John Tristan Barnes

Public acquisition and display of imported prestige goods was a well-recognized method by which Egyptian and wider Near Eastern rulers established status in their own societies and negotiated their place among royal peers. Fresco fragments from the palacesat Tell el-Dab‘a (ancient Avaris), constructed and painted in an Aegean technique, suggest that monumental wall decoration was used in this manner as well. Trade and exchange routes between the Aegean and Egypt have been discussed since the time of Arthur Evans’s excavations at Knossos. These discussions have focused primarily on objects and the political-religious ideas behind artistic expression moving in both directions; however, since walls cannot move, in this case it is the artists who painted them that must have traveled. It is argued here that Aegean fresco artists were imported to work at Tell el-Dab‘a through a process of royal gift exchange, which was negotiated via existing sea routes between the Aegean and Egypt.

This dissertation examines communities in the Dodecanese and the Carian coast for patterns of subregional behavior. Although societies in the region are often discussed in homogenous terms, an analysis of funerary material reveals the distribution of different practices throughout the region. I argue that this pattern is a reflection of different social agencies operating within the landscape, and that different social groups can thus be identified. These social groups are identified and described, and then traced through the period of societal upheaval that marks the Late Bronze Age -- Early Iron Age transition and the Aegean migrations. I further suggest that the distribution of different social groups and their foreign contacts can partially explain the Dorian identity that began to be expressed in the following centuries.

This dissertation examines communities in the Dodecanese and the Carian coast for patterns of sub-regional behavior. Although societies in the region are often discussed in homogenous terms, an analysis of funerary material reveals the distribution of different practices throughout the region. I argue that this pattern is a reflection of different social agencies operating within the landscape, and that different social groups can thus be identified. These social groups are identified and described, and then traced through the period of societal upheaval that marks the Late Bronze Age—Early Iron Age transition and the Aegean migrations. I further suggest that the distribution of different social groups and their foreign contacts can partially explain the Dorian identity that began to be expressed in the following centuries.

"A fragmentary Archaic skyphos recovered from the excavations at Halai in East Lokris displays what might be one of the earliest depictions of constellations known from Greece.  The cup shows an unusual frieze of animals that, by nature of the species depicted, cannot be read as a hunting scene or as a typical Corinthianizing motif.  Instead, all of the represented animals have parallels to constellations described by Homer, Hesiod, and later Greek writers, and can be read together as seasonal representations of the night sky.

Copyright © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, originally published in Hesperia 83 (2014), pp. 257–276. This offprint is supplied for personal, non-commercial use only. The definitive electronic version of the article can be found  at <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.83.2.0257>."

Public acquisition and display of imported prestige goods was a well-recognized method by which Egyptian and wider Near Eastern rulers established status in their own societies and negotiated their place among royal peers.  Fresco fragments from the palaces at Tell el-Dab‘a (ancient Avaris), constructed and painted in an Aegean technique, suggest that monumental wall decoration was used in this manner as well.  Trade and exchange routes between the Aegean and Egypt have been discussed since the time of Arthur Evans’ excavations at Knossos.  These discussions have focused primarily on objects and the political-religious ideas behind artistic expression moving in both directions; however, since walls cannot move in this case, it is the artists who painted them that must have traveled.  It is argued here that Aegean fresco artists were imported to work at Tell el-Dab‘a through a process of royal gift-exchange, which was negotiated via existing sea routes between the Aegean and Egypt.

