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The University of Pennsylvania owns the largest collection of Minoan artifacts outside of Europe. The objects were acquired legally from the nation of Crete after it became independent from the Ottoman Empire and before its request was accepted to become a part of Greece, whose laws forbade such gifts to institutions that had sponsored archaeological expeditions. This third volume about the Cretan Collection in the Penn Museum presents the Minoan metal artifacts. They provide primary evidence for the early history of metallurgy in southeastern Europe during the second millennium B.C. This is a rich and varied assemblage of objects, with a large number of different classes. It is especially rich in items from the preliminary stages of metalwork (including oxhide ingot fragments, cut preliminary strips, and small cast strips used as early stages in the manufacture of artifacts). The study using modern techniques of examination-including scientific analyses-both documents the museum's holdings and provides new information on Minoan metalworking. Two important metallurgical techniques are documented: eutectic bonding of silver-capped rivets on daggers and "casting on" repairs to an existing object, which has not been noted previously in Minoan metalwork. The assemblage is remarkable for the light its objects shed on the history of technology.

This volume presentes the results of the survey and excavation of a second peak sanctuary on Minoan Kythera at Leska. An introduction to the archaeological background of the island is provided, as well as a discussion on peak sanctuaries there and in Minoan Crete.

"This volume presents the results of the excavation of two cemeteries at the site of Vronda Kavousi in East Crete: the cemetery of tholos tombs belong to the Subminoan to Protogeometric periods (with some use in the eighth century B.C.) and the cemetery of enclosure graves with cremation burials belonging to the Late Geometric to Late Orientalizing periods. A discussion of individual graves (including the stratigraphy, architecture, human remains, faunal and botanical remains, pottery, and other finds) is followed by the analysis of the cremation process and human remains, the faunal and botanical remains, the pottery, the petrographic analysis of the pottery, the metals and other finds, the burial customs, and the history and society of the burying population. A study of the capacities of some of the pottery vessels and a metallurgical analysis of the iron objects appear in appendices"--

"This publication presents the archaeological evidence from two associated Minoan sites situated at Apesokari in the Mesara Plain of south-central Crete, Tholos Tomb A and the neighboring free-standing domestic complex on Vigla hill. It thoroughly reconstructs the natural and social landscape of this Cretan community from the late Prepalatial to the early Neopalatial periods through its interdisciplinary character; this includes photogrammetric two- and three-dimensional models of the architectural remains, viewshed analysis of both monuments and of the earlier Tholos Tomb B, as well as A-DNA and stable isotope analysis of the bones. The study of the burial dataset provides insights into the social construction of collective memory and identity by the burying social group, whereas the habitational deposits from the building on Vigla hill establish the longevity and function of the site as a node of the southern Mesara communication and exchange networks"--

Examines ancient Egyptian artifacts from a shrine of the Minoan-Greek goddess Eileithyia.

This excavation of a Late Bronze Age town on the island of Mochlos in northeastern Crete includes the House of the Metal Merchant and 13 other structures. Each building is described with its stratigraphy, architecture, small finds, ecofactual materials, function, and room use.

Details the Neopalatial and Late Minoan II to III pottery from Houses I.1 and I.2 at the Petras, Siteia II site, a Minoan Palatial Settlement in Eastern Crete.

Presents the remarkable discoveries from the excavation of a shrine dedicated to the Greek Goddess Eileithyia in Crete.

Presents the fascinating discoveries from the salvage excavation of a Minoan settlement at Bramiana in southeastern Crete.

Archaeometallurgy survey and excavation of an Early Bronze Age miners' village, Goeltepe, and its associated tin mine, Kestel, are presented. The results of the surface surveys, test pit operations, profile trenches, and excavation finds demonstrate that processing of cassiterite-rich ore was the primary function of activities at Goeltepe.

This is the first volume on the Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi in western Crete. To date two hundred and thirty-two chamber tombs have been excavated. The necropolis is the most important and extensive, and the only intact, cemetery that dates to Late Bronze Age III on Crete. It was very rich in finds, which include more than 800 decorated vases, significant bronzes, painted larnakes, a boar¿s tooth helmet and a stirrup jar with a Linear B inscription, and there is evidence for the remains of up to a thousand individuals. The volume presents the background and history of the site, describes and illustrates the most important finds. Field surveys and a geophysical survey were carried out with the goal of discovering the wealthy town which built the necropolis, and this was accomplished. Catalogues of the Minoan finds, and also the oft-overlooked Roman and Byzantine ones, from the surveys are included. Chapters on the topographical and the geological settings of the necropolis are presented, as well as a proposed method for tomb construction, a potential metal resource, and a chapter which discusses Armenoi, Western Crete and the Linear B tablets from Knossos.

The title of this volume, ke-ra-me-ja in Linear B, was chosen because it means ¿potter¿ (?e??¿e?a, from Greek ???a¿??, ¿potter¿s clay¿) and combines two major strands of Cynthia Shelmerdine¿s scholarship: Mycenaean ceramics and Linear B texts. It thereby signals her pioneering use of archaeological and textual data in a sophisticated and integrated way. The intellectual content of the essays demonstrate not only that her research has had wide-ranging influence, but also that it is a model of scholarship to be emulated.

During the last few decades, there has been great interest in the problems of defining the extent and nature of kingship in the Mycenaean world. Questions concerning the degree of economic and religious power held by the king have been given special emphasis. This book surveys the conclusions drawn by individual scholars studying the Linear B tablets, contrasts their theories with our knowledge of the Mycenaean kingdoms as derived from the archaeological record, and finally compares this evidence with possible reflections in the oral tradition, specifically in the Iliad and Odyssey. This approach leads to the suggestion that the king in the Mycenaean period had only limited power over the society and its economy. Although the king appears to have controlled a large segment of the economy, it is argued here that other individuals and family groups within the kingdom also had a certain degree of economic independence.