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Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies. By Appointment to His Majesty the Wanax: Value-Added Goods and Redistribution in Mycenaean Palatial Economies

April 2011 (115.2)
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Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies. By Appointment to His Majesty the Wanax: Value-Added Goods and Redistribution in Mycenaean Palatial Economies

115.2
Robert Schon
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Rather than treating redistribution as an undifferentiated economic function, scholars currently recognize that multiple forms may occur simultaneously. In this Forum Article, I focus on one such form in detail, specifically, the redistributive system that financed the production of prestige goods at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos. I employ the manufacture of chariots, perfumed oils, and textiles as case studies. The three industries had a number of features in common. They required raw materials that were dispersed. Their managers collected dispersed raw materials and allocated them to specialists, who added value to them through skilled labor and who produced composite artifacts that were then redistributed by palatial authorities to an exclusive group of recipients. While similarities in the management of the industries reflect an overall policy of resource mobilization through which palace authorities garnered the loyalty of an emergent class of secondary elites, the inconsistencies in the manner in which the industries were run also suggest that redistribution was not fully standardized.

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Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies. By Appointment to His Majesty the Wanax: Value-Added Goods and Redistribution in Mycenaean Palatial Economies

By Robert Schon

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 115, No. 2 (April 2011), pp. 219–227

DOI: 10.3764/aja.115.2.0219

© 2011 Archaeological Institute of America

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