Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:45:06.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mycenaean palatial economy: Making the most of the gaps in the evidence1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Paul Halstead
Paul Halstead
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

It has long been recognised that the Linear B archives from the Mycenaean palaces of Late Bronze Age Greece document ‘a massive redistributive operation, in which all personnel and all activities, all movements of both persons and goods … were administratively fixed’. Goods, land and services were transferred within the extensive territory of each palace without the equivalences of value between commodities which are a prerequisite of market exchange. The transactions recorded in the Linear B archives are thus unambiguously ‘redistributive’, an Aegean variant of a form of exchange widespread in the ancient civilisations, and as such have attracted the interest both of economic historians and of prehistorians concerned with the development of complex society. The term ‘redistribution’ embraces a range of possible forms, however, and in the case of the Mycenaean palaces poses a number of questions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 38 , 1993 , pp. 57 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1993

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexiou, S. (1961) ‘Zitimata tou proïstorikou viou: kritomikinaïkon emborion’, AE 1953–1954, 135–45.Google Scholar
Allan, W. (1965) The African husbandman.Google Scholar
Bass, G. F. (1967) ‘Cape Gelidonya: a bronze age shipwreck’, TAPhS 57(8).Google Scholar
Bass, G. F. (1986) ‘A bronze age shipwreck at Ulu Burun (Kas): 1984 campaign’, AJA 90, 269–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss-Smith, T. (1982) The ecology of agricultural systems.Google Scholar
Bennet, J. (1985) ‘The structure of the Linear B administration at Knossos’, AJA 89, 231–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennet, J. (1988) ‘“Outside in the distance”: problems in understanding the economic geography of Mycenaean palatial territories’, in Olivier, J.-P. and Palaima, T. G. (eds.), Texts, tablets and scribes 19–41.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S. A., Feinman, G. and Appel, J. (1981) Ancient Mesoamerica: a comparison of change in three regions.Google Scholar
Blegen, C. W. and Rawson, M. (1966) The palace of Nestor at Pylos in western Messenia. l: The buildings and their contents.Google Scholar
Branigan, K. (1987) ‘The economic role of the first palaces’, in Hägg, R. and Marinatos, N. (eds.), The function of the Minoan palaces 245–8.Google Scholar
Branigan, K. (1988) ‘Some observations on state formation in Crete’, in French, E. B. and Wardle, K. A. (eds.), Problems in Greek prehistory 63–71.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E. and Earle, T. (1987) ‘Specialisation, exchange and complex societies: an introduction’, in Brumfiel, E. and Earle, T. (eds.), Specialisation, exchange and complex societies 1–9.Google Scholar
Catling, H. W., Cherry, J. F., Jones, R. E. and Killen, J. T. (1980) ‘The Linear B inscribed stirrup jars and west Crete’, ABSA 75, 49–113.Google Scholar
Cavanagh, W. and Laxton, R. (1981) ‘The structural mechanics of the Mycenaean tholos tomb’, ABSA 76, 109–40.Google Scholar
Cavanagh, W. G. and Mee, C. (1990) ‘The location of Mycenaean chamber tombs in the Argolid’, in Hägg, R. and Nordquist, G. C. (eds.), Celebrations of death and divinity in the bronze age Argolid 55–63.Google Scholar
Chadwick, J. (1972) ‘The Mycenaean documents’, in McDonald, W. A. and Rapp, G. R. (eds.) The Minnesota Messenia expedition 100–16.Google Scholar
Chadwick, J. (1976) The Mycenaean world.Google Scholar
Chadwick, J. (1985) ‘What do we know about Mycenaean religion?’, in Davies, A. Morpurgo and Duhoux, Y. (eds.), Linear B: a 1984 survey 191–202.Google Scholar
Chadwick, J. (1988) ‘The women of Pylos’, in Olivier, J.-P. and Palaima, T. G. (eds.), Texts, tablets and scribes 43–93.Google Scholar
Chang, C. and Koster, H. (1986) ‘Beyond bones: toward an archaeology of pastoralism’, in Schiffer, M. (ed.), Advances in archaeological method and theory 9 97–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, J. F. (1978) ‘Generalization and the archaeology of the state’, in Green, D., Haselgrove, C. and Spriggs, M. (eds.), Social organisation and settlement (BAR Int. Series 47) 411–37.Google Scholar
