Yasur-Lau Assaf. Household Archaeology in Ancient Israel and Beyond
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Figure 2. Pylos, LHIIIB: plan of the palace (Blegen and Rawson 2001: back cover inside; courtesy of the
Trustees of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens).
household archaeology in lhiiic tiryns 213
Figure 3. Pylos, LHIIIB: Detail of the feasting fresco from the central room of
the megaron (detail from Wright 2004: 163 Fig. 13; courtesy of the Trustees
of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens).
show the members of the elite sitting in pairs at small tables in the
megaron (Fig. 3). e king, however, seems to have been seated alone
on his throne along the northeastern wall of the room. e inventory
lists of chairs and tables for feasting preparations found at Pylos also
point to pairs of drinkers. For example, the Ta-tablets list 22 chairs
and 11 tables as feasting furniture, which was probably arranged in a
way similar to the depiction in the feasting fresco.
8
8
For the feasting fresco cf. Wright 2004: 163 Fig. 13. e drinking vessels on the
feasting fresco from Pylos are reconstructed aer the Campstool fresco in the palace
of Knossos, where the drinkers hold kylikes or chalices in their hand; for the inven-
tory lists, see Palaima 2000: 237; 2004: 235. erefore, Stocker and Davis (2004: 191)
consider it meaningful that 22 miniature kylikes were found together with burnt cattle
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e architecture of the palace and the distribution of nds suggest
a hierarchy of feasting in which every participant had a place in or in
front of the palace corresponding to his position in society. Every par-
ticipant got his own drinking vessel; everyone was allotted his portion.
9
One’s spatial position in the context of feasting was a direct image of
one’s social position. Feasting in the Palatial period can therefore be
regarded as the enforcement and illustration of a preexisting, tight,
and strongly hierarchical social order.
Although no pottery has been preserved from the palace in Tiryns,
its architectural concept shows similarities to that at Pylos to such a
large extent that the concepts of feasting identied in Pylos should
also have been realized in Tiryns. erefore, one can conclude that
dierent parts of the population had dierent access to the three huge
courtyards in the palace area in Tiryns as well. ose who had no
access to the palatial feastings at all were outsiders in all respects, as
the practices performed in the courtyards were not visible from out-
side, e.g., from the Lower Citadel or the Lower Town.
10
Elite Household Activities in Post-Palatial Tiryns
e Palatial period came to a sudden end around 1200 bce, when
the already weakened social system broke down. A combination of
several earthquakes, economic problems, and social conicts resulting
from the exploitation of subjects and warlike operations was prob-
ably responsible for this catastrophe. Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns
were destroyed by huge res within a short period of time. e tight
hierarchical social system, the centralized administration, the writing,
and most of the specialized cras ended together with the palaces;
however, the Mycenaean culture as such did not. In the Post-Palatial
period, Tiryns experienced a unique eorescence and, as a result, is
and deer bones in room 7, as they may represent animal sacrice in the context of
feasting activities. ey attribute these 22 vessels to the 22 members of the feasting
elite who were sitting on the 22 chairs (cf. also Sherratt 2004: 321–322 n. 80).
9
Day and Wilson (2004: 57) emphasize the fact that this is a totally dierent kind
of social interaction compared to the use of one collective drinking vessel: “One would
have to serve/be served from the larger bowls to individual receptacles, emphasizing
the position of the individual within the social milieu.”
10
For the performative character of the practices conducted in the Upper Citadel
of Tiryns, see Maran 2006b and 2006c.
household archaeology in lhiiic tiryns 215
regarded as one of the most important sources for this period on the
Greek mainland. Aer the destructions of ca. 1200 bce, a large num-
ber of refugees moved to Tiryns and built a sizeable settlement around
the devastated citadel (Kilian 1978a: 468, 470; 1980: 171). e Upper
Citadel, where once the king’s palace had stood, was le in ruins. In
the center of the palace’s ruins, however, a small isolated building was
erected, which probably served as an assembly room for the new elite:
a new megaron within the old one (cf. Maran 2000, 2001a). is new
megaron replaced the palatial throne, but it was not furnished with a
new one or a new huge central round hearth. In this new building, it
was not an almighty king who ruled and sacriced like the wanax of
the Palatial period. Instead, it probably served as the meeting place
of the heads of inuential families that did not have their residential
houses on the Upper Citadel. e ruins of the destroyed palace were
le standing around the new building as a memorial of a bygone form
of rule, and the elites of the Post-Palatial period built their residences
in the new settlement around the citadel rock.