Penelope’s cleverness, as seen through the three tricks, or doloi, played on her suitors, is commonly understood to establish her as a suitable wife for the cunning Odysseus.  The second of these doloi is the bow contest, described in Books 19 and 21, which has spurred scholars to examine Penelope’s reasons for selecting this specific type of contest.  Scholarly opinion has generally revolved around whether Penelope thought the suitors would be able to complete the challenge, or, specifically, whether anyone would be strong enough to operate the bow.  At several points during the contest, descriptions of the suitors seem to confirm this latter reading by alluding to the weakness of their hands or the fact that their bodies were unused to such labors.  On the other hand, several scholars such as Balfour (1921, 291) and Sutherland (2001, 113) have emphasized another aspect of the contest: that it was a test of knowledge rather than strength.  This aspect has focused on the fact that Odysseus’ bow is described as being made of horn—an imported design from the Near East and Egypt—and so the suitors are presumably unfamiliar with the process of how to string this foreign bow. 
We propose that the bow contest should indeed be read as a test of knowledge, but specifically within the context of Penelope Polutropos as discussed by Marquardt (1985).  Penelope’s doloi rely on a pragmatic understanding of her circumstances, and they represent a cunning manipulation of gendered skills that effectively emasculate the suitors.  Penelope did not devise the contest on the simple premise that Odysseus’ bow is difficult to string and shoot, but rather with the clear understanding that the suitors lacked the practical experience that would enable them to operate a man’s bow.  Having spent years living off the hospitality of Odysseus’ household, the suitors had neglected the pursuits that proper noblemen would have been expected to practice, such as hunting.  Odysseus, in contrast, crucially relies on hunting (in the form of a scar) to establish his identity upon his return.  We further suggest that an understanding of the social role of archery in Iron Age and Archaic Greek society, as demonstrated by artistic representations and archaeological discoveries, supports the idea that a basic knowledge of archery could reasonably be expected among members of an elite class.  Penelope’s trick takes advantage of this flaw in the suitors’ characters, while simultaneously emphasizing their lack of masculinity.

Excavations at Gournia in 2013 and 2014 revealed the remains of a small metal workshop at the northwestern edge of the town. The workshop was nestled between large outcroppings of bedrock, positioned to take advantage of the predominant breezes coming from the coast, with surrounding rooms used for the storage of materials and tools. Various stages of the metalworking process are attested by the presence of ore fragments, slag, and metal scraps that were most likely stored until they could be melted down and reused. Fragments of molds and crucibles evidence the manufacture of tools at the site. Production was short-lived, however, as the workshop became active and ceased within the LM IA period. The area was subsequently built over and scavenged for metal scraps. The LM IA date also coincides with other production areas at the northern edge of the town.

Minoan metalworking is not well attested on Crete during the LM IA period, and this example has the potential to shed light on larger issues involving the flow of raw materials and finished goods at Minoan palatial sites. The small size of the workshop and foundry area makes it likely that only small amounts of metal were processed at a single time. This suggests that large volumes of metal (or larger objects) were processed at a different metalworking facility in or near the town. Moreover, the single LM IA phase during which this workshop was in operation further limits the scope of its operations, and other workshops must have been responsible for processing earlier and later objects. All of this indicates that metalworking facilities at Gournia were to some extent decentralized and directly related to the changeable structure and composition of the town.

The size and dating of the workshop suggest that it was not the sole metal workshop active during the period.

The origins of the Carians as an ethnic or socio-political group have long been debated.  Herodotus (1.171), for example, states that the Carians migrated to the mainland from the islands; on the other hand, the association between the Carians and the Hittite Karkisa in modern scholarship might suggest an autochthonous origin, but the relationship is uncertain.  Studies of Carian self-identity have largely focused on later periods when inscriptional evidence and Hekatomnid political rule provide better evidence.  Nevertheless, archaeological evidence in and around the Bodrum peninsula suggests that Carian communities began to coalesce by the end of the Late Protogeometric period. 
I propose that the social geography of the southeast Aegean during the Late Helladic IIIB and IIIC periods can shed light on the origins of a Carian socio-political group around the Bodrum peninsula.  During this period, the activity at Eleona-Langada on eastern Kos increased sharply while comparable activity nearby on the mainland at Müskebi declined.  Earlier studies have suggested that these respective increases and decreases in funerary activity represent a nucleation of social authority around the population at Kos town at the expense of populations on the adjacent mainland.  This trend continued until end of the Bronze Age; however, by the Late Protogeometric period the situation had reversed.  During the LPG less activity can be detected on eastern Kos, while new sites in and around the Bodrum peninsula mark the appearance of new social elites in those areas.  Because the forms of burial are slightly different at each new Carian cemetery, it is unlikely that the increase in funerary activity should be connected to the arrival of a single new population group.  Instead, I propose that the weakening of regional authority on Kos at the end of the Bronze Age created a power vacuum in the Carian periphery.  In response to this situation, multiple new elite groups arose within disparate mainland communities.  I interpret the appearance of these new local elites as the beginning of a new socio-political Carian identity.  This autochthonous development of local social structures is consistent with the Carians’ own account of their origins, while social engagement with communities on Kos might account for the later tradition of immigration from the islands.

