About
The goal of this research project is to gain a better understanding of the interplay of imagery and iconography in the wall painting program at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos.
Pylos was a significant Mycenaean Bronze Age city located in Messenia in the southwest Peloponnese region of Greece. Central to this settlement was the Palace of Nestor, named after the Greek hero Nestor, known from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Today, the Palace of Nestor is one of the best-preserved palatial centers of the Mycenaean Civilization.
While the earliest settlement at the palace site dates to the transition between the Early and Middle Bronze Age, circa 2000 BCE, the palatial complex as it stands today, was not constructed until the Late Bronze Age, circa 1600 BCE. There is evidence via burned plaster of a devastating fire around 1400 BCE that required extensive reconstruction, and this consolidation resulted in what is colloquially referred to as the Main Building, the Southwestern Building, the Northeastern Building, and the Wine Magazine. These buildings all survived and were central to the Palace of Nestor until its final period of destruction, circa 1180 BCE.
Archaeologically, the site was first investigated in 1888 by famed German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann. His survey, however, was unfruitful and it was not until 1912 that the Greek archaeologist Kountouriotis discovered two Tholos tombs in the vicinity of the palace. This discovery spurred more extensive excavations, and in 1939 the palace proper was located. Excavations since were conducted by the American archaeologist, Carl Blegen, in conjunction with Lord William Taylour. Briefly halted during World War II, the work resumed in 1952 and is still active today under the direction of the University of Cincinnati and the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP).
Two major publications documented the findings of the excavations at Pylos: The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia, Vol. 1: The Buildings and Their Contents, 1966, edited by Carl Blegen and Marion Rawson, and The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia, Vol. II: The Frescoes, 1969, by Mabel Lang. This project relies heavily on Lang's Volume II wherein thousands of fragments of painted plaster are assessed. Her text addresses the painted wall plaster find spots, estimated chronology, present condition, subject matter, and production techniques. The catalogue is divided into nine categories: Human Figures (H), Animals (C), Nature (N), Architecture (A), Friezes (F), Borders and Beams (B), Dadoes (D), Miscellaneous (M), and Tables of Offering (T). This cataloging system has been maintained for the interactive Neatline map component of this project, with the addition of color-coding: Human Figures (red), Animals (orange), Nature (green), Architecture (blue), Friezes (purple), Borders and Beams (cyan), Dadoes (pink), and Miscellaneous (yellow). Because this study is focused on the wall painting program, the Tables of Offering (T), being three-dimensional painted plaster objects, are not be included or mapped. Please note that the fragments mapped are not to scale and that their mapping only generally indicates the find spot as recorded by Lang.