Studies on the new Mycenaean palace of Ayios Vasileios in Laconia

Until recently, Laconia represented a conspicuous gap in the distribution of central administrative centres around the Greek mainland during the Mycenaean palatial period (14th 13th centuries B.C.E.). No sufficient explanation was given for this phenomenon that differentiated Laconia from other regions such as Messenia, the Argolid and Boeotia. In 2008, the discovery of five Linear B tablets during a rescue excavation on the hill of Agios Vasileios, 12 km south to the modern city of Sparta, required a reassessment of the political geography of the Greek mainland. The systematic excavation (20102014) revealed parts of an early Mycenaean cemetery, large buildings showing subsequent occupation levels of very good preservation and a monumental courtyard. The latter represents a typical architectural feature of palatial centres attested on the Greek mainland and Crete. In addition to this, the discovery of exceptional finds such as frescos, ivory statuettes, gold jewellery and bronze swords and, most notably, of an archive with Linear B tablets suggests that a new Mycenaean palace has been identified at Ayios Vasileios. The study of the rich and well-stratified pottery finds of Middle Helladic and Mycenaean type as well as of foreign typology from the newly discovered Mycenaean palace site of Ayios Vasileios in Laconia forms the objective of the envisaged project. The first task is the establishment of a chronological sequence of the habitation levels and destruction horizons identified at the site. To aid this process, pottery from well-stratified contexts dating from the early Mycenaean period until the end of the 13th / beginning of the 12th century B.C. (MH III LH III B2/LH III C Early) will be studied. Of particular interest is the dating of the major destruction horizon that struck the palace at the time of its greatest expansion and contained the Linear B archive. A first examination of the material suggests that this archive represents one of the oldest of the Greek mainland. Furthermore, the ceramic material is scheduled to be analyzed by different archaeometric methods (NAA, petrography, organic residue analyses) in order to gain insights into pottery production, distribution and use in Laconia. The ultimate goal is to contribute to a reevaluation of the development of Mycenaean Laconia in its wider Mediterranean context from the early Mycenaean (17th century B.C.E.) to the end of the palatial period (14th 13th century B.C.E.).

In Greece, the time between ca. 1400 and 1200 BCE was characterized by a political-economic system, at the head of which stood palaces as administrative centers using the script. While such palaces had been found from central Greece in the north to Crete in the south, the region of Laconia in the SE Peloponnese was until very recently one of the very few areas, from which such a palace was unknown. After its discovery in 2008, excavations conducted under the auspices of the Archaeological Society at Athens on the hill of Ayios Vasileios, 12 km south of Sparta, are bringing to light the missing Laconian palace, almost 140 years after the first Mycenaean palaces had been discovered at Mycenae and Tiryns in the NE Peloponnese. This new discovery has changed our perception of the Mycenaean political geography mainly due to the uncovering of an archive with clay tablets inscribed in an early version of the Greek language. An FWF project lead by Reinhard Jung from 2015 to 2020 had at its core the pottery studies conducted by Eleftheria Kardamaki in cooperation with a team of top specialists from various fields of archaeometry at universities and research centers in Greece, the UK, Germany and Austria. The study of the pottery from the newly discovered palace is essential for providing not only the necessary chronological frame for understanding its history but also for reconstructing the consumption practices of its inhabitants as well as its political subjects such as cooking and drinking. An important outcome of the project is the determination of the dates for construction and destruction of the palace, around 1370 BCE and 1250 BCE respectively. The destruction of Ayios Vasileios was caused by a severe conflagration, during which the palace archive was sealed giving us a snap-shot of its administrative practices around 1250 BCE. However, the destruction date is even more significant when placed within the broader political and historic background. It suggests that the palace of Laconia was destroyed 50 years earlier than the other mainland palaces at Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns and Thebes. Another important result of our study has to do with the ways in which Laconian pottery workshops were operating. After the establishment of the palace the potters started to produce massively drinking cups that were used in large gatherings of people such as religious feasts sponsored by the palace. In an international workshop organized by R. Jung and E. Kardamaki in November 2018 the new evidence from Ayios Vasileios served as an opportunity to re-investigate the end of the Mycenaean palaces together with scholars working at different palatial sites, focusing on the synchronization of palace destructions for a new reconstruction of the history of Early Greece.