The southeast Aegean, which includes the areas of the Dodecanese and coastal Caria, presents a geography well-suited to the study of funerary landscapes.  The region possesses numerous excavated cemeteries, while the living landscape of the region has been populated through surveys by Hope Simpson and Lazenby (BSA [1962] 154-175; [1970] 47-77; [1973] 127-179), and more recent analysis by Mercourios Georgiadis (The South-Eastern Aegean in the Mycenaean Period [Oxford 2003]).  In light of this data, it is possible to compare the relative locations of proposed settlements and cemeteries from different areas in order to analyze the spatial interactions of the living and the dead within the southeast Aegean.  Previous work by Mercourios Georgiadis and Chrysanthi Gallou (OpAth [2006-2007] 171-182) has emphasized the importance of water in local funerary rituals based on the regular orientation of cemeteries toward streams and the sea; however, the significance of a cemetery’s location overlooking the agricultural catchment that supported the resident population has not yet been considered.
Based on the distribution of cemeteries and settlements on the islands of Rhodes, Kos, and Karpathos, I propose that the inhabitants of the region positioned cemeteries as visual markers of the territory of a settlement.  Cemeteries are often located at a distance from the settlement on hills or prominences that overlook the agricultural plain that sustained the local population.  From this position, the cemetery, and, by association, the ancestors of the corresponding populace, would have been a constantly visible marker of past generations throughout the agricultural catchment.  Through funerary processions and subsequent rituals to and from the cemeteries, the dead were involved in the activities of the living population within the landscape.  The act of siting cemeteries to overlook the approach to the agricultural catchment of the settlement distinguished the cemeteries as territorial markers, thereby differentiating the territory of one settlement (or group of settlements) from another based on the local geography.  In this way the cemetery and the ancestors became the visible representations within the landscape of a given territory and its inhabitants.  The decision of where to locate cemeteries in the Mycenaean southeast Aegean thus reflects an active engagement between the living populations and the deceased, which depended upon the local landscape, its natural resources, its agricultural potential, and the societies of the living.""

Greek astronomy is well known in the contexts of philosophy and poetry. Homer and Hesiod referenced the positions of stars and constellations as influencing or indicating earthly events. Philosophers from the Archaic sages to Aristotle expounded on the meanings of heavenly bodies and in the Hellenistic period Aratos wrote extensively on the constellations and meanings of stars and planets based on these earlier works. However, there are few secure depictions of the heavens that date to these periods. A fragmentary Archaic Corinthian skyphos recovered from the excavations at Halai in central Greece depicts a series of animals that can be linked to later descriptions of constellations. This depiction is also an illustration of the level of contact between Greece and the eastern Mediterranean at the time of its creation, as similar constellations can be found in earlier writings from Mesopotamia predating the earliest evidence from Greece by centuries. These conceptions of the night sky also found their way into the Mesopotamian and Hittite epics that influenced the early Greek epic cycle. This vessel demonstrates not only the importance of these cultural ties, but also the broad influence of cultural contact at this early date.

The Archaeological Museum in Lamia, Greece houses an Archaic skyphos with an animal frieze that forms what might be one of the earliest depictions of constellations in the Greek world. The presence of this vessel in Lamia and the selection of the specific constellations illustrated has implications for the understanding of the development of Greek astronomy and potentially the early influence of Near Eastern star lore on the Greek night sky.

