Archaeology meets mythology in Mycenean Pylos (King Nestor)

Science Codex ^ | Sep 10, 2009 | Unknown

[decimon]

Close-up of palace walls. Credit: University of Missouri-St.Louis

Pylos drain. Credit: University of Missouri-St Louis

Clearing thick brush from a mound at his archaeological dig site in Pylos, Greece, Michael Cosmopoulos found a real-life palace dating back to the mythical Trojan War.

The palace is from the Mycenaean period (1600-1100 B.C.), famous for such mythical sagas as the Trojan War. It is thought to sit within one of the capital cities of King Nestor, a personality featured in the legends of the war.

"We are thrilled, excited and fascinated at the prospect of continuing its excavation," said Cosmopoulos, the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Endowed Professor in Greek Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "We have been searching for it since the dig started in 2006."

Other finds at the site include thousands of vases, frescoes, walls, figurines, drainage systems, offering tables and amulets.

"This is a unique site -- a place where archaeology meets ancient texts," Cosmopoulos said. "This discovery may change our perspective of how the first states were born. It appears that this was the seat of the chiefdom that was annexed by the earliest known state in Greece -- that of Mycenaean Pylos."

[SunkenCiv]

Bullseye.

[TheOldLady]

I marked this post to follow up on all those interesting-looking links today, but I get “404 not on the server” on the dozen or so I tried. How can I get to these entries?

[marsh2]

This whole thread is reminiscent of the Pun-ic war.

[SunkenCiv]

Well, for one thing, that moron 'Civ needs to stop screwin' up the links list he worked up. Here's one that's improved insofar as it actually should work now. ;')

• So Who Is Buried in Midas's Tomb?
• Recent Finds Prove That Homer's Stories Were More Than Myth
• Dig Unearths Mycenaean 'Homeric Capital'
• 'Cyclops' -- Like Remains Found On Crete
• Geologists investigate Trojan battlefield
• Scientists Say Warfare Began After People Formed Villages
• The Search For Atlantis 'Ends At Ayia Napa' (Cyprus)
• Debate Erupts Anew: Did Thera's Explosion Doom Minoan Crete?
• The Truth About An Epic Tale Of Love, War And Greed (Troy)
• Victor Davis Hanson: The Ancient Greeks -- Were they like us at all?
• Pitt Says Men May Start Wearing Skirts After 'Troy'
• Let's hope 'Troy' doesn't put men in skirts
• Director compares 'Troy' to Iraq war
• Boycott Brad Pitt In the movie "Troy"!
• Trojan Bore (REVIEW: Troy devoid of any notion of honor, destiny, gods, or reason to see it)
• Ties between Hollywood and Teachers? (Vanity)
• Troy the Movie
• 50 Ancient Tombs Uncovered (1400BC, Crete)
• Minoan ship to ply Greek seas for first time in 3,500 years
• New Ice-Core Evidence Challenges the 1620s age for the Santorini (Minoan) Eruption
• Was There a Trojan War?
• Ireland Is Lost Island of Atlantis, Says Scientist
• Laocoön and His Son
• The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Social, Political, and Economic Organization
• Arzawa
• Let's not read too much into the fate of 'Alexander'(Hilarious Movie Review!)
• NYT: Big Films, but a Year of Smaller Audiences
• In Search of the Real Troy
• Russian Culture Official Suggests Legendary Gold Collection From Troy Unlikely be Returned Germany
• Kernave: Lithuania's 'Troy' to celebrate UNESCO heritage site listing
• Mycenaean Port Of Athens Found
• Mycenaean Port of Athens Found?
• Unearthing the Treasures of the Mediterranean
• Protopalatial Sanctuary at Anemospilia (Archanes), More on the Peaceful Minoans
• Unlocking the Power of Myth
• Bulgarian Archaeologists Uncover Treasure Of Thousands Of Golden Ornaments
• Archeologists make historic discovery (Tomb of Odysseus)
• Roman Theatre Goddesses Unearthed In Crete (Athena & Hera)
• Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore
• Helen Of Troy Existed?
• Greek treasures unearthed (Minoans, Linear A, Linear B)
• Palace Of Homer's Hero Rises Out Of Myths
• Virgil's Demi-God City 'Found'
• Explorer Ballard heads exploration of undersea volcano
• Archaeologists Seek Hints On 4,000-Year-Old (Thracian) Civilization In Tekirda›
• Bulgaria Unearths Acropolis-Rivalling Ancient Sanctuary
• Crete: isle of the dead?
• Santorini Eruption Much larger Than Originally Believed
• Schliemann's search for the 'first city'
• Drill hole begins Homeric quest
• Unique Mycenaean suit of armor due for conservation
• Lessons Of 'The 300'
• Classical Treasures, Bathed in a New Light [ Met Museum, NYC, Roman and Greek classics ]
• Mycenaean and Hittite Diplomatic Correspondence: Fact and Fiction [ PDF file ]
• 2,700-Year-Old Fabric Found in Greece
• Troy Story [The Straight Dope]
• Prehistoric Greek Water Works Found [ Mycenaean citadel of Midea ]
• Sick Rams Used As Ancient Bioweapons
• Did a Tsunami Wipe Out a Cradle of Western Civilization?
• Tsunami that devastated the ancient world could return
• Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar
• Defences at Troy reveal larger town [ news finally reaches UK ]
• 'The Odyssey' and 'The Iliad' are giving up new secrets about the ancient world
• Mycenaean warrior used 'imported sword'
• Grog of the Greeks [ barley beer, honey mead, retsina wine ]
• Trojan arrows and unique seals from Perperikon stand out in archaeological summer '08
• Making merry at Knossos
• Decoding antiquity: Eight scripts that still can't be read
• Decipherments of the Phaistos Disk: NOT!
• Phaistos Disk: Greek or Luwian?
• Modernist minotaurs
• Powerful quake hits near Greek island