Important insights into the Post-Palatial Lower Town of Tiryns
were revealed by the excavations conducted to the north of the Lower
Citadel.
11
e results of the two excavations north of the Tirynthian
Citadel were especially fruitful because this area had been le unde-
veloped since the beginning of the thirteenth century bce, because
it was situated in an area ooded by a river. is river was rerouted
aer 1250 bce by the construction of a huge dam-and-channel system
that created potential building land. However, no building activity can
be detected in that area prior to the ca. 1200 bce destruction of the
palace. e part of the Lower Town north of the Citadel was situated
on relatively sterile river sediments; therefore, it can be deduced that
the excavated artifacts found in the Northeastern and Northwestern
Lower Town were all brought to this area in the Post-Palatial period,
be it intentionally as household equipment or unintentionally as small
sherds mixed into the earth used as mudbrick material. In the following,
11
e initial excavations in this area took place northwest of the Citadel, called the
“Northwestern Lower Town,” under the supervision of Klaus Kilian in 1976 (Stadt-
Nordwest; Kilian 1978a; Mühlenbruch 2005). A further excavation was undertaken to
the northeast of the Lower Citadel, the so-called Northeastern Lower Town, under the
supervision of Joseph Maran in cooperation with the Fourth Ephorate of the Greek
Antiquity Service in 1999 and 2000 (Stadt-Nordost; Maran and Papadimitriou 2006).
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I will focus on some selected well-preserved vessels, which I assume
were brought intentionally into the Post-Palatial buildings there.
Signicant architectural remains of the rst settlement phase
(LHIIIC Early) aer the destruction of Tiryns were only preserved in
the Northwestern Lower Town. Despite a lack of architectural evidence
and closed in situ oor deposits, a number of complete or restorable
pots were also found in Phase 1 in the Northeastern Lower Town.
In the bulk of pottery from this settlement phase, three vessels stand
out the presence of which in a Post-Palatial context is surprising: a
jug with a cutaway neck (FS 136) whose shoulder depicts a staggered
arrangement of vertical whorl-shells (FM 23: 9) with a knob and a
small dot rosette (FM 27: 23) under the handle base (Fig. 4: 120); the
majority of a qualitatively outstanding conical-piriform stirrup jar (FS
166) that features a polished surface and glossy orange paint (Fig. 5:
66); and many fragments of a large piriform jar (FS 19) bearing a frieze
of argonauts (FM 22) on the shoulder zone with their arms stylized as
spirals (Fig. 4: 2435).
e analysis of formal, stylistic, and technical features suggests that
these three vessels were produced long before the Post-Palatial period.
e jug with the cutaway neck was probably produced in LHIIIB1
(early thirteenth century bce). e stirrup jar nds its best parallels in
LHIIIA2 Mycenae, e.g., the stirrup jars from Petsas’s House (Papadim-
itriou and Petsas 1950: esp. 208 Fig. 6; French 1965: 171–172). e
piriform jar from the Northwestern Lower Town should be dated to
LHIIIA1 at the latest, based on the argonaut motif (cf. Niemeier 1985:
24–28; Mountjoy 1986: 52–53. esp. 53 Fig. 58) and was therefore pro-
duced at the beginning of the fourteenth century bce, which means
that the vessel was already two-hundred years old when it broke in
the context of its use in the Lower Town. ese three vessels were cer-
tainly brought to the Lower Town aer the destruction of the palace.
