Review of Aegean Prehistory III: Crete from Earliest Prehistory through the
Protopalatial Period
Author(s): L. Vance Watrous
Source: American Journal of Archaeology , Oct., 1994, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp.
695-753
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/506551
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Review of Aegean Prehistory III:
Crete from Earliest Prehistory through the
Protopalatial Period
L. VANCE WATROUS
INTRODUCTION
This article has three aims: 1) to present the basic
framework of Minoan archaeology from earliest
prehistory through the Middle Minoan II period, 2)
to highlight recent work done on these periods, and
3) to discuss some of the broader issues raised by this
Dedicated to Sinclair Hood
material.' One of the main obstacles in understanding
pre- and protopalatial Crete is that a high
proportion of the published material is from unstratified
and poorly dated tomb groups excavated
early in this century. For this reason I have given
first priority to setting out the primary evidence in
correct chronological sequence. In this respect, this
Publication of this review and of the previous two reviews
in this series was made possible by a generous grant
to AJA by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory. The editors
and I are grateful for this support.
I would also like to acknowledge the help of the
following scholars who have personally taken me around
their site and explained it to me and have generously
given me permission to reproduce illustrations of their
work: P Betancourt (Pseira), K. Branigan (Agia Kyriaki),
G. Cadogan (Pyrgos), P Croft (Lemba), C. Davaras
(Pseira), D. Haggis (Kavousi survey), B. Hayden (Istron
survey), S. Hood (Knossos), A. Kanta and A. Tsigkanaki
(Monasteraki), A. Karetsou (Mt. Jouktas), J. and E. Lagarce
(Ras Ibn Hani), V. La Rosa (Agia Triada and Phaistos),
T Marketou (Trianda), 0. Pelon (Mallia), J.-C.
Poursat (Mallia), I. and E. Sakellarakis (Archanes/
Phourni), J. and M. Shaw (Kommos), J. Soles (Mochlos),
M. Tsipopoulou (Agia Photia and Petras), A. Vasilakis
(Trypeti), and A. Zois (Vasiliki). The following scholars
have aided me by discussing their research with me or by
providing me with unpublished manuscripts or information:
D. and D. Arnold, H. Blitzer, G. Cadogan, P Day, R.
H~igg, E. and B. Hallager, I. Hamilakis, S. Hiller, R. Hope
Simpson, A. Karetsou, K. Kopaka, E. Lax, A. MacGillivray,
N. Momigliano, J. Moody, J. and P Muhly, K. Nowicki, N.
Ozgiig, S. Paley, A. Peatfield, J. Rutter, I. Sakellarakis, A.
Sarpaki, J. Shaw, D. Slane, T. Strasser, S. Swiny, L. Vagnetti,
D. Vallianou, M. Vlasakis, J. Weingarten, T.
Whitelaw, M. Wiener, D. Wilson, J. Younger, C. Zerner,
and A. Zois. W. and E. Myers sent me copies of their
photographs.
This article, written during the fall and winter of the
1993/1994 academic year during my tenure as a Whitehead
Visiting Professor at the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens, would definitely have not been
possible without the library and staff of the School. Because
this article is a summary account, I have been unable
to include all of the research done by colleagues
working on Crete; to those whose work I have omitted, I
offer my apologies. H. Blitzer edited the manuscript and,
additionally, endured me while I was writing it.
The following abbreviations are used in this article:
Andreou S. Andreou, Pottery Groups of the Old
Palace Period in Crete (Diss. Univ. of
Cincinnati 1978).
Branigan K. Branigan, Aegean Metalwork of the
Early and Middle Bronze Age (Oxford
1974).
Chronology P Warren and V. Hankey, Aegean
Bronze Age Chronology (Bristol 1989).
Ehrich R. Ehrich ed., Chronologies in Old World
Archaeology" I-II (Chicago 1992).
Festas D. Levi, Festas e la civiltd minoica I-II
(Incunabula Graeca 60, 77, Rome
1976, 1988).
Function R. Hagg and N. Marinatos eds., The
Function of the Minoan Palaces (SkrAth
4, 35, Stockholm 1987).
Levant P Gerstenblith, The Levant at the
Beginning of the Middle Bronze Age
(ASOR Dissertation Series 5, Philadelphia
1983).
Mochlos R. Seager, Explorations in the Island
Mochlos (Boston 1912).
MSV P Warren, Minoan Stone Vases (Cambridge
1969).
Myrtos P Warren, Myrtos: An Early Bronze Age
Settlement in Crete (London 1972).
