Department of Classics – University of Toronto
TREVOR VAN DAMME – UCLA
Seeking Abundance in Post-Palatial Greece: Household Economics and Community Resilience
In this paper I compare post-palatial Mycenaean households at three settlements in central Greece: Eleon, Kynos, and Lefkandi: Xeropolis. All of these households were destroyed in violent conflagrations that resulted in a high degree of preservation. I examine three key metrics (household size, storage capacity, and textile production) in order to demonstrate that a high degree of social inequality persisted throughout the post-palatial period. Furthermore, the households with the greatest food storage capacities show evidence for large scale textile production suggesting the manufacture of value-added goods for trade. This bolsters recent evidence for continuity in long distance trade and presents a much more robust picture of the post-palatial economy of Greece challenging previously held notions of decline and stagnation. I reject the currently held position that core-periphery dynamics dictated the formation of the post-palatial landscape and instead propose a model driven by human agents seeking out new opportunities. This paper concludes that environments abundant in resources, connectivity, and new technologies played a crucial role in the development of early Greece.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017 4:00 pm
Lillian Massey Building, Room LI205
125 Queen’s Park