Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T03:32:29.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Burnt animal sacrifice at the Mycenaean ‘Palace of Nestor’, Pylos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Valasia Isaakidou
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London Wo1H OPY, England. v.isaakidou@ucl.ac.uk
Paul Halstead
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield S1 4ET, England. p.halstead@sheffield.ac.uk
Jack Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0226, USA. jack.davis@uc.edu, stockesr@email.uc.edu
Sharon Stocker
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH 45221-0226, USA. jack.davis@uc.edu, stockesr@email.uc.edu

Extract

The burnt sacrifice of bare (defleshed) bones, described in Homer's Odyssey and well documented from Archaic and Classical Greece, is now clearly attested by burnt faunal remains from the ‘Palace of Nestor’ at Mycenaean Pylos. This evidance is of great importance for understanding both the historical role of sacrifice in Greek religion and the significance of fensting in Mycenaean palatial society.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bammer, A. 1998. Sanctuaries in the Artemision of Ephesus, in , R. (ed.), Ancient Greek cult practice from the archaeological evidence: 2747. Stockholm: Swedish Institute at Athens.Google Scholar
Bergquist, B. 1988. The archaeology of sacrifice: Minoan-Mycenaean versus Greek, in Hägg et al. (ed.): 21–34.Google Scholar
Bergquist, B. 1993. Bronze Age sacrificial koine in the eastern Mediterranean? A study of animal sacrifice in the ancient Near East, in Quaegebeur, J. (ed.), Ritual and sacrifice in the ancient Near East: 1143. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters.Google Scholar
Bez, J.-F. 1995. Une expérience de découpe bouchère pratiquée au silex: aspects anatomiques, Préhistoire Anthropologic Méditerranéennes 4: 4150.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1978. Nunamiut ethnoarchaeology. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1981. Bones: ancient men and modem myths. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blegen, C. W. & Rawson, M.. 1966. The palace of Nestor at Pylos in western Messenia, 1: The buildings and their contents. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. 1973. Die Tierknochenfunde aus dem Kabiren-heiligtum bei Theben (Böotien). Munich: Institut für Palaeoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin der Universität Miinchen.Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. & von den Driesch, A.. 1988. Knochenabfall vnn Opfermahlen und Weihgaben aus dem Heraion von Samos. Munich: Institut für Palaeoanatomie, Domestikations-forschung und Gesehichtc der Tiermedizin dcr Universität München.Google Scholar
Burkert, W. 1983. Homo necans: the anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Davis, J. & Bennet, J.. 1999. Making Mycenaeans: warfare, territorial expansion, and representations of the other in the Pylian kingdom, in Laffineur, R. (ed.), Polemos: le contexte guerrier en Égée à l’Âge du Bronze: 10520. Liège: University of Liège. Aegaeum 19.Google Scholar
Davis, S. J. M. 1996. Animal sacrifices, in Buitron-Oliver, D., The Sanctuary of Apollo Hyiates at Kourion: Excavations in the Archaic Precinct: 1812. Göteborg: Paul Åström. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 109.Google Scholar
Detienne, M. 1989. Culinary practices and the spirit of sacrifice, in Delienne & Vernant (ed.): 1–20.Google Scholar
Detienne, M. & Vernant, J.-P. (ed.). 1989. The cuisine of sacrifice among the Greeks. Chicago (IL): Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Durand, J.-L. 1989. Greek animals: towards a topology of edible bodies, in Detienne & Vernant (ed.): 87–105.Google Scholar
Furley, W. D. 1981. Studies in the use of fire in ancient Greek religion. New York (NY): Arno Press.Google Scholar
Georcoudi, S. 1988. Galathiná: sacrifice el consummation de jeunes animaux en Grèce ancienne, Anthropozoologica special volume 2: 7582.Google Scholar
Godart, L. 1999. Les sacrifices d’animaux dans les textes mycéniens, in , S., Hiller, S., Panagl, O. and Nightingale, G. (ed.), Floreant studia mycenaea: Akten dcs 10 mykenologischen Kolloquiums 1995, Salzburg: 24954. Salzburg: Österreichische Akademie der Wissen-snhaften.Google Scholar
Hägg, R., Marinatos, N. & Nordquist, G. C. (ed.). 1988. Early Greek cult practice. Stockholm: Swedish Institute al Athens.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. & Jones, G.. 1992. Animal bones and burial customs in early iron age Thasos: the faunal remains from the cemeteries at Theologos, in Koukouli-Khrisanthaki, H., Proistoriki Thasos: 7535. Athens: Ministry of Culture.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. 1996. Wine, oil and the dialectics of power in bronze age Crete: a review of the evidence, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 15: 132.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. In press. Animal sacrifice and Mycenaean societies: preliminary thoughts on the zooarchaeological evidence from the sanctuary at Ag. Konstantinos, Methana. in E. Konsolaki (ed.), Proceedings of the first international congress on the history and archaeology of the Argo-Saronic gulf. Poros.Google Scholar
