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Kassite Babylonia counts among the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Its kings exchanged diplomatic letters with the pharaohs of Egypt and held their own against their Assyrian and Elamite neighbors. Babylonia's internal workings, however, remain understood in their outlines only, as do its elite's expansionary ambitions, the degrees to which they may have been realized, and the nature of ensuing imperial encounters. This is especially the case for the region to the northeast, where the Mesopotamian lowlands meet the Zagros piedmonts in the Diyala River valley and where a series of corridors of movement intersect to form a strategic highland-lowland borderland. In this paper, we present critical new results of regional survey in the Upper Diyala plains of northeast Iraq and excavations at the Late Bronze Age site of Khani Masi. Not only do our data and analyses expand considerably the known extent of Babylonia's cultural sphere, but also the monumental character of Khani Masi and its wider settlement context prompt a fundamental rethinking of the nature and chronology of Babylonian presence in this transitional landscape. As such, this paper contributes an important new case study to the field of archaeological empire and borderland studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the Mycenaean metallurgical industry at the end of the Bronze Age through analysis of metal hoards and the tools found within them. An overview of second-millennium hoards from Crete and the Greek mainland is presented to contextualize the various objects from these assemblages. Patterns of implement inclusion reveal a repeated tool grouping in seven Mycenaean hoards, most associated with elite contexts. These Mycenaean caches, incorporating a range of complete and broken items, are traditionally considered recyclable scrap, but they need not be random accumulations. The repetitive tool grouping suggests a structural principle in hoard formations, perhaps dictated by the state. The Mycenaean assemblages from the late 13th or early 12th century B.C.E. highlighted here may represent either palatial stock within a citadel or an archaeological remnant of a metal ta-ra-si-ja allotment given to a smith. The identification of several hoards as metal disbursements from a palace complements the picture of Pylian administration of metal, attested only by the ta-ra-si-ja arrangements outlined in the Jn and Ja Linear B tablets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic or cultural designations of past societies have often been employed uncritically and even casually. This general situation applies specifically to Mycenaean civilization. This article therefore considers a set of interrelated questions: What or who was a Mycenaean? How did the people termed "Mycenaeans" come into existence? What did it mean to be Mycenaean? Could one choose to be, or not to be, Mycenaean? Was there a difference between being Mycenaean and becoming Mycenaean? And finally, how is Mycenaean identity related to culture, class, and social organization? After providing theoretical, methodological, anthropological, and archaeological contexts for these questions, this paper offers some suggestions about how or whether they can be answered, examining issues of ethnicity, cultural identity, and spatial organization. It concludes by considering these areas as they apply to the Aegean Bronze Age.* [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nakassis et al., in their contribution to this Forum, argue that the term "redistribution" has been used with a range of meanings in the context of the Aegean Bronze Age and so obscures rather than illuminates the emergence and functioning of political economies. They call for detailed empirical investigation rather than reliance on ambiguous idealized types. Lupack and Schon concur, arguing respectively that the palace shared control of the Mycenaean economy with sanctuaries and local communities and that centralized production of craft goods (an,d thus elite strategies of wealth finance) developed late at the palace of Pylos. Pullen finds little archaeological support for Renfrew's extrapolation of centralized redistribution to the Early Bronze Age, while Christakis uses evidence of storage to argue the same for Prepalatial Crete and to play down the scale and importance of elite redistribution in the Minoan palaces. The calls for circumspect use of the term "redistribution" and for detailed empirical investigation are applauded, although these five papers arguably do not all attack the same form of redistribution. This response argues that redistribution sensu Polanyi, Finley, and Killen (i.e., centrally administered movements of goods and services without equivalence of value) retains considerable heuristic value in investigation of both textual and archaeological evidence for Bronze Age political economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World ("From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory," AJA [2009] 497-519). Amzallag's paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision of early metallurgical