New early Mycenaean palace find at Sparta

[Duncan Head]

Archaeologists in Greece have discovered the ruins of an ancient palace with important archaic inscriptions dating back to the Mycenaean age, the culture ministry said Tuesday. The palace, likely built around the 17th-16th centuries BC, had around 10 rooms and was discovered near Sparta in southern Greece. At the site, archaeologists found objects of worship, clay figurines, a cup adorned with a bull's head, swords and fragments of murals.

from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/26/ancient-greek-palace-unearthed-near-sparta-dates-back-to-17th-century-bc

Other sites such as http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/08/25/Greece-announces-discovery-of-ancient-palace-near-Sparta/4061440533008/ add the detail that the palace was probably "destroyed in a fire in the late 14th or early 13th century B.C.".

Original press release (in Greek) with some photos at http://www.yppo.gr/2/g22.jsp?obj_id=62253

[Patrick Waterson]

Interesting: being a palace 'near Sparta', one waits to see if Menelaus or any other famous names from the Iliad turn up in the inscriptions.

[Duncan Head]

Interesting: being a palace 'near Sparta', one waits to see if Menelaus or any other famous names from the Iliad turn up in the inscriptions.

Unlikely given the suggested destruction date.

[Patrick Waterson]

Interesting: being a palace 'near Sparta', one waits to see if Menelaus or any other famous names from the Iliad turn up in the inscriptions.

Unlikely given the suggested destruction date.

"Researchers believe the palace was erected during the 17th or 16th century B.C., and destroyed in a fire in the late 14th or early 13th century B.C."

We shall just have to see what turns up, then.

[Tim]

If inscriptions to THAT Menelaus turn up will we have to invent the VERY long chronology...?

[Tim]

Just looking at the pictures - Wow!  Makes me want to jump on a plane right now and visit...

[Dave Beatty]

http://news.yahoo.com/lost-palace-sparta-possibly-uncovered-140506834.html

Also reports finding some bronze swords and dates the destruction more definitively to the 14th century BC.  Apparently the only records translated from Linear B so far are mundane financial and religious subjects; is it too much to hope for some hint of who destroyed the palace?

Also of interest is this is the earliest find of Linear B script, in close proximity to a contemporary Minoan site which makes the language transfer from Linear A Minoan to Linear B Greek more complicated.

[Jim Webster]

http://news.yahoo.com/lost-palace-sparta-possibly-uncovered-140506834.html

Also reports finding some bronze swords and dates the destruction more definitively to the 14th century BC.  Apparently the only records translated from Linear B so far are mundane financial and religious subjects; is it too much to hope for some hint of who destroyed the palace?

A really tough audit? 

[Patrick Waterson]

I would have thought they would settle for simple repossession.

What will be interesting is to see who the allocations in the Linear B records are made out to.  In the Pylos Linear B tablets, in addition to the king there were two individuals - the e-qe-ta, who ranked with the king and the e-qe-re-wo, who outranked him - who received a cut of the revenues.

In Egyptian, heq ta means governor of the land and heq resu means ruler of upper Egypt.  Tributes during the 18th Dynasty were traditionally paid in through the vizier of Upper Egypt.

[Dave Beatty]

I would have thought they would settle for simple repossession.

What will be interesting is to see who the allocations in the Linear B records are made out to.  In the Pylos Linear B tablets, in addition to the king there were two individuals - the e-qe-ta, who ranked with the king and the e-qe-re-wo, who outranked him - who received a cut of the revenues.

In Egyptian, heq ta means governor of the land and heq resu means ruler of upper Egypt.  Tributes during the 18th Dynasty were traditionally paid in through the vizier of Upper Egypt.

See my post on the murals from the vizier Rekhmire's tomb depicting tribute from Crete during the 18th dynasty... "Tribute accounting during the 15th century BC"

[Patrick Waterson]

Thanks, Dave: an excellent rendering of the murals in Rekhmire's tomb.  I should point out that 'Keftiu' in fact means Greece as a whole (Minoan and Mycenaean) rather than just Crete or, as some would have it, Cyprus, because a statue base discovered at Amenhotep III's temple at Kom Ombo lists 'Wilis' (Pylos) and 'Deghaias' (Tegea) as 'Keftiu names' - in addition to the more recognisable 'Tanaia' (Athens), Cythera and Mycenae.

Hence it looks as if the whole of Greece (or what then passed for Greece) was paying tribute.

[Duncan Head]

Of course, there was a Tegea and a Mycenae in Crete:

Agamemnon, king of kings, cast by a tempest upon the island of Crete, founded there three cities, two of which, Mycenae and Tegea, were named after towns in his own country, and the other was called Pergamum in commemoration of his victory.

Pesky Greeks and their recycling of names...

[Patrick Waterson]

Pesky Greeks and their recycling of names...

Indeed, although it makes a change from naming parts of Greece after oneself, which seemed to be all the rage previously.

The Kom Ombo statue base belongs to Amenhotep III (or did) and hence unless remarkably proficient at futurology would not refer to cities founded by Agamemnon in Crete following the Trojan War (no wonder his wife got tired of waiting if this is what he was doing on the way home!).

[Duncan Head]

Unless the foundation story of these towns is misdated, which I wouldn't rule out - better  to ascribe your city to someone famous.

Or unless Egyptian chronology's more shot than even you believe, of course 

[Patrick Waterson]

Then again, one would have to look very hard for an Athens and a Pylos on Crete ... Cythera is also one of the names on the Kom Ombo statue base.  This suggests to me that including the Greek mainland along with the major islands is a must.  Since the term 'Hellas' was invented, it has traditionally meant more than just the Greek mainland, and has tended to encompass everywhere Greeks lived, at least prior to their colonisation of Africa.  I suspect 'Keftiu' was as much an ethnographic as a geographic expression.

The problem is that scholars are arguing themselves blue in the face trying to decide whether 'Keftiu' means Crete or Cyprus - I fear they will continue to argue without result until they broaden their horizons to include Greece.