BRONZE AGE: organisation of the settlement
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Organisation of the settlement in the Late Bronze Age
The Late Bronze Age settlement is located at the top of the tell. Remains of this period were first excavated during the 1970s. They indicated a short occupation that took place long after the abandonment of the site at the end of the Early Bronze Age II and that had no immediate successor. Only one building was identified, that some interpreted as religious or cultic.
The recent excavations have changed this image, showing instead that the layer containing the aforementioned building was neither the first nor the only one of this period at the site. At least three more occupation levels have been identified above it, two of them containing the remains of similar buildings. The last of these layers was sealed by a thick fill supporting a well made floor, possibly a terrace. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the successive layers cover a period of at least three centuries (between 1450 and 1150 BC), corresponding to the biggest part of the period called Late Helladic or Mycenaean in Southern Greece.
The extent and organisation of the successive settlements have not yet been determined. However, several walls, including those attributed to the building excavated by J. Deshayes, are oriented NW-SE, thus suggesting some kind of continuity in the layout of the buildings. In addition, it seems that some of the wall remains that were previously attributed to historical layers date instead to the Late Bronze Age. Future research should help clarify the question of settlement organisation, as well as that (much more important historically) of the transition from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age.
Last Update : 3/02/12 |
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