Middle and Late Helladic Laconia: Competing Principalities?

Many new results on Middle and Late Bronze Age Laconia are presented in this volume, stemming from recent excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service as well as ongoing excavations, surveys and material studies by foreign schools and individual scholars. Among discussed settlements are the sites of Pellana, Palaiopyrgi, Geraki, Pavlopetri and Vrysika and also the island Kythera. The newly discovered palatial site at Ayios Vasileios is also elaborately discussed in various papers, including discussions of its North Cemetery, early Mycenaean pottery deposits, the West Stoa, and an outline of the habitation history and size of Ayios Vasileios compared to other palatial settlements.

More than 25 years have passed since the publication of a paper by Oliver Dickinson in which he wrote about central Late Helladic Laconia that he had an impression of competing and unstable principalities in the early period and perhaps centrifugal tendencies . In this volume we explore to what extent this impression is still justified. Especially considering the recent discovery of a palatial site at Ayios Vasileios. Indeed, this volume shows that in the past decades much has happened in Laconia with respect to what we know about the Bronze Age. We are therefore extra pleased that Oliver Dickinson has agreed to write an Afterword to this volume.

Written by academics and those working in the fields of Bronze Age Greece, Laconia, ceramic analyses, architecture, survey, and photogrammetry this volume will be invaluable to students and practitioners with similar interests.