The Legacy of Death at Pylos in Greece

This volume examines in depth the Bronze Age tombs that Carl W. Blegen excavated around the Palace of Nestor, of Homeric fame, at Pylos in Messenia. This palace constituted the largest regional economic centre in southwestern Greece during the Bronze Age with evidence for high levels of craft specialization, production, and control of towns in the surrounding areas, and for a strict political hierarchy. As the earliest constructed, longest lived, and best preserved Mycenaean palace, Pylos holds a unique position in Late Bronze Age archaeology. The use of the tombs spans the rise and fall of the palace, yet the immense wealth of data available from their excavations has not undergone comprehensive analysis and full publication until now. Through the detailed examination of the tombs and their contents presented here, this work changes the understanding of how power strategies utilized by the Pylian state in the mortuary arena during the life of the palace fluctuated over time.