Pepragmena HexIpay[dcva rov A' AteOvovg KplrTo-
1981 )XoytcoLK Zvvebpiov (Athens 1981).
Pepragmena Hexpaypl'va rov IT AteOvoig KpqTo-
1990 XoyLtov1 XvvE&bpiov (Chania 1990).
Society O. Krzyszkowska and L. Nixon eds.,
Minoan Society (Bristol 1983).
Soles J. Soles, The Prepalatial Cemeteries at
Mochlos and Gournia and the House
Tombs of Bronze Age Crete (Hesperia
Suppl. 24, Princeton 1992).
Thalassocracy R. Hdigg and N. Marinatos eds., The
Minoan Thalassocracy: Myth and
Reality (SkrAth 4, 32, Stockholm
1984).
695
American Journal of Archaeology 98 (1994) 695-753
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696 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
N
LERA CAVE
CHANIA
NEA ROUMATA NEROKOUROU PALAIKASTRO
ODEBLA RETHYMNON PYRGOS
HERAKLEION r-e
GERANI CAVE ARMENOIKNOSOS AGIA PHOTIA
ATSIPADES TYLISSOS GOURNES OMALLIA CHAMAIZI c
PALAIOCHORA MMONA TIRAKI0 JOUKTASARCHANES RA
K O AEAN CAVE M
IKASTELLI TRAPEZA CLOS
. _A4 VARVARA CAVE PELEKITA CAVE
GORTYN ESYME SILIKI 0 ZAKROSIERAPETRA
AGIA TRIADA S0*PHAISTOS PYRGOS (MYRTOS).
KAMILARIRYPITIFOURNOU KORIPHI C
S .LEBENA0PLATANOS
AGIOPHARANGO
GAVDOS VALLEY
Scale 1:1.000.000
Fig. 1. Map of Crete with principal sites mentioned in the text
study differs from the first two articles in this series,2
which focused primarily on recently recovered evidence.
As will be seen below, the format adopted
here follows from the current state of archaeological
research on Crete. The article begins with a review
of the history of Minoan archaeology because it is
this history more than anything else that has determined
the nature of the discipline today. Due to
limitations of time and space, some of the broader
interpretative problems arising from the archaeological
material cannot be treated here.
This article is not intended to be a complete report
on all of the archaeological work being carried
out on Crete. That service is provided by Archaeological
Reports (AR), Bulletin de correspondance
helle'nique (BCH), KpilrtKuc XpovtKac (CretChron),
AyidAceta (Historical-Ethnographic Society of
Lasithi), and KpqruKri Earia (Historical, Eth
graphic and Archaeological Society of Cre
Chania). The official Greek publications of all Gr
excavations, which greatly outnumber foreign p
ects, are ApXaLtooylucov Aetiov (ArchDelt), To '
yov, and HpaKtrKcd tig evi ABrjvatg ApXatoAoy
Eratpeiag (Prakt). Since the Deltion, whose rep
include the many Service rescue excavations,
present six years behind schedule, I have contact
a number of Greek archaeologists directly in an
fort to present as up-to-date a discussion as possi
HISTORY OF RESEARCH
Since the beginning of this century the
Italian, French, and American arch
schools have undertaken a continuing an
atic series of excavations on Crete (fig. 1).3
van Effenterre H. van Effenterre, Le palais de Mallia et
la cite minoenne: Etude de synthese I-II
(Incunabula Graeca 76, Rome 1980).
VTM S. Xanthoudides, The Vaulted Tombs of
Mesara (London 1924).
Yule P Yule, Early Cretan Seals: A Study of
Chronology (Marburger Studien zur
Vor- und Friihgeschichte 4, Mainz
1981).
2 J. Davis, "Review of Aegean Prehistory I: The Islands
of the Aegean," AJA 96 (1992) 699-756 and J. Rutter, "Review
of Aegean Prehistory II: The Prepalatial Bronze Age
of the Southern and Central Greek Mainland," AJA 97
(1993) 745-97.
3The Italian and French Schools have published valuable
retrospectives of their work on Crete. See A. Di Vita,
V. La Rosa, and M. Rizzo eds., Creta antica (Rome 1984),
which gives an overview of Italian archaeological investigations
from 1894 to 1984. For French excavations on
Crete, see C. Tire and H. van Effenterre, Guide desfouilles
frangaises en Crete (Paris 1978) and 0. Pelon, Guide de Malia
(Paris 1992).
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 697
sequence, our knowledge of certain sites, notably
Mallia, Phaistos, and Knossos, has become quite detailed.