Cherry, J. F. (1986) ‘Polities and palaces: some problems in Minoan state formation’, in Renfrew, C. and Cherry, J. F. (eds.), Peer polity interaction 19–45.Google Scholar
Cook, K. 1981. ‘The purpose of the stirrup vase’, ABSA 76, 167.Google Scholar
Cremona, M. V. (1982) ‘I cereali nelle tavolette in Lineare B di Cnosso’, SMEA 23, 73–82.Google Scholar
Dahl, G. and Hjort, A. (1976) Having herds: pastoral herd growth and household economy.Google Scholar
Demakopoulou, K. (1990) ‘Palatial and domestic architecture in Mycenaean Thebes’, in Darque, P. and Treuil, R. (eds.), L'Habitat Égéen préhistorique 307–17.Google Scholar
Demakopoulou, K. and Konsola, D. (1981) Archaeological museum of Thebes.Google Scholar
Duhoux, Y. (1974) ‘Les mesures mycéniennes de surface’, Kadmos 13, 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, T. K. (1977) ‘A reappraisal of redistribution: complex Hawaiian chiefdoms’, in Earle, T. K. and Ericson, J. E. (eds.), Exchange systems in prehistory 213–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, T. K. and d'Altroy, T. (1982) ‘Storage facilities and state finance in the upper Mantaro valley, Peru’, in Ericson, J. E. and Earle, T. K. (eds.), Contexts for prehistoric exchange 265–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Fidio, P. (1977) I dosmoi pilii a Poseidon (Incunabula Graeca 65).Google Scholar
de Fidio, P. (1982) ‘Fiscalita, redistribuzione, equivalenze: per una discussione sull economia micenea’, SMEA 23, 83–136.Google Scholar
de Fidio, P. (1987) ‘Palais et communautés de village dans le royaume mycenien de Pylos’, in Ilievski, P. and Crepajac, L. (eds.), Tractata Mycenaea 129–49.Google Scholar
Finley, M. I. (1957) ‘The Mycenaean tablets and economic history’, Economic History Review 10, 128–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forbes, H. (1976)‘“We have a little of everything”: the ecological basis of some agricultural practices in Methana, Trizinia’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 268, 236–50.Google Scholar
Forbes, H. (1982) Strategies and soils: technology, production and environment in the peninsula of Methana, Greece, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Forbes, H. (1989) ‘Of grandfathers and grand theories: the hierarchised ordering of responses to hazard in a Greek rural community’, in Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. (eds.), Bad year economics 87–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, E. D. (1977) ‘An administrative department at Knossos concerned with perfumery and offerings’, Minos 16, 19–51.Google Scholar
Foster, E. D. (1981) ‘The flax impost at Pylos and Mycenaean landholding’, Minos 17, 67–121.Google Scholar
Foster, K. P. (1979) Aegean faience of the Bronze Age.Google Scholar
Gale, N. H. (ed.) (1991) Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean.Google Scholar
Gallant, T. W. (1991) Risk and survival in ancient Greece.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. (1982) ‘Leadership and “surplus” production’, in Renfrew, C. and Shennan, S. (eds.), Ranking, resource and exchange 100–5.Google Scholar
Gilman, A. (1981) ‘The development of social stratification in bronze age Europe’, Current Anthropology 22, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godart, L. (1968) ‘Le grain à Cnossos’, SMEA 5, 56–63.Google Scholar
Godart, L. (1977) ‘Les ressources des palais myceniens de Cnossos et Pylos’, LEC 45, 31–42.Google Scholar
Godart, L., Killen, J. T. and Olivier, J.-P. (1979) ‘Un sixième fragment de tablette en Lineaire B de Tirynthe’, AA 450–8.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. (1981a) ‘Counting sheep in neolithic and bronze age Greece’, in Hodder, I., Isaac, G. and Hammond, N. (eds.), Pattern of the past: studies in honour of David Clarke 307–39.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. (1981b) ‘From determinism to uncertainty: social storage and the rise of the Minoan palace’, in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. (eds.), Economic archaeology 187–213.