Jack L. Davis

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Although the Mycenaean civilization of the Greek Bronze Age was identified 150 years ago, its origins remain obscure. Jack L. Davis, codirector of excavations at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, takes readers on a tour of the beginnings of Mycenaean civilization through a case study of this important site. In collaboration with codirector Sharon R. Stocker, Davis demonstrates that this ancient place was a major node for the exchange of ideas between the already established Minoan civilization, centered on the island of Crete, and the residents of the Greek mainland. Davis and Stocker show how adoption of Minoan culture created an ideology of power focused on a single individual, celebrating his military prowess, investing him with divine authority, and creating a figure instantly recognizable to readers of Homer and students of Greek history. A Greek State in Formation makes the powerful case that a knowledge of the Greek Bronze Age is indispensable to the classics curriculum.

The Origins of Civilization in Mycenaean Pylos

A Greek State in Formation

Iris Pojani

Sharon R. Stocker

In the years 2004-2006, a joint team from the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology in Tirana, Albania, the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana, and the University of Cincinnati conducted excavations in the plain west of the walls of the ancient Greek colony of Apollonia, a short distance to the southwest of the modern village of Pojan. The site lies almost entirely within a complex of farm buildings known locally as Bonjaket. This volume represents the full publication of the results of three campaigns of excavation at the site. The new excavations discovered and documented a previously unknown monumental temple and have made it possible to describe for the first time the material remains of Greek rituals as practiced at the time of, or not long after, the foundation of Apollonia. Albania, the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana, and the University of Cincinnati conducted excavations in the plain west of the walls of the ancient Greek colony of Apollonia, a short distance to the southwest of the modern village of Pojan. The site lies almost entirely within a complex of farm buildings known locally as Bonjaket. This volume represents the full publication of the results of three campaigns of excavation at the site. The new excavations discovered and documented a previously unknown monumental temple and have made it possible to describe for the first time the material remains of Greek rituals as practiced at the time of, or not long after, the foundation of Apollonia.

Excavations at the Bonjaket Site (2004-2006)

A Sanctuary in the Hora of Illyrian Apollonia

Vasiliki Florou

Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan

Carl Blegen is the most famous American archaeologist ever to work in Greece, and no American has ever had a greater impact on Greek archaeology. Yet Blegen, unlike several others of his generation, has found no biographer. In part, the explanation for this must lie in the fact that his life was so multifaceted: not only was he instrumental in creating the field of Aegean prehistory, but Blegen, his wife, and their best friends, the Hills ("the family"), were also significant forces in the social and intellectual community of Athens. Authors who have contributed to this book have each researched one aspect of Blegen's life, drawing on copious documentation in the United States, England, and Greece. The result is a biography that sets Blegen and his closest colleagues in the social and academic milieu that gave rise to the discipline of classical archaeology in Greece.

Personal and Archaeological Narratives

Carl W. Blegen

John F. Cherry

E. Mantzourani

Helenē Mantzouranē

Northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands from Earliest Settlement Until Modern Times

Landscape Archaeology as Long-term History

Period V

Ayia Irini

John Bennet

This book traces the archaeological history of Pylos and surrounding regions in Messenia from the Palaeolithic to the present. Designed as much for general readers and travelers interested in ancient Greece as for scholars, the volume presents the findings of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP), which has intensively studied the region over the past 15 years. The 1998 edition, originally published by the University of Texas Press and widely used as a textbook in undergraduate classes, is reprinted with a new preface by Jack Davis and John Bennet, two of the project's original directors, assessing PRAP's impact and outlining new discoveries in the region.

An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino

Sandy Pylos

Siriol Davies

This book presents 13 studies on different regions of Greece that combine documentary and archaeological evidence to investigate the development of landscapes and sites between 1500 and 1800 A.D.

Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece

Between Venice and Istanbul

Jack L. Davis

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