Michael Cosmopoulos
University of Missouri - St. Louis, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Greek Literature, Greek Archaeology, Ancient Greek History, Ancient Greek and Roman Art, Greek Myth, Aegean Archaeology, and 9 moreAegean Prehistory (Archaeology), Aegean Bronze Age (Bronze Age Archaeology), Early Christianity, New Testament, Greek Patristics, Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics, Early Christian Papyri and Inscriptions, History of Reception of Biblical Texts, and Revue Archéologiqueedit
- Professor of Greek History and Archaeology; the Hellenic Government-Karakas Foundation Chair in Greek Studies, University of Missouri-St. Louisedit
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This volume constitutes the final publication of the Archaeological Survey at Iklaina
Research Interests: Aegean Bronze Age (Bronze Age Archaeology), Aegean Prehistory (Archaeology), Spartan/Messenian history, Messenian Identity, Mycenaean era archaeology, and 7 moreAegean Archaeology, Mycenaean, Aegean Late Bronze Age, Mycenaean pottery, Minoan and Mycenaean economy and administration, Pylos, and Elis - Messenia - Achaea - Ionian islands
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Research Interests: Mysteries (Greek Religion), Mycenaean era archaeology, Mystery Cults, Ancient Mysteries, Mycenaean pottery, and 9 moreMiddle Helladic Pottery, Middle Helladic period, Mycenaean religion, Eleusinian Mysteries, The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, Eleusis, Festival of Eleusis, Mysteries of Eleusis, and Archaeological Museum of Eleusis
Full text of the book
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Page 1. GREEK MYSTERIES The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults Michael B. Cosmopoulos R Routledge Tayl of &. r ra ricis C rou p LONUON AND NtW YOKK Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN... more
Page 1. GREEK MYSTERIES The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults Michael B. Cosmopoulos R Routledge Tayl of &. r ra ricis C rou p LONUON AND NtW YOKK Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Page 2. ...
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Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
The paper examines whether Attica was a unified Mycenaean state in the LBA or a politically fragmented region.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington University, 1991. Dept. of Art History and Archaeology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 580-613).
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ABSTRACT Burnt animal sacrifice is well attested in Greek historical times, but whether it was practised in the Mycenaean period is debated. Until now, the lack of architectural structures suitable for the ritual burning of animals and... more
ABSTRACT Burnt animal sacrifice is well attested in Greek historical times, but whether it was practised in the Mycenaean period is debated. Until now, the lack of architectural structures suitable for the ritual burning of animals and the ambiguity surrounding the interpretation of burnt faunal assemblages have been used as arguments against the occurrence of such sacrifices in the Late Bronze Age. In this paper, it is proposed that the platform in front of the Mycenaean Megaron B at Eleusis was an altar used for burnt animal sacrifices and that a group of burnt pig bones found in a drain in front of this platform was burnt ritually on the platform and then swept into the drain.
Research Interests: History and Archaeology
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The paper examines whether Attica was a unified Mycenaean state in the LBA or a politically fragmented region.
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En 1989, le Departement des Etudes classiques de l'Universite de Manitoba lanca une prospection intensive visant les environs d'Oropos, le Oropos Survey Project (OSP). Les resultats acquis nous permettent de tenter une... more
En 1989, le Departement des Etudes classiques de l'Universite de Manitoba lanca une prospection intensive visant les environs d'Oropos, le Oropos Survey Project (OSP). Les resultats acquis nous permettent de tenter une reconstitution de l'histoire generale d'Oropos et d'etudier les facteurs qui l'ont influencee. Cet article examine l'occupation prehistorique de ce territoire basee sur 26 sites prehistoriques decouverts grâce au OSP. Il existait durant l'Helladique ancien un certain nombre de petits habitats formant des groupes. Pour l'Helladique moyen, on ne connait qu'un habitat; pour l'Helladique recent, deux habitats. Les processus de decentralisation et de centralisation peuvent s'expliquer par un changement des conditions economiques et politiques. On pourrait expliquer la decentralisation de l'Helladique ancien Il par une croissance des liens economiques, l'utilisation intensive des ressources regionales et l'absence d'un pouvoir central, tandis que la centralisation operee a la fin de l'Helladique moyen et a l'Helladique recent serait le resultat d'une consolidation politique et d'un controle centralise des ressources economiques.
