Surveying the Growth of a Mycenaean State: A Reassessment of Pylian Expansion in Late Bronze Age Messenia

This thesis reassesses the nature and timeline of the expansion of the Kingdom of Pylos in Messenia during the Late Bronze Age. Evidence from Linear B documents, excavations, and regional survey projects has provided substantial information about the administration and economy of the Pylian state during the height of its power at the end of the LH IIIB period, but the nature and timeline of its growth from a single settlement to the palatial capital of Messenia is not as fully understood. Messenian survey data are used here to catalogue, map, and analyze Mycenaean settlements in the region for the LH I-II, LH IIIA-B, and LH IIIC periods. Changes to settlement patterns that are indicative of Pylian expansion are identified through a combination of traditional and novel methods. These changes are then considered along regional lines, from which three distinct waves of Pylian expansion in Messenia during the Late Bronze Age are shown.