Date of Award

5-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Anthropology

First Advisor

Lynne Kvapil

Second Advisor

Julie Searcy

Abstract

Despite increasing standardization in mortuary practice during the Mycenaean palatial period, there remains a significant degree of variation in burials. This project seeks to elucidate the reasons for the wide variability in the Mycenaean mortuary program with theories of anthropological personhood as a guiding framework. I focus on the palatial period, from LHIII A2 - LHIIIB2 (1410-1190) because of the pervasiveness of Mycenaean culture throughout the Aegean, but especially in Greece’s northeastern Peloponnese, during that time. I use mortuary data from 12 cemeteries in the Argolid and Korinthia to trace trends in burial practice, in the hope of establishing a theoretical norm. I consider how burial affects the construction of a “person,” as a being that is relationally authored in creating a definition of normativity. Additionally, I consider the existence of so-called “deviant” burials that lie beyond the norm. Ultimately, I conclude that no such burials exist within this data set, and instead, that the norm for the Mycenaean burial program allows for variability.

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