From the Krkonoše to the Argive Plain in the Bronze Age?

Since the days of Walter Heurtley, Vladimir Milojčić, Hermann Müller-Karpe, Wolfgang Kimmig, Jan Bouzek, Anthony Harding, and Bernhard Hänsel, researchers were puzzled by the fact that apparently objects, technical knowledge, social practices and possibly aspects of ideology known from the regions of the central European Urnfield culture(s) made their appearance in Greece rather suddenly in the late 13th and early 12th centuries BCE. Many different explanatory narratives have replaced one another – often very much in keeping with archaeological paradigms of their time. With the intensification of Bronze Age research in Italy the focus in this field of research has shifted from a land route traversing the Balkan Peninsula to an Adriatic-Ionian sea route during the last two or three decades.

The talk will present fresh archaeological and archaeometric data that can help putting into perspective the contribution of different societies in central and southern European regions to the enhanced “northern” influence visible at the end of the Mycenaean palace period and throughout the following post-palatial period in Greece.