2006 campaign: Excavation News & Photos

Excavation and Survey Reports (2002-06)

The "D.E.P.A.S. of Mycenae" in the news:

Campus News Extra -- Dickinson News I -- Dickinson News II -- Dickinson Magazine

Patriot News -- Sentinel I -- Sentinel II -- Sentinel III

METIS: Virtual Tour of Mycenae - 360^o Panoramic Views (QuickView required)

Program/Course Description

Program duration: July 2007

Program Structure

Orientation sessions will be scheduled during the spring semester 2006 (including assigned readings) and on-site. During study/research season Museum research, archaeological survey and related tasks begin at 8:00 am and end at 3:30 pm, with a break at 12:00 pm.  Organized excursions and field trips will be scheduled on weekdays and weekends (or on days of inclement weather preventing digging/surveying) and include nearby Museums and major archaeological sites in Athens, Corinth, Nafplion, Argos, Epidaurus, Tiryns, Lerna, Pylos, Olympia. During excavation, digging is conducted Monday through Friday, from 6:00 am to 1:30 pm, with a break at 11:00 pm; in the afternoon (5:15-6:00 pm) the excavation staff is briefed by each trench assistant or master on the results and finds of the day, and the program director assigns tasks and gives detailed directions for the following day (in exceptional cases weekends may be used for dig preparation, if necessary). Excavation is hard, physical work, requiring also high-level concentration, and involving multiple tasks (including supervising the workmen, keeping a detailed daily journal, describing, measuring, recording, labeling, drawing, photographing the archaeological finds and contexts, transporting, storing and cataloguing the finds) and students should be well-prepared and trained for it.

Location, Housing and On-site Administration

The archaeological site of Mycenae is located in the Prefecture of Argolid, Peloponnesos, at a distance of only 2 kms from the modern village of Mycenae (where the students will be housed), 8-10 kms from the city of Argos (the prefecture capital), 18-20 kms from the shores of Nafplion, and approximately 140 kms (two-hour driving) from Athens (the capital city of Greece) and the international airport "Eleutherios Venizelos". The students will stay in a hotel in the modern village of Mycenae (double occupancy rooms with air-conditioning, private bathroom and shower, balcony, rear garden). Transportation to/from the archaeological site, and on field trips will be provided by the excavation (rented van). The program director, with many years of field experience at various sites in Greece (seven of which at Mycenae) will be on-site for the most part of the week, and will also make arrangements with his assistants and local liaisons in case of emergencies. The program director and the students can be reached by phone and cellular phone at the site/hotel. The village of Mycenae is served by emergency medical facilities and a local physician, while the city of Argos is served by a hospital.

Academic Requirements

Eligible students who wish to participate must have fulfilled the following academic requirements prior to the commencement of the program, including four introductory courses (or equivalent), offered annually at Dickinson:

· Greek Art and Archaeology or Prehistoric Aegean Art and Archaeology

· Field Archaeology (Fundamentals of Archaeology) or prior field experience

· Modern Greek language (at least Greek 107)

Certain eligibility criteria may be waived and equivalency of prerequisites is determined at the discretion of the program director. 

The successful applicants will be assigned readings on Mycenae during the orientation sessions in the spring semester 2006.

Costs

The fee for the program will be approximately $ 5,000 and covers Dickinson tuition, local transportation, room and board, International Student Identity Card, and transportation. International flight to/from Greece and all other incidental expenses are the student's responsibility.

Dickinson students who are eligible for financial aid should inquire about options for summer financial assistance at the Financial Aid Office.

Application

Apply early. Application forms may be obtained from:

Office of Global Education

Dickinson College

P.O. Box 1773

Carlisle, PA 17013-2896

(tel: 717-245-1341; e-mail: global@dickinson.edu)

Completed applications must be returned by February 1, 2007. 

