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Pottery from Late Helladic IIIB 1 Destruction Contexts at Mycenae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

Elizabeth French
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Whether it was caused by enemy action or by earthquake, the destruction of the houses outside the walls at Mycenae, particularly the group beside the modern road, south of the Tomb of Clytemnestra, has left a unique collection of pottery. For the Clytemnestra group at least it is a reasonable hypothesis, which the pottery and tablets do much to support, that the houses were destroyed in a single disaster. Though relatively complete publications of the several buildings in this area have already appeared, the pottery has not been published in detail nor considered as a whole. In this article it is intended to consider solely the evidence which this material gives for the definition of a period in the development of the pottery of Mycenae. This material consists entirely of whole or restorable vases and in this and other respects it is complementary to the group of fragments from the Prehistoric Cemetery (Central), published in the preceding article in this series, which illustrates the same or perhaps a slightly earlier phase.

Four major buildings were excavated in the area: the House of Shields, the House of the Oil Merchant, the West House, and the House of Sphinxes Fig. 1. Very little pottery was found in the House of Shields but in each of the others there was a considerable number of vases both painted and unpainted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 62 , November 1967 , pp. 149 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1967

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References

Abbreviations additional to those in standard use:

BM A = Catalogue of Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, vol. i: Part I: Prehistoric Aegean Pottery by E. J. Forsdyke.

CMP = Furumark, A., The Chronology of Mycenae Pottery (1941).Google Scholar

FM = Furumark Motive Number; MP 236 ff.

FS = Furumark Shape Number; MP 585 ff.

MP = Furumark, A., The Mycenaean Pottery (1941).Google Scholar

MT II = Bennett, E. L. et al., ‘The Mycenae Tablets II’, TAPS xlviii (1958), part 1.Google Scholar

MT III = Chadwick, J. et al., ‘The Mycenae Tablets III’, TAPS lii (1962), part 7.Google Scholar

Mylonas 1966 = Mylonas, G. E., Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age (1966).Google Scholar

Petsas 1950 = Papadimitriou, I. and Petsas, Ph., ‘Ἀνασκαφαί ἐν Μυκήναις’ PAE 1950, 203 ff.Google Scholar

Tiryns = Verdelis, N., French, E. and French, D., ‘Τίρυνς: Μυκηναϊκὴ Ἐπίχωσις ἔξωθεν τοῦ Δυτικοῦ Τείχους τῆς Ἀκροποπόλεως’, AD xx (1965) 139 ff.Google Scholar

Zygouries = Blegen, C. W., Zygouries (1928).Google Scholar

I should like to dedicate this work to the late Dr. N. M. Verdelis. It was typical of his scholarly approach and integrity that he gave me his full permission to have catalogued and include here all the pottery from his excavation of the West House (without which the usefulness of the article would be greatly impaired). My thanks are also due to Mr J. N. Postgate of Trinity College, Cambridge, who (with the assistance of a grant from the Classical Faculty) made a meticulous catalogue and photographic archive of the pottery from the West House on which this account is based.

1 Mylonas 1966, 221 ff.

2 Information of Dr. J. Chadwick.

3 BSA lviii (1963) 50.

4 For references see BSA lviii (1963) 50.

5 i.e. true ‘destruction level’ pottery, pottery that can be considered to have been in use at the moment of the destruction. All the sherd material has been ignored.

6 BSA lxi (1966) 216.

7 It is consequently less typical and for this reason it is discussed separately, after the pottery from the other three houses. See below, p. 178.

8 One terracotta figurine (52–166) can be tentatively assigned to the destruction level. An almost complete cow was found in the burnt fill of Room 3 (the entrance corridor to Room 4). It can be placed in the Linear 2 category because of its simplified decoration and body shape, though the lines on the body are actually curved. The legs are barred and the face striped.

9 For all unpainted pottery see below, p. 172.

10 A full study has not yet been made of the unpainted pottery from Room 1 which was not restored. During the excavation example pieces of all shapes were restored and either registered or recorded as ‘type examples' (i.e. the B(owl), C(up), and K(ylix) series illustrated in Figs. 16, 17, 18). The number of examples of each shape represented remains to be determined from the sixteen boxes of un-restored fragments in the Nauplia Museum.

11 The diameters are estimated only.

12 Nos. 2 and 3 have Foliate Band and no. 4Quirk.

13 No. 5 has ‘V’ Pattern FM 59 (but thicker as FM 60: 1); nos. 6 and 11 have ‘U’ Pattern FM 45: 3; no. 7Bivalve Shell chain FM 25: 27; no. 8Quirk FM 48: 15 with double ‘framed field’; nos. 9 and 10 vertical Wavy Lines FM 53: 33, 34.