Jameson, M. H. 1988. Sacrifice and animal husbandry in classical Greece, in Whittaker, C. R. (ed.), Pastoral economies in classical antiquity: 87119. Cambridge: Philological Society. Supplementary volume 14.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. 1987. Piety begins at home: place-names on Knossos records of religious offerings, in Ilievski, P. Hr. and Crepajac, L. (ed.), Tractata mycenaea: proceedings of the eighth international colloquium on mycenaean studies, Ohrid: 16377. Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. 1994. Thebes sealings, Knossos tablets and mycenaean state banquets, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 39: 6784.Google Scholar
Killen, J. T. 1998. The Pylos Ta tablets revisited, Bulletin de Gorrespondance Hetlénique 122: 4212.Google Scholar
Klapper, C. 1994. Die Tierknochenfunde aus dem Apollon-Heiligtum in Didyma/Westtürkei. Unpublished dissertation, Institut für Palaeoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin der Universität München.Google Scholar
Lebessi, A. & Muhly, P.. 1990. Aspects of Minoan cult: sacred enclosures, Archäologischcr Anzeiger 22: 31536.Google Scholar
Liddell, H. G. & Scott, R.. 1950. A Greek-English lexicon (8th revised edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lyman, R. L. 1994. Vertebrate taphonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marinatos, N. 1988. The imagery of sacrifice: Minoan and Greek, in Hägg et al. (ed.): 9–19.Google Scholar
Nobis, G. 1993. Archäozoologische Unlersuchungen von Tierresten aus dem ‘Palast des Nestor’ bei Pylos in Messenien, SW-Peloponnes, Zeitschrift für Archäologie 27: 15173.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), Studia mycenaea 1988: 85–124. Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Ziva Antika monograph 7.Google Scholar
Peters, J. 1993. Archaic Milet: daily life and religious customs from an archaeozoological perspective, in Buitenhuis, H. & Clason, A. T. (ed.), Archaeozoology of the Near East: proceedings of the first international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwest Asia and adjacent areas: 8896. Leiden: W. Backhuys.Google Scholar
Reese, D. S. 1984. Faunal remains from the Kommos temples, Crete, American Journal of Archaeology 88: 257.Google Scholar
Reese, D. S. 1989. Faunal remains from the altar of Aphrodite Ourania, Athens, Hesperia 58: 6370.Google Scholar
Shelmerdine, C. W. 1999. Administration in the Mycenaean palaces: where’s the chief?, in Galaty, M. L. & Parkinson, W. A. (ed.), Rethinking Mycenaean palaces: 1924. Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.Google Scholar
Sherratt, E. S. 1990. ‘Reading the texts’: archaeology and the Homeric question, Antiquity 64: 80724.Google Scholar
Stanzel, M. 1991. Die Tierreste aus dem Artemis-/Apollon-Heiligtum bei Kalapodi in Böotien/Griechenland. Unpublished dissertation, University of Munich.Google Scholar
van Straten, F. 1994. Hiera kala: images of animal sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Vernant, J.-P. 1989. At man’s table: Hesiod’s foundation myth of sacrifice, in Detienne & Vernant (ed.): 21–86.Google Scholar
Schein, Vidal-Naquet. P. 1996. Land and sacrifice in the Odyssey: a study of religious and mythical meanings, in , S. L. (ed.), Reading the Odyssey: selected interpretive essays: 3353. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vila, E. 2000. Bone remains from sacrificial places: the temples of Athena Alea at Tegea and of Asea on Agios Elias (The Peloponnese, Greece), in Mashkour, M., Choyke, A. M., Buitenhuis, H. & Poplin, F. (ed.), Archaeozoology of the Near East: proceedings of the fourth international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwestern Asia and adjacent areas: 197205. Groningen: ARC.Google Scholar
Wright, J. 1994. The spatial configuration of belief: the archaeology of mycenaean religion, in Alcock, S. E. & Osborne, R. (ed.), Placing the gods: sanctuaries and sacred space in ancient Greece: 3778. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wright, J. 1996. Empty cups and empty jugs: the social role of wine in Minoan and mycenaean societies, in McGovern, P. E., Fleming, S. J. & Katz, S. H. (ed.), The origins and history of wine: 287309. Philadelphia (PA): Gordon & Breach.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, E. 1993. Die Tierreste aus dem archaischen Milet/Westtürkei (7. bis 5. Jh. v. Chr.). Unpublished dissertation, Institut für Palaeoanalumie, Domestikationsforschung und Geschichte der Tiermedizin der Universität München.Google Scholar