The Political Machine in the Late Bronze Age

2017 ◽  
pp. 154-185
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Political Machine

The Political Machine in the Late Bronze Age

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Joint Operation ◽  
Political Machine ◽  
Charismatic Authority ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Active Commitment

In the Late Bronze Age, the polities in the South Caucasus developed a new assemblage directed toward transforming charismatic authority into formal sovereignty. This chapter examines the assembling of this political machine, which drew the civilization and war machines into an extensive apparatus of rule, one that resolved the paradox at the heart of the joint operation of both. This novel political machine did not supersede the war and civilization machines. Rather, the political machine cloaked their contradictions, allowing the relation of the one to the many to persist as a “mystery” of sovereignty. The political machine not only provided the instruments of judicial ordering and bureaucratic regulation but it also transformed the polity itself into an object of devotion, securing not simply the surrender of subjects but their active commitment to the reproduction of sovereignty.

scholarly journals SETinSTONE: an impact assessment of the human and environmental resource requirements of Late Bronze Age Mycenaean monumental architecture

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (358) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Brysbaert
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
Actual Field ◽  
Building Activities

Mycenaean monumental architecture has been well studied. Yet the extent to which large-scale building programmes may have contributed to change and crises in Late Bronze Age Greece (c. 1600–1100/1070 BC) has never been investigated using actual field data. The aim of the SETinSTONE project is to assess if and how monumental building activities in Late Bronze Age Greece affected the political and socio-economic structures of Mycenaean polities, and how people may have responded to these changes (Brysbaert 2013).

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
James F. Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Additional Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
New Model ◽  
Cultural World

This chapter provides a summary of the preceding chapters’ two primary arguments: first, that the Syro-Anatolian Culture Complex (SACC) was a critical player in the political and cultural world of the Iron Age; and, second, that a new model needs to be used to describe it, one that celebrates diversity, mobility, fluidity, and hybridity. A preliminary list of attributes that characterizes SACC is offered. Finally, the chapter closes with a consideration of those aspects of SACC that require additional research, especially its Late Bronze Age antecedents and its interaction with other neighbors and contemporaries.

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.

The Role of the Lukka People in Late Bronze Age Anatolia

Antichthon ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. R. Bryce
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Clear Picture ◽  
General Character ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Near Eastern

In a number of Near Eastern texts dating to the period of the Hittite New Kingdom, the term Lukka appears as a geographical and/or ethnic designation for one of the Late Bronze Age population groups of western Anatolia. Unfortunately we have no documents which deal primarily or specifically with the Lukka people; what we know of them rests essentially on incidental references in Hittite treaties, letters, prayers and historical records, along with several references in non-Hittite sources. Yet although the evidence is meagre, it still provides a relatively clear picture of the general character of the Lukka people and the role they played in the political and military affairs of Hittite Anatolia.

The Early Iron Age Metal Workshop at Tell Tayinat, Turkey

2011 ◽  
Vol 1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Roames
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Dramatic Rise ◽  
Tell Tayinat

ABSTRACTScholars have tried to link the dramatic rise of iron production in the Near East during the Early Iron Age with changes to the political landscape that occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age. These attempts have been hindered by a lack of excavated iron production contexts dating to the Early Iron Age. The recent discovery of an Early Iron Age metal workshop at the site of Tell Tayinat, Turkey, provides an opportunity to reexamine some previous assumptions. Preliminary chemical analysis of metal and slag samples indicates that during the 12th century BC iron- and bronze-working were not separate, specialized industries. Instead, production of both materials took place within the same workshop context. Furthermore, this work highlights the importance of prestige goods in the Early Iron Age repertoire.

Variety Is the Spice of Life

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Joanne M. A. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Identity Creation ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

The goal of this volume is to generate discussion on the variability in burial practices in Greece during the Late Bronze Age (LBA) and to create a more nuanced understanding of the society by bringing together a group of scholars who are either excavating newly discovered tombs or reexamining older excavations of LBA tombs. The data from these recent excavations and renewed studies suggest that the patterns of burial may contain more variety than has been recognized in earlier scholarship, and indicate the need for a detailed comparison of these burial practices combined with a synthetic comparative study of the tombs. Attention to variations in the mortuary practices can enrich current understanding of the range of connections between tombs and their respective communities, adding nuance to accepted interpretations of the LBA mortuary customs and their related societies. With variability in local burial practices as their initial commonality, broader themes and topics were revealed in the chapters assembled in this volume, including the rich connection between tombs and the political economy; their role in power and identity creation; the differences between palaces and second-order sites; the changing focus and identity of the various communities throughout the LBA; the combination of older more traditional practices with new ones in the tombs; social differences between genders; and varied emphasis on family lines.

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