[TheOldLady]

Thank you, Darlin.’

[colorado tanker]

Other finds at the site include thousands of vases, frescoes, walls, figurines, drainage systems, offering tables and amulets.

And an autographed photo of Brad Pitt ...

[stefanbatory]

drat...I was hoping for Carey Elwes...the only Robin Hood to speak with an Englis accent..

[colorado tanker]

I thought Errol Flynn was English?? :-))

[SunkenCiv]

Okay, just found the file again, and best of all, checked the link and it's working. :') Nice article, nice little pics.

Homer's Bones:
Can an archaeological dig in Greece
reveal the line between truth and fiction
in the Iliad and the Odyssey?
by John Fleischman
July 1, 2002

...There were tons of pottery fragments and other ancient detritus stored there. And there were animal bones, lots of them... Their remains had been excavated on April 4, 1939, in what may have been the luckiest first day in archaeological history. That day, Carl Blegen, Stocker's predecessor at the University of Cincinnati, was digging an exploratory trench through an olive grove when one of his workmen lifted a clay tablet from the soil. Lightly brushing away the dirt, Blegen saw at once that the tablet was incised in Linear B, an undeciphered script known from Bronze Age Crete and never before seen on the Greek mainland. That spring, before war closed in on Greece, Blegen raced to unearth hundreds more tablets, providing the critical mass for deciphering the script. The tablets revealed that the people of this hilltop palace wrote in an early form of Greek. Although they never named their king, Blegen became convinced that his name was Nestor.

Blegen needed to find that archive, as Evans was sitting on the first (and only other) archive of Linear B. Evans was convinced that none of the three scripts found at Knossos concealed the Greek language. Linear B was indeed cracked by Michael Ventris, who did indeed find Greek concealed there. Linear A has never been translated to the satisfaction of any scholar save the few who have claimed to have done it. :') (they mostly don't agree with one another) The glyphic script was never found in much quantity, and Linear A is believed by some to not have enough surviving examples to ever crack it, short of turning up a bilingual text.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

There's a new article about Iklaina that purports to reveal new discoveries. It's apparent that there's no one new thing in the whole article, but it makes a nice pretext for an updated ping message and such.

• Pylos excavation findings make Greek archaeologists revise beliefs on Mycenaean Era civilization

and from the FRchives:

• The Birth of Bureaucracy (Where Long Lines, Red Tape & Arcane Rules Began; 1650 to 1100 B.C.)
• Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 09/11/2009. Thanks decimon.

Long after the Trojan War, in the classical era, the Athenians used archers to drive the Spartan garrison on Sphacteria (an island off Pylos) to the brink, and they surrendered. This hoplite shield was war booty.

Spartan shield from Pylos. Bronze shield punched through in large letters: "The Athenians from the Lakedaemonians from Pylos".

American School of Classical Studies at Athens