Handmade Burnished Ware

The ware is found in Late Helladic IIIB and IIIC levels (starting in the middle of the 13th century BC), preceding the destruction of the Mycenaean citadels. Finds have placed the style of pottery across eastern Mediterranean sites including at Tiryns and at sites in Anatolia, Cyprus, and Syria.^[3] There are morphological and functional differences between the Handmade Burnished Ware found at different sites. In Epirus, most vessels are designed for consumption, while those found at the Menelaion in Laconia and at Tiryns are generally storage vessels; those found at Tiryns are often decorated, while those from other sites are not. On these grounds, Eleni Vasileiou has written that Handmade Burnished Ware should not be considered a uniform ceramic type.^[4]

Diffusionist hypotheses posit that the pottery was introduced by migrating peoples in the late 13th and 12th centuries BC.^[5] Initial diffusionist hypotheses associated its appearance with putative Dorian invaders but this is now rejected because the ware predates destruction layers associated with the Bronze Age collapse;^[6] later views still associate the ware with migratory groups in the eastern Mediterranean.^[7] Another view instead associates the ware with a small minority population present within Mycenean communities.^[8] Non-diffusionist views instead place its emergence as a local substitute for higher-quality wares unavailable amid disruptions in the Mycenaean economy.^[9]

• Burnishing (pottery)
• Protogeometric pottery
• Bronze Age collapse