1999, a scientific committee for Mycenae was created and numerous projects for the preservation, improvement, and stabilization of both archaeological sites have been completed by this scientific body. The committee also sought to improve visitor access to the monuments at the locations by laying out walkways and establishing informational stations. The ancient travel writer Pausanias, for example, visited the site and briefly described the prominent fortifications and the Lion Gate, still visible in his time, the second century AD. Pausanias also describes being led to the site by shepherds, showing that the surrounding area was never completely abandoned. Political organization It appears that the Mycenaean state was ruled by kings identified by the title , wa-na-ka ("wanax') in the Linear B inscriptions at Knossos and Pylos. Wanax had the supreme authority and was represented by a number of officials. In the Homeric poems, the word form is anax (), often translated in English as "lord". Some inscriptions with a list of offerings indicate that the king was probably divine, but the term "for the king" is usually accompanied by another name. It is possible that a priest-king system was adopted from the East and the title probably indicates that his right to rule was given by the god. The term , qa-si-re-u (cf. , "basileús"), which was later used in Greece for "king", was apparently used for the "chief" of any group of people, or for a provincial official. (Homer mentions many basilees in Ithaca). The land possessed by the king is usually called , te-me-no (, "témenos"), a word that survived in classical Greece (the temenos placed by Hephaestus on the shield of Achilles is called "royal"). In classical times the word has a religious connotation . Other important landowners were the , ra-wa-ke-ta ("lāwāgetas"), literally translated as "the leader of the people", and sometimes interpreted as a given kingdom's military leader, though this is not confirmed by the inscriptions. Alternatively, he may have been the crown prince or, if one follows the argument of a single Mycenaean state, a local king who was a vassal to the overarching wanax / Great King. Below these two elevated persons, Linear B texts situate the , te-re-ta ("telestai"), the officials. Leonard Robert Palmer suggests that the "telestai were the men of telos- the fief holders". The , e-qe-ta (ekwetai, "companions" or "followers") were a group of nobles (aristocrats), who followed the