14 No. 1 has Flower FM 18: ? 128 and a Stemmed Spiral beside the spout; no. 2 has a Flower like FM 18: 118 and an elongated variation beside the spout; no. 3 has FM 18: 130 and a Zigzag in the body zone; no. 4 has a body zone only (the shoulder seems undecorated) with a fine Wavy Line.

15 This shows very clearly in the photograph MT III, fig. 2.

16 MT III, 13 ff. The catalogue is based on that made by Mr. Postgate directly from the vases in the Nauplia Museum (exhibit and storeroom). Such indications of provenance as are pencilled on the pots or on labels attached to them are given but this does not always agree with the published indications, e.g. as in no. 114. Because of the death of Dr. Verdelis it has not been possible to resolve this discrepancy.

17 These have not, apparently, been restored, MT III, 23.

18 Some of this material has been illustrated previously. References are given to MT III which contains the widest range of illustration. Some of the photographs were also used elsewhere: MT III fig. 21 in PAE 1958, pl. 126a; fig. 22 in PAE 1958, pl. 125a; fig. 23 in PAE 1958, pl. 124b, Ergon 1958; fig. 134, Archaeology xiv (1961) 15; fig. 24 in PAE 1958, pl. 124a, Archaeology xiv (1961) 15; fig. 27 in PAE 1958, pl. 124c; fig. 49 in PAE 1958, pl. 127a, Ergon 1958, fig. 136. The detailed catalogue and photographs made by Mr. Postgate are available for reference in the library of the British School at Athens. The pots bear the numbers of that catalogue, and these have also been adopted in the list which follows. This pottery has now (summer 1967) been partially catalogued in the Nauplia Museum inventories. The numbers are as follows:

19 Unless otherwise indicated the examples of FS 173 are true globular, i.e. the greatest diameter lies at the half height of the body.

20 No explanation is available for this labelling. Dr. Verdelis illustrated the vase as from the house but this may have been in confusion for no. 45. The label sounds as if it refers to an area near the Bothros discussed below.

21 See pp. 186 f. for a chart of the occurrence of these shapes in the three houses, and pp. 192 f. for the over-all Shape/Pattern chart.

22 MP 592.

23 MT III 32.

24 BSA lii (1957), pl. 41e.

25 Zygouries, fig. 147.

26 Dr. V. Karageorghis has kindly informed me that he noted a somewhat similar pot (though with one handle) in the Rhodes Museum in 1956. From a photograph it seems to me to belong to L.H. IIIB 2.

27 50–227, 228, 229.

28 Nos. 7, 38, 40, 56, 67. No. 106 is similar.

29 My thanks are due to Dr. F. H. Stubbings for help in clarifying this definition.

30 This is not similar to FS 283 which is a small Deep Bowl in body with a single horizontal handle, cf. BSA lx (1965) 193.

31 The type is discussed by Dr.Karageorghis, , Nouveaux documents pour l'étude du Bronze Récent a Chypre (Paris, 1965) 207 f. No.Google Scholard is the closest to this example (pl. xvi, 3–4 and fig. 48/5 on p. 207). I am very grateful to Dr. Karageorghis for sending me this reference.

32 Petsas 1950, fig. 10, no. 138.

33 See above no. 46 and n. 20.

34 Petsas 1950, figs. 10, 13.

35 Desborough, (The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors (1964) 11)Google Scholar has misunderstood this distinction.

36 For a chart of the occurrence of patterns in the three houses see pp. 187 f.

37 See also Plate 38, a and Fig. 2. The patterns shown in Fig. 10: 3, 10 occur on Stirrup-Jars from the Bothros north of the West House, see below, pp. 179 f.

38 Fig. 11:3 and 4 are found on the pottery from the Bothros north of the West House; see below, pp. 179 f.

39 See also Plate 38, a 4.

40 Tiryns, figs. 1: 1, 2; 3: 1; 4: 1 (T 57, nos. 163, 655, 302, 164/300).

41 The type occurs at Pylos (Blegen, , The Palace of Nestor i (1966), fig. 375).Google Scholar It is very interesting to note that the Pylos pottery though often badly painted finds its closest parallels in the pottery of L.H. IIIB 1 at Mycenae.