Consequently, there is evidence that, immediately aer 1200 bce, the
inhabitants of Tiryns had access to pottery that was over one-century
old. It is hard to imagine that those vessels could have survived the
earthquake that destroyed Tiryns at the end of the Palatial period inside
the settlement’s buildings, and large ceramic vessels were probably not
the inhabitants’ rst choice of salvage as they ed. In my view, the
only plausible explanation is that, at the beginning of the Post-Palatial
period, some families took conspicuous, representational vessels out
of the old, oen still-used, chamber tombs in their surroundings and
integrated them into their household pottery repertoire. erefore, it
household archaeology in lhiiic tiryns 217
Figure 4. Tiryns, Northeastern Lower Town (66 and 120) and Northwestern
Lower Town (2435), phase 1, LH III C Early 1/2: painted ne ware. For the
vessels’ numbers cf. the catalogue of Stockhammer 2008.
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Figure 5. Tiryns, Northeastern Lower Town, Phase 2, LHIIIC Early 2: vessels found in situ; for vessel
numbers, see the catalogue of Stockhammer 2008.
household archaeology in lhiiic tiryns 219
is not surprising that the best parallels for two of the three vessels
from the Lower Town are found in the Palatial chamber tombs of the
Argolid, especially at Asine.
12
I believe that the meaning of these vessels for the inhabitants of
Tiryns should be seen in the context of a semiotic transformation
from the Palatial to the Post-Palatial period. At the end of the Palatial
period, the rule of the wanax and his power over images and sym-
bols both broke down. Some palatial media came to an end with the
palatial system. Others, like ivory carving and fresco painting, contin-
ued, but on a much reduced scale (cf. Maran 2006a: 127–128, 134–135
n. 19). ese developments may have been the result of a shortage of
raw materials, the absence of potential customers, or social restrictions
(Rutter 1992: 62, 65, 70, 72 n. 10; Maran 2006a: 128, 142–144). e lib-
eration of media from the monopolized palatial canon resulted in the
symbolic revaluation of media, like pottery, that were still accessible to
the surviving old elites and those trying to join this social group aer
the destruction of the palaces. e end of the palaces seems to have
led to the replacement of the wanax and his administrative system
by a group of aristocratic families. e strong and tight hierarchies
were replaced by a dynamic and permeable social system. e social
position of one’s family was based on a network of personal relations
and had to be defended and justied on a constant basis. In this new
system, conditions or characteristics such as family traditions, peer
groups, and/or certain qualications could play an essential part in the
competition for social roles. In order to improve their position in this
contest for power and legitimacy, members of the elite manipulated
their material surroundings. erefore, feasting in the Post-Palatial
period took place against a completely dierent social background;
it now provided a special opportunity to win respect, prestige, and,
ultimately, moral authority, which enabled people to exert politi-
cal inuence in a society with permeable hierarchies. With regard
to pottery, this was manifested in increasing depictions of competi-
tion, hunting, and ghting scenes in pictorial pottery (Deger-Jalkotzy
1991a: 64; 1991b: 147–149; 1994: 20–22; 1995: 376; Rutter 1992: 63;
12
e best parallels for the amphora were found in necropolis I, chamber tomb
2 of Asine, e.g., a conical-piriform amphora FS 19 with argonauts on the shoulder
zone (Frödin and Persson 1938: 379 Fig. 248, 3; 380) and another conical-piriform
amphora FS 34 with vertical whorl-shells, rosettes, and monochrome-painted knobs
on the shoulder zone (Frödin and Persson 1938: 378, 379 Fig. 248, 2).
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Güntner 2000: 198; Maran 2006a: 143). Considering the important
social function of common feasting, it was highly possible, and prob-
ably desirable, to acquire a set of pottery that represented the spirit of
the palatial system in its heyday. What could be more obvious than
helping oneself to the objects in one’s family chamber tomb when it
was opened for a new burial? It is also possible that some vessels were
taken from the chamber tombs of those families that did not survive
the catastrophic events at the end of the Palatial period. An antique set
of pottery enabled a family to show o its old traditions before guests
and thus lay claim to an important position in the Post-Palatial period
(cf. also Deger-Jalkotzy 1991a: 64–66; 1991b: 148–149; 1995: 375–376;
1996: 25; Maran 2001a: 119–121; 2006a: 142–144).