development. In this rebuttal, we seek to correct some of the more egregious errors in his article and provide a counterargument for the origins of copper-based metallurgy in the Old World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact between Egypt and the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age, especially the relationship between Minoan Crete and New Kingdom Egypt, has been the subject of much study. The relationship between the Greek (Mycenaean) mainland and Egypt is generally regarded as a more elusive topic, and most scholars seem to consider interaction between the two a matter of irregular exchange via middlemen (e.g., on Cyprus, in the Levant), rather than direct contact. This paper seeks to stimulate new thinking on this subject by positing the possibility that exchange between the two was more than a haphazard phenomenon, arguing that it was, instead, a highly organized system that involved the active engagement of the ruling elite at Mycenae as well as the pharaonic court. Using both archaeological and paleobotanical data and focusing my examination on the import into Egypt of Mycenean pottery, particularly stirrup jars, which are known generally as containers for olive oil, I demonstrate that olives and/or olive oil were a crucial part of this Late Bronze Age interstate connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid third through the second millennium B.C., Bronze Age communities in Cyprus underwent important social transformations in conjunction with migration, changes in subsistence and technology, the development of a major copper industry, and the emergence of town-centered polities engaged in metallurgical production and long-distance trade. This paper examines mortuary evidence from the formative Early-Middle Cypriot Bronze periods (or the prehistoric Bronze Age) in order to explicate the ways in which social changes were expressed in ritual practices and, reflexively, the ways in which economic and sociopolitical developments were influenced by the dynamics of ritual performances. It is demonstrated that an elaborate suite of funerary rites involving multiple phases of mortuary treatment, collective burial, and costly prestige displays developed during these periods. It is argued that because these rites came to involve both extravagant and escalating levels of copper consumption in some communities, the social and ideological concerns enacted in mortuary practice created an important internal stimulus for the intensification of copper production and the development of local copper exchange networks. This, in turn, helped promote the development of a provisional infrastructure for the rise of elite-dominated, urban copper emporia during the Late Cypriot Bronze Age. Concurrently, the growing importance of exotic valuables within the prevailing prestige system served as an incentive for emergent elites to establish coastal centers in order to control the trade in copper and imported goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of flaked stone tools from various regions of Greece provides considerable information on site chronology, subsistence practices, exchange networks, and the evolution of technology. This report compares Bronze Age material from the Southern Argolid Survey and the excavated site of Agios Stephanos in Laconia. The results of the Argolid Survey give us a broad understanding of various trends that can be checked against individual sites, such as Agios Stephanos, with stratigraphic contexts revealed through excavation. The types of material used in the two regions indicate the relative importance of lithic resources and ease of access to exotic sources. The thesis that acquisition of Melian obsidian was an adjunct to the procurement of other resources is supported by the results of this study. The presence of a specialized obsidian production center in the southern Argolid during the Bronze Age is suggested; the situation in Laconia during this period is not as clear because of the lack of published survey data. The inhabitants of both regions manufactured similar tool types, reflecting similar subsistence adaptations. The dimensions of obsidian blades in both regions during the Bronze Age exhibit tight statistical clustering and indicate considerable sharing of technology between different sociopolitical units. Flannery's adaptation of general systems theory to archaeology is used, in conjunction with a rational decision model, to analyze the use of flaked stone tools as an aspect of local ecology in southern Greece.