Chapter 51 - Architecture at the End of the Bronze Age

Summary

On the mainland it is the palatial sites of the previous period that we know most about. Recent excavations have shown that, at least in the Argolid, at Mycenae, Tiryns, and Midea, fortifications were repaired and citadels continued to be occupied. At Tiryns, Building T, an assembly hall for the community, replaces the grand palatial megaron on the upper citadel (J. Maran, AA 2000, 1–16; J. Maran, in Laffineur and Hägg 2001, 113–22); it is built on the spot where the Throne Room was previously. It consists of two rooms, a vestibule to the south and an elongated room to the north, divided by a row of columns (AE2, fig. 338); the central hearth has gone. In the great court, a platform replaces the old circular altar. At Midea, the new structure that replaces the old megaron also has a central row of columns (G. Walberg, Aegean Archaeology 2, 1995, 87–91).