Today, Simon and Schuster released Colm Toibin's latest novel, House of Names, about Clytemnestra and the murder of Agamemnon.  Anybody who knows me knows I've had this on pre-order since I heard about it months ago.  Because I live on the West Coast, I received my copy at midnight Eastern Daylight Time, and managed to finish it around 3 a.m ( Read more... )

In the summer of 2015, archaeologists working in a previously unexplored field near the palace of Nestor at Pylos in southwestern Greece discovered an intact, early Mycenaean shaft grave burial dating to around 1500 B.C.  Within the tomb lay a single individual, a man surrounded by a wealth of weapons, gold jewelry, and other prestige objects.  He ( Read more... )

The Agamemneion is a shrine located on the left bank of the Chavos river at Mycenae.  It was first erected in 700 B.C., though it is unclear whether Agamemnon was the original focus of devotion.  The first votives, such as the inscribed pot below, appear much later, after the shrine was refurbished in the fourth century B.C.

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Just this last May, archaeologists working at Pylos, Messenia came across an unlooted Mycenaean shaft burial dating to 1500 B.C. filled with a treasure trove of artifacts.  The occupant was a male warrior, 30-35 years old, buried with weapons, gold and silver jewelry, a bronze mirror with an ivory handle, the most beautiful Aegean comb I have ever ( Read more... )

From early scholarship on the Bronze Age citadels to Michael Wood's documentary In Search of the Trojan War, the conceit about Mycenae has been that the citadel's Cyclopean walls and high position rendered the site unassailable.  But could that view be mistaken?  Could Mycenae's very geography have contributed to its undoing ( Read more... )

When I heard about the Take Back Halloween costume contest, I knew I had to participate ( Read more... )

While researching last week's post about the infant burial in Shaft Grave III, Grave Circle A, I learned that although the Grave Circle A burials (circa 1550-1500 B.C.) were far richer than the earlier Grave Circle B (circa 1650-1600 B.C.) ones, the occupants of Grave Circle B on average lived longer.  The oldest Grave Circle A individual complete ( Read more... )

Among the artifacts excavated from Mycenae's Grave Circle A in 1876-1877 by Heinrich Schliemann and Panayiotis Stamatakis and now on display at the National Museum of Athens is this haunting shroud of gold leaf.

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Now here's a gorgeous pyxis, or trinket box, from Mycenae featuring lions, horses, bulls, and deer that you won't find at a modern department store.

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