Potestary Political Cultures in Change in Times of Change: Interactions in the Aegean Region and the Eastern Mediterranean at the End of the Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age

Abstract

The article analyzes the evolution of ancient systems of power and political titles (such as mar(on)-, palmus, tyrannos, or wa-na-ka) in the Aegean region and the Eastern Mediterranean at the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The author challenges the concept of an absolute "King-Priest" popular in Bulgarian scholarly literature, which supposedly concentrated full religious, civil, and military power in one person's hands. Instead, he points to a "dual kingship" model (a division into a sacral ruler and a military leader) and demonstrates strong, mutual linguistic and cultural interactions between the Luwian, Thraco-Pelasgian, and Proto-Etruscan peoples.