Schedule of Payments and Refunds

A $25.00 non-refundable application fee is due with application. This fee is used to defray processing costs. A non-refundable confirmation payment of $300.00 is due within two weeks after notification of acceptance into the program. The balance of the program fee, less any applicable financial aid, will be due in the Office of Student Accounts in late April, 2006.

The application fee and confirmation are non-refundable; in order to plan and maintain service effectively, the College must make financial commitments well in advance of the beginning of the program, assuming that all participants enroll for the full program. If a student withdraws from the program prior to departure, only the amount of money that has not been committed for the student's participation can be refunded. After the student's arrival at the site, a refund can be made only in case of serious illness or an emergency that requires the student to return to the U.S. Refund policies in effect may be found in the Dickinson College Summer School Program Bulletin.

Student Responsibilities

Students in the program are expected to respect the rights of the other students and of the staff and the faculty. College policies for which participants are held responsible may be found in the Student Handbook. Copies are available from the program director, who serves as Judicial Hearing Officer for all alleged violations.

For More Information

Prof. Christofilis Maggidis (DEPAS Director)

Department of Classical Studies

Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773 

Carlisle PA 17013-2896

Tel: 717-245-1023

Fax: 717-245-1683

E-mail: maggidic@dickinson.edu

Accreditation

Dickinson College is fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

Dickinson College is an intellectual and social community which values justice, free inquiry, diversity, and equal opportunity. It is a fundamental policy of the College to respect pluralism and to promote tolerance, civility, and mutual understanding within its community. The College does not discriminate on such bases as race, color, sex, political and religious beliefs, marital status, age, sexual orientation, national and ethnic origins, veteran's status, or disability.

The above information is accurate as of this printing, but is subject to change without notice.

EXCAVATION NEWS & PHOTOS

D.E.P.A.S. of MYCENAE EXCAVATION TEAM 2006   D.E.P.A.S. Field Director: Prof. Chr. Maggidis (Assistant to the Director of Mycenae, Prof. Sp. Iakovidis) Archaeologists: Dr. Alexandros Lachanas, Prof. Leon Fitts, Dr. Angelos Tilios, Dr. Antonia Stamos (supervisor of geoprospection survey team) Graduate Students: Jenn Danis, Elizabeth Madaus, Sarah Peterson, Ann Goencz, Katie Lantzas, Owen Berliner Students: Allison Cuneo, Kyle Tipping, Breanne Clifton, Jack Treichler, Rebecca Worsham, Lisa Geiger, Elizabeth Pente, Rebecca Mendelsohn, Sarah MacGregor, Christine Harkness, Georgia Bousia, Kyriaki Tsirtsi, Foreman: Andreas Tentzeris

The students' tasks varied from supervising as trench masters and trench assistants (involving daily notebook keeping, recording, measuring, labeling, drawing, photographing) to digging, sifting, transporting and storing, cleaning and cataloguing the finds, surveying and mapping. The excavation started daily at 5:30 am and ended at 1:00 pm with a short lunch break at 10:30 am.

Prof. Spyros Iakovidis, Director of Mycenae, and Prof. Christofilis Maggidis, Assistant to the Director of Mycenae and Director of the D.E.P.A.S. project, in conference (left); it is a great honor and privilege for all of us to excavate under the direction and guidance of Professor Iakovidis. President and Mrs. Durden at Mycenae: their distinguished presence during the opening of the very first D.E.P.A.S. campaign at Mycenae in 2002 filled us all with great pleasure and honor.

