Death in late Bronze Age Greece: variations on a theme

"Late Bronze Age tombs in Greece and their attendant mortuary practices have been a topic of scholarly debate for over a century, dominated by the idea of a monolithic culture with the same developmental trajectories throughout the region. This book contributes to that body of scholarship by exploring both the level of variety and of similarity that we see in the practices at each site and thereby highlights the differences between communities that otherwise look very similar. By bringing together an international group of scholars working on tombs and cemeteries on mainland Greece, Crete, and in the Dodecanese we are afforded a unique view of the development and diversity of these communities. The papers provide a penetrative analysis of the related issues by discussing tombs connected with sites ranging in size from palaces to towns to villages and in date from the start to the end of the Late Bronze Age. This book contextualizes the mortuary studies in recent debates on diversity at the main palatial and secondary sites and between the economic and political strategies and practices throughout Greece. The papers in the volume illustrate the pervasive connection between the mortuary sphere and society through the creation and expression of cultural narratives, and draw attention to the social tensions played out in the mortuary arena"--

Introduction and discussion of late Bronze Age mortuary practices / Joanne M.A. Murphy -- Late Bronze Age tombs at the Palace of Nestor, Pylos / Joanne M.A. Murphy, Sharon R. Stocker, Jack L. Davis, and Lynne A. Schepartz -- "You can't take it with you" : the socio-political context of Changing burial traditions during the Mycenaean palatial period at Mycenae and Prosymna / Kim Shelton -- The Mycenaean cemetery of Deiras in a local and regional context / Nikolas Papadimitriou, Anna Philippa-Touchais, and Gilles Touchais -- The Mycenaean cemetery at Ayia Sotira, Nemea / R. Angus K. Smith, Mary K. Dabney, and James C. Wright -- The Mycenaean cemetery at Clauss, near Patras : the rise and fall of a local society towards the end of an era / Constantinos Paschalidis -- Death in early Mycenaean Achaea / Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki -- The chamber tombs of the Trapeza, Aigion : preliminary observations on rituals of a small Mycenaean community / Elizabetta Borgna and Gaspare De Angeli -- Claiming social identities in the mortuary landscape of the late Bronze Age communities of northern Greece / Sevi Triantaphylou and Stelios Andreou -- Landscape, feasting, and ancestors in the burial tradi…