COLLOQUIUM: Tom Tartaron, University of Pennsylvania, "Archaeology, Anthropology, Homer, and Hesiod: Recovering Lost Maritime Small Worlds of Mycenaean Greece"

Despite ample artifactual evidence for Mycenaean maritime activity, few an­chorages and harbors of the Mycenaean period have been identified on Aegean coasts, and even less is known about the people and communities that inhabited them. In this paper I report on an ongoing research project that draws upon geomorphological and archaeological fieldwork; examination of images and texts in Linear B as well as the early Greek literature of Homer and Hesiod; and oral history interviews of coastal people in Greece and India. By identifying both cross-cultural patterns and culturally specific characteristics of Aegean coastal life, I aim to build a portrait of these communities and their small-scale networks of interaction with sea and land, using the concepts of “coast­scapes” and “maritime small worlds.