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For a long time, the emergence of Aegean states was explained in terms of general evolutionist models based on evidence from a handful of major palatial sites. Recently, however, a growing emphasis on regional diversity has demonstrated... more
For a long time, the emergence of Aegean states was explained in terms of general evolutionist models based on evidence from a handful of major palatial sites. Recently, however, a growing emphasis on regional diversity has demonstrated the importance of specific models for understanding the multiple pathways to social complexity. It is becoming increasingly clear that static neoevolutionary types do not reflect the fluid and dynamic character of human societies and that top-down explanatory models based on top-tier centers are biased and incomplete. In this article, a detailed historical modeling of the Mycenaean state of Pylos based on new data from the systematic excavation of Iklaina tests the current model and proposes that the Pylian state, as it is known to us from Linear B tablets, was not integrated until an advanced phase of the Late Helladic IIIB period. This analysis suggests that for most of the Mycenaean period both Iklaina and Ano Englianos were primary centers following parallel trajectories and functioning as capitals of independent micropolities. A late date for the unification of the Pylian state could account for its partly decentralized character, the duplication of administrative structures, and the instability that may have contributed to its collapse.
Research Interests: State Formation, Aegean Bronze Age (Bronze Age Archaeology), Aegean Prehistory (Archaeology), Mycenaean era archaeology, Ancient Greek History, and 15 moreAegean Archaeology, The archaeology of state formation, Ancient Greece, Aegean, Aegean Late Bronze Age, Early State Formation, Linear B, State Formation and Sovereignty, Minoan and Mycenaean economy and administration, Pylos, Mycenaean Greece, linear B, Pylos Messenia, Greecee, Mycenaean period, State Formation Processes, and Palace of Nestor, Pylos
Although the ceramic phases and relative chronology of the Mycenaean (or “Late Helladic” abbr. LH) period on the Greek mainland are well established, there is ongoing disagreement regarding the relationship between the ceramic phases and... more
Although the ceramic phases and relative chronology of the Mycenaean (or “Late Helladic” abbr. LH) period on
the Greek mainland are well established, there is ongoing disagreement regarding the relationship between the
ceramic phases and their associated calendar dates. Part of the problem is the small number of radiocarbon dates
from Mycenaean sites. In this article, we publish a set of 15 new AMS radiocarbon dates from the Mycenaean site
of Iklaina, in southwestern Greece. The resulting date ranges allow us to establish an absolute chronology for
major stages in the life of the Iklaina settlement and the associated relative chronology based on ceramic phases.
In general, the Iklaina dates show a better fit with the High Chronology for the early Mycenaean period.
Specifically, the transition from the Middle to Late Helladic, at the beginning of the Mycenaean period, is placed
between the end of the 19th c. and the beginning of the 17th c. BC. The LH II period, when large-scale architecture
appears at Iklaina for the first time, spans the 17th century BC and the LH IIIA1 period goes into the 15th
century. None of the analyzed samples were recovered from secure LH IIIA2 deposits, so they do not affect the
chronology of this period. However, the samples from the destruction of the monumental buildings, which
ceramically is placed in the LH IIIB period, provide a general latest use date in the 13th century. Given the
possibility that this destruction marks the annexation of Iklaina by the Palace of Nestor and the unification of the
Pylian state, this becomes an important chronological marker for the formation of this state. It also indicates a
very short life-span for this state, since its destruction is traditionally dated to ca. 1200 BCE.
the Greek mainland are well established, there is ongoing disagreement regarding the relationship between the
ceramic phases and their associated calendar dates. Part of the problem is the small number of radiocarbon dates
from Mycenaean sites. In this article, we publish a set of 15 new AMS radiocarbon dates from the Mycenaean site
of Iklaina, in southwestern Greece. The resulting date ranges allow us to establish an absolute chronology for
major stages in the life of the Iklaina settlement and the associated relative chronology based on ceramic phases.
In general, the Iklaina dates show a better fit with the High Chronology for the early Mycenaean period.
Specifically, the transition from the Middle to Late Helladic, at the beginning of the Mycenaean period, is placed
between the end of the 19th c. and the beginning of the 17th c. BC. The LH II period, when large-scale architecture
appears at Iklaina for the first time, spans the 17th century BC and the LH IIIA1 period goes into the 15th
century. None of the analyzed samples were recovered from secure LH IIIA2 deposits, so they do not affect the
chronology of this period. However, the samples from the destruction of the monumental buildings, which
ceramically is placed in the LH IIIB period, provide a general latest use date in the 13th century. Given the
possibility that this destruction marks the annexation of Iklaina by the Palace of Nestor and the unification of the
Pylian state, this becomes an important chronological marker for the formation of this state. It also indicates a
very short life-span for this state, since its destruction is traditionally dated to ca. 1200 BCE.
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Economic relations between Athens and Eleusis in the Mycenaean period; the question of synoecism
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