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Mycenaean feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea

Hesperia, Spring, 2004 by Mary K. Dabney, Paul Halstead, Patrick Thomas

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That the deposit accumulated in a relatively short period of time and was not built up gradually as the result of daily disposal of rubbish is indicated by several lines of evidence. The excavators noted a number of very dense and thick "lenses" of sherds during the course of excavations; one such lens appears in a section drawing. Little matrix was observed between sherds in these lenses, consistent with dumping large quantities of sherds at once. The deposit in general and the more completely preserved vessels in particular exhibit considerably less surface weathering than the pottery in the EU 2 deposit dating to LH IIIB1, which is consistent with bulk disposal and fairly rapid burial. The EU 9 deposit was excavated in 59 units. Only 15% (9 out of 59) of the units contained heavily worn potsherds and 36% showed light wear; 63% of the units contained large sherds. Of the 37% containing only small to medium-sized sherds, many were from the basal level of the deposit where the sherds were in good condition, but broken into small pieces--almost as though an area had been leveled off and then walked on, breaking the sherds lying on its surface into small fragments. Moreover, the period to which the pottery belongs is a short one, accorded no more than 20-30 years in most absolute chronologies. (20) The deposit was stratified beneath a thin layer of LH IIIA2 (late), so it could not have accumulated over a very long period of time.

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Roughly 5% of the sherds belong to earlier periods--an amount somewhat unexpected in a primary disposal context but one consistent with deposition associated with feasting. For symbolic as well as practical reasons, debris from important ceremonies is often destroyed, displayed, or buried rather than merely being left discarded on the ground. A striking Mycenaean example is the series of bone groups from burned sacrifices placed around the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, (21) and such depositional practices were commonplace in later Greek sanctuaries. In this case, refuse from feasting may have been disposed of in the EU 9 pit and then covered with a layer of soil. The great majority of the earlier ceramic material from the pit dates to EH II and III; areas with considerable remains from these periods are immediately at hand to the west and north as a source of fill dirt. A sequence of feasts could thus leave evidence in the form of thick lenses of sherds and bones separated by areas of fill with higher concentrations of earlier sherds, a scenario compatible with the situation in the EU 9 deposit.

In order to assess how well the EU 9 deposit fits the above model for identifying feasting, it is necessary to compare it to other deposits (Table 2). Unfortunately, no settlement deposits from LH IIIA2 (early) have been characterized statistically in a manner comparable to this deposit; few closed settlement deposits of this period have in fact been identified. In order to have some basis of comparison, however, Table 2 presents statistics for deposits from Asine, Tsoungiza, Mycenae, and Korakou. Usage of these statistics is fraught with difficulties, since at least some sherds (particularly unpainted and solidly painted sherds) from most of the Mycenae deposits were discarded before being analyzed. In addition, because Mycenae was a preeminent site, it is more likely to have remains of feasting activities than a smaller site, and thus using deposits from Mycenae to establish a norm for settlements of all sizes is questionable; deposits from specialized storage areas such as the Petsas House at Mycenae and the so-called Potter's Shop at Zygouries have, for this reason, not been employed. Pottery from Nichoria and Asine is referred to in the following discussion, but it has not generally been quantified in a manner similar to the deposits from Tsoungiza and Mycenae. (22) Although plentiful material is available from Tiryns for LH IIIA2 (late) and LH IIIB1, it too has not been quantified in a readily comparable manner. (23)

Mycenaean feasting on Tsoungiza at Ancient Nemea

Hesperia, Spring, 2004 by Mary K. Dabney, Paul Halstead, Patrick Thomas

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