The project financed by Riksbankens jubileumsfond has resulted in a book about an archaeological investigation carried out on the Peloponnese in Greece. The study presents and discusses the funerary and domestic architecture as well as their associated finds from the excavations at early Mycenaean (1700-1500 BCE) Lerna in Greece. The spectacular content from two shaft graves are central to the study. Roughly one thousand cups, bowls, jugs and cooking jars were found together with at least 68 slaughtered sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle in the fill above their grave compartments. They constitute the tangible remains of two high-profile funerary feasts dated by C14 to around 1630 BCE. Massive and well-dated one-time depositions of material are very rare and allow scholars to better understand the material manifestations of the period. Unusually high numbers of imported goods also facilitate the synchronization of contemporaneous finds at different areas of the Greek Mainland and neighboring islands. Finally, the finds from the shaft graves offer a unique insight into the rituals that surrounded funerals of aspiring political leaders in early Mycenaean Greece. Within a few generations an altered perception of rank and power culminated in institutionalized inequality and a surprisingly high degree of social
complexity.