Some preliminary finds from the Tholos tomb and ossuary at Borzi Hill, Tzannata, Kefalonia: An example of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding of the Lives and Deaths of Mycenaeans

John Albanese

doi:10.9789/2525-3050.2022.v7i14.314-341

Authors

John Albanese University of Windsor - Windsor, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4864-1408

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.9789/2525-3050.2022.v7i14.314-341

Keywords:

Late Bronze Age, Kefalonia, tholos tomb, osteology, ossuary

Abstract

Preliminary results are presented from the analysis of human and faunal remains from the unique tholos-ossuary combination at Borzi Hill, Tzannata, Kefalonia, excavated from 1992 to 1994. The analysis began in 2015 and is on-going. The paper illustrates how the systematic analysis of well-provenienced remains can be an important source of data to complement traditional archaeological methods for investigating mortuary, political and economic practices of the Late Bronze Age. Preliminary finds include: the tombs contained 100-150 people ranging in age from neonate to over 60 years, with about equal numbers by sex; the tholos tomb was used continuously until the Proto-Geometric Period by one biological lineage; the ossuary was a purpose-built structure for reburial indicating a previously unrecognized pattern of mortuary practices; faunal offerings found only in the tholos tomb include sheep, goats, dogs, cows, a very rare horse, and the earliest cat ever found in Greece.

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Author Biography

John Albanese, University of Windsor - Windsor, Canada

Doutor em Antropologia pela McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario e Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, no Canadá. Professor de Antropologia Biológica e Antropologia Forense incluindo cursos práticos de laboratório em osteologia humana no Department of Integrative Biology, University of Windsor, Canada. CV: https://uwindsor.academia.edu/JohnAlbanese

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