ARCHAEOLOGICAL MEETING OF THESSALY AND CENTRAL GREECE, 2006-2008
FROM PREHISTORY TO THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

Paper abstract

VITALE Salvatore
PhD doctor, Universita degli Studi di Pisa
Local Traditions and Mycenaeanization in North-Central Greece. A Preliminary Report on the Late Helladic II to Late Helladic IIIB Pottery from Mitrou, East Lokris, and its Significance

Mitrou is one of a few sites in the north-central Greek mainland where a continuous occupational sequence, covering the entire Late Bronze Age period, has been recovered. For this reason and for its location on the passageway between northern and southern Greece, it has proven to be an ideal site to study societal changes and phenomena of interactions between different cultural traditions. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study of the pottery from three important chronological horizons, dating respectively to Late Helladic (LH) II (prepalatial period), LH IIIA2 Early (initial palatial period), and LH IIIB2 Late (final palatial period). Particular attention is devoted to the crucial question of the formation of a “Mycenaean identity” in north-central Greece, hybridizing with and slowly overtaking local traditions. This gradual process and its historical significance are outlined through a typological and functional analysis of the relevant ceramic materials and their context. A new pottery sequence and a fresh picture of the so-called Mycenaean “periphery” emerge. Mitrou seems to have been a dynamic settlement with an extensive range of external contacts including neighboring Phocis and Boeotia, as well as the Argolid, Aegina, and western Crete. Elements characteristic of the central regions of the Mycenaean civilization in the Peloponnese were not simply passively adopted, but adapted to local tastes and needs through a continuous and lively pattern of interaction.

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