University of Groningen The Process of Death Jones, Olivia

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The Process of Death

Jones, Olivia

DOI:

10.33612/diss.108355327

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Publication date: 2019

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Jones, O. (2019). The Process of Death: a bioarchaeological approach to Mycenaean mortuary traditions in Achaia. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.108355327

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i

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

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ii ISBN of the printed version: 978-94-034-2243-5 ISBN of the electronic version: 978-94-034-2242-8

Design and layout: Tamara M. Dijkstra Printing: Ridderprint BV, The Netherlands

iii

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

PhD thesis

to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen

on the authority of the

Rector Magnificus Prof. C. Wijmenga and in accordance with

the decision by the College of Deans. This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 12 December 2019 at 16:15 hours

by

Olivia Anne Jones

born on 4 October 1982

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ii ISBN of the printed version: 978-94-034-2243-5 ISBN of the electronic version: 978-94-034-2242-8

Design and layout: Tamara M. Dijkstra Printing: Ridderprint BV, The Netherlands

iii

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

PhD thesis

to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen

on the authority of the

Rector Magnificus Prof. C. Wijmenga and in accordance with

the decision by the College of Deans. This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 12 December 2019 at 16:15 hours

by

Olivia Anne Jones

born on 4 October 1982

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iv

Supervisors

Prof. S. Voutsaki Prof. J.E. Buikstra

Assessment Committee Prof. J. Bennet Prof. C.J. Knüsel Prof. I. Tournavitou v

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without a vast number of peole who have professionally and personally helped me along the way. The thanks expressed here will not adequately convey my appreciation since the last seven years have been both the most difficult and most rewarding in my life so far.

First, to Prof. dr. Jane E. Buikstra and Prof. dr. Sofia Voutsaki I owe my utmost grati-tude. I have been incredibly fortunate to have been supervised by two strong, successful women, who are leaders in their respective archaeological fields. Without their unfailing patience (especially in respect to my writing) and guidance, this dissertation would not have come to fruition. Thank you both for showing me the academic ropes, letting me stay in your apartment or park in your driveway and generally being all-around awesome men-tors. I hope more collaborations are in our future!

I would also like to express my deep thanks to the external examination committee, Prof. dr. Chris Knüsel, University of Bor-deaux, Prof. dr. John Bennet, British School at Athens, and Prof. dr. Ifigenia Tournavitou, University of Thessaly. Your thorough rea-ding of this thesis and constructive feedback improved this work immeasureably.

Of equal importance, I am forever grateful to the Greek archaeologists who granted me permission to work on the material con-tained within this study. Thus, I thank Dr. Michalis Petropoulos and Dr. Lena Papa-zoglou-Manioudaki for their permission but also their kindness and patience whenever I had a question about the Petroto tholos. Without their enthusiastic collaboration, the radiocarbon-dating of the tomb would not

have been possible. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Lazaros Kolonas for his permis-sion to work on the material from Portes and Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi for her per-mission to work on the material from Chalandritsa. Last, but not least, I thank Irene Vikatos for translating Greek diaries and notes during my first year and I wish her all the best on her current PhD journey. Many thanks must also go to the people who helped me and friends that I made while working in the Wiener Laboratory at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. My days spent in the lab were some of the most fun because of lovely people always there. To both Dr. Sherry Fox and Dr. Takis Karkanas I thank you both for creating such a wonderful environment in which I could learn as well as foster life-long friend-ships. To the lab crew of 2013-2014, espe-cially Dr. Dan Fallu, Dr. Flint Dibble and Dr. Efi Nikita, you guys were invaluable by always being on-hand for random questions or 10:00pm pizza delivery. I’m glad that an AIA session came out of our late-night ram-blings. Lastly, my deepest thanks to Zoi Chalatsi for being an absolute star with the conservation of the often very poorly pre-served human remains in this study. Your experitise and friendship were priceless. I’ll never forget the academically-stimulating or downright hilarious conversations that hap-pened in that old basement lab.