Prof. Maggidis and Dr. Tilios in conference (left); Prof. Fitts, Prof. Maggidis, and Dr. Lachanas (right)

EXCAVATION & SURVEY REPORTS (2002-2006)

D.E.P.A.S. of MYCENAE 2002-2006:

Citadel, NW Sector, Area M-Λ/N: Building K

The 2002-2006 excavation campaigns focused on the northwestern part of the citadel in the area between Building N and the Storerooms Λ of Megaron M, just to the NE of the Lion Gate; this oblong area (approx. 26m x 7.5m) was divided in three sectors and was overlaid with a 2x2 grid (established by means of a Total Station and Differential GPS). A Late Mycenaean building was discovered therein (Building K), which appears to be a single-story, oblong structure (approx. 26m x 4m) attached to the Storerooms Λ of Megaron M and divided internally by partition cross-walls into a row of smaller rooms (storerooms including a kitchen area?) with floors at different terrace levels following the descending slope to the north. This preliminary interpretation is based on the form of the structure, the associated finds, and its close physical proximity to the complex of Megaron M and its Storerooms Λ, to which Building K was added in LH IIIB2. Building K appears to have been a rather temporary extension or addition to the Storerooms Λ of Megaron M: it was built apparently in a hasty, careless fashion and with re-use of earlier building material soon after the first destruction horizon, at a time when the nearby palatial storerooms lay badly damaged and storage space was desperately needed until their full repair and restoration. Building K was totally destroyed at the very end of LH IIIB2, during the second destruction horizon, clearly by earthquake (to infer from the seismic imprint on the wavy outline of the long western wall) combined with a subsequent conflagration (as indicated by the thick ash destruction fill and abundant remains of burnt wood and sherds). This short-lived building was filled-in, never to be re-used again, whereas some of the nearby Storerooms Λ and wall casemates of Megaron M were partially restored and occupied on a smaller scale during the LH IIIC period when they were eventually abandoned.

The long, rectangular Building K viewed from the south with Room 1 in the foregound (top left); the destruction layer, clay floor, and foundation fill of Room 1 viewed from the north (top right); the ground plan of the building (Rooms 1-4) showing the surviving parts of the clay floor (middle); panoramic view of the excavated building (bottom).

Room 1.

Sector III (7.5m x 8m) was cleared of the mixed surface fill, to reveal the southern end of the new building (Room 1), which is outlined by two walls: a thick wall (B) running E-W and abutting on the exterior walls of Buildings Λ and N at right angles, which forms the southern exterior wall of the building, with a Mycenaean drain channel running through its foundation; and a thin wall (A) running N-S, parallel to the exterior walls of Buildings Λ and N, and perpendicular to wall (B), which forms the western exterior wall of the building. The clay floor of Room 1 was found covered with a thick ash layer containing shattered vases, burnt wood, small artifacts, color pigments, shell and animal bones, fresco fragments, and very small pieces of fine brownish-red clay accidentally baked in the fire that destroyed the building –potentially fragments of Linear B tablets. This partially disturbed destruction layer, dated to the LH IIIB2 phase on diagnostic ceramic evidence, was sealed off at places by the fallen debris (collapsed roof and melted mud-brick wall superstructure).  The clay floor in the central part of the room was carefully laid upon a leveling layer of slabs which crowned the deep foundation fill and several rubble-filled bedrock cavities; the edge of the floor, however, was laid either directly on bedrock outcrops (eastern part) or upon a wide rubble platform running north-south, bearing the foundation of the western wall of the building, and projecting inward by 1m underneath the floor (western part). Embedded in the 20cm-thick clay floor layer were found small fresco fragments, parts of Mycenaean figurines, obsidian flakes, a Mycenaean ‘button,’ color pigments, shell, animal bones, and diagnostic LH IIIA2/B1 sherds which provide a t.p.q. for the construction of the floor. The underlying foundation fill yielded mixed MH-LH IIIA2/B1 pottery and multifarious finds, apparently coming from earlier disturbed layers and/or debris brought from other destroyed buildings nearby and dumped there along with rubble and brought soil to fill the foundation of the new building. The foundation fill contained, among other finds, a great number of fresco fragments decorated with blue, red, and yellow color bands and tri-curved patterns, remains of burnt wooden beams, obsidian blades, cores and flakes, stone tools and vases, Mycenaean figurines and beads, color pigments, shell and animal bones. A LH pottery deposit was located in the foundation of the western wall of the room; furthermore, the excavation of two deep bedrock cavities revealed a clear stratification of successive undisturbed layers of earlier periods (LH I/II, MH, Neolithic). A Geometric pit-grave lined with vertically placed slabs (similar to other such graves found in the vicinity) was later built on top of the western part of wall (B), after the latter went out of use; the grave contained a poorly-preserved skeleton laid in the embryatic position without any funerary goods (kterismata).

