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Time, space and the reinvention of the Cretan Neolithic
... BACKGROUND Knossos: from farming hamlet to urban palatial centre Excavation and surface survey (Evans 1971;Hood & Smyth 1981;Whitelaw et al. 2019) have elucidated the growth of Knossos (Table 1). An Initial (IN) and Early (EN) Neolithic hamlet of perhaps 30 inhabitants developed through the Middle (MN), Late (LN), and Final Neolithic (FN) into a village of up to 250 (Tomkins 2008) or even 450 head (Whitelaw 2012, 147-8;Legarra Herrero 2019). Thereafter a suggested 'Prepalatial' (PreP) nucleated settlement of 1000-1300 grew rapidly to 4000-10,000 in the 'Late Prepalatial' (LPreP), 12,500-15,000 in the 'Old Palace' (OP) and 15,000-25,000 in the 'New Palace' (NP), before contracting to 12,000 in the 'Final Palace' (FP) and perhaps less than 3000 in the 'Postpalatial' (PostP) phase (Hatzaki 2017;Cutler & Whitelaw 2019, 15). ...
... Whitelaw 2001). At the inter-site level, Knossos was too small for a viable breeding population in the earlier Neolithic (Isaakidou 2008, 102;Tomkins 2008, 30-1) but had achieved potential demographic self-sufficiency by the PreP and conceivably by the later Neolithic. Ideological or economic pre-eminence of later Neolithic Knossos over the tiny settlements then widespread in the landscape (Tomkins 2008; 2020) cannot be excluded but Knossian dominance of a regional hierarchy is first evident in the palatial period. ...
... At the inter-site level, Knossos was too small for a viable breeding population in the earlier Neolithic (Isaakidou 2008, 102;Tomkins 2008, 30-1) but had achieved potential demographic self-sufficiency by the PreP and conceivably by the later Neolithic. Ideological or economic pre-eminence of later Neolithic Knossos over the tiny settlements then widespread in the landscape (Tomkins 2008; 2020) cannot be excluded but Knossian dominance of a regional hierarchy is first evident in the palatial period. The numerous FP Linear B texts reveal selective Knossian palatial control and exploitation of agricultural, pastoral, and craft production across the central third or half of Crete (Godart 1977;Killen 1977;Bennet 1988;Halstead 1999a). ...
Excavations at Knossos have uncovered faunal and archaeobotanical archives spanning the Neolithic and Bronze Age (7th–2nd millennia bce ), during which one of Europe’s earliest known farming settlements developed into its first major urban settlement and centre of one of its oldest regional states. Through stable isotope (δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁵ N) analysis of seeds and bones (as evidence for the growing conditions of cereal and pulse crops and for the types of forage consumed by livestock), land use and, ultimately, political economy are explored. Changing husbandry conditions overwrite any effects of long-term aridification. Early (7th–6th millennium bce ) Knossian farmers grew intensively managed cereals and pulses (probably in rotation) that were closely integrated (as manured sources of forage) with livestock. Through the later Neolithic and Bronze Age, settlement growth accompanied more extensive cultivation (eventually with cereals and pulses not in rotation) and greater use of rough graze and, by goats, browse. Pasture on cultivated land remained central, however, to the maintenance of sheep, cattle, and pigs. Variable diet of early sheep suggests management at the household level, while thereafter progressive dietary divergence of sheep and goats implies their separate herding. Until the Old Palace phase (early 2nd millennium bce ), urban growth was matched by increasingly extensive and probably distant cultivation and herding but somewhat more intensive conditions during the New and Final Palace phases (mid-2nd millennium bce ) perhaps reflect greater reliance on surplus from prime land of previously rival centres that now came under Knossian control.
... While we have little direct evidence for Neolithic activity in the Lake Kournas catchment, the presence of well-known cave sites in this region, such as Gerani Cave, certainly suggest that Neolithic peoples were present. Tomkins (2008) argues for an expansion in settlement during the pre-Final and Final Neolithic. The higher areas beyond the immediate catchment of lake Kournas may well have seen activity during these periods. ...
... The first phase onset at Kournas,~6000 yrs ago, confirms the age proposed by Langgut et al. (2019) recent synthesis based on published data from Greece (Avramidis et al., 2013) and Crete (see section 5.1.3). At that time, during the Final Neolithic, archaeologists argue for an expansion in settlement (Tomkins, 2008) and a significant increase in activity (Nowicki, 2014;Weiberg et al., 2016). There is little doubt that olive exploitation continued during the Minoan period. ...
