Middle and Late Helladic Laconia: Competing principalities? (Publications of the Netherlands Institute at Athens)

Many new results on Middle and Late Bronze Age Laconia are presented in this volume, stemming from recent excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service as well as ongoing excavations, surveys and material studies by foreign schools and individual scholars. Among discussed settlements are the sites of Pellana, Palaiopyrgi, Geraki, Pavlopetri and Vrysika and also the island Kythera. The newly discovered palatial site at Ayios Vasileios is also elaborately discussed in various papers, including discussions of its North Cemetery, early Mycenaean pottery deposits, the West Stoa, and an outline of the habitation history and size of Ayios Vasileios compared to other palatial settlements.

More than 25 years have passed since the publication of a paper by Oliver Dickinson in which he wrote about central Late Helladic Laconia that he had an impression of “competing and unstable principalities in the early period and perhaps centrifugal tendencies”. In this volume we explore to what extent this impression is still justified. Especially considering the recent discovery of a palatial site at Ayios Vasileios. Indeed, this volume shows that in the past decades much has happened in Laconia with respect to what we know about the Bronze Age. We are therefore extra pleased that Oliver Dickinson has agreed to write an afterword to this volume.

Written by academics and those working in the fields of Bronze Age Greece, Laconia, ceramic analyses, architecture, survey, and photogrammetry this volume will be invaluable to students and practitioners with similar interests.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Middle and Late Helladic Laconia. Competing principalities?
Corien W. Wiersma & Maria P. Tsouli

The Eurotas Valley, Laconia, in the 2nd Millennium B.C.: The Area of Vapheio –Palaiopyrgi in Context
Emilia Banou, Anne P. Chapin & Louise A. Hitchcock

Southern Laconia in the Middle and Earlier Late Bronze Age: pottery from Pavlopetri and other sites
William Cavanagh, Chrysanthi Gallou, Ilias Spondylis & Jon Henderson

The curious case of an island: A preliminary account on the Northern Kythera Bronze Age Landscapes
Konstantinos P. Trimmis

The Ayios Vasilios Survey Project. A preliminary outline of the habitation history and size of Ayios Vasileios compared to other palatial settlements
Corien W. Wiersma, Wieke de Neef, Sofia Voutsaki & Adamantia Vasilogamvrou

Preliminary remarks on the stratigraphy of the West Stoa from the new Mycenaean palace at Ayios Vasileios, Laconia
Nektarios Karadimas, Adamantia Vasilogamvrou & Elina Kardamaki

A new Mycenaean settlement by the site Vrysika of Xirokambi
Maria P. Tsouli, Adrianna Kotsi & Dimitris Vlachakos

Geraki in the Middle Helladic and Shaft Grave Periods
Stuart MacVeagh Thorne & Mieke Prent

Geraki – from Middle to Late Helladic: ceramic evidence
Joost Crouwel

Ceramic Evidence on the Transition to the Mycenaean Era in Southern Laconia: Prehistoric Pottery from Passavas near Gytheio
Emilia Banou, Maria P. Tsouli & George Tsiaggouris

Throwing some light on the early history of the Mycenaean palace at Ayios Vasileios, Laconia: three early Mycenaean pottery deposits from Building Alpha
Dora Kondyli & Iro Mathioudaki

The relationship between Central and South Laconia during the Early Mycenaean period: The pottery evidence
Vasco Hachtmann & Sofia Voutsaki

The funerary landscape of Middle Helladic Laconia. The evidence from recent rescue excavations
Maria P. Tsouli, George Tsiaggouris & Aphrodite Maltezou

A new cemetery of the Late Bronze Age at Pellana, in the northern part of the Eurotas valley
Leonidas V. Souchleris

The North Cemetery at Ayios Vasilios: austerity and differentiation in the Early Mycenaean period
Sofia Voutsaki, Ioanna Moutafi, Vasco Hachtmann & Michael Dee

Construction, destruction, reconstruction: the architecture of the built tomb of the North Cemetery at Ayios Vasileios, Laconia
Yannick de Raaff, Sofia Voutsaki, Theo Verlaan & Gary Nobles

Permanence and becoming. A study into t