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Seller's Description:
Used-Very Good. VG hardback in VG dust jacket. 1st edition, 1961. B&W illustrations. End papers lightly foxed; small dam-stain at corner of both pastedowns; text clean; binding tight; dust jacket a little shelf-worn, with yellowed spine.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1961. London: Faber and Faber, 1961. Cloth, dj., 262 pp. 44 text figures 17 plates. Some chipping to dj along edges and discoloration to spine. Overall, Very Sound. (Subject: Ancient & Classical Studies. )
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Seller's Description:
Dust jacket in good condition. Revised edition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Price clipped. Dust jacket protected in a mylar sleeve. Pages are clear of marks and notations. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
When Carl Blegen began excavating the "Palace of Nestor" near Pylos, he uncovered numerous clay tablets inscribed with Linear B hieroglyphics. These tablets were accidental survivors of the conflagration that consumed the palace of Nestor and, as for so many other late bronze age sites in the eastern Mediterranean, signaled its end. Apart from having confirmed Michael Ventris' remarkable and brilliant decipherment of Linear B and providing us with precious information about what we know today as Mycenaean society and civilization--the Age of Heroes described so vividly (and, as it turns out, with astonishingly accurate details considering the hundreds of years of purely oral tradition that intervened) in Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey"--what makes these tablets--and this lucid, accessible, very readable work--so interesting is that they have captured the preparations the kingdom Pylos was making in the weeks and perhaps even days just prior to being attacked and destroyed by as yet unknown forces. Palmer takes us through what the tablets tell us about the geography, social organization, religion, and calendar of Bronze Age Messenia, all through the fascinating prism of a community bracing to face what turned out to be a deadly threat. As a secondary theme, Palmer used the evidence of the tablets in conjunction with his research into Arthur Evans' excavations of Knossos on Crete to raise important questions about Evans' interpretations of that site and its dating. Although this book was originally published in 1961 and some details may have since been eclipsed by more recent scholarship, it remains an essentially valid overview of a fascinating time and place. What's more, it remains eminently readable yet intelligent, a real gift to the interested layperson--one sadly lacking in so many works that deal with scholarly subjects, among both the scholarly and popular literature.