The reconstruction of millennial-scale interactions between ecosystems and societies can provide unique and valuable references for understanding the creation of cultural landscapes and help elucidate their value, weaknesses and legacies. Among the most emblematic forms of Mediterranean land use, olive groves and pastoralism have occupied a prominent place. Therefore, it is vital to know when, how, and with what ecological consequences these practices were established and developed. Located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea, Crete is the largest island of Greece. The island is characterised by a long human history of land use, but our understanding of past environmental changes for the entire Holocene is fragmentary. This paper presents a new investigation of Lake Kournas in Crete, where recent coring provided a 15-m sequence covering ten millennia of land cover and land-use history. The study of this new core involves the analysis of the sediment dynamics, flood deposits, pollen, diatoms, fungal and algal remains, and microcharcoals. Results show that ecosystem development near Lake Kournas was not a linear process. They reveal linkages and feedbacks between vegetation, biodiversity, fire, human impact, erosion, and climate change. A possible human occupation and agro-pastoral activities around the lake may have been detected as early as 9500 cal BP, perhaps in a transitional phase between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. At 8500 cal BP, climatic conditions may have promoted the expansion of the evergreen oak woodland. However, human impact was probably the most important driver of ecosystem change with the establishment of an agro-system after 8000 years ago. Thereafter, the trajectory of Kournas’ lake and catchment ecosystems from the Mid to Late Holocene follow the rhythm of land-use change. Among the traditional Mediterranean land uses, olive cultivation locally played a major role in the socio-ecosystem interactions, providing economic benefits but also destabilising soils. During the last six millennia, three main phases of olive cultivation occurred during the Final Neolithic-Minoan period, the Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine (HRB) period and Modern times. Along with the changing land use under the successive political and economic influences rules, the resilience capacities of vegetation permitted it to shift back to higher biodiversity again after decreasing phases. Forest vegetation was always able to recover until the onset of the Venetian period (13th century), when woodlands were dramatically reduced. Only during the past century has forest vegetation slightly recovered, while the flood regime had already been altered during previous centuries. During the past 100 years, biodiversity markedly declined, probably in response to the industrialization of agriculture.
... Hamilakis 2002; 2018; Barrett & Halstead 2004), the archaeological discourse of technology in the last 20 years (e.g. Nakou 1995;Day et al. 1997;Doonan et al. 2007;Tomkins 2008) has largely disputed the analytical validity of the Bronze Age as a context defined by a greater degree of social complexity, instigated by the 'appearance' of metallurgy as a new technique. ...
In one of his most influential articles of the late 80s John Barrett attempted to reinstate the role of material conditions as an active agent of history, moving away from perceptions of material culture as either fossil or text. The later parallel theoretical developments of new materialism, posthumanism and assemblage theory have equally invigorated the discussion of agency, emphasizing the fluid nature of fields of discourse as Barrett first defined them. Yet, following this dynamic phase of self-critical re-evaluation, archaeological theory has now reached a point of stagnation: the rightful deconstruction of previous categories based on static distributions in space and time has largely led to broad claims of complexity and fluidity, which, pertaining everywhere and in every time frame, end up being as ahistorical and generalising as the categories and interpretations which they originally sought to scrutinize. In attempting to regain some of the vitality of the original fields of discourse perspective as put forward by Barrett, we suggest that the work of Gilbert Simondon on the notion of the ‘technical’ and particularly his terms ‘technical object’ and ‘technical mentality’ can move the discussion forward and reclaim a historical dimension in the categorisations we use in constructing archaeological narratives.
... Regional diversity is useful, however, for exploring whether the Neolithic appeared as a package or piecemeal. Th e same chronological labels are used here for mainland Greece and Crete (Andreou et al. 1996;Tomkins 2008): ...
... 30 28 Halstead 2000, pp. 111-115;2008, p. 248;Tomkins 2008Tomkins , 2010 For discussion of the abundant obsidian found in the Karystia and the contact and supply zones focused on Melian quarries, see Tankosić and Chidiroglou 2010, pp. 14-15;Cullen et al. 2013, pp. ...
... This contrasts with the circulation of other material goods such as obsidian, which was already being distributed as far as 200-300 km from its source at least as early as the Neolithic in the Aegean (Carter, 2009). However, the detailed compositional examination of EN-LNII ceramics from Knossos, Crete (Tomkins and Day, 2001;Tomkins et al., 2004;Tomkins, 2008) has revealed an unexpected degree of variability in raw materials and technology, reflecting a range of different production locations. This discovery has encouraged us to rethink previous models of Neolithic craft production (Vitelli, 1993b;Perlè s, 1992;Perlè s and Vitelli, 1999), as well as the role of pottery as an exchange item in this period. ...
