Prehistoric Athens III, The Submycenaean Kings of Athens (original) (raw)
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Prehistoric Athens II, The Submycenaean Foundation of Kerameikos Precinct XX
Prehistoric Athens, Traditions & Archaeology II, 2020
A Submycenaean date for the foundation of Athens Kerameikos Precinct XX cemetery is proposed based on reexamination of archaeological evidence and ceramic typology. In consequence, an examination of the potential relationship between the Precinct XX and Pompeion cemeteries as very different, but contemporary installations. A recognition of some of the dynamics prompting reassessment of Athenian Submycenaean chronology in the context of the broader discussion of a Mainland Submyceanean horizon. Bronze to Iron Age transition, migration, governance, status, traditions, periodization
Prehistoric Athens I, Mycenaean Ancestry in Pylos, Messenia.
Prehistoric Athens, Traditions & Archaeology I, 2021
Athens: Traditions & Archaeology This is one in a series of several papers concerned with traditions and their associated archaeology under the rubric Prehistoric Athens. This first one deals with the earlier Mycenaean environment of Melanthos, a Messenian eupatrid who traditionally ruled Athens in the Submycenaean period (1026-1089 BC.). Following brief mention of the palatial period at Pylos, it considers the environment Melanthos may have known in the latest phase of the Bronze Age. The elite Mycenaean culture phased out in many areas of the Peloponnesos as intrusive elements moved down from the north, dislocating many communities, among them Pylos. Athens received a number of migrants from this region at the close of the Bronze Age including the eupatrid Melanthos, Significantly, his rule of Athens facilitated the survival of cultural traits from the earlier Mycenaean civilization, which appear to have influenced Athens’ evolution towards the new classical civilization. Melanthos represents a phase of transformation during which Athens could easily have fallen to Heraclid takeover under a different ruler. He left a surprisingly rich tradition of events, and new institutions, almost “documentary” in the context of an alliteral age.
Intro & Summary of Kratos & Krater - Reconstructing an Athenian Protohistory,
Kratos & Krater, Reconstructing an Athenian Protohistory, Monograph, Oxford , 2017
Bronze & Early Iron Age - Athens – History – Politics – Culture –- Kingship – Eupatrids – Synoikismos - Representative Governance – Constitution – Polis - Genealogy - Archaeology - Burial Customs – Migrations – Krater Vase Typology & Usage Athenian governance and culture are traced from the Bronze Age into the historical era based on traditions, archaeological contexts and remains, foremost the formal commensal and libation vessel, the krater. Iron Age kingship, oligarchy, synoikismos, constitution, and polis are reexamined following Mycenaean immigration into Athens from the Peloponnesos during the transitional years. Innovation in governance took place as eupatrid-led groups, local and immigrant, aspired to coexist under a surprisingly formal set of stipulations that should be recognized as Athens’ first constitution. Under its terms a new life-kingship system replaced absolute monarchy, a system that prevailed through the mid-eighth c. Synoikismos did not refer to a political union of Attica, sometimes attributed to Theseus, but to a union of eupatrid houses (oikoi), several of Peloponnesian origin, domiciled in Athens from the end of the 12th c. era of migration. This is corroborated by Athenian traditions cross-referenced with archaeological data from the burial grounds, and a discredited list of life kings (the King List). Some royal burial grounds have been tentatively identified as those of the Melanthids, Alcmeonids and Philaids, who settled around the outskirts of Athens along with other immigrant groups following the decline of the elite in the Peloponnesos. While the Melanthids left in the 11th c. Ionian Migration other eupatrid houses remained and contributed to the evolution of the historical era polis of Athens. These Neleid aristocrats used the krater similarly to its use in the Mycenaean Peloponnesos, in elite ritual and assembly, at the funeral pyre or tomb in libation rites, and as an epitymbion (elite burial monument). One noble family, the Alcmeonids preserved the practices into the Archaic period in a burial record of 600 years’ duration. A section on Bronze Age antecedents precedes the Athenian section that is the main focus of the publication. Incorporated into this work is a monograph on the Athenian formal krater, its origins, cultural use and style, concentrating on the LHIIIC Late to the earliest Protoattic phases and especially focusing on the Kerameikos (with concordances, indexes, bibliography and illustrations). There is little settlement evidence for the krater in Athens, but the size, quality and décor differentials of kraters reused in the cemetery give suggestions of its usage in the community, whether quotidian wine service, celebrations, or more formal usage in ritual libation and elite assembly (consortium). Some Homeric practices parallel those found in Athens, so the Ionic poets may have documented customs that had existed on the Mainland and were transferred to Ionia during the Ionian Migration. The demise of both the constitution and the standard, ancestral krater in Athens following a mid-eighth c. watershed is testimony to an interval of political change, as noted by Ian Morris, before the systematized establishment of annual archonship in the following century. The support this research has given to the validity of the King List has resulted in a proposed new chronology, with an earlier onset for the Geometric period at 922 BC, rather than the currently accepted 900 BC. The relative chronology of Coldstream, based on style is generally accepted here, but some intermediate stages are revised based on perceptible break data, such as the onset of a new kingship, a reported war, or the demise of a governance system.
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Vlachopoulos A., Lolos Y., Laffineur R., Fotiadis M. (eds.), Hesperos. The Aegean Seen from the West, Proceedings of the 16th International Aegean Conference, University of Ioannina, Department of History and Archaeology, Unit of Archaeology and Art History, 18-21 May 2016 (Aegaeum 41), 2017
Athens and Attica in Prehistory. Proceedings of the International Conference Athens, 27-31 May 2015, edited by N. Papadimitriou, J.C. Wright, S. Fachard, N. Polychronakou-Sgouritsa, and E. Andrikou, 2020