More insights into the self-representation of the Post-Palatial elite
are gained by considering the evidence from the second settlement
phase in the Northeastern Lower Town. Of special importance in this
context is a building with the large room 8/00, divided by at least two
parallel rows of columns on stone bases (Maran and Papadimitriou
2006: 105, 108–111). is room was arranged around a courtyard with
other buildings. Architecturally, this building belongs to the small
number of typical Post-Palatial buildings that includes the Post-Palatial
megaron on the Upper Citadel of Tiryns, the so-called megaron W in
the Southeastern Lower Town of Tiryns and the Post-Palatial megaron
at Midea (Walberg 1995: 87–89; Maran 2000: 12–13; 2004b: 278; Maran
and Papadimitriou 2006: 110). It can therefore be considered the resi-
dential building of an elite family of Post-Palatial Tiryns. Room 8/00
diers from most of the contemporaneous buildings in Tiryns and the
other Post-Palatial settlements not only because of its sheer size and
the rows of columns, but also in its use of exceptionally large ashlars
(Maran 2001b: 640; 2001c: 30; 2004b: 278; Maran and Papadimitriou
2006: 105) and its ceramic equipment, which I will discuss later.
Around 1150 bce, at the end of pottery phase LHIIIC Early, room
8/00 was destroyed by re. In this special case, we can speak of a “Pom-
peii eect,” which is shown by the cooking pots still found standing on
the hearth containing bones cut into pieces,
13
showing that the soup
13
Inside one of the cooking amphorae, the lower jaw of a pig of three-years or
younger was found. It had been cut into several pieces—one of which still contained a
molar—in order to extract the marrow. Boiling of butchered lower jaws has also been
documented in Khamalevri on Crete in LMI, where a lower jaw and several teeth of a
goat were found inside of a cooking amphora (Tzedakis and Martlew 1999: 68).
household archaeology in lhiiic tiryns 221
or stew was still cooking when the building burned down. e clay
roof collapsed into the room, whereas the room’s eastern wall fell over
the courtyard, covering the vessels that were in use at the moment
of the destruction. It can be deduced from the spatial distribution of
the complete vessels in room 8/00 and in the courtyard that the re
broke out while feasting activities were taking place in the courtyard
in front of room 8/00. is exceptional situation documents the spa-
tial and material staging of Post-Palatial feasting in a unique man-
ner. Fig. 5 shows the spatial position of all vessels that I assume were
in situ.
14
I try to take the vessels’ dierent dimensions into account
here; however, one has to consider that vessels were only preserved
in situ in those areas of the courtyard that were covered by the room’s
collapsed wall. As already mentioned, the position of some cooking
pots and their contents show that the re broke out while food was
being prepared. Four of the ten nearly identical cooking amphorae
(FS 66) were found on the hearth (Fig. 7: 1207; Stockhammer 2008:
cat. nos. 1206–1209), another was found in the entrance area, and
one in the courtyard. It appears that some inhabitants of room 8/00
were busy preparing huge amounts of food and had already taken one
cooking pot with prepared food to the courtyard and placed it next
to the only ceramic food dish that was found in the context of room
8/00: a deep bowl (FS 284; Fig. 6: 1198) with running spiral decoration
(FM 46). e absence of shallow and deep bowls in the ceramic inven-
tory of the room is surprising, as these forms regularly dominate
Palatial and Post-Palatial ceramic assemblages. I explain this lack of
ceramic food dishes by the use of metal plates that were retrieved from
the room or the courtyard at the outbreak of the re.
For the purpose of the feast, nearly all of the drinking vessels from
room 8/00 had been carried out into the courtyard and placed in pairs.
Two pairs of nearly identical kylikes were arranged to the north and
to the south of the entrance (FS 274; Fig. 6: 1194, 1195; Stockhammer
2008: cat. nos. 1194, 1195, 1201E, 1201F). In each pair, one kylix was
of slightly greater volume than the other. One might ask if the dier-
ent volumes reect social imbalances in the pairs of drinkers, such
as hierarchical dierences or gender disparity. A pair of small cups
14
e numbers on the vessels are the catalogue numbers under which these ves-
sels are listed and discussed in my Ph.D. dissertation (Stockhammer 2008). All vessels
from the inventory of room 8/00 are illustrated there.