Combined petrographic and chemical analysis of MN and LN ceramics from the Cave of the Cyclops on the island of Youra, Greece, has revealed a compositionally diverse assemblage with a range of different local and off-island sources. Ceramics deposited in Neolithic times on this barren, rocky outpost of the Sporades chain may have originated from a surprising number of possible origins, including from the Plain of Thessaly, Euboea and the volcanic northeast Aegean islands. This picture challenges traditional assumptions about Neolithic pottery production and indicates that significant movement of ceramics was already taking place within the northern Aegean as early as the beginning of the sixth millennium BC. The discovery of a persistent local pottery tradition, that is also found on the neighbouring island of Kyra-Panagia, indicates significant continuity in ceramic technology over some 1500 years.
This article analyses the development of Neolithic earthen architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean as a concrete example of ‘communities of practice’. Recent studies on earthen architecture have highlighted its adaptability to different climates, architectural forms and craftmanship levels, focusing on the technological aspects of earthen construction. This paper explores the anthropological significance of earth as a building material. It provides evidence on the development of earthen building techniques, interactions between different communities regarding building practices and an understanding of the dynamics of chaîne opératoire in relation to various materials. A review of archaeological case studies provides compelling preliminary evidence for the existence of early specialized architecture in Neolithic Aegean contexts.
Back to beginnings: the earliest habitation at Petras on the basis of the evidence from the FN-EM I settlement on Kephala
On the east Mediterranean island of Crete, a hierarchical society centred on large palatial complexes emerges during the Bronze Age. The economic basis for this significant social change has long been debated, particularly concerning the role of olive cultivation in the island's agricultural system. With the aim of studying vegetation changes and human management to understand the landscape history from Late Neolithic to Bronze Age, two palaeoenvironmental records have been studied at Kouremenos marsh, near the site of Palaikastro (Eastern Crete). Pollen, NPP and charcoal particles analyses evidenced seven phases of landscape change, resulting from different agricultural and pastoral practices and the use of fire probably to manage vegetation. Moreover, the Kouremenos records show the importance of the olive tree in the area. They reflect a clear trend for its increasing use and exploitation from 3600 cal yr BC (Final Neolithic) to the Early Minoan period, that is coeval with an opening of the landscape. The increase of Olea pollen was due to the expansion of the tree and its management using pruning and mechanical cleaning. The onset of olive expansion at c. 3600 cal yr BC places Crete among the first locales in the eastern Mediterranean in the management of this tree. Between c. 2780 and 2525 cal yr BC the landscape was largely occupied by olive and grasslands, coinciding with an increase in grazing practices. The high Olea pollen percentages (40–45%) suggest an intensive and large-scale exploitation of the olive tree. The results suggest that a complex and organized landscape with complementary land uses and activities was already in place since the Final Neolithic. The notable expansion of olive trees suggests the relevance of olive exploitation in the socio-economic development of Minoan towns of eastern Crete. Other crops, such as cereals and vine, and activities such as grazing have also played an important role in the configuration of the past landscape.
This article investigates the process of Neolithisation of the eastern Marmara region of north-west Anatolia by discussing the results of a pilot study to define the development of the clay preparation methods of the first ceramics at Barcın Höyük. We used petrographic analysis on a sample of sherds (n = 34) from Neolithic levels (c. 6600–6200 cal. BC) at the site, and compared our findings with the ceramic technology of Neolithic settlements in neighbouring regions. The results suggested that the composition of the clays used changed over time, moving from the use of heterogeneous metamorphic clays in the first phase of the settlement, to the extensive use of crushed calcite temper in later phases. The development in clay recipes may have involved changes in the strength, toughness and thermal behaviour of the ceramic vessels when used for cooking or boiling over fire. Although the development of cooking ware is seen in Central Anatolia at about the same time as the beginning of the settlement at Barcın Höyük, the use of crushed calcite temper may be specific to the eastern Marmara region and adjacent inland areas. The use of crushed calcite temper may therefore represent a local innovation, although future petrographic studies of early ceramics in Anatolia are necessary to support this interpretation.
