The “Deviant” Dead: (De)constructing Personhood in Mycenaean Mortuary Landscapes

Despite increasing standardization in mortuary practice during the Mycenaean palatial period, there remains a significant degree of variation in burials. This project seeks to elucidate the reasons for the wide variability in the Mycenaean mortuary program with theories of anthropological personhood as a guiding framework. I focus on the palatial period, from LHIII A2 - LHIIIB2 (1410-1190) because of the pervasiveness of Mycenaean culture throughout the Aegean, but especially in Greece’s northeastern Peloponnese, during that time. I use mortuary data from 12 cemeteries in the Argolid and Korinthia to trace trends in burial practice, in the hope of establishing a theoretical norm. I consider how burial affects the construction of a “person,” as a being that is relationally authored in creating a definition of normativity. Additionally, I consider the existence of so-called “deviant” burials that lie beyond the norm. Ultimately, I conclude that no such burials exist within this data set, and instead, that the norm for the Mycenaean burial program allows for variability.