Jack L. Davis: A Greek State in Formation

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I got this book about ancient Mycenaean Pylos (Pylos is the name of Nestor’s kingdom in southern Greece, which figures in Homer’s Odyssey as the first stop on Telemachos’ own odyssey in search of his father — and in the Iliad Nestor himself plays the role of counsellor and conciliator) on a long-term loan from the Amazon Prime Kindle lending library and have been reading it off and on for a few months now. It gives a really great insight for the layman in non-technical language into what archeological research is all about.

Although the Mycenaean civilization of the Greek Bronze Age was identified 150 years ago, its origins remain obscure. Jack L. Davis, codirector of excavations at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, takes readers on a tour of the beginnings of Mycenaean civilization through a case study of this important site. In collaboration with codirector Sharon R. Stocker, Davis demonstrates that this ancient place was a major node for the exchange of ideas between the already established Minoan civilization, centered on the island of Crete, and the residents of the Greek mainland. Davis and Stocker show how adoption of Minoan culture created an ideology of power focused on a single individual, celebrating his military prowess, investing him with divine authority, and creating a figure instantly recognizable to readers of Homer and students of Greek history. “A Greek State in Formation” makes the powerful case that a knowledge of the Greek Bronze Age is indispensable to the classics curriculum.—from the Univ. of California Press