(*) (*) The research on which this paper is based was a collaborative effort with Curtis Runnels in the southern Argolid and with Mark Ijdo on the Agios Stephanos material. An ealier version of this paper was delivered at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in San Francisco, December 1990 (AJA 95 [1991] 306). I thank Joseph L. Rife for his assistance in editing footnotes and redrafting figs. 1, 3, and 4, Curtis Runnels for permission to use figs. 3 and 4, and Anna Traga for drafting fig. 2. Jack L. Davis, Curtis Runnels, Thomas Strasser, the two anonymous AJA reviewers, and the AJA editors supplied many useful comments on earlier drafts, but I alone am responsible for any flaws in logic or substance. Glossary of lithic terms: Blank: A humanly modified piece of flakable stone (e.g., chert, obsidian, quartzite) that can be classified into one of a number of categories based on certain morphological traits. Blanks include the following: Core--a nucleus from which at least two flakes have been detached. Cortical flake--any flake with cortex, or the natural outer rind, covering some part of the exterior surface. Analysts make a distinction between primary and secondary cortical flakes on the basis of percentage of the surface covered with cortex (>50%=primary) and size. Cortical flakes are removed in the early stages of working a core. Non-cortical flake--any flake lacking cortex. These pieces reflect the intermediate to final states of knapping. Debris--any blocky, irregular piece lacking diagnostic flake characteristics (e.g., striking platform). Blade--a special type of flake with a length at least twice as greate as the width, parallel lateral edges, and symmetrical configuration with a cross section that is typically either triangular or trapezoidal. Blade production requires the preparation of special cores. Crested blade--a remnant of blade core preparation that exhibits a series of small flake scars, forming a sinuous crest, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the blank. It is the first blade removed and leaves behind a smooth surface to guide subsequent detachments. Reduction sequence: The process of trimming a core and preparing usable flakes or blade. The initial blows remove cortical pieces to expose the homogeneous interior. Retouch: The systematic removal of small flakes from the margin(s) or suface(s) of a blank of shape the piece in preparation for a particular use or set of functions. The following abbreviations are used: Melos C. Renfrew and J.M. Wagstaff eds., An Island Polity: The Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos (Cambridge 1982). Runnels C.N. Runnels, 'The Bronze-Age Flaked-Stone Stone Industries from Lerna: A Preliminary Report,' Hesperia 54 (1985) 357-91. Torrence R. Torrence, 'A Technological Approach to Cycladic Blade Industries,' in J.L. Davis and J.F. Cherry eds., Papers in Cycladic Prehistory (UCLAMon 14, Los Angeles 1979) 66-86.

This paper discusses the evolution of grave form and the richness of the burials in the two Grave Circles at Mycenae, where a crucial phase of the process of social stratification in the Aegean Bronze Age is represented. In order to quantify the degree of wealth of each burial in Circle B, a multivariate analysis is used that takes into account the composition of grave assemblages in terms of total number and range of artifacts as well as the 'value' of individual offerings, determined by comparing them with functionally equivalent objects. For Circle A, such criteria can only be applied to the one single burial, Grave II, but the more general grave wealth provides useful terms of comparison with Circle B burials. The progressive separation of the elite members from the lower sectors of the community took place during the Circle B Early Phase and Late Phase I (late and final Middle Helladic period). On the other hand, Late Phase II (i.e., Late Helladic I) Circle B graves show markedly regressive features, and burials are characterized by a lower degree of wealth than those of the preceding phase. This is clearly to be related to the fact that during this period, the highest sector of the ruling class chose another burial area, Circle A, for their more elaborate and far richer graves.

Representations of landscape, although often stylized or abbreviated, form a significant portion of Aegean Bronze Age art. Frequently, the most detailed and elaborate of these scenes portray landscapes with sinuous rivers, lush tropical vegetation, and hunting or rampant (often fantastic) animals. The landscapes appear unsuited to the terrain of the dry, mountainous Aegean world and have even, as a result, been referred to as 'nilotic' in character. At first glance, landscapes such as those depicted in wall paintings from Akrotiri, Ayia Irini, and Knossos, as well as those on inlaid daggers and a carved ivory comb from the shaft graves at Mycenae and Pylos, do indeed bear a strong resemblance to scenes found in Egyptian wall paintings. The question is, do the Late Bronze Age Aegean representations derive in any way from these so-called fishing and fowling landscapes common in Egyptian tombs from the Early Bronze Age onwards? Excavation of the shipwreck at Ulu Burun, Turkey, with its raw materials and artifacts from every part of the eastern Mediterranean, illustrate the large-scale trade network of the Late Bronze Age. Transportation of ideas and images is far more difficult to prove, but Minoan or minoanizing wall paintings found in palaces of Egypt and the Levant demonstrate the absorption and enjoyment of foreign artistic representation. This paper, however, asserts that the 'nilotic' landscapes, while perhaps having elements in common with the Egyptian scenes, belong in the broader iconographic theme of hunting in Aegean art.

