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The mortuary record of Pre- and Protopalatial Crete comprises the main corpus of data available for the study of these periods on the island. Although the evidence from funerary contexts has been the object of study for over a century, most of the work produced so far has not been founded upon clear methodological and theoretical approaches. This has resulted in an underachievement in the extraction of information from the record, and a failure to take the intricate relationship between the study of the mortuary record and the understanding of the social organisation of living communities into proper consideration. The aim of this work is to produce a new, comprehensive study of the entire mortuary record of Pre- and Protopalatial Crete. It revises the published data in accordance with a new methodology that applies a bottom-up, comprehensive approach to the record. Combining monographic studies of Cretan material culture with newly published data into the context of the tomb and the cemetery allows a more accurate and rich understanding of the archaeological evidence from burial sites. Consequently, the detailed picture of spatial and temporal variations and patterns in mortuary behaviour that this study produces can be used to create a more complex model for the use and role of cemeteries for Cretan communities. A clear new theoretical and methodological approach permits to use the new fluid and complex model of the mortuary behaviour for re-examining Cretan communities during the Pre- and Protopalatial periods and understanding them both in terms of both horizontal and vertical organisation and within a complex spatial and temporal framework.

This study seeks to shed light on problems associated with current views of social inequality as they have been applied to the Early Bronze Age in Crete. The aim is to elucidate the epistemological status of the concept of inequality in Aegean archaeological discourse and to disclose the tacit assumptions that have made problematic our dealings with the phenomenon of inequality. My critique of classic approaches to inequality stems from two facts: first, from their inclination to treat inequality as a phenomenon limited in time and space and second, from their largely untheorised treatment of the relationship between wealth and relational inequalities when it is exactly this relationship that needs to be brought into the open. Wishing to deal with critique in a constructive manner, I suggest a few ways in which one may go beyond current approaches to inequality, toward a new and more rewarding way of inquiring into the matter. This is supported with an archeological example from the Early Bronze Age cemetery at the site of Mochlos. The central argument is that inequality is a universal social fact and that by continuing to pursue its origins we perpetuate the arbitrary and misleading ethnocentric constructions of modernity. There is no such thing as a division between egalitarian and hierarchical social formations but rather societies as moral communities. Being is not fixed but is recursively formed through processes of valuation always presenced within the realm of social practice and interaction. Both power and what we call 'status' are transactional affairs as well as practical accomplishments. People do not simply find themselves in relations of power; they achieve, perpetuate, reinvent or resist debts and structures of influence. The value of different resources, the efficacy of debt obligations and structures of influence are realised in usage. In the case of resources this is achieved in the manner of their employment, in that of debts and influence this is attained as lived commitments among agents. Drawing upon the concept of performance, I suggest that an alternative approach can enable us both to rethink inequality along more productive lines and to answer questions that previous accounts have been proved incapable of dealing with.

Over the past century of investigation of the Minoan past, perhaps the most persistent field of enquiry has been that of the "emergence of the palatial phenomenon". Only recently has this begun to be challenged, as the discipline of Minoan archaeology has gone through several marked changes. These have been stimulated mostly by a growing body of empirical data and by new techniques of investigation, but other changes go far deeper, with the unusually rigorous scrutiny of what constitutes the very backbone of the discipline: the "palace" category itself. One of the central themes of this thesis is the examination of the processes that led to the present state of affairs in Minoan studies, to ask how and why was the concept of the "palace" "constructed" and more recently "deconstructed". It demonstrates that the development of these two radically opposed points of view is inextricably connected with broader developments and transformations in Post-Enlightenment Western thought. In arguing this, the thesis suggests that neither "the palace" nor its repudiation allow us to get closer to the "reality" of the (Minoan) past, as both premises constitute nothing more than "situated" points of view. If the decision to adhere (or not) to the concept of the "palace" is really a matter of perspective, then we need to pay closer attention to how these perspectives deal with fundamental issues such as (ontological and epistemological) ethics, value and responsibility. It is suggested that a future for Minoan archaeology can be guaranteed only if at this particular historical conjuncture, the ethical implications as well as consequences of archaeological/epistemological performance are assessed in more critical fashion. Discussion proceeds by offering some insights as to how the handling of these issues can be achieved in practice and concludes with a very specific suggestion: in order to be able to re- articulate theory and practice in our study of this particular segment of the Cretan past, a new analytical question/direction of enquiry ought to be established. It is suggested that for this new question to be defined and operationalized, a radical redefinition of the "palace" question ought to be sought. Through the detailed investigation of specific case studies, the thesis deduces that the "emergence of House Society" has an immense analytical potential as a replacement of the long dominant issue of the "emergence of civilization.