Special gratitude must go to my “Greek family”, Tini Aktypi, Michalis Gazis and their wonderful family. If it was not for you both, I think I would still be in the Patras store-rooms wading through crates. You guys have gone above and beyond being colla-borators, you are both now dear friends and

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x

Bodies intrigue us because they promise windows into the past that other archaeological finds cannot. They are literally the past personified -Sofaer 2006, 1.

xi

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without a vast number of peole who have professionally and personally helped me along the way. The thanks expressed here will not adequately convey my appreciation since the last seven years have been both the most difficult and most rewarding in my life so far.

First, to Prof. dr. Jane E. Buikstra and Prof. dr. Sofia Voutsaki I owe my utmost grati-tude. I have been incredibly fortunate to have been supervised by two strong, successful women, who are leaders in their respective archaeological fields. Without their unfailing patience (especially in respect to my writing) and guidance, this dissertation would not have come to fruition. Thank you both for showing me the academic ropes, letting me stay in your apartment or park in your driveway and generally being all-around awesome men-tors. I hope more collaborations are in our future!

I would also like to express my deep thanks to the external examination committee, Prof. dr. Chris Knüsel, University of Bor-deaux, Prof. dr. John Bennet, British School at Athens, and Prof. dr. Ifigenia Tournavitou, University of Thessaly. Your thorough rea-ding of this thesis and constructive feedback improved this work immeasureably.

Of equal importance, I am forever grateful to the Greek archaeologists who granted me permission to work on the material con-tained within this study. Thus, I thank Dr. Michalis Petropoulos and Dr. Lena Papa-zoglou-Manioudaki for their permission but also their kindness and patience whenever I had a question about the Petroto tholos. Without their enthusiastic collaboration, the radiocarbon-dating of the tomb would not

have been possible. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Lazaros Kolonas for his permis-sion to work on the material from Portes and Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi for her per-mission to work on the material from Chalandritsa. Last, but not least, I thank Irene Vikatos for translating Greek diaries and notes during my first year and I wish her all the best on her current PhD journey. Many thanks must also go to the people who helped me and friends that I made while working in the Wiener Laboratory at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. My days spent in the lab were some of the most fun because of lovely people always there. To both Dr. Sherry Fox and Dr. Takis Karkanas I thank you both for creating such a wonderful environment in which I could learn as well as foster life-long friend-ships. To the lab crew of 2013-2014, espe-cially Dr. Dan Fallu, Dr. Flint Dibble and Dr. Efi Nikita, you guys were invaluable by always being on-hand for random questions or 10:00pm pizza delivery. I’m glad that an AIA session came out of our late-night ram-blings. Lastly, my deepest thanks to Zoi Chalatsi for being an absolute star with the conservation of the often very poorly pre-served human remains in this study. Your experitise and friendship were priceless. I’ll never forget the academically-stimulating or downright hilarious conversations that hap-pened in that old basement lab.

Special gratitude must go to my “Greek family”, Tini Aktypi, Michalis Gazis and their wonderful family. If it was not for you both, I think I would still be in the Patras store-rooms wading through crates. You guys have gone above and beyond being colla-borators, you are both now dear friends and

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xii I’m thrilled that we are planning to continue our collaboration!

When I came to the Netherlands in 2012, I was convinced that I would “get in and get out” and likely not make any friends be-cause it was only going to be four years and I honestly thought I would be much older than the other students or too new for them to want to hang out. I now know those were incredibly naïve assumptions, the truth is that those fellow PhDs are your people because they know exactly what you’re going through. I thank the kind group of PhDs at Arizona State Univeristy for being welcoming and inviting me to cohort socials while I was there for a semester. I thank the Groningen Institute of Archaeology PhDs for generally being a daily resource in all things Dutch or academic. I’m especially thankful for the lively discussions and general cama-raderie of the “Writing Squad”. Special thanks go to Dr. Tanja van Loon and Dr. Sarah Willemsen for always letting me come into your office for tea and conversa-tion/commiseration. Your friendship and support made the GIA, and Groningen in general, feel like home.

To my dear paranymphs, Dr. Eleni Panagio-topoulou and the newly Dr. Tamara Dijkstra, I thank you for all of the feedback, for-matting, and translating that went into this thesis. But more importantly, I thank you for your close friendship over the years; you have become like sisters to me over these last seven years. I have shared everything from apartments to hair straighteners with you two and I never regretted it for one second. You are both lifelong friends, so I

suggest you settle in for the long haul be-cause in my mind, we are forever the “Greek girls” [insert karpoozi emoji].

