The Dendra charioteer

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 201-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Greenhalgh
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
Verbal Representations ◽  
Over The Top

The heavy metal collar or neck-guard of the Dendra panoply (PL. XXXIIc; Verdelis, 1967; Åström, 1977; also Catling, 1977; Cassola Guida, 1973,52ffr)a ises a simple question which may have important implications for the study of Greek warfare in the Late Bronze Age. Pictorial and verbal representations reveal the neck as a highly vulnerable target in infantry warfare throughout the whole millennium which spans the Late Bronze Age and the classical period. Mycenae’s Shaft Grave warriors of the sixteenth century are frequently shown either aiming sword-thrusts downwards at an enemy’s throat over the top of his body-shield or thrusting upwards at his neck with a lance (e.g. Karo, 1930, Pl. 24, nos, 35, 116, 241; pp. 59, 177, Figs. 14, 87; Lorimer, 1950, 140–4, Figs. 2, 5, 6, 8; Cassola Guida, 1973, pl. I, Figs. 2–5; Furtwangler & Loeschcke, 1886, Pl. E, 30; and even lions get it in the neck: e.g. Evans, 1921–36, IV (2), 575, Fig. 556). The very differently accoutred Mycenaeans of the late thirteenth-century Warrior Vase and Stele march with spears poised for a downward thrust into their enemies’ necks (Furtwangler & Loeschcke, 1886, PI. 43; EA, 1896, P1. I; Lorimer, 1950, Pls. 3.1a; 2.2; Cassola Guida, 1973, Pls. 32,1 and 2; Verdelis, 1967, Beil. 32,2; Astrom, 1977, P1. ‘31,2). And the seventh-century hoplites do exactly the same on the Chigi Vase (CVA, Italy, I, P1. I; ABSA, XLII, 1947, 81, Fig. 2; Snodgrass, 1964, PI. 36).

Homer and History: Iliad 9.381-4

Mnemosyne ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe description of Orkhomenos and Egyptian Thebes in Akhilleus' famous comparison at Iliad 9.381-4 seems to reflect the political and economic climate of the Late Bronze Age, and not the seventh century as Walter Burkert has argued in an influential article (1976). A Mycenaean context is indicated by two factors: (1) the idea that wealth 'goes into' (πoτινíσεται, 9.381) a city fits well with Mycenaean economics, but is individual within the Homeric poems; (2) the history of the thirteenth century explains both the onomastic equation between Egyptian and Boiotian Thebes and the replacement of the latter by the former in the comparison.

scholarly journals Negotiating Imperialism and Resistance in Late Bronze Age Ugarit: The Rise of Alphabetic Cuneiform

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199
Author(s):  
Philip J. Boyes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Writing System ◽  
East Mediterranean ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Elite Culture ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The City

Ugarit was a highly cosmopolitan, multilingual and multiscript city at the intersection of several major Late Bronze Age political and cultural spheres of influence. In the thirteenth centurybc, the city adopted a new alphabetic cuneiform writing system in the local language for certain uses alongside the Akkadian language, script and scribal practices that were standard throughout the Near East. Previous research has seen this as ‘vernacularization’, in response to the city's encounter with Mesopotamian culture. Recent improvements in our understanding of the date of Ugarit's adoption of alphabetic cuneiform render this unlikely, and this paper instead argues that we should see this vernacularization as part of Ugarit's negotiation of, and resistance to, their encounter with Hittite imperialism. Furthermore, it stands as a specific, Ugaritian, manifestation of similar trends apparent across a number of East Mediterranean societies in response to the economic and political globalism of Late Bronze Age élite culture. As such, these changes in Ugaritian scribal practice have implications for our wider understanding of the end of the Late Bronze Age.

