displayed wealth by the social groups who „had the means and the authority to have them built and equipped“ (Deger-Jalkotzy 1999, 122). The richness of burials in terms of military appearance further confirms individuals or groups either of „military prowess“ or of „military aristocracy“ (Davis & Bennet 1999, 121), whose identity would most definitely belong to the upper social groups and political leadership. Further, the phenomenon of funerary assemblages with weaponry could also indicate the existence of bureaucratic control of a palatial system necessary for regulating military organisation (Campbell 2014). Consequently, „knowledge of production“, „innovation“, „labour“, and „resources“ (126) are key factors to form an advanced institution. Especially I am interested in answering the questions of how funerary weaponry assemblages have helped the identities of individuals change as „new configurations of power and community“(128) embedded in the broader Mycenaean cultural ideology.
Main subject category:
Archaeology
Keywords:
weaponry, militarism, Bronze Age, Argolid, Death, Mycenaean
Number of index pages:
10
File:
File access is restricted only to the intranet of UoA.
MA Thesis_Lyu Mei Lin_ Weaponry Culture Argolid.pdf
70 MB
File access is restricted only to the intranet of UoA.
