The missing landscape of the Mycenaean Argive Plain
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2020-12-01

The core area of the Mycenaean civilization, the Argive Plain in Greece, is famous for its mon-umental citadels and burial tombs from the Late Bronze Age. Much less is known about the general population and the ancient landscape, due to a research focus on the citadels and to large-scale sedimentation in the plain, which deeply buried the Mycenaean surfaces. We use GIS to specify how these research- and geomorphological biases influence our knowledge of the Argive Plain and attempt to quantify what is missing. We present a revised landscape model for the region, based on geology, geomorphology and ancient and modern land use. After drawing a parallel with neighbouring regions, where pedestrian surveys were carried out, we suggest that earlier interpretations of the Argive Plain as an urbanized landscape is in need of revision.


Victor Klinkenberg, Riia Timonen