Penultimate thanks are due to my patient, supportive family. They have been my unfai-ling cheerleaders since day one. They never once questioned my passion for archaeology and have been enthusiastic guests in Lon-don, Greece, Groningen, or wherever ar-chaeology took me. It is to them that I truly owe any success since they never pressured me to pursue any other career path. To my brother and sister, I thank you both for (nearly) always answering the phone when I called just to talk. Patrick, thank you for all those times that I crashed at your flat in London. Jana, your ability to instantly distract me from productive work with non-stop chatter was the double-edged sword that I sometimes needed when I was too disconnected from home. Lastly, I dedicate this thesis to those who did not live to see it finished, my grandmother, Zelma Huffman and Max the dog. My grandma was always eager to hear about my life, be my cheer-leader, or ready for a card game.

Finally, I must thank the person who was my biggest and more important supporter, my husband Zach. Five weeks before we got married, I was accepted for the PhD position in Groningen and from that day until now you never once questioned my choice. Rather, you made countless trips to and from the airport, and a few trips to Gro-ningen and Athens to spend time with me and learn about my research. Your faithful support will always be the most meaningful gift that you could have ever given me.

1

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This dissertation focuses on two main issues within Mycenaean burial traditions: secon-dary treatment and burial exclusion. Ap-proaching these themes with a multi-faceted bioarchaeological methodology has allowed me to explore Mycenaean burial in a new light. The evidence utilized in this study is a sample of cemetery sites with various tomb types from the region of Achaia. This sample was chosen based on availability and documentation of the human remains. Al-though the documentation of the human remains was not ideal since a bioarchae-ologist was not present during excavation, the quality of documentation was good enough in some tombs for exploring secon-dary burial and burial exclusion.

These themes lead to specific research ques-tions that correspond to the chapters within this thesis. My main questions and aims are:

1) What is the timeline of introduction and adoption of Mycenaean mortuary prac-tices in Achaia? By evaluating the changes through time, my aim in Chap-ter 2 is to explore mortuary variations in order to reconstruct which practices are one-off actions and which are true local traditions. Here, I employ archae-ological evidence such as tomb types, grave goods, and treatment of the body separated by Pre-Palatial, Palatial, Post-Palatial periods.

2) What is secondary burial in Mycenaean mortuary practice? How can we recon-struct the actions that produced the burial deposits? Mycenaean tombs

con-tain deposits of disarticulated and com-mingled human remains labeled as ‘se-condary burials’ without questioning their formation and without utilizing all evidence within the tombs. In Chapter 3 (Jones 2018a), I stress that the varia-tion and complexity of Mycenaean mor-tuary practices, especially secondary burial, can only be reconstructed using a bioarchaeological framework and in-terpreted with clear terminology. 3) In addition, the study of secondary

bu-rial must address the timing of tomb reuse, a feature that is not well under-stood. Thus, I ask, what is the timing of tomb reuse in a Mycenaean tholos tomb? Conducting radiocarbon sam-pling in reused tombs is often the only method that can accurately date multi-level reuse. In Chapter 4 (Jones et al 2018) I use the tholos tomb at Petroto to present a common issue in reused Mycenaean tombs and show how radio-carbon dating can aid in reconstructing the timing of burials.

4) Does burial exclusion exist in Myce-naean burials? Present research has ne-ver before employed a regional sample of skeletal data to address whether or not persons interred within Mycenaean chamber or tholos tombs were selected based on age or sex. In Chapter 5 (Jones 2018b), I utilize a sample of bioarchae-ological data from various sites in Achaia to evaluate if burial exclusion based on age or sex was present. 5) Finally, what is the demographic

com-position of the Mycenaean world? In recent decades, bioarchaeological

University of Groningen The Process of Death Jones, Olivia

The Process of Death

Jones, Olivia

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

PhD thesis

Olivia Anne Jones

The Process of Death

A Bioarchaeological Approach to

Mycenaean Mortuary Traditions in Achaia

PhD thesis

Olivia Anne Jones

Contents

Contents

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1

Introduction