Actual Queens Regnant. There were six before Cleopatra.
Unlike Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII in the Ptolemaic dynasty), the others seem to have been actual Egyptians.
From Explorator
Female Pharoahs
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Tag Archives: bronze age
Dark Age Greece
The Lost Community of Lefkandi
I particularly noticed:
From around 1250 BC onwards, post-Mycenaean ‘refugee’ settlements began to appear, establishing a pattern that was to continue throughout the Dark Ages (Whitley 2011: 77-78). The characteristic Dark Age remote, defensible positions, often over 500m above sea level – as in evidence at Karphi (ibid: 78) – exhibited a continuity of older traditions and no obvious change in population levels (ibid.).
This pattern was noted by Robert Drews in The End of the Bronze Age as evidence that the disasters in the Eastern Mediterranean c. 1200 BC were the result of human action, not natural causes. The only reason the survivors would rebuild in such difficult locations is fear of an attack by raiders or invaders. See also my post on From Bronze to Iron.
Lost to History No More
Found in the Citadel of Tiryns
An Ivory Rod with a Cuneiform Inscription. Abstract [I added a few web links]:
The subject of this contribution is the fragment of an ivory rod with six cuneiform signs
that was found in 2002. The rod came to light in a destruction layer dating to LH III B
Final within a workshop for skilled crafting inside Building XI which is situated in the
northernmost part of the Lower Citadel of Tiryns. The inscription is interpreted as the
first example of an Ugaritic text found outside of the Levant. The text is written from
left to right combining Akkadian logographic numerical signs and at least one letter
of the regular Ugaritic alphabet. After discussing different possibilities concerning the
object’s function. an interpretation as a «tally stick» is proposed. i. e. a mnemonic device
to document numbers. quantities or possibly a message, that was used by Levantine or
Cypriote specialists for skilled crafting who were working in Building XI on behalf of
the palace. The find assemblage in Building XI serves as a reminder that it would be
highly misleading to regard oriental objects like the ivory rod with cuneiform signs or
wall brackets appearing in a Mycenaean harbor town such as Tiryns as mere «exotica».
Instead. contextual analysis demonstrates that the Users were well aware of the special
significance attached to such objects in the east and employed them in accordance with
practices of Near Eastern or Cypriote origin, thus signaling their cultural affiliations.
From Explorator
Good Historical Novel
Helen’s Daughter is about the life of Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen of Troy, and granddaughter of Atreus (Hence the Amazon blurb’s reference to “the curse that haunts her family”). The author, Laura Gill, knows the Mycenaean Greek world very well and tells a gripping and realistic story about what Hermione’s life might actually have been like.
A great collection of stories
The First Heroes
The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age. The stories are a mix of Historical Fiction, SF, Fantasy, and one of Altenate History. Fantasy comes from the myths of the era being incorporated in several of the stories. The Greek world is well represented, but China, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, Northern Europe and even Peru appear. Continue reading
The Origin of Polynesia [???]
Samoan Minoans from Ancient Crete. This is just plain nuts, but, as the RogueClassicist said, “it’s fun to say ‘Samoan Minoan'”
The Beer Archaeologist
Got it in writing:….
…. A surprising Bronze Age discovery. More on the Oldest known written record in Europe. Via Explorator.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 