Set in Stone? Socio-Economic Reflections on Human and Animal Resources in Monumental Architecture of Late Bronze Age Tiryns in the Argos Plain, Greece

While Mycenaean monumental architecture has been well-studied, its potential impact and contribution towards a better understanding of the socio-economic and political situation and changes taking place in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) palatial and post-palatial periods in the Argos Plain has received less attention.Both external (drought, plague, earthquakes, conflict, catastrophic erosion) and internal (conflict, social issues visible in burnt destruction layers) factors affecting and eventually causing the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces have been investigated, 1 and further studies are on-going.2 The elites and other parties with vested interests were able to mobilize large-scale interlinked human and natural resources to implement the known monumental building programmes in the Argos Plain.These activities, however, have not been drawing much attention from a technological and socio-economic perspective despite the fact that the employment of these resources may have had large over-all implications on the society as a whole and may have impacted on the overall socio-economic well-being of the region at the close of the 13 th and into the 12 th c.BC.In the 'Set in Stone?' project the built environment is discussed from a distinct human perspective and the constructions themselves are regarded as products of multiple human interactions.Through studying practical building processes and integrating these technical and socio-economic data sets within the broader 1 Summarized in Bennet 2013, 253-54.2 For example, 'HERACLES', the archaeo-seismological programme at Tiryns and Midea since 2012, directed by J. Maran and K.-G.