For Mallia alone the French excavators have
published 20 volumes. Crete also has a long and
singular tradition of Ephors who were both active
excavators as well as distinguished scholars of prehistory,
such as Xanthoudides, Marinatos, Platon,
Alexiou, Davaras, and Sakellarakis.
Systematic excavation on Crete began at the turn
of this century. This early (1900-1940) period saw
excavation at a large number of important settlements,
e.g., Agia Triada, Amnissos, Chamaizi,
Gournia, Kavousi, Knossos, Mallia, Mochlos, Palaikastro,
Phaistos, Pseira, Tylissos, Vathypetro, Vasiliki,
and Vrokastro, as well as at sanctuaries
(Arkalochori, Mt. Jouktas, Kamares Cave, Petsophas,
Psychro Cave) and numerous tombs on the
north coast and in the Mesara. These excavations
were often massive in scale, exposing whole palaces
and their dependencies, urban blocks of houses,
and large deposits from caves and tombs. After
World War II the pace of Greek and foreign excavation
began to increase rapidly. At present there
are more prehistoric excavations on Crete than in
any other region of Greece, in part because of the
richness and complexity of the Minoan archaeological
record. Since 1950 there have been major
Bronze Age excavations on Crete at Agia Photia,
Agia Triada, Archanes, Armenoi, Atsipades, Chania,
Gerani Cave, Herakleion, Idaean Cave, Jouktas,
Kamilari, Karphi, Kato Syme, Kavousi, Knossos,
Kommos, Lebena, Lera Cave, Makriyialos, Mallia,
Mochlos, Monasteraki, Myrtos, Palaikastro, Patrikies,
Petras, Pseira, Trypeti, Vasiliki, and Zakros
(fig. 1). The number of smaller excavations in that
period was enormous. Archaeological survey on the
island also had an early beginning, due largely to
the work of John Pendlebury.4 Following Pendlebury's
example, surveys in the Amari Valley, around
Rethymnon, Palaiochora, Viannos, and in the eparchy
of Agios Vasilios were undertaken by Sinclair
Hood and other British archaeologists.5
During the pre-World War II years, general
works such as Arthur Evans's Palace of Minos and
Pendlebury's Archaeology of Crete dominated the field
of Minoan archaeology.6 All of this changed after the
1950s with an explosion of specialized studies on
many aspects of Minoan civilization, a trend that has
continued (and accelerated) to the present day.
Some idea of the vastness of this bibliography can be
grasped by reading Hiller's bibliography on Minoan
studies, which lists 443 articles and books for
the 12 years between 1965 and 1977. It is impossible
even to summarize these studies here, but mention
should be made of the variety of subjects covered:
administration, architecture, chronology, cult,
economy, fresco painting, funerary customs, iconography,
international connections, ivories, metalwork,
palaeobotany and palaeozoology, physical anthropology,
politics, sculpture, seals, society, stone
vases, tools, toponymy, trade, vase painting, and
writing. These studies have given us a much clearer
and more objective picture of Minoan civilization
than was possible even 25 years ago.
One basic study must be discussed. The recent
publication of Warren and Hankey, Aegean Bronze
Age Chronology (Bristol 1989), has provided prehistorians
with a useful reference that brings together
in painstaking detail the evidence for relative and
absolute Aegean chronology. The frequency with
which it is cited below is a testimony to its value.
With the new '4C dates for the Early Minoan period,
we can now see that the traditional sequence for
Early Bronze Age Crete was too short. Instead of
beginning at ca. 2900 B.C. and carrying through to
2500 B.C., EM I is now estimated to span 3500-
2900 B.C. Similarly, the previous dates for EM II of
2500-2200 B.C. have been stretched to 2900-
2300/2150 B.C. As a result, it is evident that the EM
II civilization took much longer to develop than
previously envisioned, a fact that has consequences
for earlier interpretations of prepalatial Crete (see
below). The date for the end of the protopalatial
period, however, remains more controversial, be-
4 J. Pendlebury walked from one end of the island to
the other recording sites. See his remarks in The Archaeology
of Crete: An Introduction (London 1939) 8-9 on his experience,
as well as the still valuable lists of sites compiled
in his book.
5 T Dunbabin, "Antiquities of Amari," BSA 42 (1947)
184-93; S. Hood, P Warren, and G. Cadogan, "Travels in
Crete, 1962," BSA 59 (1964) 50-99; Hood, "Minoan Sites
in the Far West of Crete," BSA 60 (1965) 99-113; S. Hood
and P Warren, "Ancient Sites in the Province of Ayios Vasilios,"
BSA 61 (1966) 163-91; Hood and Warren, "Some
Ancient Sites in South-West Crete," BSA 62 (1967) 47-56.
