TIRYNS - 2009

Tiryns. J. Maran (DAI/Heidelberg) reports the completion in 2009 of the documentation and restoration of the ca. 1,000 fresco fragments and fragment groups found by the Archaeological Service near the West Stairs in 1999−2001 (Fig. 1).

These finds belong to the same complex as the frescos found in 1910 (e.g. the large procession of women, hunting frieze, deer frieze). Study continues, but preliminary results may be noted. In certain cases, analysis of the find conditions and contexts on the Tiryns acropolis permits paintings found in secondary debris to be allocated to particular ranges of rooms within the palace, and thus to their original architectural, functional and iconographical context. The large procession of women, of which new fragments could be identified, is such a case.

Besides common motifs such as processions (now also identified in small format: Fig. 2), the new finds expand the known repertoire at Tiryns with the addition of rare motifs such as the image of a female figure apparently holding a smaller figure, which may be connected with a small group of possible figurine depictions on wall-paintings from Mycenae and Tiryns. There are also images of marine creatures apparently drinking from or holding vessels (Fig. 3); one of these occurred among the older finds and two among the new.

The chronological significance of the new finds is already evident, as they were found in contexts clearly associated with LHIIIB2 ceramics. Thus the majority of the Tiryns paintings are connected with the final architectural phase of the palace, and not, as widely assumed, with some earlier phase. The possibility of cross-comparison on the basis of stylistic development is of importance for the relative chronology of Mycenaean wall-painting.