Dimitri
NAKASSIS Prosopography and the State in
Mycenaean Greece
The
Linear B tablets of Mycenaean Greece document not only
the first known use of Greek, but also the first recorded
individuals of European history.
These individuals remain understudied, despite being an
extremely important data set for understanding Mycenaean
society and administration.
This paper presents the methods and results of an ongoing
prosopographical study of the Mycenaeans registered in
the administrative texts from the "Palace of Nestor" at
Pylos, circa 1200 BC.
I argue that in many cases,
instances of the same name in different contexts in the
Linear B texts from Pylos actually refer to the same
individual, rather than to different individuals with the
same name. Traditionally,
scholars have downplayed these recurring names, treating
them only as the same individual when that person seems
especially prominent or consistently appears in similar
contexts (e.g., M. Lindgren, The People of Pylos,
1973). While
recent studies in historical Greek prosopography have
tended to be cautious in this regard, the data used in
Greek (or even ancient Near Eastern) prosopographies are
quite different in kind, since the names are typically
culled from inscriptions scattered widely over time and
space. In
contrast, the documents from Pylos are highly
concentrated in time, space and function: these texts
were written over the course of less than one year by
specialized scribes solely for the economic
administration of the palace.
Thus,
the nature of the texts compels Mycenologists to develop
their own prosopographical methods.
My method, advocated but not consistently applied by
Leonard Palmer (The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek
Texts, 1963), has been to examine clusters of names
that recur in discrete contexts. Beginning
with identifications that are certain, other possible
matches in similar contexts become increasingly likely.
Thus, while individually many of these possible matches may
seem unlikely, when examined globally, they form
consistent patterns of interactions between separate
economic and administrative spheres.
In
some cases, careful analysis of the texts allows us to
connect several instances of the same name to a single
individual. For
example, the personal name ko-ma-we
(Komawens, from komÍ, "hair")
appears in three unrelated series of tablets: on An 519,
a text which names ko-ma-we as a military officer,
the name is preceded by the patronymic de-wi-jo
(Derwios, "[son] of
Derwis"), which also modifies the personal name
pa-ku-ro2 (Pachullos,
"Thick") on a separate text, Aq 218.
Thus, these two men are certainly brothers.
The two brothersí names appear together as
bronze-smiths on yet another text, where they are listed
on adjacent lines. Thus,
it would be a remarkable coincidence if these were not
the same two individuals.
Another
useful approach is to examine large patterns in the
clustering of names.
For example, names of bronze-smiths and those of shepherds
display an anomalous degree of overlap.
Not only do names of smiths tend to cluster together on texts
when they appear as shepherds, but the same smiths who
are listed together on smithing texts also appear
together in groups on shepherding texts.
For example, smiths from one particular text, Jn 431, appear
in groups of two or more on four different texts that
record shepherds in the palaceís employ.
This prosopographical
work is significant because it radically affects the way
we think of these people.
The individuals whose names recur in multiple texts are
involved in several economic and administrative
activities, often in disparate districts of the kingdom;
yet people identified on the tablets as bronze-smiths and
shepherds are usually thought to be low-status menial
laborers. However,
a prosopographical approach suggests that these are
high-status individuals who have assumed various duties
administered by the state in order to gain access to
prestige and material wealth.
In sum, this study allows us to identify Mycenaean elites and
their activities. These
men are effectively agents of the state; therefore, a
detailed study of their responsibilities as monitored by
the palatial administration speaks volumes about how the
Mycenaean state actually functioned.
Abstracts
Index