‘Reading the texts’: archaeology and the Homeric question

Sherratt, E.S.

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00078893

Cited by 102 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The northwest Peloponnese and Ionian islands also had a vibrant culture at that time (Eder 2006). Whatever Mycenaean fragments may be found in myth (Sherratt 1990), later Greek society seems to have preserved no clear memory and little heritage from the Mycenaean palaces; rather it had origins in these Early Iron Age cultures (Dickinson 2006b).…”

Section: Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

Middleton

2012

J Archaeol Res

118

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The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes.

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Section: Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

Middleton

2012

J Archaeol Res

118

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“…the varied criticisms in Powell et al 1992). While I, like many of Powell's critics, am unwilling to concede any likelihood of the Iliad and Odyssey having been committed to writing in their entirety at this early date, or even that there was any need for them to be written down (Sherratt 1990, 821; cf. Kirk 1962, 319–20; Hainsworth in Powell et al 1992, 122–4), I am convinced that Powell is right to emphasize a connection of some sort between epic and alphabetic writing, which is visible not least in those striking instances of hexameter graffiti which form some of the earliest alphabetic inscriptions (Powell 1991, 119–86).…”

Section: The Context Of the Introduction Of The Greek Alphabet: Homermentioning

confidence: 99%

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

Sherratt

2003

Oxford J Archaeology

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A number of seemingly intractable problems still surround the introduction of the Greek alphabet some time around the middle of the eighth century BC, after more than four centuries of Greek illiteracy. The question of when this happened, though debated, seems still more or less a matter of consensus on the basis of the date of the earliest extant Greek alphabetic inscriptions, but the questions of where, how and why it did remain largely unresolved. Of these problems, perhaps one of the most intractable is that of why it happened when it did, given that the old idea of an isolated 'Dark Age'Greece, cut off from the literate east during the centuries before 800 BC, is no longer sustainable. On Cyprus, too, there is something of a literacy 'gap' between the early tenth and late eighth centuries, though there is every reason to suppose that an indigenous syllabic script continued in use on the island over this period, and the problem therefore is one of visibility rather than existence. This paper considers the contexts in which alphabetic literacy was introduced to Greece and in which syllabic literacy became visible once more on Cyprus at around the same time, in order to see if these are entirely coincidental or whether some link may be found between them. In particular, it raises some general questions concerning the relationships between script and language and between language and identity in different parts of the ancient world in the later second and early first millennia, and the implications these may have for the role of script in constructing and defining identities in eighth century Greece and Cyprus (both incidentally inhabited by Greek-speakers). It concludes that what we see are analogous, but quite separate, developments, both of them focused on Phoenician activity, but manifesting themselves in different circumstances through parallel but different phenomena. SUSAN SHERRATT OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

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“…The Iliad and Odyssey are products of a long development. Amongst material from the Postpalatial period and the Early Iron Age, they contain LBA fragments, objects such as Mycenaean‐style shields and spears, which themselves change in form over time, and boar's‐tooth helmets (Sherratt ). There are language fragments too that seem to be earlier and later Mycenaean; some might belong to the ‘heroic’ early Mycenaean period before the palaces developed: epic itself, then, was surely already alive in Mycenaean times, as the depictions of bards in Mycenaean fresco also suggest (Dowden ; Osborne ; West ).…”

Section: Dying and Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

I Will Follow You into the Dark: Death and Emotion in a Mycenaean Royal Funeral

Middleton

2017

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary Despite many years of intensive research into burial and funeral practices in Late Bronze Age (LBA) Greece, emotion remains largely absent from the discussion. Yet death and the emotions it provoked would have been familiar aspects of daily life in Mycenaean Greece. The dead had to be dealt with and moved on through various rites until they became a safe part of the landscape and memory of individuals and communities. In addition to anthropological and psychological research on death and grieving, we have several categories of evidence that can allow us a glimpse of the emotional world of death in LBA Greece: the Homeric poems the Iliad and Odyssey, iconographical representations of death, funeral practices and mourning, and the archaeological material itself – the tombs and offerings. In this paper, I introduce the various categories of evidence and draw on them to support an imaginative reconstruction of an event that happened, but which is not recorded in any historical sources – the death and burial of a great king of Mycenae. I argue that using emotion as a lens through which to view the evidence can sometimes allow deeper interpretation and enable fuller historical reconstructions of lived lives and experiences.

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‘Reading the texts’: archaeology and the Homeric question

Cited by 102 publications

References 18 publications

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus

I Will Follow You into the Dark: Death and Emotion in a Mycenaean Royal Funeral

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