Ioanna Moutafi - Towards a Social Bioarchaeology of the Mycenaean Period: A biocultural analysis of human remains from the Voudeni cemetery, Achaea, Greece

A BIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE VOUDENI CEMETERY, ACHAEA, GREECE

IOANNA MOUTAFI

Published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by

OXBOW BOOKS

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and in the United States by

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Oxbow Books and the author 2021

Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-482-2

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-483-9 (epub)

Kindle Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-484-6 (mobi)

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021934334

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Front cover: Photo by Lazaros Kolonas

Back cover: Photo by Lazaros Kolonas

To my rather unusual mom

The truth is: I would have never done it alone.

This book is the result of a long journey; in one way or another it has been in the making for the last ten years. The core of the research presented here is based on my PhD thesis at the University of Sheffield. My knowledge expanded since, as recent advances in bioarchaeology, archaeological theory, and Mycenaean research have been numerous. Hence, this study moved forward significantly in the last years, especially during my Marie Skodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Cambridge. In this long journey I am deeply grateful to a great number of people whose influence and support has been tremendous.

I should start with the supervisors of my doctorate, Pia Nystrom and John Bennet, who were always by my side, a constant source of inspiration, support, and understanding. They kept motivating this research by thought-provoking discussions, helped through it with valuable comments, criticism, and suggestions, and greatly improved the final outcome by editing in detail the original doctoral manuscript. For all your care and attention, Pia and John, thank you both so much. For further stimulating discussions, I would also like to thank Peter Day and Paul Halstead for their comments on early drafts of this work, as well as John Barrett and Sue Sherratt for amazing discussions on Aegean prehistory and archaeological theory during my years at Sheffield. To Sue, and Becky Gowland I am especially grateful, as they were the examiners of my thesis (with Becky also the reviewer of this book); their comments and encouragement were crucial for the final outcome of this work. Speaking of intellectual stimulation, the scope of this research was greatly influenced by the works of my dear friends and colleagues Michael Boyd, Sofia Voutsaki, and Yannis Galanakis. To their passionate visions for a mortuary archaeology of the Mycenaean period I owe a lot. Equally, my deepest thanks to my dear friends and colleagues in Aegean bioarchaeology, Chryssa Bourbou and Anastasia Papathanasiou, who urged me, early on, to follow this path and supported my steps all the way after. Finally, my thinking expanded during my time at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Surrounded by great people and fascinating research while there, I wont even start listing everyone who offered me some inspiration at one moment or another there are so many. I thank them all, but especially, John Robb, the supervisor of my postdoctoral research, who was always there, always ready to offer support, discuss, and share brilliant ideas about how we should do mortuary archaeology.

This work would not have been possible without the support of the Director of the Voudeni excavation, Lazaros Kolonas. Granting me permission to study the human skeletal remains from the Voudeni tombs, as well as access to his unpublished doctoral thesis, forthcoming publication, and all primary excavation records, he was the one who made it all possible.