Knossos, on Crete, has long been famous both for its Minoan period remains and for the presence, at the base of the stratigraphy, of an early Neolithic settlement. The chronology and development of the Neolithic settlement, however, have hitherto been unclear. New light is now thrown on this formative period by combining new and older radiocarbon dates with contextual information in a Bayesian modelling framework. The results from Crete and western Anatolia suggest that an earlier, small-scale Aceramic colonisation preceded the later Neolithic reoccupation of Knossos.
My thesis explores a wide range of themes addressing past human interaction with the landscape. On a broad level it is interested in the dynamic between people and their environment, and how it changed and evolved throughout the Bronze Age on Crete. More specifically, it is interested in rural mountainous and elevated areas and how these landscapes were experienced by those who dwelt and lived within them. Within this dynamic this thesis is also about religion, exploring the interaction between past peoples and the divine as manifest on mountain Peak Sanctuaries. These sites were founded in the Middle Bronze Age on prominent locations, close to areas of human occupation and exploitation. They were community shrines, central to the ritual and ideological identity of small rural groups; literally shadowing their everyday activities. As society changed and evolved so did the landscape. Peak Sanctuaries maintained a strong link with their associated settlements and their surrounding landscape. It is this landscape which is the primary focus of this study. Exploring this evolution requires an innovative approach and toolkit. This thesis uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to address and answer specific archaeological questions relating to landscape change and evolution. It is not interested in GIS processes for their own sake. Nor is it specifically concerned with technological factors. It is interested in how GIS can be best applied to explore past human interaction with the landscape; especially, in how technologies can explore and model the more interpretive side of human action, specifically movement and visual perception. It shall attempt to show how these highly empirical tools can be used to provide insights into the individual encounter between past peoples and landscape. It is about how people in Bronze Age Crete experienced their surroundings and how this experience shaped their everyday lives. Conversely, it is also about how these peoples then, in turn, shaped their landscapes. It is about exploring this experience on a relevant scale ‐ placing the individual at the heart of the investigation. It is about asking targeted questions of specific, relevant and chosen landscapes rather than investigating common themes on an irrelevant scale. It is about the individual first, their community second and their society third. It is about agency and change. It is about the dynamic landscape.
This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existence of two geochemically distinct sources, termed ‘Giali A’, and ‘Giali B’. The latter material, available in small cobble form on the island’s southwestern half, seems to have only been exploited by local residents during the Final Neolithic (fourth millennium Cal bc). In contrast, Giali A obsidian comprises a distinctive white-spotted raw material, available in large boulders on the northeastern half of Giali, whose use changed significantly over time. During the Mesolithic to later Neolithic it was mainly used for flake-based tool-production by local Dodecanesian populations. Further away, handfuls of Giali A obsidian are documented from Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age sites in Crete, the Cyclades, and western Anatolia. The distribution of this material is likely indicative of population movement, and regional socio-economic interaction more generally, rather than a significant desire for, and trade of, the material itself. This changed in the Middle Bronze Age (second millennium Cal bc), when Giali A obsidian was reconceptualized as a valued raw material, and used by Cretan palace-based lapidaries to make prestige goods. This radical shift in traditions of consumption resulted from Cretan factions appropriating Anatolian and Egyptian elite value regimes and craft practices as a means of creating new means of social distinction within a larger Eastern Mediterranean political arena.
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/JMA/article/view/31011
The island of Crete, lying on the southern border of the Aegean Sea, is rich in caves and rockshelters. One estimate, probably conservative, places the total at around 2,000 (Davaras 1976, 42), of which approximately 10 percent have produced material dating to phases of the Neolithic (ca. 7000-3100/3000 BC; Tomkins 2007b) or Bronze Ages (hereafter, Minoan; ca. 3100/3000-1100 BC; Warren and Hankey 1989) (see table 4.1, figures 4.1, 4.2, 4.3). The majority of these, including all Neolithic examples, host types of material culture, such as coarseware and fineware ceramics, that are essentially the same as those found at contemporary open-air sites. As a consequence, the default interpretation of Cretan prehistoric caves has been to treat them as domestic sites, whether refuges (Faure 1964, 30) or the seasonal homes of farmers or transhumant pastoralists (Davaras 1996, 93; Dickinson 1994, 37; Faure 1964, 189-97; Manteli 1993a, 191; Marinatos 1928, 100; 1950, 256; Nilsson 1950, 56; Papathanassopoulos 1996b; Pendlebury 1939, 384; Pendlebury, Pendlebury, Money-Coutts 1935-1936, 23; Sakellarakis 1989, 88; Tzedakis 1996; Watrous 1982, 10; 2001, 162-63). Exceptions to this rule are so-called "burial caves," defined by the presence of human skeletal material and mainly of Early Minoan (EM; ca. 3100/3000-2000 BC) date, or "sacred caves" of Middle Minoan (MM; ca. 2000-1600 BC) or Late Minoan date (LM; ca. 1600-1100 BC), the definition of the latter varying greatly in terms of stated degrees of certainty (Rutkowski and Nowicki 1996, 4-5).