42 For a chart of the occurrence of unpainted ware see pp. 189f.

43 BSA 1 (1955), pl. 28d; MT II, fig. 65; cf. MT III, fig. 63 which is the top only.

44 MT III, fig. 33.

45 BSA 1 (1955) pl. 28a and b; MT II, fig. 58.

46 MT III, figs. 36, 37, 40.

47 BSA 1 (1955), pl. 28c; MT II, fig. 69.

48 The fabric is a fine red gritty clay, very friable, with a washed and smoothed surface.

49 BSA xlix (1954), pl. 37d; MT II, fig.

50 Cf. FS 320 below.

51 MT III, fig. 38.

52 BSA 1 (1955) pl. 29a; MT II, figs. 54, 62.

53 MT III fig. 29 left.

54 BSA xlix (1954), pl. 37d; MT II, figs. 55, 61.

55 MT II, fig. 54.

56 Mycenae T 523: 7a.

57 Confusion with FS 222 may easily occur in sorting rim pieces.

58 Examples from Room 8 are illustrated in BSA 1 (1955), pl. 29a, MT II, fig. 62.

59 BSA 1 (1955), pl. 29a; MT II, fig. 62.

60 MT III, fig. 48.

61 MT II, figs. 59, 60.

62 FS 280, Zygouries, fig. 157.

63 MT II, fig. 54.

64 MT II, fig. 54.

65 MT II, fig. 63 left and 69 right; MT III, fig. 39.

66 MT II, fig. 69 centre.

67 BSA xlix (1954), pl. 37c; MT II, fig. 53.

68 MT II, fig. 52.

69 BSA xlix (1954), pl. 37b; MT II, fig. 56.

70 e.g. Schliemann, Tiryns, no. 58.

71 Based on the notes and sections made by Miss L. A. Witherill in 1955.

72 Cf. Fig. 20, no. 110 from the Bothros north of the West House.

73 PAE 1961, 165; Ergon 1961, 162.

74 The patterns are similar but several from the Bothros are not found in the West House itself.

75 BSA lxi (1966) 219 ff.

76 PAE 1961, pl. 120 b and c.

77 The catalogue numbers continue as this material is stored with that from the West House itself.

78 Illustrated PAE 1961, pl. 121 c right, 122 a.

79 Illustrated PAE 1961, pl. 121 c left.

80 Illustrated PAE 1961, pl. 121 b.

81 Illustrated PAE 1961, pl. 121 a.

82 Pl. 122b, Krater; pl. 123a, Conical Krater, Mug; pl. 123b, Shallow Bowls FS 295 rounded and angular.

83 It does, however, raise the question of the length of time that may be supposed to be covered by one of the groups of open shapes (e.g. the Prehistoric Cemetery, Central deposit) if so few open vessels were in use at any one moment.

84 Marinatos, , PAA xxxiii (1958) 161 ff.Google Scholar

85 e.g. those from the terraces below the House of Lead or the House of Shields (BSA lx (1965) 174 ff.)Google Scholar and from the deposit from the Prehistoric Cemetery, Central (BSA lxi (1966) 219).

86 BSA lx (1965) 173 f., 193, and pl. 54a 3.

87 BSA lxi (1966) 219.

88 Those illustrated Tiryns, fig. 5: 2, 3 are, however, of better than average quality and compare more closely with those from this group.

89 BSA lxi (1966) 223.

90 FS 249: BSA lx (1965), fig. 7: 24 but see also BSA lxi (1966) 220, fig. 2 though these are not spouted. FS 253 and FS 300: PAE 1950, 210, fig. 10.

91 BSA lx (1965) pl. 51b: 3, 53b: 1.

92 BCH lxxxvii (1963) 742 f., figs. 10, 12.

93 Discussed BSA lxi (1966) 222.

94 See above n. 20.

95 MT III, fig. 60. For this reason I have suggested that the house was not in use for very long.

96 BSA lx (1965) 183.

97 The examples from Mycenae and from Dendra quoted by Furumark, (FS 204: 4, 6)Google Scholar belong not to this period but to L.H. IIIA.

98 There are twenty-one complete examples even if the decoration and details of shape are extremely varied.

99 As Furumark did not distinguish any division in his list, all the groups quoted by him (CMP 64 ff.) will have to be restudied from this point of view. Only the material from Zygouries can be definitely assigned to L.H. IIIB 1.

100 It is planned to present the L.H. IIIB 2 material from the Perseia Trench L, in the next article in this series and with it a discussion on the criteria for dividing L.H. IIIB 1 from L.H. IIIB 2.

101 This division was originally made in 1960 when I studied the pottery evidence available for the chronological development of terracotta figurines and was deduced from the presence of features derived from L.H. IIIA 2 and the absence of the fundamental characteristic of L.H. IIIB 2, an overwhelming proportion of Deep Bowls.

102 These lower strata were first reached in the Citadel House in 1962 (BSA lviii (1963) 49, n. 74) and further evidence for the earlier period has been found in the two subsequent seasons of excavation. No detailed work has yet been done on the material.