In spring 1939, as the prospect of war loomed, a joint Greek-American archaeological expedition began excavation on the hill of Epano Englianos, high above the modern town of Pylos in southwest Greece. Almost immediately more than 600 tablets bearing inscriptions in Linear B script were uncovered, as well as stone walls, fragments of frescoes, and stucco floors. The discoveries were kept secret during the war years and it was only in 1952 that the project could return to uncover, over 15 seasons, the Mycenaean building now know as the Palace of Nestor. This beautifully illustrated color guide surveys the buildings and objects discovered and reconstructs life in the citadel and its associated tombs. It also describes the surrounding landscape, using evidence uncovered by the Pylos Regional Archaeology Project which surveyed the wider area around the palace between 1992 and 1995.

When Brian de Jongh's two classic Companion Guides, Southern Greece and Mainland Greece, were first published they were greeted with acclaim and immediately established themselves as essential guides. They have now been combined into this single volume, covering the whole of the Greek mainland. This new edition has been thoroughly revised by John Gandon (Brian de Jongh's nephew) and Geoffrey Graham-Bell, taking into account both new archaeological discoveries and recent development. Brian de Jongh combined an expert knowledge of history, archaeology and mythology with a profound understanding of the Greek people and a feeling for the landscape which inspired their myths and monuments: he describes a country that he loved and much of which Pausanias, writing almost two thousand years ago, would still recognise. This book is, more than ever, the most indispensable of all modern guides to Greece.

Following on from Rodney Castleden's best-selling study Minoans, this major contribution to our understanding of the crucial Mycenaean period clearly and effectively brings together research and knowledge we have accumulated since the discovery of the remains of the civilization of Mycenae in the 1870s. In lively prose, informed by the latest research and using a full bibliography and over 100 illustrations, this vivid study delivers the fundamentals of the Mycenaean civilization including its culture, hierarchy, economy and religion. Castleden introduces controversial views of the Mycenaean palaces as temples, and studies their impressive sea empire and their crucial interaction with the outside Bronze Age world before discussing the causes of the end of their civilization. Providing clear, easy information and understanding, this is a perfect starting point for the study of the Greek Bronze Age.

Discusses the people, places and events found in over 2,000 years of Greek civilization.

Theory and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives brings together leading scholars from the Old World and the Americas to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing archaeology today. These topics include archaeology and text, the future of large-scale archaeological fieldwork at individual sites, interpretation and preservation of archaeological sites and landscapes, past trajectories and new approaches to regional survey, and debates surrounding landscape and settlement archaeology. Essays by Old World archaeologists provide an overview of these themes, as well as a history of research over the last hundred years. These scholars review the major successes and shortcomings of that work, identifying critical issues that determine and define the field. These essays serve as a springboard for discussion and response by archaeologists working in the Americas and in other parts of the world. The combination of an Old World focus with responses from New World archaeologists provides a uniquely broad assessment of contemporary archaeological theory, methods, and practice throughout the world.

Greece has always possessed a special significance for the foreign visitor and the author intends this book primarily "to help the traveller ... to identify the surviving monuments of the Mycenaean, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic ages and look at them in terms of their historical context against the background of their natural setting." Appendices include advise on hotels, restaurants and shops, a list of feasts and holidays, a glossary and chronological tables.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Writing from Invention to Decipherment contains a wealth of global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, and the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing, showcasing the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the potential decipherment of poorly understood scripts. The volume offers state-of-the-art research on undeciphered scripts from the Aegean (as for example, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A) or not completely deciphered (as for example Maya) scripts. From a methodological perspective, these contributions lay out how and why writing was invented, who used it, and to what ends. Here writing is presented as a multi-modal cultural phenomenon, that intersects and transcends neat discipline boundaries, within an inclusive approach bridging archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and cognitive studies.

This volume presents a series of reflections on modes of communication in the Bronze Age Aegean, drawing on papers presented at two round table workshops of the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology on ‘Technologies of Representation’ and ‘Writing and Non-Writing in the Bronze Age Aegean’. Each was designed to capture current developments in these interrelated research areas and also to help elide boundaries between ‘science-based’ and ‘humanities-based’ approaches, and between those focused on written communication (especially its content) and those interested in broader modes of communication. Contributions are arranged thematically in three groups: the first concerns primarily non-written communication, the second mainly written communication, and the third blurs this somewhat arbitrary distinction. Topics in the first group include use of color in wall-paintings at Late Bronze Age Pylos; a re-interpretation of the ‘Harvester Vase’ from Ayia Triada; re-readings of the sequence of grave stelae at Mycenae, of Aegean representations of warfare, and of how ritual architecture is represented in the Knossos wall-paintings; and the use of painted media to represent depictions in other (lost) media such as cloth. Topics in the second group range from defining Aegean writing itself, through the contexts for literacy and how the Linear B script represented language, to a historical exploration of early attempts at deciphering Linear B. In the third group Linear B texts and archaeological data are used to explore how people were represented diacritically through taste and smell, and how different qualities of time were expressed both textually and materially; the roles of images in Aegean scripts, complemented by a Peircian analysis of early Cretan writing; a consideration of the complementary role of (non-literate) sealing and (literate) writing practices; and concludes with a further exploration of the color palette used at Pylos.

A hands-on traveler's guide to the enthralling tales of Greek mythology, organized around the cities and landscapes where the events are set The Greek myths have a universal appeal, beyond the time and physical place in which they were created. But many are firmly rooted in specific landscapes: the city of Thebes and mountain range Cithaeron dominate the tale of Oedipus; the city of Mycenae broods over the fates of Agamemnon and Electra; while Knossos boasts the scene of Theseus’ slaying of the Minotaur. Drawing on a wide range of classical sources, newly translated by the author, and illustrated with specially commissioned drawings, this book is both a useful read for those visiting the sites and a fascinating imaginative journey for the armchair traveler. The itinerary includes twenty-two locations, from Mount Olympus to Homer’s Hades, recounting the myths and history associated with each site and highlighting features that visitors can still see today. Scholarly text, supported by quotes from primary sources and contemporary research, as well as the enticing stories of gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, enrich the reader’s literal or simply literary experience of these sites, whose significance still resonates today.