City planning in the Greek world has received much scholarly attention in the last two centuries, largely as a result of trying to identify the origins of the regular or grid plan.  Often called the Hippodamian Plan, this form of organization has traditionally been seen to begin in the fifth century BCE with Hippodamus of Miletus.  However, earlier foundations of cities both on the Greek mainland and in the colonies reveal that a regular city plan was integral to the Greek understanding of what a city was and how it should be governed. This Greek conception of physical order was not simply based on the idea of regularity, but rather demanded it.  Essentially a well-ordered city was a well-run city; the political and physical spaces of the polis were intrinsically linked and proper governance was tied to both.  If the ideal of a well-run city was regular in layout, then how was the opposite ideal organized?
Regular city plans are common in the Greek world, but radial cities are unheard of.  Archaeological findings reveal that regular city plans occur in locations were the topography does not inherently permit it, as at Rhodes, and that older irregular layouts were regularized by later renovations.  Literary examples of ideal cities, as found in Plato and Aristophanes, show that a contrast existed between the regular layout of a well-run city and a dystopian radial plan. Regularity was democratic, it was reliable and familiar, and it was peaceful and orderly in a civic sense.  It was the radial monarchic city with its militaristic leanings that did not conform to this ideal.  A city’s layout was not merely an aesthetic choice, but was a direct reflection of the city’s political sphere.

The perception of the Aegean to eastern Mediterranean monarchs during the Late Bronze Age has long been a subject of debate.  Some level of contact between the Aegean and the Levantine coast and Egypt during the 14th – 15th centuries BCE is well accepted.  Evidence for trade appears in the form of pottery and shared artistic motifs and styles.  However, hard evidence for more formal levels of diplomatic contact remains elusive.  The Minoans were largely illiterate and their script, Linear A, remains undecipherable.  Mycenaean documents, which we can read, do not discuss international politics, but instead focus on palatial matters.  As a result, direct support for international political discourse from an Aegean point of view is virtually nonexistent.  However, a greater understanding of what proper foreign diplomacy entailed from the eastern royal perspective allows us to fill in this picture.  Near Eastern documents, tomb paintings in Egyptian Thebes and Aegean palace decorations in Egypt, Israel and ancient Syria indicate that the level of contact was often much more formal and regal than is usually understood.  In this paper I propose that to the Near Eastern and Egyptian kings of the Late Bronze Age, rulers in the Aegean possessed valid seats of kingship that could be dealt with at a proper royal level.

During the Middle and Late Bronze Age, the “civilized world” was not centered on the Aegean or the Mediterranean as in later centuries, but was instead shifted east.  The older, established civilizations in Egypt and the Near East were the focus of commerce and diplomacy throughout the period.  How, then, did the Aegean, at the fringe of this cosmos, fit into eastern conceptions of the world?  This paper will examine how eastern monarchs considered the Aegean with regards to trade and exchange and also notions of Aegean “kingship.”  This last concept is much debated in Aegean scholarship; however, when considered from the eastern perspective, it appears that the Aegean was at least perceived to possess some valid form of kingship with which royal arrangements could be conducted.
Evidence for this comes in the form of written documents from Near Eastern palaces recording Aegean trade and also diplomatic records such as the Egyptian Amarna Letters and other documents from Mari and Hittite Anatolia.  These texts confirm contact with the Aegean and provide an idea of the political worldviews of eastern states at the time.  Private tombs at Egyptian Thebes provide iconographical representations of Aegean embassies and contribute to a picture of an Aegean world that was integrated into the larger eastern cosmos.  This integration was based on political and religious necessities of the eastern monarchs’ attempts to conceptualize a world that was larger than their own domains.  In order to understand the far-off Aegean, they first had to formalize it according to their own notions of what a “valid” civilization should be.

The concern of this paper is the identification of MU-MAA 66.410, a terracotta torso of a standing woman in the Museum of Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia.  The item was acquired by the university with no information about its background or provenance and was tentatively labeled an Etruscan maenad from the 6th century BCE.  I have discovered that the figurine closely resembles other Etruscan votive figurines of Artumes, the Etruscan Artemis.  The subject, form and height are all consistent with such votive objects and the item is nearly identical to a figurine found at the Temple of Minerva Medica in Rome.  This gives the artifact a theoretical provenance from southern Etruria dating to the first century BCE.