Excavation in the Northwestern Lower Town of Tiryns: Lifeworld and cultural practice in a newly founded sector of the settlement of the Mycenaean post-palatial period

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Insights gained during the last decades have shown that during the 12th cent. BC, i.e. after the demise of the palace, Mycenaean Tiryns has developed very differently from all other former centers, since it expanded exactly at the time, when the other sites suffered a decline. Aside from the area of the palace on the Upper Citadel, the most unusual architectural dynamic occurred in the area of the Lower Town. There, on top of dried-up sediments of a redirected stream new settlement quarters were created in the earliest part of LH IIIC which were probably initiated by members of the new post-palatial elites, who followed and fulfilled a final palatial "masterplan". The fact that the entire zone during the late palatial was still crossed by a stream and could not be developed prior to its redirection, opened-up the rare opportunity to plan new settlement quarters in the 12th cent. BC without having to take earlier buildings into consideration. Accordingly, by analyzing the architecture and installations inferences about those cultural norms and practices can be made on the basis of which the inhabitants shaped their lifeworld. The main goal of the excavation consists in better understanding the background of the architectural dynamic unfolding in the 12th cent. BC in this part of the site, and to use the settlement remains as an archive for analyzing the cultural and social history of the period during which the Mycenaean community of Tiryns followed such a decisively different trajectory than all other Mycenaean centers. The excavation in the Northwestern Lower Town opens a new chapter in the settlement archaeology of Mycenaean Greece, inasmuch as long- established methods of the analysis of finds and excavation features are expanded by a wide spectrum of microarchaeological analytical methods which in this combination have not yet been employed in the Greek Bronze Age and which will contribute to elucidate the diachronic changes in the activities and the social position of those groups inhabiting this area. The results obtained up till now in the first funding period have underlined the special position of the Northern Lower Town of Tiryns as a monument, unique in the Aegean, of a coherent settlement design of the 12th cent. BC, since similar extensive and well- preserved architectural structures are only encountered on Cyprus. Thanks to the excellent state of preservation of walls, floors and installations and the large number of movable objects there are manifold possibilities to approach the over-arching goal of identifying those cultural practices through which the inhabitants have constituted and changed their lifeworld.