6 In the early 1960s two general books on Minoan
Crete, R. Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete (London 1962) and
E Schachermeyr, Die minoische Kultur des alten Kreta
(Stuttgart 1964), appeared. Both systematized the work
done up until the 1950s, especially that of Evans. S.
Hiller's Das minoische Kreta nach den Ausgrabungen des letzten
Jahrzehntes (Vienna 1977) summarizes archaeological
work on Minoan Crete from 1965 to 1977; see 17-39 for
bibliography.
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698 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
cause it is affected by the current disagr
the "high" 14C dates from Thera.7 W
Hankey, who reject the new Thera dat
protopalatial period to 1900-1700/1650
unlikely. Kemp and Merrillees have show
II pottery (e.g., the Qubbet el-Hawa va
in Egypt by "the first part of the Twelft
i.e., between 1990 and 1890 B.C., which
us an end date for MM II of no later than ca. 1800
B.C.8 This fits exactly with the higher dates of MM
III and LM IA required by the new Theran 14C
dates.
Anthropological thinking, especially in the areas
of cultural evolution, systems theory, and ecology,
over the last 20 years has affected Minoan archaeology
in subtle but important ways.9 The means by
which archaeologists conceptualize ancient culture
have matured, especially in the areas of social organization,
cultural change, and the environment.
This intellectual self-appraisal has had certain practical
effects on recent fieldwork in Crete. A number
of new excavations have been smaller, more precise
in the recording of their finds, and have focused on
specific problems. Excavators have adopted a
broader approach to the past, with a new emphasis
on interdisciplinary methods, borrowing from geology,
soil studies, physical anthropology, ethnography,
palaeozoology, and palaeobotany, and employing
scientific methods of dating and
determining the provenance of pottery and metals.
One of the greatest benefits of this approach is that
it has encouraged some (but not all) excavators
working on Crete to be more rigorous in the interpretations
of their finds.
Since 1970 archaeologists have begun to ask new
questions about Minoan population, land use, and
the political organization of regions on the island,
questions that have led to an even greater emphasis
on survey. Intensive regional surveys have covered
or are under way in the Lasithi Plain, Akrotiri peninsula
of Chania, Western Mesara Plain, Istron/Mesaleri
area (East Crete), Sphakia, the island of
Pseira, and the areas of Kavousi, Mallia, Atsipades,
Gournia, and Praesos.'o Less systematic surveys
have been carried out in the areas of the Agiopharango
Valley/South Coast, Gavdos Island, Knossos,
Kommos, Mochlos, Palaikastro, Siteia, and Zakros/Ziro."
As a consequence, we now have a good
deal of detailed evidence for the patterns of settlement
on Crete.
' See the recent non-partisan summary by S. Manning,
"The Thera Eruption: The Third Congress and the Problem
of the Date," Archaeometry 32 (1990) 91-100.
8 B. Kemp and R. Merrillees, Minoan Pottery in Second
Millennium Egypt (Mainz 1980) 255-56. See G. Cadogan,
"Early Minoan and Middle Minoan Chronology," AJA 87
(1983) 516 for the MM II date of the Qubbet el-Hawa vase.
9 A good survey of the intellectual history of archaeology
over the last two decades appears in B. Trigger, A
History of Archaeological Thought (Cambridge 1989) 289-
411.
10 Lasithi: V. Watrous, Lasithi (Hesperia Suppl. 18,
Princeton 1982). Chania area: J. Moody, The Environmental
and Cultural Prehistory of the Khania Region of West Crete:
Neolithic-Late Minoan III (Diss. Univ. of Minnesota 1987).
Western Mesara: V. Watrous et al., "A Survey of the Western
Mesara Plain in Crete: Preliminary Report of the
1984, 1986, and 1987 Field Seasons," Hesperia 62 (1993)
191-248. Istron area: B. Hayden, J. Moody, and O. Rackham,
"The Vrokastro Survey Project, 1986-1989: Research
Design and Preliminary Results," Hesperia 61
(1992) 293-353. Pseira: R. Hope Simpson and P Betancourt,
"Intensive Survey of Pseira Island, Crete," AJA 94
(1990) 322-23 (abstract). Kavousi: D. Haggis, The KavousiThriphti
Survey: An Analysis of the Settlement Patterns in an
Area of Eastern Crete in the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age
(Diss. Univ. of Minnesota 1992). Mallia: S. Miiller, "Routes
minoennes en relation avec le site de Malia," BCH 115
(1991) 545-60; Mfiller, "Prospection de la plaine de
Malia," BCH 116 (1992) 742-53, with earlier references.
