The Lost Palace of Sparta
I have been following with great interest the news reports about the discovery of a middle Bronze Age palace at Agios Vassileios, Sparta.
So far, the palace site comprises ten rooms, probably the ground floor storage facilities, including the palace archive. Yes, Linear B tablets bearing records of rituals, men and women's names, and transactions have been discovered in the rubble; the palace, which dates from the 17th century B.C., was burnt down in the 14th century B.C., and the conflagration baked the unfired clay tablets hard.
Because this palace burned down a century before the accepted date for the Trojan War, it would not have been the site of the palace of Menelaus and Helen. Still, we don't know very much about Mycenaean Sparta, so this find promises to yield some very exciting information.
The palace might cover more acreage that has so far been excavated--archaeologists are still hoping to find a megaron, proof positive that the complex really was a Mycenaean palace--but some amazing artifacts have already been found, including fragments of murals, bronze swords, seals, and a cup with a bull's head (below).
You can read more about the discovery here, and elsewhere on the web.