The portable finds from Sector III included both artifacts and ecofacts, among which 19 zoomorphic and anthropomorphic Mycenaean figurines, lead and other metal sheets (including an ancient pottery repair clamp), stone vase fragments, a partly preserved jewelry mold, wall fresco fragments, burnt wood and bones, shell, 19 obsidian flakes and blades, clay objects and cooking trays, traces of color pigments (20 samples of yellow, orange, red, and blue color), a partly preserved boar’s tusk(?), an inscribed archaic sherd, intact pots found  in situ and containing organic remains –samples of which were sent for microscopic and chemical analysis– and hundreds of sherds.

Room 2

The central part of the building (Sector II) was found partially disturbed by Tsountas' test trenches; the area was cleared of the mixed surface fill, to reveal Room 2 of the building. The continuation of the long western wall and its foundation platform was found covered at places by collapsed, melted and burnt mud-brick superstructure, rubble, and roof tiles. Beneath and encased by the foundation platform of the wall were found two adjacent shallow bedrock cavities, both sealed off by an overlaying Mycenaean pottery deposit: the southern cavity (1.10m x 0.80m) contained a MH burial which was furnished with an obsidian core, two stone scrapers, matt-painted and Minyan pottery, and accompanied by the skeleton of a small animal, apparently the remains of a funerary ritual offering or sacrifice, while the northern cavity (0.40m x 0.80m) was filled with a thick layer of ash and burnt soil containing burnt wood and sherds, apparently remains of a funerary pyre connected with the adjacent MH burial.

The portable finds included both artifacts and ecofacts, among which 15 zoomorphic and anthropomorphic Mycenaean figurines, a Mycenaean bead of blue-mass and 2 stone “buttons” (cloth weights), a partially surviving marble sword or scepter hilt, 13 obsidian blades or core fragments, 7 metal objects (including two ancient pottery repair clamps still attached to pot sherds), a Hellenistic coin and 19 Hellenistic clay loom-weights, 5 small wall fresco fragments, samples of waterproof bonding lime plaster, a slab bearing an engraved mason’s mark, intact pots found  in situ and containing organic remains (food and wine residue?) –samples of which were sent for microscopic and chemical analysis, hundreds of ceramic pot-sherds and roof tiles (56 pottery bags), traces of color pigments, shell, burnt and unburned animal bones.

Room 3 & Staircase 4

In the northern sector (Sector I), by the northern Cyclopean wall, the mixed surface fill was cleared off to reveal the remains of the northernmost room Building K (Room 3). Room 3 (5.40m x 4.2m) terminates at the northern thick exterior wall of the building (Wall Z: 1.60–1.75m thick) which runs E-W between the western exterior wall A of the building and the western exterior wall of Storerooms Λ, at a distance of approximately 3m from the Cyclopean wall. The area between the northern exterior wall Z and the Cyclopean wall appears to have been a small open-air courtyard with clay floor, sealed by the stone pile debris of Wall Z which has apparently collapsed downhill to the north. Room 3 must have been entered from the north, through the open-air courtyard. A partially preserved floor (Layer 3), made of pressed earth and clay (0.20-0.35m thick) stretches between the two parallel exterior walls in Room 3, bearing clear traces of fire and covered by a thick destruction fill which produced LH IIIB2 pottery (Layer 2b); within the destruction fill were found remains of collapsed mud-brick superstructure encased in wooden framework. The clay floor was laid upon a leveling course of slabs which seals off an undisturbed thick foundation fill (Layer 4). The foundation fill contained small and medium-size rough stones placed to fill the cavities of the bedrock outcrops and level off the ground. The stone sockle of Wall A (0.60m thick) was erected upon a low and wide (1.60m) stone foundation platform (Context 5) which runs parallel to the wall and projects inward by approx. 1m, underneath the edge of the clay floor and its  foundation layer. To the west of Wall A and at a depth of –2.60m (approx. 0.50m deeper than the floor level of Room 3) another pressed earth floor was unearthed (Layer 8), which appeared to be a road pavement rather than a room floor, most likely an access road to the northern Cyclopean Wall and to the small courtyard. The western part of Room 3 is cut off by means of a corner partition wall (Wall E) and turned into a narrow blind room (Room 4: 2.30m x 1.30m) entered from the north, most probably a low staircase leading up to Room 2 whose floor is raised by 0.50-0.60 m.

