Initially, the research team found it difficult to determine the date of burial of the tomb's inhabitant. Pottery remnants are typically used for dating purposes, but the warrior's grave contained no pottery. In the summer of 2016, further excavations in the area surrounding the gravesite unearthed pottery fragments that enabled Davis and Stocker to date the site to 1500–1450 BC. With that information, they were able to determine that the warrior lived during the end of the shaft grave period before the construction of the palatial centres in Mycenaean Greece, including the Palace of Nestor. Researchers are currently studying the artifacts in detail, with all excavation objects remaining in Greece and their final placement to be determined by the Greek Archaeological Service. Former University of Cincinnati anthropologist Lynne Schepartz, now of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, is studying the skeletal remains. DNA tests and isotope analyses are also underway in the hope of learning more about the warrior's ethnic and geographic origins. Gold signet rings Four gold signet rings unveiled in late 2016 are engraved with intricate Minoan images and clearly indicate significant Mycenaean-Minoan cultural transfer in this era. Pylos Combat Agate Among the various tomb artifacts found, a small item in length, and embedded in limestone was revealed after a year of cleaning to be a beautifully carved sealstone. The sealstone's image, an intricately carved combat scene can only be viewed in full detail with a photomicroscopy camera lens. "A magnifying glass may have been used to create the details on the stone", according to Stocker, but "no type of magnifying tool from this time period has ever been found." Interpretations "'Probably not since the 1950s have we found such a rich tomb," said James C. Wright, the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The grave, in Dr. Wright's view, lies "at the date at the heart of the relationship of the mainland culture to the higher culture of Crete" and will help scholars understand how the state cultures that developed in Crete were adopted into what became the Mycenaean palace culture on the mainland. "The palaces found at Mycene, Pylos and elsewhere on the Greek mainland have a common inspiration: All borrowed heavily from the Minoan civilization that arose on the large island of Crete, southeast of Pylos. The Minoans were culturally dominant to the Mycenaeans but were later overrun by