TIRYNS - 2012

Tiryns. J. Maran (DAI/Heidelburg) reports on the first season of a three-year interdisciplinary project Hypothesis-testing of Earthquake Ruined Argolid Constructions and Landscape with Engineering Seismology (HERACLES) conducted in cooperation with the geophysicist K-G. Hinzen (University of Cologne), which will apply seismological techniques to test the archaeological hypothesis of major earthquake damage to the archaeological sites of Tiryns and Midea at the end of the Mycenaean palatial period. A geophysical survey supplied data for the construction of an engineering seismological model of the archaeological site of Tiryns. Measurements included seismic refraction tomography on twelve profiles, ambient noise measurements and a gravity survey. In addition, 3D laser scans will aid construction of a virtual model of the northwestern fortification walls supplemented by a systematic comparison between old and current site photographs. A model of the sediment thickness and layering in the area surrounding the acropolis of Tiryns citadel and of the Upper and Lower Citadel will form the basis for simulation of earthquake scenarios.

As part of the project Cross-Craft Interaction in the Cross-Cultural Context of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean, A. Brysbaert and M. Vetters investigated workshop spaces and pyrotechnological activities. All material remains from selected study areas in the Lower Citadel and Lower Town were examined taking a combined chaîne opératoire and cross-craft interaction approach to reconstruct interconnected artisan activities and the integration of practices within material and social networks in settlement contexts and beyond. Contextual analysis of the spatial and stratigraphic distribution of finds and architecture was supplemented by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy analyses of the composition of several metal, vitreous and composite finds, giving further insights into material technologies. Find assemblages often feature objects vaguely described as ‘exotica’, a term which conceals many separate phenomena. The approach taken helped to emphasize the changing nature of materials and social practices and their mutual interaction. ‘Exotica’ are shown to be context-specific and likely changed their status through the life of the objects concerned. Variable practices connected to ‘exotica’ were exemplified via analysis of specific items found in Tiryns and spatial analysis of associations between finds, features and architecture.

Conservation and documentation of Tirynthian wall-paintings in the National Archaeological Museum continued with particular emphasis on the life-size procession of women. Although this scene was found in a dump of palatial debris outside the palace proper, its attribution to the central part of the palace including the megaron and main court, recently suggested on contextual grounds, accords well with observations made in the ongoing project. Further progress was made in the documenting the wall-painting fragments discovered in 1999 in the Western Staircase, examples of which were illustrated in the 2009 and 2010 reports.