Konstantinos Kalogeropoulos

Excavations of the Archaeological Society at Athens in 1884 below the Periclean Telesterion in Eleusis brought to light an important ritual assemblage of broken and burned portable objects dated mainly to the 7th century BC, the so-called “pyre A”.  This paper examines the structural relations of the symbols operating in pyre A and then compares the symbolic system of this ritual assemblage with that of the Hymn to Demeter, which in this study is considered as the accompanying religious conceptual scheme for pyre A.
In order to identify the structural relations of the symbols, the latter have been divided into three levels.  Their comparative examination has shown that the activities conducted at pyre A are the closing part of a complex set of successive rituals. Prior to this, another (hypothetical at present) ritual must have taken place, consisting of a performance which involved display.

MYCENAEAN GREY WARE AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON
During LH IIIA1–LH IIIB1, a very small part of the population in Mainland Greece used a distinctive ceramic ware consisting of Mycenaean forms produced in a grey fabric and known as Mycenaean Grey Ware (MGW). In the past, the understanding of this phenomenon was primarily that the ware was derived from preexisting Grey Minyan ceramic traditions. In this article we argue that the MGW phenomenon can be better understood, if considered from a social perspective.
Using a systematic evaluation of published data, this article demonstrates that MGW vases in Mainland Greece were not survivors of Grey Minyan, but rather that they belonged to a contemporary social phenomenon specifically commissioned for funerary use, something also known from other areas such as the Upper, Middle and Lower East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface, as well as Crete. The combined study of MGW from these regions traditionally studied in isolation reveals some insights into the interconnected world of the Aegean during the acme of the Mycenaean palatial period. A remarkably homogeneous and interregional range of pottery shapes (mostly miniatures representing a combination of drinking and pouring types, Figs. 3-7), the skeuomorphic role of the shapes (representing in almost every case adaptations of metal, especially silver, vases) and the commonly repeating distribution pattern (either close to the sea or on natural crossroads, Fig. 8), all these are features which indicate common practices of social groups and activities.
Study of the contexts shows, however, far more variability than was suspected previously. In contrast to the southern Greek and lower Interface communities, where MGW vases occur in tombs of middle or even lower class status groups, in their Thessalian and upper Interface counterparts the practice of depositing MGW vases seems to have been an elite activity.
One potentially surprising result of this work is the discovery of an LH IIIA2 Grey askos (FS 195) in the family grave Ηπ3 in the West cemetery of Eleusis, where a steatite mould for casting metal finger rings was deposited some generations before, in LH IIA (Fig. 9). This slender evidence might just suggest some connection existed between the owner of the Eleusinian MGW vase (metal-inspired) and an earlier member of his family who was a metal-worker. This hypothesis needs substantial verification, from further excavation and analysis.

