Diagram of the Toumba at Lefkandi





This (above, top) is a diagram of the remains found in the Toumba at Lefkandi, a building believed to have been in use during the Greek Dark Ages after the fall of Mycenaean societies. The remains of two people have been discovered: a man, cremated and deposited in a bronze dish, and a gold-adorned woman wearing a necklace of Babylonian origin. 


The ornate burials of these two people, and their location in what was a large, central building in Lefkandi, indicates the existence of a “big-man” style bureaucracy; that is, an administration centered around a charismatic leader with allies devoted to (or beholden to) him instead of a government with continuity across leaders. The “big-man” system existed within the redistributive Mycenaean model that preceded the Dark Ages; however, the period of cultural devolvement that eliminated Mycenaean societies and their redistributive economies does not seem to have completely eradicated the somewhat simplistic big-man style of administrative bureaucracy in the region.   

 

The architecture of the Toumba (above, bottom) indicates that the bureaucracy of Lefkandi was substantially simplified compared to the administrations of Knossos and mainland Mycenaean sites. Not unlike a Mycenaen throne room, the Toumba (which was likely used for administrative purposes before becoming a tomb) contains three distinct chambers; however, none of the infrastructure meant to support the redistributive or military bureaucracy in a Mycenaean palace is present in the Toumba at Lefkandi. 


Arrington, N. T. (2015). TALISMANIC PRACTICE AT LEFKANDI: TRINKETS, BURIALS AND BELIEF IN THE EARLY IRON AGE. The Cambridge Classical Journal, 62, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/s175027051500010x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction: Bureaucracy and Administration in Ancient Greece

Image
This exhibition of artifacts, inscriptions, texts, buildings, and diagrams spans approximately 3500 years and features exhibits from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Classical period, the Hellenistic period, and modernity. The places of origin of the items featured include modern Iran, Crete, the Balkan Peninsula, and the United States of America. Within this exhibition are great buildings, religious items, laws and decrees, military equipment, and evidence of economic transactions. The common thread between them? Each of these exhibits is intended to provide a unique perspective on the administrative and bureaucratic history of Ancient Greece.  “Administration” and “bureaucracy” are somewhat broad terms. As such, it is prudent to define what, exactly, is included within an “administrative and bureaucratic history” of a territory. For the purposes of this exhibition, the administrative and bureaucratic history is the history of systematized, ordered authority in the Ancient Greek ...
Read more

Diagram of the Palace at Knossos

Image
This diagram of the layout of the Minoan/Mycenaean palace at Knossos provides insight into the early inhabitants of Crete’s robust economic bureaucracy: the redistributive economy. In the Knossos redistributive economy, materials were brought to production centers within the palace, where they would be stored and crafted into usable goods before being distributed back to the general population. The palace at Knossos was well-equipped to support a redistributive economy; most of the western wing of the palace is dedicated space for the production of goods. It is also notable that the central component of the palace is not a throne room (which is just to the west of the palace’s center) but rather a common space, which was likely meant for public use.  There is a substantial difference between the palace at Knossos on Crete and mainland Mycenaean palaces of the same era. The palace at Knossos is thought to have had little to no defensive mechanisms, and – thanks to the large central ...
Read more