Bronze Age Pylos, located on the present…
1341 BCE to 1198 BCE
Bronze Age Pylos, located on the present Bay of Navarino in the southwestern Peloponnesus, is the supposed birthplace of the venerable Nestor, its king.
A palace rivaling that at Mycenae is erected in the late fourteenth century BCE at modern Ano Englianos, about ten point five miles (seventeen kilometers) north of Pylos harbor.
Carl Blegen, conducting excavations between 1939 and 1952, will call the remains of a large Mycenaean palace found there the "Palace of Nestor” after the character Nestor, who ruled over "Sandy Pylos" in the Homeric poems.
Linear B tablets found by Blegen clearly demonstrate that the site’s Mycenaean inhabitants called it Pylos (Mycenaean Greek Pulos, Linear B Pu-ro).
The palace, rivaling that at Mycenae, features three wings of two-storied buildings comprising storehouses, workshops, and a ruler's residence.
The palace wing contains guard towers, a throne room, living quarters with bathrooms, and a scribe's office.
Elaborate frescoes decorate many of the walls.
The settlement had been long occupied with most artifacts discovered dating from 1300 BCE.
The palace complex around 1200 BCE is destroyed by fire.