The Mycenaean Cemetery at Clauss, Near Patras

Abstract

This chapter presents various significant aspects of the tombs and the activities at the Mycenaean cemetery at Clauss, near Patras there, resulting from the study and analysis of both artifacts and skeletal remains. In particular, the Clauss cemetery provides considerable skeletal remains that were examined in detail, which show that both the site and Achaea were densely populated during the Mycenaean palatial period (14th–13th c. BC). This conclusion contrasts greatly with what scholars have previously proposed: a massive infiltration of population from the Argolid in LH III C. The study of the Clauss material distinguished all LH III C burials in six successive chronological phases, which correspond more-or-less to six generations of its people. This was accomplished with the combined and careful classification of the local pottery, workshops, and styles, together with the tombs’ stratigraphy. The evaluation of such a sequence gave the unique opportunity to trace the biographies of its people. Through the identification of mothers, children, farmers, craftsmen, traders, noble ladies of the oikos, hunters, and warriors—based on the grave goods and modes of burials—the story unfolds of a vivid local society at the periphery of the Mycenaean world toward the end of its era.