Petsas House

Animal remains have long been an underutilized resource in the archaeology of Mycenae, overshadowed by the elite burials and high-value artifacts that dominated early excavations from Schliemann onward. This paper presents recent advances in the faunal study of Petsas House, an industrial-domestic complex at Mycenae, drawing on a assemblage of over 25,000 identified specimens recovered from a large well in the building. Using a combination of taphonomic, demographic, and isotopic analyses, the authors examine the role of cattle in the local economy, finding that while cattle were less...

Petsas House, a multi-story Late Bronze Age building complex on the Pezoulia slope to the northwest of the citadel at Mycenae, offers a uniquely rich window into the settlement's history — and into the history of archaeology itself. First uncovered by accident in 1950 when a farmer's plow extracted a large vase from just below the surface, the site was hastily excavated under the supervision of Fotis Petsas, then left unstudied and overgrown for nearly half a century before being relocated during the Mycenae Survey and re-excavated systematically from 2000 onward. This paper traces the...

This article examines the social dimensions of pottery production at Petsas House, a Late Helladic IIIA2 workshop-residence complex northwest of the Mycenae citadel, based on excavations initiated in 2000 to complete work begun by Papadimitriou and Petsas in 1950-1951. The terraced two-story structure combined craft production, large-scale ceramic storage, and domestic habitation, but was destroyed by earthquake and fire late in LH IIIA2. The building contained distinct functional zones including storerooms with over 500 vessels in Room Alpha, undecorated drinking vessels in Room Epsilon,...

At the renowned archaeological site of Mycenae, striking depictions of animals in ancient art and architecture, such as the ‘Lion Gate’, reflect the great power of elite residents in the Late Bronze Age. To better understand how social complexity relates to human-animal interactions at Mycenae, more research is needed on the animals who actually lived there. In a first for the archaeological site of Mycenae, we utilized a contextual taphonomic approach and statistical analysis to study a faunal assemblage, focusing on a massive deposit recovered from a well feature located in Room Π...