In 1939, Konstantinos Kourouniotis and the American archaeologist Carl Blegen discovered the site now known as the Palace of Nestor, on the Englianos ridge, 9 km northeast of the Bay of Navarino in Messenia, southwestern Greece. From 1952, Blegen continued to work at Pylos, revealing over the years the 100-roomed palace complex, nearby tombs, and confirming the existence of a Lower Town outside the royal centre. Pylos and its Linear B tablets have been fundamental to our understanding of the Mycenaean world. Seventy-six years later, excavations in an olive grove at Pylos, led by Sharon R. Stocker and Jack L. Davis, uncovered an unknown and undisturbed shaft grave – the Grave of the Griffin Warrior, who died around 1450 BC, which sheds light on the site’s earlier history and development.

The Griffin Warrior and the objects that lay with him in death are at the heart of The Kingdom of Pylos. Warrior-Princes of Mycenaean Greece. This beautifully illustrated book, edited by Stocker and Davis, Claire Lyons of the J. Paul Getty Museum and Evangelia Militsi-Kechagia, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia, accompanies a major exhibition of Messenian material culture, co-organised by Getty Museum and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (visiting the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum in Athens, 1st March to 30th June 2026). Divided into five parts, Part 1 being a helpful introduction, it frames and catalogues 188 items from Pylos and other sites in Messenia. These are shown in high quality, often larger than life colour photographs and drawings, with helpful accompanying descriptions. Indeed, the book is a visual feast, and photographs of landscapes, sites, and objects, as well as site plans, reconstructions, and helpful maps, contextualise and illuminate the catalogued items; it will delight and engage anyone interested in Mycenaean Greece, professional or otherwise (an index and list of references support the text).

The Grave of the Griffin Warrior is the subject of Part 3 of the book, made up of five well-illustrated chapters. Stocker opens by narrating the chance discovery and painstaking five-month excavation of the grave; Davis then contemplates the man as an Early Mycenaean warrior – buried with two bronze-headed spears and a gold-hilted dagger and sword, a panoply of bronze armour and boar’s tusks ready to be stitched into a helmet. Stocker then discusses the man’s emblems of authority, his bull-headed sceptre and rings, and his dozens of seal stones depicting deities, cult, and ritual scenes familiar from Crete. The young man, who died aged 30–35, might have been from Crete, or local to Pylos, and potentially travelled widely to accumulate his wealth and status. His face is recreated in Figure 34 (p. 93).

Of all the goods he was buried with, two in particular stand out: the large elephant ivory pyxis, the lid of which depicts in relief a lion mauling a griffin (cat. 48, p. 109), and a fragment of the pyxis found early on in the dig gave the grave its name. But the most exceptional find is clearly the Pylos Combat Agate, pictured on the front cover (cat. 33, pp. 98–99). This small almond-shaped stone, some 3.6 by 2.2 cm, shows three warriors in the midst of close-quarters action. The hero, a long-haired warrior dressed in a loincloth, is leaning in for the kill, his right leg stretched out behind as he moves forward on his left, reaching over his foe’s huge shield to grab the crest of his helmet and force his head down as he stabs his sword into his neck. Another man, already vanquished, is sprawled beneath the hero. The composition is exquisitely executed, with minute details of jewellery, dress, and musculature; the oversize full-page photograph and accompanying drawing fully enable the reader to marvel at the piece.

The book has more to offer. Part 2 is titled ‘Funerary Architecture and Gifts for the Dead’. Here, Stocker’s chapter on mortuary practices at Pylos discusses the Grave Circle and the tholos (‘beehive’) tombs of early Pylos, including two impressive tholoi, discovered only in 2018. The photographs are helpful here, and there is also an artist’s reconstruction of the Griffin Warrior’s funeral procession. An informative chapter on Mycenaean goldwork by Papadimitriou, Konstantinidi-Syvridi, and Goumas looks at workshops and techniques and describes that various objects made from gold support the many items pictured in the catalogue and throughout the book. Maria Anastasiadou’s chapter discusses seals, one of the prime pictorial media of the Mycenaeans, fashioned in gold and semi-precious stone such as carnelian.

Part 4, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos, focuses on Pylos in its palatial prime in the later thirteenth century BC. A series of short, authoritative chapters by acknowledged experts – Dimitri Nakassis on the Linear B texts, John Bennet on social and political structures, Susan Lupack on religion and cult practice, Hariclia Brecoulaki on fresco, Salvatore Vitale on pottery and feasting, Cynthia Shelmerdine on Pylos’s perfume industry, and Stamatis Fritzilas on Nestor in myth and history – all do an impressive job in a small space. They are accompanied by well-chosen illustrations in addition to the catalogued items. Anyone seeking a primer on how we now see the Mycenaeans would benefit from reading these punchy and well-illustrated essays.

Part 5 ranges into the territories and towns of ancient Messenia. The opening chapter provides an overview. After that, eleven local sites and their material culture are introduced in short chapters, many with photographs of the sites; objects are illustrated in the catalogues that follow each one. Better known sites, such as Nichoria, described by Maria Tsoulakou, are present, but also some less familiar. An important inclusion is Iklaina, discussed by Michael Cosmopoulos, which, though only 14 km from Pylos, may well have remained independent of it until after the mid-thirteenth century BC. This part makes up a sizable chunk of the volume and delivers welcome context – Late Bronze Age Messenia was much more than just the palace at Pylos.

Teachers will find this book very useful – the visuals showing Mycenaean material culture will generate curiosity and invite speculation and questions, while the short texts are accessible and not overly technical. There is potential for using the book to set up a whole class ‘Mycenaeans’ project in which small groups could focus on different aspects of Mycenaean art, archaeology, and society, or consider different sites in the Messenia region. Students could also identify a favourite object and create their own archaeological drawing. They could use the text to learn more about it and deliver presentations to class or make posters for display. Or they could be encouraged to use the evidence in the book and their imaginations to write stories about the Griffin Warrior. Tasks could be easily adapted for different age groups.

The exhibition pages of the Getty website offer more supporting material. There is a pdf of the gallery texts, which includes colour figures and a Linear B syllabary, which students could explore – writing their names, for instance. This is easily printable. It also hosts six video presentations, which could be used selectively in class or as directed learning (as they are quite long) alongside the book (https://www.getty.edu/exhibitions/pylos/).

After decades of investigation we continue to learn from Pylos, as The Kingdom of Pylos. Warrior-Princes of Mycenaean Greece clearly shows. Though Homer’s world is a poetic construction, and as Davis points out ‘Nestor is nowhere to be found’ (p. 129) in the archaeology or texts, we nevertheless glimpse a wealthy kingdom where Poseidon was worshipped, where bulls were sacrificed, where kings feasted their many guests, and where bathing and beauty were as much a part of a heroic ideal as combat, in which Nestor might well have felt at home.