Laboring with the economics of Mycenaean architecture: Theories, methods, and explorations of Mycenaean architectural production

This study examines the connection between architecture and economy in Mycenaean Greece; it is a deep investigation of economic theory and models of the Mycenaean economy, existing methods for the study of prehistoric architecture, and particular Mycenaean structures. Over the course of the study, I present current thinking on the Mycenaean economy and fundamentally rethink the concept of economic embeddedness and human agency. With a novel theoretical grounding, I present a methodology based in human action to study the intersection of architecture and the Mycenaean economy, and in three detailed case studies, I apply the methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall.;I argue that to advance the study of Mycenaean economy and theory, the concept of economic embeddedness, which posits that economic actions and decisions are bounded by larger social concerns, must be rethought. In its place, I offer a theory of complex embeddedness that envisions human action as fluid and cross-cutting traditionally circumscribed categories of economy, society, and polity. This foundation in human action with it links to agency theory helps to move the study of architecture away from the static sociopolitical meaning of the final built form and towards the human processes of construction. Under the guidance of this theory, I envision construction as a form of production in which individuals interact with one another and the material world to build a structure. I ultimately use the term architectural production to label this novel viewpoint.;To study architectural production at a range where human actions and agency matter, I advance a methodology that draws together architectural energetics, chaine operatoire, and tools from the construction management industry. I argue that architectural energetics offers a starting point for studying architectural production, but that existing applications of architectural energetics have placed too much weight on summed labor-costs and macroscale typologies. By reformulating architectural energetics with a focus on the chaine operatoire, or operational sequence, and by using construction management tools to investigate the dynamic nature of the chaine operatoire, I propose a method that builds on architectural energetics' basis in labor-costs to explore the temporal and spatial configuration of architectural production. With the method, I reconstruct and detail processes of architectural production, model the ordering of human-centric production tasks and patterns of labor organization, explore timeframes for the completion of structures under different conditions, and isolate how active human agents move through space and time during architectural production.;I apply the method to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. For each, I collate published data and field observations to recreate the structures in 3-D CAD models, profoundly contemplate the entire process of production from the planning stages to the finishing touches, investigate the spatiotemporal configuration of labor during production, and stress the plethora of human choices and actions that occurred in the production of these structures. Finally, I fold my study of each structure into larger topics that engage models of the Mycenaean economy, including decision making and group interactions during architectural production, the creation of architectural monumentality and power, and the administration and compensation of builders. I argue for a networked view of the Mycenaean economy that builds on close range analyses of human acts of production; the acts of architectural production that I stress in this study were a complex and integral part of this networked Mycenaean economy.;Four supplementary PDF files are included with this study. They form part of the application of my methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. The supplementary files (Supplements 1--4) are referenced in Chapter 7.