Saturday, April 5, 1 PM
Keynote Address

MMA 1998.213 Dish with Recumbent Elephant Surrounded by Clouds (Vietnam), detail

Saturday, April 5

Keynote Address

1 PM EDT

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1:00 PM EDT

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Lord of the Gold Rings: The Grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos, Greece

Be dazzled by treasures from one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 21st Century!

Dr. Sharon Stocker & Dr. Jack L. Davis

University of Cincinnati

photo by Jeff Vanderpool

Abstract:

After a lapse of 45 years, the University of Cincinnati resumed archaeological excavations at the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, Greece on May 18, 2015. During the first campaign, a rich, unlooted Late Bronze Age grave was discovered a few hundred meters from the Palace. The grave contained the burial of a single male warrior, accompanied by a staggeringly large number of grave goods manufactured of gold, silver, ivory, bronze, and semiprecious gemstones. This presentation will describe the excavation of the Grave of the Griffin Warrior and discuss in detail some of the artifacts found therein, including four gold rings and the Pylos Combat Agate. The discovery of so many gold rings in association with the male individual was unexpected and unprecedented, as is the intricate detail preserved on the Combat sealstone. The iconography of these objects is extraordinary and of great significance for the study of Minoan and Mycenaean art and ideology in the early Late Bronze Age. This unique, undisturbed burial affords an unparalleled opportunity to examine aspects of Early Mycenaean funerary ritual, gender association with grave goods, and burial structure that cannot be obtained through more standard multi-individual burial contexts. Its finds have also produced a number of challenging conservation issues.

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