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. (1987) ‘Traditional and ancient rural economy in Mediterranean Europe: plus ça change?’, JHS 107, 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, P. (1989) ‘The economy has a normal surplus: economic stability and social change among early farming communities of Thessaly, Greece’, in Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. (eds.), Bad year economics 68–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, P. (1990) ‘Waste not, want not: traditional responses to crop failure in Greece’, Rural History: Economy, Society, Culture 1, 147–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, P. In press a. ‘Agriculture in the bronze age Aegean: towards a model of palatial economy’, in Wells, B. (ed.), Agriculture in ancient Greece 105–117.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. In press b. ‘The North–South divide: regional paths to complexity in prehistoric Greece’, in Mathers, C. and Stoddart, S. (eds.), Development and decline in the bronze age Mediterranean.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. In press c. ‘Present to past in the Pindhos: specialisation and diversification in mountain economies’, Rivista di Studi Liguri 56, 61–80.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. and Jones, G. (1989) ’Agrarian ecology in the Greek islands: time stress, scale and risk’, JHS 109, 41–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. (1982) ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed: social storage and the origins of social ranking’, in Renfrew, C. and Shennan, S. (eds.). Ranking, resource and exchange 92–9.Google Scholar
Hankey, V. (1980) ‘The Aegean interest in el Amarna’, Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and Archaeology 1, 38–49.Google Scholar
Haskell, H. W. (1984) ‘Pylos: stirrup jars and the international oil trade’, in Palaima, T. G. and Shelmerdine, C. W. (eds.), Pylos comes alive 97–107.Google Scholar
Hicks, J. (1969) A theory of economic history.Google Scholar
Higgins, R. A. (1980) Greek and Roman jewellery, ed. 2.Google Scholar
Hiller, S. (1983) ‘Fruchtbaumkulturen auf Kreta und in Pylos’, in Heubeck, A. and Neumann, G. (eds.), Res Mycenaeae 171–201.Google Scholar
Hiller, S. (1988) ‘Dependent personnel in Mycenaean texts’, in Heltzer, M. and Lipinski, E. (eds.), Society and economy in the eastern Mediterranean 53–68.Google Scholar
Hillman, G. C. in press. ‘Ancient grain from the destruction of Mycenae citadel’.Google Scholar
Iakovidis, S. (1977) ‘The present state of research at the citadel of Mycenae’, BIAL 14, 99–141.Google Scholar
Jones, A. H. M. (1974) The Roman economy.Google Scholar
Jones, G. (1984) ‘The LMII plant remains’, in Popham, M. R., The Minoan Unexplored Mansion at Knossos 303–6.Google Scholar
Jones, G. In press. ‘Weed phytosociology and crop husbandry: identifying a contrast between ancient and modern practice’, in Pals, J.-P. (ed.), Festschrift W. van Zeist.Google Scholar
Jones, R. E. (1986) Greek and Cypriot pottery: a review of scientific studies.Google Scholar
Keramopoullos, A. D. (1930) ‘Ai viomikhaniai kai to emborion tou Kadhmou’, AE 29–58Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1963) ‘Some adjuncts to the SHEEP ideogram on Knossos tablets’, Eranos 61, 69–93.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1964) ‘The wool industry of Crete in the late bronze age’, ABSA 59, 1–15.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1966) ‘The abbreviation tu on Knossos tablets’, ZAnt 16, 207–12.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1968) ‘The Knossos o-pi tablets’, in Atti e memorie del l congresso internazionale di micenologia 636–43.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1979a) ‘The Knossos Ld(1) tablets’, in Risch, E. and Mühlestein, H. (eds.), Colloquium Mycenaeum 151–79.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1979b) ‘The Linear B tablets and economic history: some problems’, BICS 26, 133–4.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1981) ‘Some puzzles in a Mycenae personnel record’, ZAnt 31, 37–45.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1983a) ‘PY An 1’, Minos 18, 71–9.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1983b) ‘On the Mycenae Ge tablets’, in Heubeck, A. and Neumann, G. (eds.), Res Mycenaeae 216–32.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1984a) ‘The textile industries at Pylos and Knossos’, in Palaima, T. G. and Shelmerdine, C. W. (eds.), Pylos comes alive 49–63.