Praesos: AR 39 (1992-1993) 77-79. Gournia: L.V. Watrous,
"Gournia Again Focus of Exploration," Newsletter of
the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 32 (1993) 1,
3. The survey in the valley around Atsipades is continuing
under the direction ofA. Peatfield.
" Ayiopharango Valley/South Coast: D. Blackman and
K. Branigan, "An Archaeological Survey of the South
Coast of Crete, between the Ayiopharango and Christostomos,"
BSA 70 (1975) 17-36; Blackman and Branigan, "An
Archaeological Survey of the Lower Catchment of the
Ayiopharango Valley," BSA 72 (1977) 13-84; and Vasilakis
1989 (infra n. 22). Knossos: S. Hood and D. Smyth,Archaeological
Survey of the Knossos Area2 (Oxford 198 1). Kommos:
R. Hope Simpson, V. Watrous, and J. Shaw, "The Archaeological
Survey," in Kommos I (Princeton, in press). Mochlos:
J. Soles and C. Davaras, "Excavations at Mochlos,
1989," Hesperia 61 (1992)413-16 and fig. 1. Palaikastro: J.
Driessen and A. MacGillivray, "The Neopalatial Period in
East Crete," in R. Laffineur ed., Transition: Le monde ie'geen
du Bronze moyen au Bronze recent (Aegaeum 3, Liege 1989)
99-112. Sphakia: L. Nixon et al., "Archaeological Survey
in Sphakia, Crete," EchCl 7 (1988) 159-73; 8 (1989) 201-
15; 9 (1990) 213-20. Siteia: M. Tsipopoulou, Archaeological
Survey at Aghia Photia, Siteia (Partille 1989). Zakros: N.
Schlager, "Untersuchungen zur prahistorischen Topographie
im aussersten sudisten Kretas: Zakros bis
Xerokampos," in W. Schiering ed., Agais-Kolloquium IX
(Mannheim 1987) 64-82. See also I. Tzedakis et al., "Les
routes minoennes: rapport preliminaire, defense de la circulation
ou circulation de la defense?" BCH 113 (1989)
43-75. The island of Gavdos is being surveyed by K.
Kopaka (University of Crete). New surveys in 1994 are
planned for the areas of Sisi near Mallia and Ziros in East
Crete.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 699
The result of the research outlined above is that
today the Minoan archaeologist faces an archaeological
record of breadth and depth that is unique
in the prehistoric Aegean. This level of published
detail calls for a synthesis as well as a consideration
of how perceptions of these data have changed during
the last generation.
Finally, one should mention that the archaeological
museums on Crete have been transformed in the
last decade. New museums have opened in Rethymnon
and Archanes within the last three years and a
new museum at Kastelli Kissamou is under construction
at present. The new collection at Rethymnon
is now stunningly displayed in a modern setting
housed inside the Venetian Fortezza of the city. In
addition, the collections at Chania, Siteia, and
lerapetra have been reorganized and greatly augmented
in handsome new quarters.
EARLIEST PREHISTORY-NEOLITHIC
When does the human prehistory of Crete begin?
For many years the conventional answer was the
beginning of the seventh millennium B.C., when
the site at Knossos (stratum X) was founded.'2 But
recently there has been a spate of publications suggesting
that the extinction of Pleistocene animals on
Crete was caused by human visitors to the island
prior to the Neolithic period.'3 Because Pleistocene
animals are absent from early settlement contexts, it
is believed that many, such as pygmy hippopotamus,
pygmy elephant, and deer (Candiacervus cretensis),
apparently do not survive to the time of the earliest
known settlement of the island. The only dated find
of these Pleistocene animals is a hippopotamus bone
from the upland plain of Katharo, dated by radiocarbon
to 12,135 ? 485 B.P1'4 Lax and Strasser have
argued that it was the Neolithic inhabitants of Crete
who caused the extinction of many Pleistocene animals
through their destruction of these
vironments (by means of their farming,
and the introduction of new animal speci
probably true for certain early animals,
endemic mouse and shrew, since they occ
lithic contexts and then disappear from
archaeological record. But some Pleistoc
do not appear in Neolithic habitation leve
may mean that the earliest settlers predat
lithic period. What has changed our pe
this question is the recent discovery and
of the site of Aetokremnos on Cyprus.15
kill-site produced deposits of shells, and p
popotamus and elephant bones, with a
dates extending from the 10th throug
millennium B.C. Aetokremnos shows that huntergatherer
groups from the Asian mainland had begun
to visit the island during the 12th millennium
B.C. One suspects that similar events took place on
Crete and it is only a matter of time before such a
site is found.'16
The earliest known permanent settlement of an
Aegean island took place on Crete, at Knossos.
