The topic of investigation of this thesis concerns a co-extensive analysis of Crete and Anatolia from the beginning of the Early Holocene (ca. 10,000 BCE) to the start of the Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BCE), with a select analysis of other locales in the Aegean, Levant, and eastern Mediterranean for comparative purposes. It has been long supposed in scholarship that the Neolithic on Crete (and, by extension, the Aegean) is of Anatolian extraction, but the claim has hitherto remained un-investigated systematically. Recent DNA studies have bolstered these suppositions, thus providing an appropriate opportunity for more detailed investigation via the archaeological evidence. / The aim of the thesis is two-fold. First, I aim to provide a systematic account of the archaeological evidence from various locales which has the potential to elucidate, materially, any affinities the Aegean and Anatolian locales may have shared throughout the aforementioned period of time. However, more detail will be devoted to phases in which Crete is supposed to have been subject to influx of settlers (early 7th millennium BCE, and late 4th millennium BCE). I shall examine elements such as pottery, chipped stone, settlement patterns, and hypothetical population movements in order to construct a picture of the dynamics in the respective periods. / The archaeological evidence will thus form a platform upon which I shall engage in a discussion using theoretical perspectives drawn from anthropological and sociological theory to answer questions about human comportment, and intentionality with regards to settlement patterns, material culture variation, and movement. Thus, I shall use the archaeological evidence to put forward a series of meaningful assumptions about social structures, people’s outlooks on the environments which they inhabited and experienced, and the motivations and reasons for particular changes. As a result, parts of the thesis will have a heuristic character, but it is hoped that such an approach will foster the capacity for debate in order to enhance the understanding of the dynamics spanning the geographies of the Aegean and Anatolia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/282043 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Krsmanovic, Damjan |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Restricted Access: Abstract and Citation Only Available |
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