DNA analysis shows Griffin Warrior ruled his Greek homeland: The Bronze Age leader was from the region he would come to rule

ScienceDaily ^ | August 23, 2022 | Materials provided by University of Cincinnati. Original written by Michael Miller

[SunkenCiv]

"When we look at the rise of Mycenaean civilization, the ancient DNA supports the notion that it was a local phenomenon, not something imported from the outside," said co-author Jack Davis, a UC Classics professor and department head.

"The development of the state by the Mycenaean was indigenous to Greece," Davis said.

Among the remains studied for ancient DNA analysis was that of the Griffin Warrior, whose tomb was discovered in 2015 by Davis and UC Classics senior research associate Sharon Stocker... under an olive grove in Pylos, a coastal city in southern Greece. A forensic examination determined the remains belonged to a young man between 30 and 35 years old who came from obvious wealth. His tomb contained weapons, armor and precious artwork, including an ivory plaque emblazoned with the image of the mythological half-eagle, half-lion griffin that gave the warrior his nickname...

Stocker supervised the excavations of the Griffin Warrior and tholos tombs...

Schepartz, a co-author of the Science articles, took samples of the Griffin Warrior's petrous bone, a part of the skull near the inner ear that often preserves ancient DNA...

Schepartz discovered that two tholos tombs and seven chamber tombs first uncovered by Blegen at the Palace of Nestor contained more individuals than researchers initially realized.

Schepartz subjected the samples to isotopic analysis to learn more about the diets of the ancient Greeks at Pylos...

Working at Pylos in 1939, Blegen found more than 1,200 clay tablets with some of the first known European writing dating to 1250 B.C.. Blegen's work was interrupted by World War II, but he returned in 1952 to resume his investigation at Pylos and remained in Greece until his death in 1971.

[SunkenCiv]

• Archaeologists find Bronze Age tombs lined with gold [12/18/2019]
• Ancient DNA illuminates 15,000 years of history at Europe-Asia crossroads [08/28/2022]

[SunkenCiv]

One of *those* topics.

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[snip] ...interesting parallels could be drawn with the Homeric epics: Pylos is mentioned at the head of nine other towns that profess allegiance to it—both in Homer and on the tablets;4 again, a seven-town coastal strip mentioned in the Iliad finds a parallel in a strip of seven coastal settlements referred to on one of the tablets. And to Blegen’s great satisfaction Pylos was found repeatedly mentioned on the tablets retrieved from the palace he identified as Nestor's.

Nestor's name, however, was not found.

The tablets, originally not fired but only dried, would have disintegrated long ago, were it not for the fire that destroyed the palace and baked the tablets. A great conflagration raged over the structure; it came rather suddenly, since most furniture, pottery, the contents of the storage rooms and archives were not removed: but humans all fled.

Blegen placed the destruction not long after the Trojan War, at the close of the Mycenaean Age.

However, no signs of warfare, siege, re-occupation by people of another culture or occupation in general were found. [/snip]

The Dark Age of Greece: Pylos | Immanuel Velikovsky

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

Nice little list here, from that 2019 topic linked above:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3801843/posts?page=48#48

[Verginius Rufus]

Blegen was very lucky to find the palace in 1939, months before World War II broke out. The name Pylos was associated with that area but they did not know the exact location of the palace. Supposedly Blegen asked himself, “If I was a Mycenaean prince, where would I build my palace?” He chose a likely spot and hit pay dirt right away, quickly discovering the palace archive with the Linear B tablets.

[jimtorr]

Yes, the Griffin warrior apparently was of local ancestry, but nearby towns from the same period did have elite folks who had steppe ancestry.

IMHO, the importation of Greek and Mycenaen culture may have been what seems to be the case of the spread of Celtic culture through Europe. Incomers with the steppe ancestry and culture were so influential that they conquered the region peacefully.

[SunkenCiv]

In Search of the Trojan War is a 1985 6-part British TV documentary series written and presented by Michael Wood. It examines the extent to which historical and archeological evidence matches with the tale of the Trojan War as recounted by Homer in The Iliad.

(time index set to the discussion of the Palace of Nestor; I think the snippet of Blegen's footage of the excavations is in the installment about the Hittite archive)

In search of the Trojan war - The Women of Troy (4/6) | April 26, 2013 | Quidam Graecus

[Verginius Rufus]

Michael Wood has covered a lot of topics--I don't remember if I saw any of that series. Scholars are still very divided about the historicity of the Trojan War. There was a Troy but whether it was destroyed by Greeks is much debated.

In the Odyssey Homer has Telemachus visit Pylos hoping that Nestor might know something about Odysseus' fate or whereabouts. While there he is given a bath. Whether Telemachus existed or not, the bathtub is still there at Pylos.

[Red Badger]

MERV?..............................

[wafflehouse]

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