THE KINGDOM OF PYLOS

336 pages

24x29 cm

187 illustrations and maps

hardback

Inspired by tales of Trojan War heroes in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, nineteenth-century explorers sought the legendary king Nestor’s homeland at “sandy Pylos” on the coast of the southwestern Peloponnese in Greece. Archaeologists later searched inland on the Englianos Ridge, where they unearthed a palace and inscribed tablets that confirmed ancient Pylos’s location. The Palace of Nestor, as it is now known, was built shortly after 1300 BCE as the seat of a monarch whose realm spanned 800 square miles in modern-day Messenia. 

During the early phases of the Late Bronze Age in Greece (ca. 1630–1360 BCE), the region  of Messenia was an epicenter of Mycenaean civilization. The elite clans that headed prosperous communities acquired luxuries imported from Minoan Crete and from as far away as Egypt and the Near East. They erected beehive-shaped tombs to commemorate ancestors and were buried with their weapons and wealth. The era of these warrior-princes foreshadowed the rise of a powerful kingdom centered at Pylos, which governed the region’s economic, political, and religious activities. 

Homeric archaeology gave way long ago to cutting-edge research in the field. Accompanied by over 300 illustrations and essays by an international team of archaeologists, this catalogue includes extraordinary recent discoveries, notably from the grave of a man known as the Griffin Warrior, who was found surrounded by incomparable works of art and craft. As excavations throughout Messenia continue, the latest techniques for interpreting the remains of Late Bronze Age society reveal the history behind the myths.

 

Forewords

 

LINA MENDONI | Minister of Culture of the Hellenic Republic

EVANGELIA MILITSI-KECHAGIA | Director, Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia, Kalamata, Hellenic Ministry of Culture

TIMOTHY POTTS | Director, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

ANNA-VASILIKI KARAPANAGIOTOU | Director General, Hellenic National Archaeological Museum, Athens

 

Acknowledgments and Lenders to the Exhibition

 

Introduction | CLAIRE L. LYONS

 

Editors’ Preface

 

Maps of the Mycenaean Aegean World

 

1. Mycenaean Messenia in a Mediterranean Context

 

2. Funerary Architecture and Gifts for the Dead

 

3. The Grave of the Griffin Warrior

 

4. The Palace of Nestor at Pylos

 

5. The Kingdom of Pylos in the Late Bronze Age

 

Notes

 

Abbreviations and Bibliography

 

Contributors

 

Index

 

Illustration Credits

greek 9789602044704