Hunting iconography of the Late Bronze Age Aegean is often compared to Near Eastern and Egyptian scenes of heroic and royal hunts in terms of the animals hunted and the attitudes of the hunter. This paper examines Late Bronze Age Aegean hunting iconography of various media in order to distinguish Near Eastern and Egyptian influences and separate them from specifically Aegean characteristics. Aegean iconographical evidence shows a variety of different kinds of hunting. Some images have clear Egyptian parallels; a seal from Mycenae depicts a male hunter shooting arrows at his prey from a speeding chariot, an image reminiscent of the royal hunting expeditions of Pharaoh. Others have a more Near Eastern character, with parallels in Mesopotamian, Assyrian, and Hittite iconography, such as the hand-to-hand lion combat scenes. Yet there are some aspects of the images that are neither Near Eastern nor Egyptian. Among these are the phenomena of the huntress, and of the group hunt in which several participants, apparently peers, take part, most famously represented on the Lion Hunt dagger from Mycenae. Aegean group hunting is also reflected in later myth; in order to kill the Caledonian boar, a party is assembled from among local youth, (interestingly, including one female) all with equal chance of making the kill. The emphasis on peer groups in the iconography of Aegean Late Bronze Age hunting is linked to social and ideological values in which the individual is deemphasized in favor of the expression of solidarity and (seemingly) equality among the elite.

This paper seeks to understand ancient systems of valuing, classifying, and using physical objects, exposing some of the cultural associations that underpin the patterns of production, exchange, and consumption that contribute to the archaeological record. Under the overarching concept of 'value regimes,' questions of wealth measurement, ancient typological schemes, and social competition or social cooperation over the role and meaning of material culture are all considered. Stone vessels provide an almost unique combination of qualities with which to address such questions. These include great archaeological durability and nonsuitability for rapid ancient recycling (unlike metals); the potential for frequent macroscopic provenancing; good preservation of production techniques; and a wide range of potential finished forms and materials. The Bronze Age sees the emergence of complex Near Eastern states that interact with and in some cases transform other East Mediterranean societies, producing far-reaching socioeconomic effects. At the same time, areas preserving written evidence about ancient value systems coexist with regions where such information is lacking, providing an unusually attractive testing ground for an archaeological exploration of value regimes. Important indigenous stone vessel industries are found in Egypt, the Aegean, and the Levant at this time, and many of their products are found exported to neighbouring areas as well. In this presentation the broad set of questions that a value-driven approach might address are briefly introduced and an example is given of their potential application with respect to local and imported Late Bronze Age stone vessels from the Aegean area.

Recently, a large chert deposit that shares the same range of physical and mechanical properties as much of the chert in Bronze Age Argolid stone tool assemblages was found near the village of Ayia Eleni. The discovery of this raw material provides the perfect opportunity to trace a more complete ecology of chipped-stone tool artifacts in the region through the construct of chaine operatoire. This paper formally presents and characterizes the Ayia Eleni chert beds and outlines their use by prehistoric people to gain a picture of local resource management across time and space. Prehistoric people of the Argolid used these beds in different ways, indicating their degrees of dependence or independence on this resource. By noting the differing tool production strategies employed by people, varying levels of dependence upon this local resource can be determined. We then infer participation in or avoidance of local resource procurement in preference for more exotic and prestige-related materials. By placing artifacts made from these beds within the context of movements of other materials such as pottery and Aginetan andesite, models of trade between the Saronic Gulf and Argive plain become more complete.