Joanne M. A. Murphy - Death in Late Bronze Age Greece

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Murphy, Joanne M. A., 1971 editor.

Title: Death in late Bronze Age Greece : variations on a theme / edited by

Joanne M.A. Murphy.

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2020. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019036477 (print) | LCCN 2019036478 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780190926069 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190926076 (updf) |

ISBN 9780190926083 (epub) | ISBN 9780190926090 (online)

Subjects: LCSH: Funeral rites and ceremonies, AncientGreece. | Bronze

ageGreece. | TombsGreece. | Sepulchral monumentsGreece.

Classification: LCC GT3170 .D426 2020 (print) | LCC GT3170 (ebook) |

DDC 393/.930938dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036477

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036478

To Mary OToole Thompson, Paddy Thompson, and Paddy OToole, with deepest gratitude for a lifetime of kindness and love

... But here is a list of generous men and women, whose good works have not been forgotten. In their descendants there remains a rich inheritance born of them. Ecclesiasticus, 44, 6, 10

Joanne M. A. Murphy

Joanne M. A. Murphy, Sharon R. Stocker, Jack L. Davis, and Lynne A. Schepartz

Kim Shelton

Nikolas Papadimitriou, Anna Philippa-Touchais, and Gilles Touchais

R. Angus K. Smith, Mary K. Dabney, and James C. Wright

Constantinos Paschalidis

Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki

Elisabetta Borgna and Gaspare De Angeli

Sevi Triantaphyllou and Stelios Andreou

Mercourios Georgiadis

Calla McNamee and Salvatore Vitale

Luca Girella

R. Angus K. Smith

Anna Lucia DAgata

T his volume arose out of a session held at the American Institute of American meeting in 2014, which was intended to integrate ritual and mortuary data into mainstream discussions of the Bronze Age political economy. As is common with such endeavors, some of the session presenters were unable to include their paper in the volume and others who did not present have published here. I am grateful to them all for contributing to our understanding of the complexity of Bronze Age mortuary practices and their connection with and impact on their society.

I am extremely grateful to Kim Shelton who agreed to co-organize the session at the AIA with me and helped with the travel expenses of some of our colleagues to attend the session. I am also thankful for Kims support in the early days of the volume.

I thank Oxford University Press for their support in publishing this volume and the external reviewers who made insightful comments on the papers. I especially thank the contributors for their patience and perseverance during the process of bringing the volume to completion.

Stelios Andreou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Elisabetta Borgna, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e dei Beni Culturali, Universit di Udine

Anna Lucia DAgata, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Roma.

Mary K. Dabney, Bryn Mawr College

Jack L. Davis, University of Cincinnati

Gaspare De Angeli, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e dei Beni Culturali, Universit di Udine

Mercourios Georgiadis, Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), Tarragona, Spain

Luca Girella, Universit Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno, Roma

Calla McNamee, Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science, ASCSA

Joanne M. A. Murphy, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Nikolas Papadimitriou, University of Heidelberg

Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki, National Archaeological Museum, Athens (Curator Emerita)

Constantinos Paschalidis, National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Anna Philippa-Touchais, French School at Athens

Lynne A. Schepartz, University of the Witwatersrand and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania

Kim Shelton, University of California, Berkeley

R. Angus K. Smith, Department of Classics, Brock University

Sharon R. Stocker, University of Cincinnati

Gilles Touchais, University Paris 1 Panthon-Sorbonne

Sevi Triantaphyllou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Salvatore Vitale, University of Pisa

James C. Wright, Bryn Mawr College

Joanne M. A. Murphy

FIG. 1.1 Map of Greece showing regions and sites discussed in the volume (drawn by John Wallrodt).

The abundance and monumentality of LBA tombs, especially tholoi, in Greece have assured them a prominent position in archaeological scholarship. The significance of this role has grown exponentially with the increasing global interest in mortuary studies, which stress the sociopolitical value of tombs and mortuary customs (for recent examples, see .) Each of these frameworks has enhanced our interpretations of the function of these tombs in society, has highlighted a different aspect of the tombs, and has shifted and enriched the debates about Bronze Age Greek society.

Diversity in mortuary practices has been noted but not fully explored in several recent edited volumes ( comments on the highly differentiated practices which may underlie the importance of burial as a means of constituting highly local identities in reference to the different practices explored in the volume from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (BA). The variety of practices throughout the Eastern Mediterranean in the creation and embodiment of identities is richly illustrated in the chapters in that volume, although the theme of diversity is not explicitly examined. Similarly, diversity is evident in, but not the focus of, the chapters in the volume edited by Dakouri-Hild and Boyd; drawing on postmodern studies, the funerary realm is examined through the lenses of performance, death, and the phenomenology of place with a focus on the situation of human action and therefore a strong emphasis on the context of the ritual activity. The volume edited by Schallin and Tournavitou offers a broader assessment of the current state of the Mycenaean studies than the previous two volumes, including seven chapters dedicated to mortuary data that give examples of current knowledge and approaches in that area. With the rich data sets explored in those volumes and the emphasis on the importance of context, these studies lay the groundwork for the current volume, which expands on the theme of diversity in practices, takes a different approach than traditional studies, and builds on the recent works.