Small finds from this sector included both artifacts and ecofacts, among which 19 zoomorphic and anthropomorphic Mycenaean figurines; 8 Mycenaean stone, bone or clay beads and cloth “buttons” (cloth weights); 8 obsidian blades or core fragments; 2 metal objects (a sheet of lead and a lead ring); 2 stone grinders; a Hellenistic coin and clay loom-weight; several small Mycenaean fresco fragments; samples of waterproof bonding lime plaster (plesia); shell, burnt and unburned animal bones; roof tiles, and abundant pottery (73 pottery bags), mainly of the LH IIIB period; most notably, cookware, including non-stick frying pans and grill clay bases.

D.E.P.A.S. of MYCENAE GEOPROSPECTION SURVEY (2003-06)

At Mycenae, an extensive archaeological survey which was jointly conducted by the Athens Archaeological Society and the British School at Athens in the 1990s, located, identified and mapped all visible remains throughout the wider area of Mycenae (32 hectares), including more than 750 sites, structures, buildings, guard towers, beacons, wall remains, tombs, roads, and bridges (Iakovidis and French 2003). The survey retraced the extensive network of roads and highways in the area of Mycenae and established its spatial association with the location of the surrounding cemeteries. In 2003 a systematic geophysical prospection and remote-sensing survey was launched at Mycenae under the direction of Prof. Chr. Maggidis, the general supervision of Prof. S. Iakovidis, Director of Mycenae, and the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society; the geoprospection survey, which is generously funded by Dickinson College and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP), is conducted by Dr. Antonia Stamos, who leads INSTAP teams of specialists and Dickinson College (D.E.P.A.S.) student teams. Several ground-based remote-sensing methods (including Ground Penetrating Radar, Electrical Resistivity, Magnetometry, Geotomography, and Geoacoustics) are being combined to map all visible and buried structures in the area around the citadel, to locate buildings, sectors and roads of the settlement of Mycenae outside the walls, and ultimately to create a 3-D digital model of the buried ‘Lower Town’ of Mycenae (Stamos 2006; Maggidis and Stamos 2006).

The targeted area is located immediately south of the citadel on the terraced fields flanking the dry riverbed gorge of Chavos. The terraces, which are retained and delineated by modern low, stone-built walls, were named after their location in regard to the riverbed: South East Bank (SEB), South West Bank (SWB) I, II, III, IV and V. The survey area was selected after careful examination of the local geomorphology (artificially terraced land, thick undisturbed fill, sealed and protected by successive river alluvium deposits) and consideration of several topographical and archaeological variables: the spatial distribution and orientation of visible ruins; the alignment of the east façade of the Oil-Merchant complex and the Panagia group which may indicate the presence of a northbound highway leading to the Lion Gate, running almost parallel to and east of the modern road, to which the orientation of both building groups possibly conformed; the existence of at least two Mycenaean bridges over the Chavos river further south, connecting the two river banks and their respective terraces; the discovery of scant remains of a Cyclopean retaining wall running along the eastern edge of terraces SWB II-IV on the western bank of Chavos; the distinct pattern of successive artificial terraces which was widely used on the hill slopes around Mycenae for palatial and residential or commercial buildings, built on terraces and supported by thick retaining walls on the down slope; and finally, the quantity and types of chance finds during the clearing of the fields, including mainly Mycenaean sherds, stone tools, and figurines, mixed with a few Hellenistic sherds and loom weights, which indicate a strong presence of Mycenaean and Hellenistic domestic contexts.

