STATUS DISPLAY IN LATE BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE SANCTUARIES REVIEWED
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-04-04

Questions of status and cult in the Aegean Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Greece have traditionally been discussed in terms of different ”strata” of Late Bronze Age religious expression, accessibility to sanctuaries and the importance of sanctuaries as meeting places, boundary markers, and social arenas for the display of status markers and/or prestige goods. This paper examines how changing the sociopolitical framework influences questions of status display in sanctuaries across the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age-Transition in Greece by comparing inventories from sanctuaries of both chronological periods with those of contemporary settlements and burials. It will ask, how the find assemblage we look at as archaeologists came to be - what objects can conceivably be expected within a sanctuary? What rules may explicitly or implicitly govern the suitability of an object for its use in the cult? Which role do economic considerations play, especially when it comes to the shifting trade networks at the end of the Bronze Age? What kind of influence does a highly hierarchical society like the one during the Mycenaean palatial period have on how cult is conducted, as opposed to the social structures of the Early Iron Age? The archaeological record will be supplemented by a look at the written records of the Linear B tablets and Homeric Epic, to gain a more detailed insight into the processes that formed the find assemblages on a macro-, meso-, and micro-level, from larger societal influences down to regional needs and potential individual considerations.


Author(s): Berndt, Ulrike (None)