Second Thoughts on ‘Mycenaean’ Pottery in Ithaca

1949 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 307-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Benton
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Nearest Neighbours ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Determining Factor

When I wrote my report on the excavation of Polis, Ithaca, the leader of the expedition had suggested that in Ithaca, Early Bronze Age pottery had persisted till the closing phases of the Late Bronze Age, which meant that Ithaca was a backward little place well away from the broad stream of contemporary culture. I thought it possible that there was another lag after the Late Bronze Age, and I called certain vases ‘Mycenaean,’ taking fabric to be the determining factor. My paper was written in 1932, but not published till 1942, and long before then I was sure that we were both wrong. Mr. Heurtley wished to account for the presence of fifty Mycenaean sherds in an Early Bronze Age Settlement at Pilikata. It is true that no Middle Bronze Age settlement has yet been found in Ithaca. That may be our bad fortune, or the island may have been uninhabited in the centuries before 1500 B.C., as it was in the sixteenth century A.D. It seems simpler to admit disturbance by any later diggers of foundations or seekers of wells, than to postulate an iron curtain between Ithaca and both its nearest neighbours, Kephallenia and Leukas, in the Middle Bronze Age. After all, Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Age sherds were found together in Area VI at Pilikata, and no house plans have resulted; some disturbance seems inevitable.

Tribes and Empires c.1500 bc–ad 500

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe ◽  
Martin Millet
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
British Isles ◽  
The South ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
British People

The period of two thousand years or so which we set out to cover here— roughly 1500 bc to ad 500—begins at a time when the evidence available to us is purely archaeological, untainted by the vagaries of history, and ends when the gleanings from archaeology have to be reconciled with a rich historical tradition and the varied interpretations of linguists. Thus, in spanning the millennia, we bridge the disciplines. The first historian to consider the tribes of the British Isles from a truly informed position was Tacitus. Writing towards the end of the first century ad he had access not only to the vague and anecdotal writings of the Posidonian tradition and the observations of Julius Caesar on the tribal situation in the south-east, but he was also able to draw upon the reminiscences of his father-in-law, Julius Agricola, who had spent many seasons campaigning in Britain first as a legionary commander and later as governor of the province. Agricola travelled from one end of the island to the other and, incidentally, was probably responsible for killing more Britons than any other Roman. Assessing the varied array of evidence available to him in an attempt to characterize the British population, Tacitus showed the commendable restraint of an historian in his famous summation . . .who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether native or immigrant remains obscure: one must remember, we are dealing with barbarians. (Agricola, 11). . . After several centuries of hard archaeological endeavour the situation has changed little. Forty years ago, in considering the formation of the British people, we would have been much more confident. We would have talked of a series of ‘invasions’ bringing in successive waves of new people from the Continent— Deverel-Rimbury folk in the Late Bronze Age about 1000 bc, Hallstatt overlords resplendent on their horses and wielding long slashing swords in the seventh century, invaders from the Marne region around 400 bc and Belgae first raiding and then settling in the south-east in the first century bc (Hawkes and Dunning 1931).

A smiting-god-figurine found in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berit Wells ◽  
Andreas Karydas
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Manufacturing Process ◽  
Nuclear Physics ◽  
Technical Analysis ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Temple

In 2007 a Reshef figurine was found in a secondary context southeast of the Temple of Poseidon at Kalaureia. This article discusses its origin in the Syro-Palestinian area in the thirteenth century BC and suggests it arrived at Kalaureia towards the end of the Late Bronze Age and was deposited in a sacral context. As Reshef in later history was identified with Apollo in the Greek environment, the author speculates on there being perhaps a kernel of truth in the later myth of Apollo and Poseidon having exchanged dwelling places in the hoary past. The peculiar surface of the piece called for a technical analysis, which was carried out by Andreas Karydas from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Demokritos, Athens. It clarified that the “pock marks” on the surface stem from the manufacturing process and are not the result of corrosion.

The old platform in the Argive Heraeum

1984 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 183-184
Author(s):  
Hugh Plommer
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Classical Structure ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Bronze Age

In his recent article ‘The Old Temple Terrace at the Argive Heraeum’, J. C. Wright discusses the date of the platform supporting the remains of the earliest Argive Heraeum—in other words, the uppermost terrace of the Hellenic (viz. Classical) Heraeum. Is it itself a Classical structure, or a late Bronze Age platform re-used to accommodate the first peripteral temple of the seventh century BC? Wright would connect both the platform and the temple upon it with the first stages of proper Hellenic culture, in the eighth and seventh centuries BC. On pp. 191 ff, he denies that I can possibly be right in following the oldest investigators and assigning this platform to the Bronze Age. But I must confess that his arguments, however learned, have so far failed to shake my conviction.

