Knossos and the Near East

A contextual approach to imports and imitations in Early Iron Age tombs

Vyron Antoniadis

• Publisher: Archaeopress
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781784916404
• eBook ISBN:
  9781784916411
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

In this book, Dr Vyron Antoniadis presents a contextual study of the Near Eastern imports which reached Crete during the Early Iron Age and were deposited in the Knossian tombs. Cyprus, Phoenicia, North Syria and Egypt are the places of origin of these imports. Knossian workshops produced close or freer imitations of these objects. The present study reveals the ways in which imported commodities were used to create or enhance social identity in the Knossian context. The author explores the reasons that made Knossians deposit imported objects in their graves as well as investigates whether specific groups could control not only the access to these objects but also the production of their imitations. Dr Antoniadis argues that the extensive use of locally produced imitations alongside authentic imports in burial rituals and contexts indicates that Knossians treated both imports and imitations as items of the same symbolic and economic value.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Information
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Figure 1: Map 1: Knossos and the Eastern Mediterranean.
• Figure 2: Map 2: The area of Knossos, the BA Palace and Modern Heraklion.
• Chapter 1: Death and Her Objects: Theoretical Approaches
• Table 1: A basic chronological sequence of Knossos based on Coldstream (1996; 2001) and on different views of historical dating.
• Chapter 2: Would you like your tomb with or without dromos? Tombs and Society in EIA Knossos
• Figure 3: Terminology of the chamber tomb (Tomb 45, Med. Faculty, Coldstream and Catling 1996, figure 24).
• Figure 4: A shaft grave and a pit-cave grave, (Tombs 153 and 186 KMF respectively, after Coldstream and Catling 1996, figure 43).
• Figure 5: Map 3: The location of EIA tombs (redrawn digitally after Coldstream and Catling 1996, 713).
• Figure 6: Map 4: The burial sites within KNC.
• Figure 7 Map 5: Fortetsa SE Tombs.
• Table 2: Graph 1: Numbers of tombs per type.
• Figure 8: Heraklion Hospital at Knossos, below the fence is Kouskouras the soft yellow limestone, which was ideal for the construction of the chamber-tomb (Photograph by the author).
• Table 3: Graph 2: Maximum and minimum of cremation urns (Cavanagh 1996, 661). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Table 4: Graph 3: Cremations per year (Cavanagh 1996, 662). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Table 5: Graph 4: Construction of new Tombs per period.
• Table 6: Graph 5: Construction of new Tombs during the Proto-G period.
• Table 7: Graph 6: Construction of new Tombs during the G period.
• Figure 9: Map 6: The settlement of Knossos.
• Chapter 3: The Near Eastern Connection: The Finds and their Contexts
• Chapter 4: Who gets the Imports and who the Imitations?
• Table 8: Graph 7: Provenance of imports.
• Table 9: Graph 8: Pottery style in relation to the quantities found at the Knossian Cemeteries.
• Table 10: Graph 9: Near Eastern objects and pots per period.
• Table 11: Graph 10: Material of imports.
• Figure 10: Scarab from Tomb II, Khaniale Teke (Hutchinson 1954, figure 3 and plate 29). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Figure 11: Scarab from Al-Bass, Tyre (Gamer-Wallert 2004, 407-408). Reproduced with permission of Professor Aubet.
• Table 12: Graph 11: Numbers of imports or local imitations.
• Table 13: Chart 1: imported and locally made pottery.
• Table 14: Chart 2: Evolution of local shapes deriving from Near Eastern pots. Brock 1957, plates: 34, 59, 97, 71, 68, 49, 76; Coldstream and Catling 1996, plates: 115, 116, 119, 146, 148, 188, 194, 201, 206, 208, 223, 227, 239). Images reproduced with pe
• Table 14: Chart 2: Evolution of local shapes deriving from Near Eastern pots. Brock 1957, plates: 34, 59, 97, 71, 68, 49, 76; Coldstream and Catling 1996, plates: 115, 116, 119, 146, 148, 188, 194, 201, 206, 208, 223, 227, 239). Images reproduced with pe
• Table 14: Chart 2: Evolution of local shapes deriving from Near Eastern pots. Brock 1957, plates: 34, 59, 97, 71, 68, 49, 76; Coldstream and Catling 1996, plates: 115, 116, 119, 146, 148, 188, 194, 201, 206, 208, 223, 227, 239). Images reproduced with pe
• Table 15: Graph 12: Shapes and quantities of Near Eastern Pottery found at Knossos Cemeteries.
• Table 16: Graph 13: Shapes of Local Imitations of Near Eastern Pottery and quantities Found at Knossos Cemeteries.
• Table 17: Graph 14: Chronological sequence and quantity of imported pots and of their imitations.
• Table 18: classification of tombs according to imports.
• Table 19: Graph 15: The ten richest tombs across all cemeteries.
• Figure 13: Distribution of Imports at KMF (after Coldstream and Catlin 1996, figure 1). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Figure 14: Distribution of Imports at Teke (after Coldstream and Catling 1996, figure 2). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Figure 15: Distribution of imports at Fortetsa NE (after Coldstream and Catling 1996, figures 1-6; Hood and Boardman 1961, 68). The present author made the synthesis of maps different excavations. Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens
• Figure 16: Distribution of imports at Khaniale Teke (after Hutchinson and Boardman 1954, 215). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Figure 17 Distribution of imports at Fortetsa NE (after Brock 1957, figure 2). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Figure 18: Distribution of imports at Ayios Ioannis (after Boardman 1960, 128). Reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens.
• Table 20: Graph 16: Dendrogram of tomb clusters.
• Conclusion: An Overview of the Knossian Early Iron Age Society
• Appendix I: The Tombs and the Burials
• Appendix II: Imports and Imitations
• Bibliography