Periodic Reporting for period 5 - SETinSTONE (Set in Stone - A retrospective impact assessment of human and environmental resource usage in Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Monumental Architecture, Greece)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-09-01 do 2022-02-28
Since phenomena of large-scale and global crises (climate, war, resource depletion, famine, disasters, breakdown of trade networks), with all their implications surround us now, this is a very timely period to investigate potential factors contributing to a major past crisis. Lessons and ideas from past contexts may emerge which may help us to deal with our own situation and we may, at least, contemplate our current observations as possible models to past contexts.
The following questions are addressed:
1) What were the minimum levels of human, material and environmental resources input in the prolonged Mycenaean building programmes (Fig 2)? Did these building programmes deplete these available resources in the regions under study, and if so, to which degree?
2) Which subsistence activities did people undertake in the centuries leading up to the Mycenaean collapse c. 1200 BC and which resources did they have at their disposal (Fig 3)?
3) If the ‘misuse of huge workforces' contributed to the Mycenaean ‘collapse’, how does this local Mycenaean phenomenon relate to societal ‘collapse’ seen in other regions of Greece and the East Mediterranean which also suffered major setbacks even though they did not undertake major building programmes?
We investigated the chaînes opératoires of monumental constructions in the Argolid, Attica and Achaia (Publ 14,44), and studied people’s regional daily subsistence activities and settlement patterns over time (Fig 9; Publ 39). Additional labour cost data on several crafts were brought into the equation (Publ 33,46). We studied people’s mobility trajectories in these landscapes between the places involved in the chaînes opératoires of building (Publ 25, Fig 10-11) and several crafts. Work involved data sharing, joint presentations and publications, team collaborations beyond the original planning, and the revision and refinement of several field techniques. We collected the largest existing database on highly accurate 3D documented architectural remains for prehistoric Greece; data sets combining published survey data, settlement patterns and landuse requirements, mortuary and dietary data, environmental data including botanical and current landuse data, and geological maps; and Mycenaean infrastructural data (Fig 12). Our research has shown that Mycenaean societies did not "collapse" as a result of resource exhaustion through monumental building, nor through other regular crafting activities in relation to their subsistence activities although final figures still need to be refined. We also tested successfully methodological models to studying crises phenomena. These models are now appealing beyond the Greek Bronze Age context since crises phenomena and the ways through which people react to and learn to cope with these are totally universal phenomena. Our presentations and publications thus contribute in demonstrating the deep historical insights that archaeological research achieves in studying and understanding very human issues such as crises, and it illustrates the contemporary relevance of archaeological studies today and for the future.
Resulting from this premise, the outcomes of project indicate a remaining impact both for future research and societal relevance. The architectural methods employed in a time of constant and fast technological changes have been refined in the field while the 3D documentation was carried out. This saved time, it allowed for more material culture to be recorded and compared, and at no loss of any accuracy. These methods are applicable, at low-cost, and easy-to-learn, in any context with current or past architectural features. Additionally, all sparse and incomplete data concerning the surrounding LBA landscape and its people in the Argive Plain are being mapped with GIS tools. Similar data has also been geo-referenced and mapped for the region’s LBA infrastructure, indicating that several spheres of life (building, transport, agriculture and mortuary expressions), were clearly interlinked physically in the landscape even though these links are not always easily discernable (now and in the past). All mapped data sets are based on published data, and low-tech aids were very valuable in the geo-referencing while walking and experiencing the landscape. These published features have never been accurately georeferenced with current technologies and can, in part or as a whole, be used for future intensive field research and interpretive studies in the area. To this extent, all data sets will be made OA upon publication. The physical and social impact of the monumental building programmes and multiple crafting activities on the local socioeconomic and political structures in the LBA Mycenaean world show the strength of people’s resilience in the region, even in adverse times. The local building and crafting efforts, placed in the much wider debate on societal ‘collapse’ indicative of the final phases of the East Mediterranean LBA, show no clear relation yet to the demise of the Mycenaean societies, nor a wider impact beyond. At present, final modelling is underway.