Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Astrom Editions.

Celebrations of death and divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 11–13 June, 1988

By Robin Hägg & Gullög C. Nordquist (eds.)

Twenty-four papers on various aspects of burial customs and religious cult practice in the region Argolis (Greece) during the Bronze Age, read at an international conference in Athens; the papers are followed by transcripts of the discussions of the symposium. The papers are arranged in six groups, discussing (1) ceremonial practices in the Early and Middle Helladic periods, (2) mortuary customs, state formation and Mycenaean society, (3) burial rites in tumuli, tholoi and chamber tombs, (4) symbols and symbolism in Mycenaean celebrations, (5) Mycenaean cults and cult practices, and (6) religious aspects of the post-Bronze-Age period.

Contents

Preface (p. 7)

Ceremonial practices in the Early and Middle Helladic periods

Daniel J. Pullen | Early Helladic burials at Asine and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices (pp. 9–12)
Miriam Caskey | Thoughts on Early Bronze Age hearths (pp. 13–21)
Carol Zerner | Ceramics and ceremony: Pottery and burials from Lerna in the Middle and early Late Bronze Ages (pp. 23–34)
Gullög C. Nordquist | Middle Helladic burial rites: Some speculations (pp. 35–41)
General discussion (pp. 42–43)

Mortuary customs, state formation and Mycenaean society

Mary K. Dabney & James C. Wright | Mortuary customs, palatial society and state formation in the Aegean area: A comparative study (pp. 45–53)
W.G. Cavanagh & C. Mee | The location of Mycenaean chamber tombs in the Argolid (pp. 55–64)
Birgitta L. Sjöberg | The pottery frequency fluctuations in Late Helladic tombs. A case study of three LH III sites in the Argolid (poster) (pp. 65–67)
General discussion (p. 68)

Burial rites in tumuli, tholoi and chamber tombs

Evangelia Protonotariou-Deilaki | Burial customs and funerary rites in the prehistoric Argolid (pp. 69–83)
Evangelia Protonotariou-Deilaki | The tumuli of Mycenae and Dendra (poster). With an appendix by Sebastian Payne (pp. 85–106)
Olivier Pelon | Les tombes à tholos d’Argolide : architecture et ritual funéraire (pp. 107–112)
Katie Demakopoulou | The burial ritual in the tholos tomb at Kokla, Argolis (pp. 113–123)
Berit Wells | Death at Dendra. On mortuary practices in a Mycenaean community (pp. 125–140)
General discussion (pp. 141)

Symbols and symbolism in Mycenaean celebrations

Nanno Marinatos | Celebrations of death and the symbolism of the lion hunt (pp. 143–148)
Christine E. Morris | In pursuit of the white tusked boar: Aspects of hunting in Mycenaean society (pp. 149–156)
Imma Kilian-Dirlmeier | Remarks on the non-military functions of swords in the Mycenaean Argolid (pp. 157–161)
General discussion (pp. 162–163)

Mycenaean cults and cult practices

Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier | Cult scenes on gold rings from the Argolid (pp. 165–170)
Hara Tzavella-Evjen | The ring of the queen (pp. 171–174)
General discussion (p. 175)
Robin Hägg | The role of libations in Mycenaean ceremony and cult (pp. 177–184)
Klaus Kilian | Patterns in the cult activity in the Mycenaean Argolid: Haghia Triada (Klenies), the Profitis Elias cave (Haghios Hadrianos) and the citadel of Tiryns (pp. 185–197)
Christos Boulotis | Synnaoi theoi: A cult phenomenon of the Aegean Late Bronze Age (summary) (p. 199)
General discussion (p. 200)

From the Mycenaean to the Hellenic world

Robert Laffineur | Grave Circle A at Mycenaea: Further reflections on its history (pp. 201­–206)
Birgitta Eder | The Dorian migration: Religious consequences in the Argolid (pp. 207–211)
Michael H. Jameson | Perseus, the hero of Mykenai (pp. 213–223)
Birgitta Bergquist | Primary or secondary temple function: The case of Halieis (extended abstract) (pp. 225–228)

General discussion (pp. 229–232)
Programme and participants of the symposium (pp. 233–234)
Abbreviations (pp. 235–237)
Index (pp. 239–245)
Map of the central Argolid (p. 246)

Bibliographical information

Robin Hägg & Gullög C. Nordquist (eds.), Celebrations of death and divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 11–13 June, 1988 (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athen, 4°, 40), Stockholm 1990. ISSN 0586-0539. ISBN 978-91-7916-021-0. Softcover: 246 pages.

Reviews

The Classical Review (R.A. Tomlinson) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00280852