| الوصف: |
This paper assesses evidence for the transformation of prestige expression in the southwestern Peloponneseduring the early Mycenaean period (late MH–LH II) with special attention on the shift from patterns of elite behaviourobservable throughout the MH period in the region, especially the kind of prestige conveyed by the construction andmaintenance of funerary mounds or tumuli. It focuses on the appearance of novel perceptions of monumental prestigein architecture, such as the early employment of cut masonry, as well as the emergence of various types of built burialspace, and particularly the tholos form (perhaps a local invention) and its role in the dramatic transformation of thefunerary landscape of the region. Such novelties, apparently appearing in the southwestern Peloponnese earlier in comparisonto other mainland regions, need not have a uniform explanation, as they might reflect cultural imports or localdevelopments responding (or even contributing) to the formation of a new socio-political environment. These lastinginnovations shaped basic elements of an emerging monumental prestige vocabulary that had a considerable impact inother regions of the Greek mainland and contributed, especially from LH IIA onwards, to the formation of a supraregional‘Mycenaean’ elite identity. In this regard, the broader social and ideological change that took place throughoutthe earlier part of the Late Bronze Age Aegean culminated in the adoption of what has been termed the wanax ideology,a kingship institution that is established by LH IIIB times, but whose first appearance on the Greek mainland can beplausibly associated with the formative stages of the palatial administrations established there. |