The software-enhanced analysis of high-resolution aerial photographs of the area around Mycenae, taken in the spring of 1988 and kindly supplied by the Greek Military Geographical Service (G.Y.S.), revealed upon careful inspection distinct “ghost traces” of walls as crop/soil marks on terraces SEB I and SWB I-V of the targeted area. These aerial photographs of Mycenae were also used in conjunction with a silo-locating military program (ERDAS Imagine 8.4) which compares visible, recognizable features within the photograph to other features that match the set parameters in order to produce the resulting image of a site prediction model. It was, therefore, possible to determine and confirm plausible locations to conduct the geoprospection survey. The areas in red are the most interesting because they pick up likely features in the very same locations targeted by the archaeological survey and highlighted on the aerial photograph as producing ghost traces (SEB I, SWB I-V): these areas were finally selected as being most likely to produce promising remote-sensing results, and eventually physical remains by excavation.

In the period of 2003-2006 a total of c.40 grids were surveyed with Ground Penetrating Radar and/or electrometer on six separate terraces on both banks, with the South West Bank grids having produced the most interesting results so far. Plotting and mapping of the survey grids was carried out by means of GPS and Total Station; the survey data, the geomorphology of the study area, the archaeological remains and topographical parameters will be eventually integrated in a GIS model. In general, the preliminary results reveal wall corners, structures, features, gates and roads at two different depth ranges (0.40–1m and 1.20–2m) which consistently pervade most of the surveyed contexts; these depth ranges define possibly two superimposed occupation horizons, including an overlying Hellenistic (preserved only at places) and an underlying Mycenaean level, accordingly, which are further set apart by the distinct types and size of their structures. The geoelectric survey (conducted by the Univ. of Patra) revealed definite geometric features in the northern half SWB I–II, all of which appear to have the same orientation, being possibly part of the same complex or similar adjacent structures; one of the most interesting features is a series of parallel oblong rooms with N–S orientation in SWB II, reminiscent of palatial storerooms. The most important single find of the Ground Penetrating Radar survey so far was identified in the SWB Vb grid: at a depth of –0.68m emerges a road surface (3 m wide) running N–S (roughly parallel to the modern road and roughly aligned with the Oil-Merchant complex), which may well be the northbound Hellenistic or Mycenaean highway leading up to the citadel through the settlement. Two Γ-shaped, solid features to the north and on either side of the road may be gates or towers, considering their diagnostic shape and large size (at least 3.5m wide, preserved to a total height of approximately 1m). This feature is strikingly similar to a structure located at the extreme edge of the Panagitsa hill and labeled by Steffen in 1884 as a gate: that structure which was cleared again during the Archaeological Survey of Mycenae, consists of two terrace-like buildings set approximately 6m apart and framing a possible roadway. If our interpretation is correct and the evidence eventually bears out our assumptions, then what appears in the radar image on grid SWB Vb is the main gate into the ‘Lower Town’ of Mycenae. The discovery and excavation of this important landmark will certainly shed new light on the elusive topography and complex road network of the settlement around the citadel of Mycenae.