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1984b) ‘Last year's debts on the Pylos Ma tablets’, SMEA 25, 173–88.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1985) ‘The Linear B tablets and the mycenaean economy’, in Davies, A. Morpurgo and Duhoux, Y. (eds.), Linear B: a 1984 survey 241–305.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1987) ‘Piety begins at home: place-names on Knossos records of religious offerings’, in Ilievski, P. and Crepajac, L. (eds.), Tractata Mycenaea: proceedings of the eighth international colloquium on Mycenaean studies 163–77.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. (1988) ‘Epigraphy and interpretation in Knossos WOMAN and CLOTH records’, in Olivier, J.-P. and Palaima, T. G. (eds.), Texts, tablets and scribes 167–83.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. In press a. ‘Thebes sealings and Knossos tablets’, in Atti del ii congresso internazionale di micenologia.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. In press b. ‘Sheep at Knossos and Pylos’, Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. (1975) ‘ΔΟΣΜΟΣ et ΑΠΥΔΟΣΙΣ’, MH 32(1), 1–11.Google Scholar
Lejeune, M. (1979) ‘Sur la fiscalité pylienne Ma’, in Risch, E. and Mühlestein, H. (eds.), Colloquium Mycenaeum 147–50.Google Scholar
McDonald, W. A. and Hope Simpson, R. (1972) ‘Archaeological exploration’, in McDonald, W. A. and Rapp, G. R. (eds.) The Minnesota Messenia expedition 117–47.Google Scholar
Mee, C. B. and Cavanagh, W. G. (1984) ‘Mycenaean tombs as evidence for social and political organisation’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 3, 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikhailidhou, A. (1990) ‘Metriko sistima kai skhesis paragogis sto Aigaio, stin isteri epokhi tou khalkou’, Meletimata tou K.E.R.A. 10, 65–96.Google Scholar
Moody, J. (1987) ‘The Minoan palace as a prestige artefact’, in Hägg, R. and Marinatos, N. (eds.), The function of the minoan palaces 235–41.Google Scholar
Morpurgo Davies, A. (1979) ‘Terminology of power and terminology of work in Greek and Linear B’, in Risch, E. and Mühlestein, H. (eds.), Colloquium Mycenaeum 87–108.Google Scholar
Morris, H. J. (1986) An economic model of the late Mycenaean kingdom of Pylos, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Moskof, K. (1979) Istoria tou kinimatos tis ergatikis taxis.Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. E. (1966) ‘The east wing of the palace of Mycenae’, Hesperia 35, 419–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier, J.-P. (1967) ‘La série Dn de Cnossos’, SMEA 2, 71–93.Google Scholar
Olivier, J.-P. (1974) ‘Une loi fiscale mycénienne’, BCH 98, 23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier, J.-P. (1988) ‘KN: Da-Dg’, in Olivier, J.-P. and Palaima, T. G. (eds.), Texts, tablets and scribes 219–67.Google Scholar
O'Shea, J. (1981) ‘Coping with scarcity: exchange and social storage’, in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. (eds.), Economic archaeology (BAR Int Series 96) 167–83.Google Scholar
Palaima, T. G. (1989) ‘Perspectives on the Pylos oxen tablets: textual (and archaeological) evidence for the use and management of oxen in late bronze age Messenia (and Crete’), Studio Mycenaea 1988 85–124.Google Scholar
Palaima, T. G. (1991) ‘Maritime matters in the Linear B tablets’, in Laffineur, R. and Basch, L. (eds.), Thalassa: l'Egée préhistorique et la mer (Aegaeum 7) 273–310.Google Scholar
Palaima, T. G. and Wright, J. C. (1985) ‘Ins and outs of the archive rooms at Pylos: form and function in a Mycenaean palace’, AJA 89, 251–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltenberg, E. (1991) ‘Greeting gifts and luxury faience: a context for orientalising trends in late Mycenaean Greece’, in Gale, N. H. (ed.), Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean 162–79.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1957) ‘The economy as instituted process’, in Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M. and Pearson, H. W. (eds.), Trade and market in the early empires 243–70.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1960) ‘On the comparative treatment of economic institutions in antiquity with illustrations from Athens, Mycenae, and Alalakh’, in Kraeling, C. H. and Adams, R. M. (eds.), City invincible 329–50.Google Scholar
