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• Brysbaert, A.
• Vetters, M.

This paper focuses on the materialization of technological practices as a form of identity expression.Contextual analyses of a Mycenaean workshop area in the Late Bronze Age citadel of Tiryns(Argolis, Greece) are presented to investigate the interaction of different artisans under changingsocio‐political and economic circumstances. The case study indicates that although certain technologicalpractices are often linked to specific crafts, they do not necessarily imply the separation ofjob tasks related to the working of one specific material versus another. Shared technological practicesand activities, therefore, may be a factor in shaping cohesive group identities of specializedartisans. Since tracing artisans’ identities is easier said than done on the basis of excavated materialsalone, we employ the concepts of multiple chaînes opératoires combined with cross‐craft interactionsas a methodology in order to retrieve distinctive sets of both social and technological practices fromthe archaeological remains. These methodological concepts are not restricted to a specific set ofsteps in the production cycle, but ideally encompass reconstructing contexts of extraction, manufacture,distribution and discard/reuse for a range of artefacts. Therefore, these concepts reveal bothtechnological practices, and, by contextualising these technological practices in their spatial layout,equally focus on social contacts that would have taken place during any of these actions. Our detailedcontextual study demonstrates that the material remains when analysed in their entirety arecomplementary to textual evidence. In this case study they even form a source of information onpalatial spheres of life about which the fragmentary Linear B texts, so far, remain silent.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

Late Bronze Age, Tiryns, Architecture, Artifacts, Mycenean workshops, Chaines Operatoires

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