The on-going geoprospection survey, which will expand on several other sectors of the ‘Lower Town’ outside the fortification walls, forms the basis for the systematic excavation of the settlement of Mycenae. In 2006, four hectares (approx. 1.6 acres) of the surveyed land were purchased thanks to generous funding from Dickinson College and benefactors (Mr. and Mrs. Case); another 3.5 hectares (approx. 1.4 acres) will be further purchased in 2007 and more surveyed land will be further expropriated in the near future. This paves the way for the commencement of the systematic excavation of the ‘Lower Town’ of Mycenae in the summer of 2007 in one of the most promising areas of the south sector extending over some 7.5 hectares (approx. 3 acres) of surveyed land. The systematic excavation of the ‘Lower Town’ of Mycenae will address several important issues and will hopefully provide answers to crucial questions:

·        The excavation will shed new light on the actual size, type, town-planning, road network, expansion and development of the Mycenaean settlement outside the fortification walls of Mycenae. It will be interesting to see whether the settlement continues well into LH IIIC after the destruction horizons of LH IIIB1/2 and to what extent (notwithstanding the particularly large size of the Tiryns Lower Citadel and exterior settlement in LH IIIC). The excavation will also reveal and document later occupation phases (Early Iron Age and Hellenistic) but may also trace earlier occupation levels and structures (LH I-IIIA1 or even MH?) which are largely underrepresented architecturally at Mycenae both inside the citadel (where the vertical development of the site and extensive building activities in later phases, mainly in LH IIIA2-B, may have obliterated earlier remains) and outside the walls (primarily due to the limited scale of excavation so far); it may be possible, therefore, to reveal and document crucial architectural phases representing transitional stages of the socio-economic and political process towards the formation of a palatial state (marked by gradual transformation and continuity or abrupt change?) and associate well-attested mortuary data of earlier periods with their contemporary occupation contexts.

·        The excavation of the settlement of Mycenae will further contribute to the study of Mycenaean domestic architecture, and to a better understanding of Mycenaean urbanization, settlement patterns of variation and uniformity, and dynamics between settlement and palace; the excavation of the settlement surrounding the most important Mycenaean palatial center becomes even more essential, given the lack or inaccessibility of sizeable segments of the settlement at Pylos, Thebes, Orchomenos, Athens, and in view of the on-going excavation of the ‘Lower Town’ at neighboring Tiryns.

·        The cause(s), extent, impact, and date(s) of the destruction horizons at Mycenae in LH IIIB1/2 (Iakovidis 1986 and 1996; Maggidis 2007) will be further investigated in the area of the ‘Lower Town;’ fresh new evidence may clarify the events surrounding these destructions (as well as partial destructions in LH IIIC) at Mycenae, establish their correlation with similar catastrophes or partial destructions in the Argolid (Tiryns, Midea) and beyond, and help assess their combined impact on the Mycenaean palatial states (Maggidis 2007).

·        The excavation of the ‘Lower Town’ of Mycenae will be instrumental in further defining the local ceramic typological sequence through meticulous examination of stratigraphy and the study of undisturbed closed contexts and sealed pottery deposits. Subsequently, it may be possible to update or revise the regional ceramic sequence and relative chronology by establishing firm chronological horizons, correlations and synchronizations by means of ceramic links with other well-studied regional and extra-regional sites based on pottery imports, exports, parallels and local imitations (aided by petrographic and INAA analysis).

·        The archaeological study and scientific analysis of portable finds and artifacts, anticipated in great numbers and in a wide range of materials, types, and artifacts, will shed new light on the socio-economic dynamics of the Mycenaean settlement, local workshops and crafts, production and storage, trade patterns and contacts with regional, extra-regional, or international centers, extent of palatial control over local production forces and degree of dependency on palatial bureaucracy and administration. The systematic collection, recording, and analysis of ecofacts (including organic residue, macro- and micro-botanical remains, carbonized wood, animal bones and teeth, shell) and soil micromorphology will address a variety of palaeoenvironmental, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical issues and aspects of ancient economy (e.g. landscape changes, past human activities, patterns or changes in the use of land, farming, human diet).

D.E.P.A.S. TEAMS