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Contextualizing Mycenaean Hoards: Metal Control on the Greek Mainland at the End of the Bronze Age

October 2018 (122.4)
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Contextualizing Mycenaean Hoards: Metal Control on the Greek Mainland at the End of the Bronze Age

122.4
Nicholas G. Blackwell
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This paper considers the Mycenaean metallurgical industry at the end of the Bronze Age through analysis of metal hoards and the tools found within them. An overview of second-millennium hoards from Crete and the Greek mainland is presented to contextualize the various objects from these assemblages. Patterns of implement inclusion reveal a repeated tool grouping in seven Mycenaean hoards, most associated with elite contexts. These Mycenaean caches, incorporating a range of complete and broken items, are traditionally considered recyclable scrap, but they need not be random accumulations. The repetitive tool grouping suggests a structural principle in hoard formations, perhaps dictated by the state. The Mycenaean assemblages from the late 13th or early 12th century B.C.E. highlighted here may represent either palatial stock within a citadel or an archaeological remnant of a metal ta-ra-si-ja allotment given to a smith. The identification of several hoards as metal disbursements from a palace complements the picture of Pylian administration of metal, attested only by the ta-ra-si-ja arrangements outlined in the Jn and Ja Linear B tablets.

More articles like this: 
Aegean
Metallurgy/Metalworking
Mycenaean
Small Finds
Trade
Greece

Contextualizing Mycenaean Hoards: Metal Control on the Greek Mainland at the End of the Bronze Age

By Nicholas G. Blackwell

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 122, No. 4 (October 2018), pp. 509–539

DOI: 10.3764/aja.122.4.0509

© 2018 Archaeological Institute of America

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