Offensive Weapons from the Grave of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos

Those who buried the Griffin Warrior presented him as a warrior. Not only did a suite of weapons accompany him to the grave, but also included among his burial goods was the magnificent sealstone, the Pylos Combat Agate, which depicted a scene of battle, possibly taken directly from epic poetry. We elsewhere speculated that the Griffin Warrior identified with the seminude hero on the Combat Agate who dispatches his opponents on the field of battle. The offensive weapons laid alongside his body after death are elements familiar in the military kit of warriors buried in the early phases of the Late Bronze Age in Greece. Their inclusion in the grave of the Griffin Warrior permits their types to be dated with greater precision. The sword of the Griffin Warrior also provides important new hints as to the date of manufacture of type B of the decorative technique known as ̒gold embroideryʼ. At the same time, it adds to the visual repertory of this style a unique example of pictorial decoration with lions attacking Cretan wild goats (agrimia). The shape of the sword and its decoration find their best parallels in the magnificent weapons found in warrior graves excavated by Sir Arthur Evans over a century ago at Zafer Papoura in Crete. The chronological precedence of the type Ci sword in the grave of the Griffin Warrior leads to a consideration of the origin of the horned sword in the Aegean, and a discussion as to how such swords came to be buried in Final Palatial warrior graves at Knossos. Keywords: Pylos, Griffin Warrior, warrior graves, weapons, gold embroidery