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Bronze age artefacts from Nestor's palace in Pylos


Dirk Van der Herten

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Nestor's palace (Ανάκτορο Νέστορος), the best preserved of all Mycenaean palaces, lies 17 km north of modern Pylos, Peloponessos. It is described in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as the court of the mythical hero Nestor, who took part in the voyage of the Argonauts and sent 90 ships to fight in the Trojan War.

 

The palace was excavated by the American archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939, and later in the period between 1952-1966 (photo 7, Blegen's statue in front of the Chora museum). Most artefacts discovered dated from 1300 BCE. The palace complex was destroyed by fire around 1200 BCE. Some of the objects discovered during the excavation, i.a. a beautiful small collection of bronze age pottery can be seen in the nearby Archaiologikon Mouseio in the village of Chora (photos 1-5).

 

The main palace was a building with many rooms. The largest room, the throne room, was where the king dealt with state business. In its centre was a large, circular hearth surrounded by four ornate columns that supported a 1st-floor balcony. Surrounding the throne is the sentry box, pantry, waiting room, a vestibule and a bathroom with a terracotta tub still in place (photo 6). It might well be that this very bath was used by Telemachus, who came to Pylos in search of his father Odysseus, as described in the Ilias: “Lovely Polycaste, Nestor's youngest daughter, bathed Telemachus. When she had bathed him and anointed him with oil, she brought him a fair mantle and shirt, and he looked like a god as he came from the bath and took his seat by the side of Nestor.”

 

SL + 24-90

 

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Nestor's palace (Ανάκτορο Νέστορος), the best preserved of all Mycenaean palaces, lies 17 km north of modern Pylos, Peloponessos. It is described in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as the court of the mythical hero Nestor, who took part in the voyage of the Argonauts and sent 90 ships to fight in the Trojan War.

 

The palace was excavated by the American archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939, and later in the period between 1952-1966 (photo 7, Blegen's statue in front of the Chora museum). Most artefacts discovered dated from 1300 BCE. The palace complex was destroyed by fire around 1200 BCE. Some of the objects discovered during the excavation, i.a. a beautiful small collection of bronze age pottery can be seen in the nearby Archaiologikon Mouseio in the village of Chora (photos 1-5).

 

The main palace was a building with many rooms. The largest room, the throne room, was where the king dealt with state business. In its centre was a large, circular hearth surrounded by four ornate columns that supported a 1st-floor balcony. Surrounding the throne is the sentry box, pantry, waiting room, a vestibule and a bathroom with a terracotta tub still in place (photo 6). It might well be that this very bath was used by Telemachus, who came to Pylos in search of his father Odysseus, as described in the Ilias: “Lovely Polycaste, Nestor's youngest daughter, bathed Telemachus. When she had bathed him and anointed him with oil, she brought him a fair mantle and shirt, and he looked like a god as he came from the bath and took his seat by the side of Nestor.”

 

SL + 24-90

 

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Wonderful, Dirk! Thank you. I'll rush to Google and Wikipedia to know more about Nestor's palace. And I am as curious as "chrismart" about images' technical data.

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This charming little museum only has a small but wonderful collection of Mycenaean pottery and other artefacts, all excavated in the nearby site of the Akaktoro Nestoros. The museum has no artificial light, daylight coming in through large dormers, and the reflections of the glass cases in which the objects are shown are minimal. For the rest, nothing special, just the Vario-Elmarit 24-90, I believe somewhere around 75 mm, without a filter, and as wide open as possible. Even if I prefer the bokeh of a primary Summicron/Summilux, I think the bokeh of this zoom lens is quite acceptable. The only disadvantage is its weight, about 1,1 kilo ...

 

The site of Pylos is particularly famous because of the Linear B tablets that have been excavated there. Before these were found the only available material were the tablets found in Knossos by Arthur Evans. The decipherment of Linear B was perhaps one of the most formidable puzzles of all time, starting from unknown signs, written in an unknown language, achieved by Michael Ventris, a young English architect, and Alice Kober, an American professor. A book published recently about this fascinating discovery almost reads like a detective novel: Margalit Fox, The Riddle of the Labirynth, Harper Collins, 2013.

 

Thanks both of you for commenting.

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