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No description available.

No description available.

Archaeology is in the privileged position of being able to examine identities through the long time periods often called upon by advocates of essentialist identities, such as those working in the modern political sphere, using theory, methodology and evidence developed by scholars. The influence of the contemporary context within which archaeology is practised is clear in the types of identities, particularly ethnic and cultural identities, which have dominated research on this topic, including on Crete where much attention has focused on identities such as the 'Eteocretans'. I suggest that the archaeological and textual evidence from Crete offers considerable scope for exploring other types of group identity, both in themselves and in intersection with each other, and the ways in which these may have changed and/or continued to be salient through long periods of time. The theoretical and methodological basis of my study posits that one significant way in which group identities are negotiated and communicated is through social practices, and it is therefore possible to access at least some of the group identities that were salient in the past by examining the material and textual residues of past social practices. On this basis, evidence for social practices and the identities established and signified through these practices is examined for East Crete from Late Minoan IIIC to the Hellenistic period (c. 1200 – 67 BC). The results of my study highlight patterns of both continuity and change in group identities, including a move from relatively small community identities to large, formalised polis identities. Cutting across these were a number of other identities, including those associated with religious practices, and informal identities, many not easily visible in the available evidence, such as identities linked to social status, family, kin and lineage groups, gender, age, occupation and cultural/ethnic groupings such as the 'Eteocretans'.

This thesis studies the imaginary beings of Minoan iconography with the aim of understanding their functions and meaning within the iconography of Bronze Age Crete. Two broad categories of Minoan fantastic creatures can be discerned, namely the imported and the locally created hybrids. With the exception of investigations of the genius, previous studies have focused mainly on matters of typology and style and, more importantly, have detached the illustrations of imaginary beings from their context of creation and use. Consequently, griffins and sphinxes are vaguely classified as "royal monsters", the dragon is merely considered as the transporter of deities, the reasons behind the creation of the bird-lady and the "Minotaur" are still unfathomable and the demonic creations of the Zakros workshop have not been explained at all and are simply viewed as meaningless. On the other hand, conjoined animals and less popular monsters, like the winged goats, have been more or less overlooked. In an attempt to remedy this, this study places the fantastic creatures of the Minoans within their context. The iconography of the Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial and Final Palatial periods is examined sequentially so as to determine the degree to which the functions of demons and monsters changed through time in the Minoan repertoire. Variations in the choice of media for their depictions, the consideration of their find contexts, of religious and socio-political developments in each period and of the development of monstrous iconography in the mainland, the Aegean islands, the Near East and Egypt, all help towards a better appreciation of the fantastic world of the "Minoans". As a result, generic characterisations of the Minoan imaginary beings are rejected and the multiplicity of their roles, their ability to evolve and their significant role in the expression of the Minoan mindset are established. In short, the demons and monsters of the Minoans are revealed as reflections of the multifaceted, complex society of Bronze Age Crete and articulate the fears, concerns and beliefs of its different members.

Η εργασία αναφέρεται στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο της Κνωσού και πραγματεύεται την πολιτιστική διαχείριση και πολιτιστική επικοινωνία του. / The work refers to the archaeological site of Knossos and deals with the cultural management and cultural communication.