Crafts, Specialists, and Markets in Mycenaean Greece. Introduction

Past models of Mycenaean political economies have overemphasized the role of redistribution, thereby discouraging research into other modes of exchange. New perspectives have effectively questioned the hypothesis that palatial control over the economy was absolute, however. Consequently, it is now possible to imagine significant economic production and exchange outside of palatial purview, especially given the long and well-established history of craft specialization in the Aegean beginning in the Early Neolithic. In other parts of the world, Mesoamerica in particular, archaeological studies of craft specialization in early states have led scholars to infer the existence of regional markets much earlier than expected, leading to a reconsideration of the relationship between political and economic organization.