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Archaeological excavation and analysis at the Mycenaean settlement of Iklaina, Greece, from the 15th to 13th century BCE, and publication of previous excavation results. (36 months)

Archaeologists agree that the first states of the Greek mainland were formed through the unification of previously independent regional polities, sometime at the beginning of the Mycenaean period (ca. 1650-1100 BCE). Traditionally, the driving force behind the formation of those states was thought to have been hierarchy, but recent models have shifted our focus from the center to the hinterland and highlighted the need for a systematic investigation of non-palatial settlements. In the present project we apply a "bottom-up" approach to the study of state formation and expansion in early Greece. Through the interdisciplinary investigation of Iklaina, a secondary center of the Mycenaean state of Pylos, we seek to produce the datasets necessary to test existing models about the emergence of Mycenaean states; investigate the dynamic relationship of centers to hinterlands; and develop cross-cultural models useful in understanding the processes of state formation in other parts of the world.