This article claims that at the turn of the twentieth century, excavations beneath Bronze Age strata at Dimini and Sesklo in Thessaly and Knossos on Crete revealed an earlier epoch of human occupation, characterized by stone tools, handmade pottery, and the bones of domesticated animals. Termed Neolithic period by analogy with other European regions, it was immediately clear that this was a phase of village-dwelling farmers, the Aegean's first agricultural society. In what has become a modern origin myth for Western society, the development of agriculture and sedentism was viewed as an escape from the impasse of savagery-a revolutionary beginning in the development of modernity, albeit one eclipsed in modern significance by the urban revolution and the emergence of civilization in the Bronze Age.
This book is an exciting new look at how archaeology has dealt with the bodily senses and offers an argument for how the discipline can offer a richer glimpse into the human sensory experience. Yannis Hamilakis shows how, despite its intensely physical engagement with the material traces of the past, archaeology has mostly neglected multi-sensory experience, instead prioritizing isolated vision and relying on the Western hierarchy of the five senses. in place of this limited view of experience, Hamilakis proposes a sensorial archaeology that can unearth the lost, suppressed, and forgotten sensory and affective modalities of humans. Using Bronze Age Crete as a case study, Hamilakis shows how sensorial memory can help us rethink questions ranging from the production of ancestral heritage to large-scale social change, and the cultural significance of monuments. Tracing the emergence of palaces in Bronze Age Crete as a celebration of the long-term, sensuous history and memory of their localities, Hamilakis points the way to reconstituting archaeology as a sensorial and affective multi-temporal practice. at the same time, he proposes a new framework on the interaction between bodily senses, things, and environments, which will be relevant to scholars in other fields.
In 2010, a portion of a well-preserved domestic building dating to the later part of Early Minoan (EM) I was excavated at Priniatikos Pyrgos, east Crete. Though only a small portion of this house was available to investigate, there was clear evidence for several architectural and habitation phases. The final domestic activities were particularly well preserved because the building was deliberately destroyed in an event that included burning. There was a distinct and clearly defined ritual component to this event, including the decommissioning of household objects. Because of the rapid abandonment and destruction of this building, the excavated area contained well-preserved evidence for the character of use of the building in its final days. This preliminary discussion focuses primarily on this portion of the house and contextualizes it within the overall excavation at Priniatikos Pyrgos, its environs recorded in the Vrokastro Survey Project, and EM I Crete more generally. It provides detailed analyses of industrial, domestic, trade, and ritual activities through the study of stratigraphy, architecture, ceramics, faunal remains, plant remains, obsidian, metal, and plaster. It concludes with a discussion of the character of activity that took place when the building was abandoned.
This article states that traditionally, the story of the Early Bronze Age of Crete has been one constructed between two pivotal points of change. The first, at the Neolithic period-Early Minoan I transition, is viewed as the birth of a culture considered to be definably Minoan, fostered by a major impulse from the east, conventionally modeled as a migration. The second, at the transition to the Middle Bronze Age (MM IB), is seen as the emergence of Europe's first civilization-a redistributive theocracy of kings or princes, cities and palaces, art and writing-which in subsequent millennia spread to the rest of Europe. In the later language of neoevolutionism, the emergence of the palaces in MM IB marked the transition from an egalitarian to a more complex, statelike society with a clear hierarchical structure crowned by a central, administrative elite authority that resided in the palaces.
The ancient name of the site of Malia is still unknown. Some suggestions have included setoija and Milatos, a place name assumed to have later moved eastward. Located in a fertile, terra rossa coastal valley a few hours by foot from the main Minoan site of Knossos and majestically encircled by the Selena mountains, Malia is a type site for Minoan archaeology for several reasons. Not only was it abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age and hence its ruins were less affected by later occupation, but it has also been more thoroughly excavated and documented than other Cretan sites. Its main contribution to Minoan archaeology concerns its Middle Bronze Age remains, which are exceptionally rich and well preserved. The site was discovered in 1915 by S. Xanthoudides, who, after making the discovery, grasped the size of the operation and invited the French School at Athens to continue his work from 1920 onward.
