Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:36:31.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Group of Late Helladic IIIB 2 Pottery from Mycenae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Elizabeth French
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

L.H. IIIB 2 has until recently been ill-served in archaeological publication, for two reasons. Firstly it does not seem to have been the custom in this period in mainland Greece to put much pottery in tombs. Secondly at settlement sites the period ended in a vast destruction which was preceded by either evacuation or plundering. This resulted in debris levels containing a mass of sherd material (often of earlier periods) but few restorable pot,s and thus of no interest to early excavators. Until 1966 practically the only L.H. IIIB 2 material of settlement type readily available for comparison was that from Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae illustrated in Mykenische Vasen, and the sherds from the same group in the British Museum Catalogue.

The discovery at Tiryns in 1957 of deep and extensive debris of this period (which has now been published in outline) concentrated attention on the period and has enabled some studies of historical importance to be made.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 64 , November 1969 , pp. 71 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

This article forms the last in the series which I undertook on a Fellowship from Bollingen Foundation and which covers all notable groups of pottery found at Mycenae between 1939 and 1955. I would like to thank Mr. Kevin Feeny of St. John's College, Oxford, for his help in sorting the material for study.

Abbreviations additional to those in standard use:

BMA = E. J. Forsdyke, Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. i; Part I: Prehistoric Aegean Pottery.

CMP = Furumark, A., The Chronology of Mycenaean Pottery (1941).Google Scholar

FM = Furumark Motive Number; MP 236 ff.

FS = Furumark, Shape Number; MP 585 ff.

MP = Furumark, A., The Mycenaean Pottery (1941).Google Scholar

MT III = Chadwick, J.et al., ‘The Mycenae Tablets III’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society lii (1962) pt. 7.Google Scholar

Tiryns = Verdelis, N., French, E. and French, D., ‘Τίρυνς: Μυκηναικὴ Ἐπίχωσις ἔξωθεν τοῦ Δυτικοῦ Τείχους τῆς Ἀκροπόλεως’ ADelt xx (1965) 137 ff.Google Scholar

1 The only settlement groups listed by Furumark, (CMP 64 ff.)Google Scholar are: Mycenae: Lion Gate I–V, Rhyton Well; Menelaion; Delphi. Of these the first are poorly illustrated and it will take more work on the sherds which have survived to ascertain exactly their stratigraphic significance; the Menelaion House is probably L.H. IIIB 1, and the Delphi material is also badly illustrated.

2 Particularly of L.H. IIIA 2, e.g. MT III figs. 72 and 89.

3 i.e. predominantly open vases; in the case of L.H. IIIB, Deep Bowls, Stemmed Bowls, and Kraters.

4 BMA nos. 1069–76.

5 ADelt xx (1965) 137 ff., here quoted as Tiryns.

6 Particularly by Schachermeyr who saw the material immediately after discovery and realized its great importance. He reported it in AA 1962, Heft 2.

7 P. Ålin, Das Ende der mykenischen Fundstätten auf dem griechischen Festland.

8 The preliminary sorting (‘papse’) notes read as follows:

Basket 80: three basketfuls of sherds—mostly IIIB—a few L.H. I or II Yellow Minyan—a large number of undecorated sherds. Only coarse ware papsed pro. tem. Best samples chosen for aciding and the rest kept in baskets in case they make into pots.

Basket 85: Three full baskets—same treatment as for 80.

Basket 90: Three basketfuls—very few painted—painted samples only kept. L.H. III, mostly B.

Basket 95: Four baskets—L.H. IIIB throughout—except for 1 Ephy, 1 M.H. Best samples kept for aciding—rest papsed.

9 From the pottery accumulated in the area known as the PCC, Areas III and IV (published BSA lxi (1966) 216) which is presumably subsequent to the wall, the Great Poros Wall must have been completed in L.H. IIIA 2.

10 BSA lix (1964) 241.

11 This would not be surprising if no L.H. IIIB building took place in the area and any previous structures had been terraced away.

12 One other hydria handle was identified in the group.

13 BSA lxii (1967) Pl. 38c.

14 BSA lii (1957) Pl. 41e.

15 p. 211.

16 They are a notable feature of pottery from this level of the Citadel House area. There is a distinct resemblance to the Cups from Lefkandi (Popham and Sackett 1968, fig. 25) which are apparently slightly later on stratigraphic grounds. These Deep Bowls are very rare at Lefkandi (information from the excavators). See also my note in AA 1969 Heft 2, forthcoming.

17 BSA 1 (1955) 225 no. 29, Pl. 43i.

18 Hesperia viii fig. 48. The parallels and references quoted there are, however, not very useful.

19 Fig. 4:3 has been included here because of the dotted rim. A cross-hatched circle is more commonly part of a Stemmed or Antithetic Spiral.

20 BSA lxii (1967) Pl. 38b right.

21 It was suggested (Tiryns 150) that the pattern might occur on Stemmed Bowls, but I have found little evidence on the mainland to corroborate the suggestion.

22 FM 53:14–16, MP fig. 65.

23 Hesperia viii. 355, 420.

24 Furumark classes this pattern as Joining Semicircles in a triangular patch, i.e. FM 42:21, 22. The most notorious example of this use of the pattern is BSA xxv (1921–3) Fig. 7a, listed in MP as FS 284:1 though it is in fact a Stemmed Bowl.

25 Cf. the lower part of West House no. 86, BSA lxii (1967) p. 159 fig. 9.

26 Cf. West House no. 99, BSA lxii (1967) 167 fig. 12.

27 BSA lxi (1966) 233.

28 BSA lxii (1967) 155 fig. 5 nos. 12, 13; 159 fig. 9 no. 58.

29 BSA lxii (1967) 183.

30 Cf. BSA lxi (1966) 222 and a deposit of roughly similar date from the Citadel House area to be published by Mr. Kenneth Wardle (infra, pp. 261 ff.).

31 Tiryns fig. 5: 1.

32 Tiryns pp. 149 f.

33 This previously made observation was confirmed by the stratigraphic results of the work at Mycenae in 1968.

34 Hesperia ii fig. 41; viii fig. 48.

35 It is most important that the terms Close Style and Granary Class should be clearly defined. I would prefer that they should be used only for the typesof material for which they were originally coined, i.e. as defined in BSA xxv (1921–3).

36 Work on material found at Mycenae in 1964 from a stylistically homogeneous deposit enabled a preliminary definition to be formulated in 1965 and notes on this were circulated to those working on the subject. This definition has been confirmed by the stratigraphic work at Mycenae in 1968 and, in view of its importance, it will be outlined in a forthcoming article in AA 1969 Heft 2.