»The Mycenaean Working Poor«
Event within the framework of the 125th anniversary of the Athens branch
»The Mycenaean Working Poor«
Reinhard Jung | OeAI
There are some who are in darkness
And the others are in light
And you see the ones in brightness
Those in Darkness drop from sight
(Berthold Brecht, final lyrics of the »Dreigroschenfilm« (1930), film about the »Dreigroschenoper«)
Archaeological excavations have put into focus the splendid palaces, imposing citadels and lavishly decorated mansions, but what do we know about Mycenaean rural settlements, the farmsteads and the toilers’ homes?
Visitor groups flow through the exquisite vaults of the tholos tombs of »Atreus« and »Minyas«, but do we spare a glance at the pits dug into the earth for interments without gravegoods, just identifiable as Mycenaean when cutting a Late Bronze Age stratum and overbuilt by a Mycenaean wall?
And what about the women and children working for the palace – living on rations of grain and figs? What about the boys – conscripted to rowing the galleys of the marine? What do we know about their working conditions, their means of labor, their deaths... ?
This lecture is about those living in the shadows of Knossós and Chaniá, plowing the plains beneath the hills of Tiryns, Mycenae, Midea, toiling in a palatial workshop in Attica.