The Legacy of Death at Pylos in Greece
Bronze Age Tombs Excavated by Carl W. Blegen
By (author) Joanne M.A. Murphy
Hardback (Forthcoming)
(November 2026)
ISBN: 9781931534413
8.5 x 11.02 inches
Price: $120.00
PDF (Forthcoming)
(December 2026)
ISBN: 9781623034467
Price: $120.00
This study provides the first full analysis of the Bronze Age tombs around the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, showing how changing mortuary practices reflected shifting power strategies within the Pylian state throughout the palace’s rise and decline.
This volume examines in depth the Bronze Age tombs that Carl W. Blegen excavated around the Palace of Nestor, of Homeric fame, at Pylos in Messenia. This palace constituted the largest regional economic center in southwestern Greece during the Bronze Age with evidence for high levels of craft specialization, production, and control of towns in the surrounding areas, and for a strict political hierarchy. As the earliest constructed, longest lived, and best preserved Mycenaean palace, Pylos holds a unique position in Late Bronze Age archaeology. The use of the tombs spans the rise and fall of the palace, yet to date, the immense wealth of data available from their excavations has not undergone comprehensive analysis and full publication until now. Through the detailed examination of the tombs and their contents presented here, this work changes the understanding of how power strategies utilized by the Pylian state in the mortuary arena during the life of the palace fluctuated over time.
1. Introduction; 2. Approach to the Data from Excavation; 3. Vayenas (Grave Circle); 4. Tholos III; 5. Trial Trenches and Tombs E-1 to E-4; 6. Tomb E-6; 7. Tomb E-8; 8. Tomb E-9; 9. Tomb E-10; 10. Tomb K-1; 11. Tomb K-2; 12. Chronology of the Tombs; 13. The Rise and Fall of Ano Englianos; 14. Ritual in the Tombs; 15. Wealth and the Creation and Maintenance of Pylian Society; 16. Cretan Connections at Pylos?; 17. Pylian Tombs in HIstorical Context
- By (author) Joanne M.A. Murphy
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