SUMMARY: COSMIC STRUCTURES AND OFFICIAL RITUALS. THE CASE OF THE CENTRAL PALATIAL MEGARON IN PYLOS
It has been almost 80 years since the discovery of the Mycenaean palatial megaron in Pylos and few would disagree today with the view that religious rituals were performed in these three-room structures located at the center of the Mycenaean palaces. This is clear from the cultic installations in the throne room and the painted wall fragments with depictions of ritual actions. However, these ritual actions, even in their more rudimentary features, remained poorly defined, leading to many generalizations regarding the religious responsibilities of the wa-na-ka as well as their ritual frame.
James Wright (1994) has argued that the Mycenaean palatial megaron and especially the central hearth-fire, as a sort of an axis mundi, was the place where the wa-na-ka performed key rituals for the stability and well being of the state. This idea provides the starting point for this paper, which, through a reinterpretation of the archaeological data of the central palatial megaron of Pylos, seeks to explore the utility of this cosmological approach. The aim of this paper is to proceed to a better understanding of the nature, scope and motivations of the religious rituals conducted here by the wa-na-ka.
The paper  first examines the most important structural relations of the symbolical elements, that is the ways by which the various symbols relate to the most crucial focuses of attention within the central palatial megaron of Pylos: the central hearth and the area of the throne (Section III). The idea behind is that the operation of the rituals presupposes the operation of the ritual frame. The focus turns to the definition of the religious rituals (section IV) performed within the operational subsystem just defined (mainly libations). In a third step ritual frame and rituals are interrelated in an attempt to create meaning (section V). In the fourth step (section VI), we evaluate the representative character of the results by analyzing those rituals, which were connected to the throne room of the Pylian megaron but were not performed in its interior.
The results of our study (section VII) confirm Wright’s prediction regarding the symbolic role of the wa-na-ka as ritual practitioner and the fundamental symbolic meaning of the ritual frame as well.
Concerning the role of the wa-na-ka: Our analysis has shown that inside the throne room (on an intra-spatial level), the responsibility to perform these key rituals seems to have been confined to the wa-na-ka. Furthermore, the examination of the symbolical elements related to him show that he was an important person, to whom the wildness of the nature was transferred (griffin, lion). A personal connection between the wa-na-ka and the symbolism of the changing seasons (waterbirds) can also be observed.
Concerning the symbolic meaning of the ritual frame, not only the hearth-fire (center of the world), but the whole ritual frame was apparently represented in cosmological terms. The four columns are of central importance, since they are connected to the four cardinal points, thereby indicating a connection to the four winds, the four seasons or the four natural elements. One of the most interesting results of our study derives from the reading of the painted  oor squares as symbols of the water and especially the deep-seawater. This supports an interpretation of the undecorated squares as representations of land. When seeing together, the combination of decorated (seawater) and non-decorated (land)  floor-squares seems to represent the icon of the island of Thera, the indexical symbol of the major catastrophic eruption of LM IA and of related geological phenomena, such as earthquakes and tsunami. Under these circumstances, the icon ‘fire in the deep-seawater’ may be understood as a symbolic representation of the unpredictable and violent natural force, to which the libations of the wa-na-ka were obviously addressed, as a means of appeasing it. Judging from its importance in Late Mycenaean Pylos, it is not improbable to suggest that this violent natural force resting in the sea was the Mycenaean Poseidon.
Outside of the central megaron, several rites have been attested (procession, bull sacrifice, feasting) but these seem to have been addressed to a very broad audience and to have been related not only to the gods (especially to Poseidon) but also to the ancestors (tholos tombs IV and III).

This article presents a detailed analysis of a pottery assemblage of the Early Helladic period discovered in the course of the wider archaeological project of the Rhamnous excavations conducted under the direction of Βasileios Ch. Petrakos. The ceramic material comprises potsherds from Early Helladic (EH) I to EH II Late, and also includes a clay hearth rim with a sealed impression (fig. 11, β-ε, no. 35). All the artifacts, including a Melian obsidian blade (fig. 12, no. 41) are unstratified and were collected during a surface recovery in the Pazaraki peninsula in June 1996. Pazaraki (fig. 3), which is located at the entrance of the South Euboean Gulf, only 2 km south of the strategic coastal acropolis of Rhamnous (fig. 2), is situated on an important sea route connecting the Cyclades to the Euboean Gulf. It has a panoramic view to the Euboean sites of Almyropotamos and Nea Styra. The detailed macroscopic analyses and classifications of ceramic wares and vessel shapes from Pazaraki have allowed: (a) the identification of five Ware Groups (A, B, Γ, Δ, Ε) and 12 Ware Types (A1α, Α1β, Α1γ, Α1δ, Α1ε, Α2α, Α2β, Β1, Γ1α, Δ1α, Ε1α, Ε2) (fig. 4), (b) the construction of a local chronological sequence comparable to the developments in central and southern Greece (Chapter III), (c) the possible identification of “Ware Group A”, the most common ware encountered, as a local or at least regional product, (d) the identification of close relations to the EH I and EH II pottery of Central Euboea (especially to the sites Kalogerovrysi, Manika 2-3 and Amarynthos) and finally (e) the tracing of artifacts not available locally, such as the potsherds of the Cycladic “Talc Ware” (fig. 12, no. 36-37), which document interaction with groups of people from the Cyclades (chapter IV). The sealed hearth rim from Pazaraki (no. 35), which is related to communal dining practices as known from Lerna III C-D and period II of Ayia Irini on Kea, indicates that such a feast or a ceremony might have been conducted in Pazaraki during EH II developed and EH II late, too and possibly provided an opportunity for the mentioned interactions (chapter V). Chapter VI provides a summary of the assemblage character and significance and tries to place it in its wider local and regional context. It is suggested that Pazaraki was the
harbour of Early Helladic Rhamnous and played a significant role as a stop-over for the ships on their way towards the South Euboean Gulf and vice versa.