Strasser and Broodbank's recent discussion of the
Knossos colonization stresses that this was neither
an accidental discovery nor one example of many
such colonization attempts on the Aegean islands.'7
Rather, the colonization of Crete was a unique, longrange,
deliberately planned effort by a group of
agriculturalists, probably motivated by Crete's advantageous
environment. The first settlers arrived
on the island with a well-developed continental
economy based on their former environment (probably
the Anatolian coast, since Knossian bread
wheats are known in Anatolia but not in the earliest
mainland Greek Neolithic sites). The material culture
of the first settlers shows some changes in the
Early Neolithic II-Middle Neolithic period,18 but
12 See Moody (supra n. 10). For the date of the Knossos
basal level, see Coleman (infra n. 36) I, 263 and II, 211,
table 1.
1 J. Cherry, "The First Colonization of the Mediterranean
Islands: A Review of Recent Research,"JMA 3 (1990)
145-221. Most recently discussed by E. Lax and T Strasser,
"Early Holocene Extinctions on Crete: The Search for
the Cause," JMA 5 (1992) 203-24. For the domesticated
livestock of the Neolithic settlers, see C. Groves, "Feral
Mammals of the Mediterranean Islands: Documents of
Early Domestication," in J. Clutton-Brock ed., The Walking
Larder (London 1990) 46-58.
14 E Bachmayer and H. Zapfe, "Ein absolutes Altersdatum
fuir den fossilen Zwergflusspferde der Insel Kreta,"
Anz Wien, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse 8 (1985)
165-66.
15 A. Simmons, "Preliminary Report on the Excavations
at Akrotiri-Aetokremnos (Site E): 1987, 1988, 1990,"
RDAC 1989, 7-14.
16 The process described for sixth-millennium B.C. settlement
on Cyprus (N. Stanley-Price, "Khirokitia and the
Initial Settlement of Cyprus," Levant 9 [1977] 66-89,
esp. 78-86) was probably similar to that on pre-Neolithic
Crete.
17 C. Broodbank and T Strasser, "Migrant Farmers and
the Neolithic Colonization of Crete," Antiquity 65 (1991)
233-45.
18 See C. Broodbank, "The Neolithic Labyrinth: Social
Change at Knossos before the Bronze Age,"JMA 5 (1992)
39-75. Because of his assumptions, Broodbank fails to
provide a convincing explanation for the changes he demonstrates.
See also T. Whitelaw, "Lost in the Labyrinth?
Comments on Broodbank's 'Social Change at Knossos before
the Bronze Age',"JMA 5 (1992) 225-38.
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700 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
the subsistence base seems not to have been
modified in response to the local environment or
indigenous domestication. Apparently because of
their small population and isolation, the early settlers
did not adapt to the Cretan environment in
ways that would have encouraged population
growth and expansion.
