(Social) Place and Space in Early Mycenaean Greece, pp. 273-282, 2021/05/25
International Discussions in Mycenaean Archaeology
October 5–8, 2016, Athens
The excavations of the Athens Archaeological Society at Iklaina have brought to light a major LH settlementthat is identified with *a-pu2, one of the district capitals of the Mycenaean state of Pylos. One of the most strikingfeatures of the site is its monumental architecture, which includes at least two large buildings, two paved roads, a pavedpiazza, and massive built stone drains. The presence of this kind of monumentality outside the traditionally defined‘palaces’, combined with other markers of advanced socio-political complexity, opens up a number of questions regardingthe processes of the unification of the Mycenaean state of Pylos. In the present paper I review the relevant architecturaland stratigraphic evidence and assess its possible implications for this issue. It is concluded that the emergenceof monumental architecture at Iklaina could have been initiated either by the Palace of Nestor following a peacefulannexation of Iklaina in the early Mycenaean period, or by the local Iklaina rulers following a period of continuousgrowth before a forced annexation in LH IIIB.
Keywords: Monumentality, state formation, Mycenaean, Pylos, Iklaina