Redding, R. W. (1984) ‘Theoretical determinants of a herder's decisions: modeling variation in the sheep: goat ratio’, in Clutton-Brock, J. and Grigson, C. (eds.), Animals and archaeology 3: early herders and their flocks (BAR Int. Series 202) 223–41.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. (1972) The emergence of civilisation: the Cyclades and the Aegean in the third millennium BC.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. (1982) ‘Polity and power’, in Renfrew, C. and Wagstaff, M. (eds.) An island polity: the archaeology of exploitation in Melos 264–90.Google Scholar
Renger, J. (1984) ‘Patterns of non-institutional trade and non-commercial exchange in ancient Mesopotamia at the beginning of the second millennium BC’, in Archi, A. (ed.), Circulation of goods in non-palatial context in the ancient Near East 31–123.Google Scholar
Riley, J. A. (1981) ‘Petrological examination of coarse-ware stirrup-jars from Mycenae’, ABSA 76, 335–40.Google Scholar
Russell, K. W. (1988) After Eden: the behavioral ecology of early food production in the Near East and North Africa (BAR Int. Series 391).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahlins, M. (1974) Stone age economics.Google Scholar
Sakellarakis, J. (1979) To elefantodonto kai i katergasia tou sta mikinaïka khronia.Google Scholar
Shelmerdine, C. W. (1973) ‘The Pylos Ma tablets reconsidered’, AJA 77, 261–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelmerdine, C. W. (1981) ‘Nichoria in context: a major town in the Pylos kingdom’, AJA 85, 319–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelmerdine, C. W. (1985) The perfume industry of Mycenaean Pylos.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. and Sherratt, S. (1991) ‘From luxuries to commodities: the nature of Mediterranean bronze age trading systems’, in Gale, N. H. (ed.), Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean 351–86.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A. M. (1991) ‘Bronze age exchange: a minimalist position’, in Gale, N. H. (ed.), Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean 15–20.Google Scholar
Speth, J. and Spielmann, K. (1983) ‘Energy source, protein metabolism and hunter–gatherer subsistence strategies’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2, 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stubbings, F. H. (1947) ‘The Mycenaean pottery of Attica’, ABSA 42, 1–75.Google Scholar
Stubbings, F. H. (1951) Mycenaean pottery from the Levant.Google Scholar
Taylour, W. (1969) ‘Mycenae, 1968’, Antiquity 43, 91–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tegyey, I. (1984) ‘The northeast workshop at Pylos’, in Palaima, T. G. and Shelmerdine, C. W. (eds.), Pylos comes alive 65–79.Google Scholar
Tournavitou, I. (1988) ‘Towards an identification of a workshop space’, in French, E. B. and Wardle, K. A. (eds.), Problems in Greek prehistory 447–61.Google Scholar
Uchitel, A. (1984a) ‘On the “military” character of the o-ka tablets’, Kadmos 23, 136–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uchitel, A. (1984b) ‘Women at work: Pylos and Knossos, Lagash and Ur’, Historia 33, 257–82.Google Scholar
Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J. (1973) Documents in Mycenaean Greek ed. 2.Google Scholar
Vergopoulos, K. (1975) To agrotiko zitima stin Elladha.Google Scholar
Warren, P. (1967) ‘A stone vase-maker's workshop in the palace at Knossos’, ABSA 62, 195–201.Google Scholar
Warren, P. (1991) ‘A merchant class in bronze age Crete’, in Gale, N. H. (ed.), Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean 295–301.Google Scholar
Watrous, L. V. (1984) ‘Ayia Triada: a new perspective on the Minoan villa’, AJA 88, 123–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, M. (1991) ‘The nature and control of Minoan foreign trade’, in Gale, N. H. (ed.), Bronze age trade in the Mediterranean 325–50.Google Scholar
Wright, J. (1984) ‘Changes in form and function of the palace at Pylos’, in Palaima, T. G. and Shelmerdine, C. W. (eds.), Pylos comes alive 19–29.Google Scholar
Wyatt, W. F. (1966) ‘The Ma tablets from Pylos’, AJA 62, 21–41.Google Scholar
Younger, J. G. (1979) ‘The lapidary's workshop at Knossos’, ABSA 74, 258–68.Google Scholar
Zaccagnini, C. (1987) ‘Aspects of ceremonial exchange in the Near East during the late second millenium BC’, in Rowlands, M., Larsen, T. M. and Kristiansen, K. (eds.), Centre and periphery in the ancient world 57–65.Google Scholar