Early Neolithic sites have rarely been recognized
on Crete and only three-Knossos, Gerani Cave,
and Lera Cave-are known in any detail.'" Intensive
surveys on Crete have shown that Neolithic settlement
on all parts of the island continued to be
sparse until the Final Neolithic period. Only then
did settlements begin to spread over the many different
ecological zones of Crete. On the Akrotiri
peninsula of Chania, for example, Moody's survey
records an increase in the number and types of sites
in the FN period.2" In Sphakia in West Crete, upland
areas are first settled in this period.2' In the
Western Mesara, one possible MN site, at Kannia, is
succeeded by nine new FN settlements. These sites
include open settlements and caves on the Mesara
coasts, in the central plain, in the Asterousia Mountains,
and on Mt. Ida.22 In the coastal plain of Kavousi,
the earliest sites date to the FN period.2" Further
west, in the Istron area, three FN settlements
are established on the coast and the island of Pseira
was first inhabited at this time.24 Caves and open
sites in the plain of Lasithi, high in the Dictaean
mountain range, are first occupied in the FN-EM I
period.'2 All of these new sites may be partly inter
preted as seasonal and complementary dwellings of
a relatively small overall population, but their large
numbers and the expansion of the settlement at
Knossos from 3 ha in EN to perhaps 5 ha by the FN
period indicate a real increase in the Final Neolithic
population.2
Vagnetti's publication has provided us with a better
understanding of FN Phaistos."' The Italian excavators
report finding FN pottery and walls in
their trenches across the Phaistos ridgetop, indicating
that the FN settlement was perhaps 5.6 ha in
size. Rectangular house walls with beaten mud
floors and hearths are similar to those at FN Knossos,
but a circular house, 2.5 m in diameter, has its
closest parallels in Neolithic II Cyprus.28 Our knowledge
of religion on Crete in this period is dependent
on the few known figurines, usually found in
secondary domestic contexts. A female figurine
from Phaistos may have served a religious function,
as it was found with a piece of meteoritic iron, and
a red-painted Triton shell.2t' Larger (up to 14 cm)
three-dimensional clay female figurines may have
been a feature of domestic cult, as in Cyprus and
Anatolia, while the smaller schematic stone examples
were probably worn as amulets."" Final Neo-
1?- For Knossos, see J. Evans, "Neolithic Knossos: TheGrowth of a Settlement," PPS 37 (1971) 95-117, with earlier
bibliography. The Lera Cave, overlooking the Bay of
Stavros on the northwestern tip of the Akrotiri peninsula
of Chania, was a settlement from EN to EM I. The excavators
noted numerous parallels between the EN pottery
of Lera and Knossos. For Gerani Cave, see brief reports
only by I. Tzedakis in ArchDelt 25 (1970) Chronika 474-
76; 26 (1971) 508. For Lera Cave, see A. Guest-Papamanoli
and A. Lambraki, "Les grottes de Lera et de
I'Arkoudia en Crete occidentale aux 6poques prehistoriques,"
ArchDelt 31A (1976) 178-293.
For various aspects of Neolithic Crete see A. Zois,
Kpirrj--EXrowx? rov A)Oov (Athens 1973); I. Sakellarakis,
"Neolithic Crete," in D. Theocharis, Neolithic Greece (Athens
1973) 131-46; and T. Strasser, Neolithic Settlement and
Land-Use on Crete (Diss. Indiana Univ. 1992).
"2 Moody (supra n. 10) 292-94.
21 Nixon et al. (supra n. 11) 171.
2" For Kannia, see L. Vagnetti, "Tracce di due insediamenti
neolitici nel territorio dell'antica Gortina," AntCr 1
(1973) 1-9. For the Mesara, see Watrous et al. (supra n. 10)
223. Asterousias: A. Taramelli, "Cretan Expedition VIII:
The Prehistoric Grotto at Miamu," AJA 1 (1897) 287-312;
Blackman and Branigan 1977 (supra n. 11) 67 and fig. 34;
A. Vasilakis, "-Ipo'fokoptKcg O8o~e g orrr MoviI O6qy7ljptag;,"
KppruLK' Eoria 3 (1989) 70. Two of these sites have now
been excavated. Traces of FN pottery are reported under
the tholos tomb at Agia Kyriaki, D. Blackman and K.
Branigan, "The Excavation of an Early Minoan Tholos
Tomb at Ayia Kyriaki, Ayiopharango, Southern Crete,"
BSA 77 (1982) 44. A. Vasilakis excavated and published an
FN house near Kaloi Limenes, "AvacKcW4? VEO.LOLKOUV
oJtlTLOU oovg Kcako'g AtItuveg trg No6tcag Kpil~lGj," in
EtAaJivir (Herakleion 1987) 45-53.
2 Haggis (supra n. 10) 270.
24 Hayden et al. (supra n. 10) 320 and 322, fig. 15. For
Pseira, KprucnK Earia 3 (1989/1990) 296.
25 Watrous (supra n. 10) 9-10 and map 4.
21 See Evans (supra n. 19).
27 L. Vagnetti, "Einsediamento neolitico di Festbs,"
ASAtene 34/35 (1972/1973) 7-138.
'2 Circular house, Vagnetti (supra n. 27) 27-29, figs.
17-18. V. Karageorghis, Cyprus (London 1982) 26-30 for
an introduction to the sites of Vrysi, Sotira, and PhiliaDrakos
A.
29 Vagnetti (supra n. 27) 90, fig. 78.24. Pernier's excavations
produced a similar context: a female figurine,
miniature pots, and seashells. See L. Pernier, II palazzo
minoico di Festos I (Rome 1935) 105, fig 48.