Currently, long-distance trading, gateway communities, and the longboat are understood to have emerged in the Aegean during Early Bronze (EB) IB/IIA. This longboattrading model envisages an essentially static configuration of trading communities situated at nodal points in maritime networks of interaction, an arrangement that was brought to an end, by the beginning of EB III, with the introduction of the masted sailing ship. This article questions this EB IB/IIA emergence date and argues instead that trading, gateway communities, and the longboat have a deeper and more dynamic history stretching back at least as far as the end of the Neolithic (Final Neolithic [FN] IV). The results of recent excavations at the FN IV-Early Minoan (EM) IA coastal site of Kephala Petras in east Crete paint a picture of an early trading community that, thanks to its close Cycladic connections, enjoyed preferential access to valued raw materials, to the technologies for their transformation, and to finished objects. This monopoly over the resource of distance was in turn exploited locally and regionally in east Crete, as a social strategy, to construct advantageous relationships with other communities. FN IV-EM IA Kephala Petras thus appears to represent the earliest known of a series of Early Bronze Age gateway communities (e.g., Hagia Photia, Mochlos, Poros-Katsambas) operating along the north coast of Crete.
It is generally accepted that the Greek Final Neolithic witnessed many social and economic changes. However, few studies have explored the archaeological material of the period in a systematic and fully contextual manner. After analysing new material from a rescue excavation at Proskynas in east Lokris, central Greece, in combination with previous evidence, it is clear that most of our knowledge has come from the funerary domain, where acts of consumption and display of material culture took place. These included the deposition of artefacts in a mortuary context and in pits dug into the bedrock in the vicinity of the graves. The aim of this paper is to provide a contextual approach of the social and mortuary practices of the period in central and southern Greece and discuss their role to the creation of cultural identities. It is also suggested that these collective acts that occur primarily within the funerary domain may also imply a shift of interest from the domestic to the mortuary arena, which emerges as a new place for social negotiation at the end of the Neolithic period.
Although aspects of Arthur Evans's vision of Minoan society have undergone modification during the course of the 20th century, his basic interpretation of the monumental building complex with courts at Knossos as a Palace-Temple, or the residence of both a political and religious authority, remains the dominant paradigm in Minoan archaeology. When set within the context of other contemporary Bronze Age societies in the eastern Mediterranean, however, Evans's model of a priest-king who resided in a Palace-Temple is actually highly unusual and anomalous. Indeed, it will be argued that the Palace-Temple model was invented by Evans as a distinctive, formative and intermediate stage between the Oriental Temple, which was the model then current in the Near East at the time of his writing, and what might be termed European kingship. The perception that Cretan culture and society was essentially European (and thus different from the East) formed a cornerstone of Evans's vision and its enduring popularity goes some way to explaining why the intellectual and empirical origins of Evans's Palace-Temple model have not previously been critically reassessed. © The Fund for Mediterranean Archaeology/Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2010.
Neolithic caves in the Aegean are conventionally understood in domestic terms, principally as temporary homes for farmers or pastoralists. This paper challenges the theoretical and empirical foundations of this orthodoxy and develops an alternative model grounded in an understanding of Neolithic ritual and how through ritualization the everyday is referenced and transformed. This model is explored with reference to the corpus of well-published cave-sites. Although further testing remains a priority, facilitated by the development of new ways of studying cave assemblages, ritual explanations are considered to provide a more credible explanation for Neolithic cave-use in all its aspects, from the selection of caves as locales for activity to the complexity and diversity of their material records. In this way the Aegean may be seen to fit within a broader pattern of ritual cave-use in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.
Because the history of human life is about ways of inhabiting the world, geoarchaeology should play a central role in the archaeological program and cannot be reduced to a mere subspecialty of archaeology with its own autonomous theories and concerns. Hence there is a pressing need for theorizing; geoarchaeology cannot ignore nearly five decades of theoretical debates in archaeology. This contribution endeavors to demonstrate the benefits that may be achieved by practically applying social theories to the interpretation of geoarchaeological results. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice inspired a generation of post-processual archaeologists, yet the avenues of interpretation that this opened up have barely been explored in approaches in the Earth sciences to the human past. It is suggested that the work of Bourdieu offers the possibility to sidestep recurrent issues of scale and incompatibilities of resolution between archaeological and geological dating. The argument is sustained by an alternative reading of geoarchaeological results coming from Neolithic and Bronze Age Crete. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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