scholarly journals Further work at Kilise Tepe, 2007-2011: refining the Bronze to Iron Age transition

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 95-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Bouthillier ◽  
Carlo Colantoni ◽  
Sofie Debruyne ◽  
Claudia Glatz ◽  
Mette Marie Hald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
North West ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Central Strip ◽  
Research Questions

AbstractThe excavations at Kilise Tepe in the 1990s inevitably left a range of research questions unanswered, and our second spell of work at the site from 2007 to 2011 sought to address some of these, relating to the later second and early first millennia. This article gathers the architectural and stratigraphie results of the renewed excavations, presenting the fresh information about the layout and character of the Late Bronze Age North-West Building and the initial phases of the Stele Building which succeeded it, including probable symbolic practices, and describing the complex stratigraphic sequence in the Central Strip sounding which covers the lapse of time from the 12th down to the seventh century. There follow short reports on the analyses of the botanical and faunal materials recovered, a summary of the results from the relevant radiocarbon dating samples and separate studies addressing issues resulting from the continuing study of the ceramics from the different contexts. Taken together, a complex picture emerges of changes in settlement layout, archi¬tectural traditions, use of external space, artefact production and subsistence strategies during the centuries which separate the Level III Late Bronze Age settlement from the latest Iron Age occupation around 700 BC.

A Note on a Seven-stringed Lyre

1970 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 196-197
Author(s):  
G. Huxley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Short Note ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Musical Practice

In a review in JHS lxxxix (1969) 127 Dr M. L. West gives as an example of ‘a certain innocence on matters of literary history’ the belief that seven-stringed lyres ‘came in’ in the seventh century B.C. Since the emphasis in the context is upon rigorous down-dating (the eighth Homeric Hymn is there reasonably declared not to be pre-Hellenistic), what Dr West seems to be saying is that seven-stringed lyres were not in use amongst the Greeks before about 600 B.C. I hope that I do not misunderstand Dr West's contention: the purpose of this short note is to suggest, with the greatest respect and deference, that another view of the matter may perhaps be permissible.Let us ignore the seven-stringed musical instrument shown on the Ayia Triadha sarcophagus, because evidence from the Late Bronze Age may be thought too remote to be relevant to early Hellenic musical practice. Let us also leave aside ancient opinions associating Terpander with the seven-stringed lyre (Strabo 618) and assigning him to the first half of the seventh century B.C. (Athenaios 635E). Dr West may well regard the putting of trust in such testimonies as evidence of incorrigible amateurism. There remains, nevertheless, a contemporary witness to the existence of seven-stringed lyres amongst the Greeks of the seventh century B.C.In JHS lxxi (1951) 248, fig. 8, there is illustrated a fragment of a Subgeometric dinos of the first half of the seventh century B.C. from the excavations at Old Smyrna. On the piece is painted a seven-stringed lyre. The lines representing strings are carefully distinguished and spaced. It would be extravagant to assert that the artist could not count, or that he was suffering from hallucinations, or that he was imagining a type of instrument never seen by himself or his customers. In short, a tentative suggestion may be made—with due deference and hesitation: scholars, including those whom in this particular matter Dr West would, it seems, classify as innocents, ‘can seriously argue’ that seven-stringed lyres were reintroduced to Greece or ‘came in’ well within the first half of the seventh century B.C.

New Scientific Dating of the Later Bronze Age Wells at Swalecliffe, Kent

2004 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 334-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Masefield ◽  
Alex Bayliss ◽  
Gerry McCormac
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
The Individual

The Swalecliffe later Bronze Age well complex was reported in detail in volume 83 of the Antiquaries Journal. The site comprised seventeen wells cut into the base of a previously reduced hollow. Groundwater could thus have been more readily accessed within the subsequently cut well pits. The depth of the base of the wells, at up to 2.5m below ground level, and their consequent waterlogged nature, allowed exceptional preservation of wooden linings and plank steps. Application of dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating suggested that the individual wells were used in sequence over a period of around 500 years, from an origin probably in the late thirteenth century BC to abandonment probably within the seventh century BC. The earlier phases (1–4) were dated mainly by dendrochronology, a 348-year sequence known as SWALECLF 1, whilst the later phases (5–7) were dated by a series of five radiocarbon dates.

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