1/ The Linear B' tablets of Pylos testify that lawagetas was a very important figure for the local Mycenaean palatial administration, as he is shown to own important lands and dependent personnel. He probably held the most important office after the wanax.
2/ Although the etymology of the word lawagetas indicates a military character according to Homeric standards (leader of the army), it could be assumed that he was also involved in other non-military affairs, modeled on the archon polemarch of Ancient Athens. 👉
👉 An additional role of lawagetas may have been that of main coordinator of some working groups (KN As 1516). In PY Un 718 a future payment is shown to be imposed on him, either as an offering to Poseidon, or by the holding of some feast.
3/ Probably the seat of his activities was in Halls 64 and 65 of the palace of Pylos, the walls of which seem to have been decorated with frescoes depicting war scenes and ships. 👉
👉 In PY Na 245, it is suggested that the dependent personnel of the lawagetas included mariners (ma-ra-te-we = μαλατῆρες) and charioteers (a-mo-te-wo = ἀρμοτείς).
4/ The palatial elite of Pylos shortly before the destruction (1190s BC) seems to be strongly militarist, participating in sea raids in various parts of the Aegean where they obtained slaves and had developed a strong military force to guard the western coasts of Messinia.
5/ The lawagetas certainly had a crucial role in these activities, as well as in the external affairs of the state. Although he came from a warlike courtly elite, his soldiers and mariners seem to have come from the common people (damos) rather than from a specific warrior class.
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1/ The ship that sank at the end of the 14th century BC near the coast at Uluburun (SW Anatolia) is not a simple case of another wrecked merchant ship that was making a typical voyage sailing the sea routes of the Eastern Mediterranean of the Late Bronze Age.
#Uluburun
2/ Its cargo testifies to a special purpose sea voyage. It included a large quantity of copper ingots, numerous vessels and mainly exotic - precious objects intended for a very specific elite audience (carved ivory vessels and jewelry made of gold and semi-precious stones), 👉
👉 as well as raw materials for the manufacture of fine elaborate artifacts (glass ingots, raw ivory, ostrich eggshells and faience beads). These artifacts were manufactured in royal workshops in Syro-Canaan and Egypt by highly qualified craftsmen.
1/ Preclassical Lemnos is shrouded in the mist of myth, constituting a special case for the ancient Greek world due to the presence of a strong pre-Greek population. Thus, mythological Lemnos is associated with various peoples.
#Lemnos #Sintians #Minyans
2/ The first inhabitants of Lemnos were the Sintians, a people of Thracian or Phrygian origin, who, according to legend, cared for and raised Hephaestus, who was exiled from Olympus. More generally, the Sintians are related to the Neolithic inhabitants of Poliochni and Myrina.
3/ Scholars, attempting to etymologize the ethnonym Sintians, have come up with two different (and dubious) interpretations: 1) from the poetic verb σίνομαι which means "to plunder" and 2) from the IE root kuento- which means "sacred" and is related to the worship of Hephaestus.
1/ In the past, there was a strong belief among members of the scientific community that the appearance of Minoan palaces was a "sudden" event in which various "ancestral" palatial patterns of the Near East, such as those at Mari and Alalakh, played an important role. #Minoans
2/ On the other hand, there were some scholars who argued that the appearance of the Minoan palaces was the creative result of a native genius craftsman. On a more logical basis, other scholars seek the emergence of palaces through the evolution of local architectural structures.
3/ In my opinion, the Minoan palaces were a combination of elements that have their roots in the pre-palatial period and some innovations that came from the Near East, such as the palatial administration, the widespread use of seals and the inscribed tablets.
1/ The Aegean was a marginal area for the Egyptians of the Bronze Age, but nevertheless they had very good relations with its inhabitants. Archaeological and textual evidence demonstrates close trade, diplomatic and cultural contacts between the two lands, even royal marriages.
2/ However, where the close relationship between the two peoples is most vividly commemorated is in the representations of Aegean emissaries with offerings for the Egyptian king, which adorned the tombs of officials in the cemeteries of Thebes. The motif of the representations 👉
👉 in which the Aegean emissaries are depicted is always the same: they participate together with other foreign embassies from all over the known world in processions, arriving in Egypt in order to offer the enthroned Egyptian Pharaoh precious and exotic metals and objects, 👉
1/ Ancient Greek texts refer to a mythical king of Crete with divine origins and extraordinary abilities, Minos. Thucydides reports that Minos was the most ancient king of Crete, who dominated the entire Aegean with a powerful fleet (Minoan Thalassocracy). #Minoans
2/ He had the perspicacity to colonize the Aegean islands and defeat the pirates who "polluted" the seas, promoting peace and trade. However, he also had another aspect: he is presented as a wise legislator, gaining great fame and becoming after his death the judge of the dead.
3/Minos reigned from the Knossos, which he made the most famous city in the Aegean, and was the founder of the labyrinth. Of particular interest is the fact that his mother, Europa,was the daughter of the king of Tyre that she was kidnapped and taken to Crete by his father, Zeus.
1/ In 1903, during his excavations at Knossos, and specifically in a palatial area to the south of the Throne Room, Arthur Evans brought to light two elaborate Minoan figurines of a clearly ceremonial nature. He named the site of the figurines' discovery "Temple Repositories".
2/ Evans believed that he had discovered a Minoan palatial sanctuary with the two figurines, being made of faience, the larger of which represented a "Snake Goddess" and the smaller a priestess (he called her "Snake Priestess"), considering them to be votive objects.
3/ However, the discovered figurines were found to be largely incomplete. From the "Snake Goddess" lacked the body below the waist, one arm and part of the crown, while from the "Snake Priestess" lacked the head and the proper left arm was missing below the elbow. 👉