From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology

Maria Relaki, Yiannis Papadatos

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2018
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785709272
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

From the Foundations to the Legacy seeks to examine how the developmental trajectory of a single site can offer insights into regional patterns, the importance of integrating local survey information in reconstructing general historical processes and the significance of temporal variability in the construction of space. Evaluating the general frameworks within which Minoan archaeology operates, scholars assess the usefulness of chronological horizons in understanding continuity and change and providing a critical framework for the diachronic analysis of culture, the degree to which the study of settlement patterns can reveal structural continuity through time and the political reach of territorial states. The way the power bases of Minoan society were articulated through the interplay between individual and collective social strategies is the focus of a few papers, further illustrated by in-depth considerations of the role and value of material culture from a social and technological perspective. The largest portion of discussion is devoted to mortuary practices. Some contributors focus on reassessing the significance of micro-patterns in the articulation of mortuary behavior, while others emphasize broader temporal and spatial processes that affect practices of ostentatious display in burial, all being unified under the overarching perspective provided by recent osteoarchaeological studies which throw critical light on mortuary ritual and the constitution of the social units using the cemeteries. The volume is offered in honor of Keith Branigan's remarkable contribution to the archaeology of Bronze Age Crete and the great inroads his work has made into our understanding of Minoan society. His work has profoundly influenced subsequent generations of archaeologists.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• List of contributors
• 1. Keith Branigan: Introductory: Peter Warren
• 2. Roots and routes: Technologies of life, death, community and identity: Maria Relaki
• 3. Inspecting the foundations: The Early Minoan Project in review: Peter Tomkins
• 4. Early Minoan Knossos: A few new thoughts: Gerald Cadogan
• 5. Caves in Crete and their use as architectural space: Philip P. Betancourt
• 6. Mortuary variability, social differentiation and ranking in Prepalatial Crete: The evidence from the cemetery of Phourni, Archanes: Yiannis Papadatos
• 7. Variables and diachronic diversities in the funerary remains of the Kamilari tholos tombs: Luca Girella
• 8. Managing with death in Prepalatial Crete: The evidence of the human remains: Sevi Triantaphyllou
• 9. The house tomb in context: Assessing mortuary behaviour in north-east Crete: Ilse Schoep
• 10. Visible and invisible death. Shifting patterns in the burial customs of Bronze Age Crete: Eleni Hatzaki
• 11. Recognising polities in prehistoric Crete: Todd Whitelaw
• 12. The relevance of survey data as evidence for settlement structure in Prepalatial Crete: Donald C. Haggis
• 13. Comparative issues in archaeological field survey in the Asterousia region: Andonis Vasilakis and Kostas Sbonias
• 14. Beyond the collective … The Minoan Palace in action: Jan Driessen
• 15. The “emergence of the individual” revisited: Memory and trans-corporeality in the mortuary landscapes of Bronze Age Crete: Yannis Hamilakis