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Women in Mycenaean Greece: The Linear B Tablets from Pylos and Knossos 1st Edition

by Barbara A. Olsen (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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Women in Mycenaean Greece is the first book-length study of women in the Linear B tablets from Mycenaean Greece and the only to collect and compile all the references to women in the documents of the two best attested sites of Late Bronze Age Greece - Pylos on the Greek mainland and Knossos on the island of Crete. The book offers a systematic analysis of women’s tasks, holdings, and social and economic status in the Linear B tablets dating from the 14th and 13th centuries BCE, identifying how Mycenaean women functioned in the economic institutions where they were best attested - production, property control, land tenure, and cult. Analysing all references to women in the Mycenaean documents, the book focuses on the ways in which the economic institutions of these Bronze Age palace states were gendered and effectively extends the framework for the study of women in Greek antiquity back more than 400 years.

Throughout, the book seeks to establish whether gender practices were uniform in the Mycenaean states or differed from site to site and to gauge the relationship of the roles and status of Mycenaean women to their Archaic and Classical counterparts to test if the often-proposed theories of a more egalitarian Bronze Age accurately reflect the textual evidence. The Linear B tablets offer a unique, if under-utilized, point of entry into women’s history in ancient Greece, documenting nearly 2000 women performing over fifty task assignments. From their decipherment in 1952 one major gap in the scholarly record remained: a full accounting of the women who inhabited the palace states and their tasks, ranks, and economic contributions. Women in Mycenaean Greece fills that gap recovering how class, rank, and other social markers created status hierarchies among women, how women as a group functioned relative to men, and where different localities conformed or diverged in their gender practices.

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  1. ISBN-10
    1138085839
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1138085831
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publication date
    April 11, 2017
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
  7. Print length
    390 pages
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this book is a valuable examination of an important and understudied issue. Although rich in technical detail, its topic and argument will doubtless appeal to a broad audience of Aegean prehistorians and ancient historians. The project is an important one, and Olsen does an good job pulling together all of the textual evidence, demonstrating how differently Pylian and Knossian women appear in the Linear B tablets, and relating these differences to social practices. We need more studies like these: studies that use the rich Mycenaean textual evidence to contribute to broader debates in Greek history and prehistory."

-Dimitri Nakassis, University of Toronto in Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This book addresses a great need in the study of women in antiquity. Olsen brings together textual analyses from 60 years of scholarship on women in Linear B, and sets them into the broader socio-economic context of Mycenaean Greece and Crete."

- Ruth Palmer, Ohio University, in The Classical Review

About the Author

Barbara A. Olsen is Associate Professor of Greek & Roman Studies, and Director of Women's Studies at Vassar College, New York, USA.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (April 11, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 390 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1138085839
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1138085831
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 16 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

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  1. Barbara Ann Olsen

    Barbara Ann Olsen

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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Grace Fortiter
5.0 out of 5 stars Breaks new ground on women's role in ancient world
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2014
Verified Purchase
Extraordinary because this very difficult & detailed unraveling of Linear B tablets' listings of women's economic activities in Ancient Greece pushed back our knowledge of it by 400 years, and begins to answer many questions about the role of women in antiquity -- e.g. was it different in Classical Greece than this far earlier Minoan/Mycenaean period? If so, how? "Progress" or lapse in women's freedom to engage in agriculture, commerce, local trade? The first chapter clearly lays out the author's goals and questions, the sources on which she depends, the likely importance of this study for others in the future. Much is quite technical, and the type fonts for the Mycenaean texts alone explain the books high costs. I can't profess to understand all of it, but the questions are social and cultural, the evidence highly abstruse and technical epigraphy and archaeology.
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Nikki
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Presented Examination!
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2018
A well-researched and well-presented examination of women's roles in both Pylos and Knossos. Great information.
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judith weingarten
5.0 out of 5 stars A trailer for my upcoming review of this book
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2014
First impressions at http://judithweingarten.blogspot.nl/2014/10/eritha-mycenaean-uppity-woman.html
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive, erudite, not for people new to the subject
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2022
Verified Purchase
Outstanding scholarship, thoughtfully presented for the reader, but requires a degree of fluency in the subject. If you are unfamiliar with the Mycenaean world I suggest you start with a more generic primer and return to this book. That said, it is quite brilliant.
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