Changing worldviews at the end of the European Bronze Age: Societal insights from technology and lifeways before and after the Mycenaean palatial collapse in Greece (1300-1000 BC)

Established Mycenaean palatial systems collapsed during generalised socio-political crises in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age.

Fundamental questions about the social impact of these irreversible transformations remain with implications for fully understanding diachronic human responses to significant environmental and cultural stressors.

Changing World aims to evaluate how social collapse interfered with cultural processes as expressed in metallurgy and lifeways.

I will examine 150 metal objects (warrior equipment, jewellery, tools, utensils) microscopically, elementally, and isotopically from 5 key sites in Greece (Elateia, Lefkandi, Pefkakia, Voudeni, Nichoria) for investigating resource management strategies, metalworking choices, and supply networks during 1300-1000 BC.

I will then integrate the metallurgical results with bioarchaeological data (aDNA, stable isotopes) on relatedness, sex, and diet from >300 individuals from Elateia and Voudeni to shed light on changing worldviews embodied in craft practices.

This transdisciplinary methodology will offer new theorised multi-proxy insights that will directly inform ongoing academic debates about the nature of the Mycenaean collapse, and will open new pathways for future research on materials and humans, and for the study of societies in crisis.

This project is now possible through combining my extensive analytical skills and access to highly representative, newly available study materials, Prof. Stockhammers (PI; LMU) recent and ongoing bioarchaeological research in Greece, and Prof. Degryses (secondment PI; KU Leuven) expertise in metals provenancing.

My analytical (MC-ICP-MS) and theoretical training (Practice Theory) and critical understanding of aDNA data, alongside additional training in teaching and student supervision, will strengthen my profile for attaining a tenured position at a university and attracting future EU research funding, as well as my competences outside academia.