A private place: death in prehistoric Greece.

Brodie, Neil

WILLIAM CAVANAGH & CHRISTOPHER MEE. A private place: death in prehistoric Greece (studies in Mediterranean archaeology 125). xiv+258 pages. 127 figures, 5 tables. 1998. Jonsered: Paul Astroms Forlag; 91-7081-178-4 paperback Kr 500.

Das Mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab van Agina publishes the important Middle Helladic II burial of an adult male (presumably a warrior) in a shaft grave at Kolonna, on Aegina. There are detailed accountsof the associated artefacts (which include a gold diadem and the remains of a boar tusk helmet) with a full discussion of contemporary comparanda and a final consideration of the burial's wider significance.

A private place is a corpus and analysis of the prehistoric burials of Greece. It collates material from the Greek mainland as far north as Thessaly up to the end of the Middle Bronze Age, when its coverage extends to include the Aegean islands of the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean koine, although not Crete. The main substance of the book is in six chapters arranged chronologically. Each presents a catalogue of all known burials of the period, together with a full discussion of grave architecture and funerary practices. The two final chapters, on ritual and social identity, provide a theoretical framework and examine the changing inter-relationships between ritual, society and culture.