This is a presentation and discussion of Late Bronze Age small finds (tools, utensils, jewellery, etc.) of terracotta, stone, bone, faience/glass from Tiryns, one of the most important centres of Mycenaean Greece. The stratigraphical and chronological position of ca 2000 finds within the habitation contexts, the function of the artefacts and the comparative material of other sites in Greece and beyond, as well as the functional history of the lower citadel of Tiryns is discussed in detail. It is one of the few monographic publications about the east Mediterranean Bronze Age, which presents a large number of stratified small finds from a settlement.
Ordinary objects of daily life from Mycenaean settlements – such as tools, utensils and simple beads – have not been intensively studied so far. Pottery and better preserved artefacts from graves have attracted much more attention. However, the range of activities performed by prehistoric people can only be understood through the study of all categories of finds from settlements. Small finds are those mobile artefacts which do not belong either to pottery nor architecture. While dividing up the various groups of artefacts among several specialist archaeologists is the normal scientific treatment of small finds in final publications, this volume presents the discussion and analysis of 2000 objects of terracotta, stone, bone and glass/faience by a single author. Through this approach it became possible to discern the specific functional, spatial and chronological relations of the various groups of artefacts. Hence, this study of the Late Bronze Age small finds from the important Mycenaean centre of Tiryns in Southern Greece is one of the few monographs on the Bronze Age of the Eastern Mediterranean on a large number of stratified small finds. The author succeeds in working out the morphological and chronological range of the various functional groups of artefacts and discusses in detail possible parallels in Greece and beyond. Rahmstorf refutes the prejudice that simple tools like spindle-whorls and loom-weights are not relevant for chronological and chorological studies, because he shows that certain categories of small finds are not only precisely datable but also suitable for reconstructing far-reaching systems of inter-cultural contacts. Yet, the main importance of the study for the archaeology of Mycenaean Greece comes not from the new results on chronological and chorological issues regarding certain groups of artefacts, but in the approach, taking every artefact into account in order to reconstruct distribution patterns through time and space within the habitation area of the lower citadel of Tiryns. This enables the author to define the function of rooms and houses as well as to judge the changes of the utilisation of certain parts of the settlement from the palatial period of the 14th and 13th centuries to the post-palatial period of the 12th and earlier 11th centuries BCE. A gradual decrease in the quality of the objects used becomes evident during the post-palatial period. This study firmly underlines the importance of investigating the whole spectrum of contemporarily used tools, utensils and jewellery – only by a synoptical analysis can the potential of these highly important categories of finds be exploited as a source for the economic history of the Bronze Age.
„Abschließend sei festgestellt, daß mit dieser Arbeit ein Qualitätsmaßstab für wünschenswerte künftige Untersuchungen und Auswertungen derartigen Fundmaterials gesetzt ist!“
Von: Eberhard Thomas
In: Gnomon 85, 2013, 7, S. 621-624.
Lorenz Rahmstorf studierte in Heidelberg und Bristol (Großbritannien), dort Master of Arts im Jahre 1996. Anstellung am Deutschen Archäologischen Institut in Athen zwischen 1998 und 2002. Promotion im Jahre 2002 an der Universität Heidelberg. Seit 2002 Anstellung am Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz zunächst als Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, seit 2008 als Akademischer Rat. Dort Dozent und Habilitand mit einem Forschungsprojekt zu Metrologie, Kulturkontakt und Urbanisierung im dritten Jahrtausend v. Chr.