:"0 For the Phaistos figurines: Vagnetti (supra n. 27) 90,
fig. 78.24-25. This interpretation is suggested by Cypriot
and Minoan figurines. Cypriot cult figurines: E. Peltenburg,
"Chalcolithic Figurine from Lemba, Cyprus," Antiquity
51 (1977) 140-43 argues that Cypriot figurines were
probably pendants based on the existence of larger cult
statuettes, such as the example from Lemba. In his excavations
in Anatolia, at Gatal Hfiyfik and Hacilar, J. Mellaart
likewise distinguished two types of figurines, larger
clay statuettes found in shrines and in deposits of stored
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 701
lithic burials have rarely been identified, as they
were probably simple inhumations within settlements,
rock shelters, or caves.31
The material record of Final Neolithic Crete exhibits
increased signs of widespread Aegean contacts.
The FN pottery at Phaistos (and Knossos) has
extensive parallels overseas, especially with the eastern
Aegean.32 The FN pottery from Nerokourou
near Chania has now been published and shows
affinities with the eastern Aegean, the Peloponnese,
and the "Attic-Kephala" culture."3 Copper and obsidian
at FN Phaistos also point to international contacts.34
Davaras's recent excavation in the Pelekita
Cave on the east coast of the island likewise produced
FN pottery and a phallic-shaped idol with
Cypriot parallels." These new signs of Cretan overseas
contacts are part of a wider pattern of internationalism
that occurs throughout the Aegean and
the Near East at this time.36
EARLY MINOAN I
Early Minoan I is the period par excellence of
settlement expansion on Bronze Age Crete. Intensive
surveys have documented the distribution and
density of new settlement on the island. In the Western
Mesara, the number of sites doubles in the EM
I period."7 To the south in the Agiopharang
the increase is even more dramatic, from t
sites to at least 11 EM I sites.38 In other areas of the
island, it is clear that many new settlements are established
along the coast and in the interior.39 By this
time most (but not all) caves occupied in FN are no
longer inhabited. Settlement hierarchy changes in
EM I. In the Mesara virtually all of the FN settlements
are small sites (farmsteads or camps?) except
for Phaistos, but in EM I hamlet-sized settlements
make their appearance. Located in the mountains
south of Chania, Debla (phase 1), the only published
EM I settlement on the island, fits this category, for
it was probably a seasonal farmstead.40 Interdisciplinary
survey work in the Mesara has shown that
this spread of new settlements brought in its wake a
period of widespread erosion probably caused by
the settlers' stripping of the vegetation cover from
the land.41
We rely chiefly on burials for what we know about
EM I Crete.42 Inhumation in caves or rock shelters
continues to occur.43 For this period the most important
recent discovery is the EM I-II cemetery excavated
by Davaras at Agia Photia on the north coast
near Siteia.44 This necropolis consists of 252 tombs
(an estimated 50 more tombs having been defood
or granaries and a smaller schematic "ex-voto"
(based on the former type) found in houses: "Excavations
at Gatal Hfiyiik, 1962," AnatSt 13 (1963) 82, and "Excavations
at Catal Hfiyiik, 1963," AnatSt 14 (1964) 40-81, esp.
95 and ns. 42-44. Cypriot figurine as a pendant amulet:
V. Karageorghis, The Civilization of Prehistoric Cyprus (Athens
1976) pl. 25. Cretan figurine as a pendant amulet: B.
Rutkowski, Petsophas (Warsaw 1991) pl. X.4.
3' See L. Vagnetti and P Belli, "Characteristics and
Problems of the Final Neolithic in Crete," SMEA 19 (1978)
150 and 142, table 1. The excavation at the Ayia Kyriaki
tholos showed that, although FN pottery occurred at the
site, the tomb was constructed in EM I: Blackman and
Branigan 1982 (supra n. 22) 44-46.
32 Vagnetti (supra. n. 27) 126-28, who includes Knossos
parallels.
:" L. Vagnetti et al., Scavi greco-italiani a Nerokourou (Kydonias
1, Rome 1989) 11-97.
34 Vagnetti (supra n. 27) fig. 133.4. A. Evans's excavation
at FN Knossos produced a copper ax, PM II, 14, fig.
3f. Only two other metal examples are known from FN
Crete: a silver/lead bead from Agios Nikolaos (N. Tod,
"Excavations at Palaikastro, II," BSA 9 [1902/1903] 336-
43) and from Mochlos (Mochlos 93, fig. 48). For obsidian
from Phaistos, see Vagnetti (supra n. 27) 115, fig. 127.
"5 C. Davaras, ArchDelt 34 (1979) Chronika 402-404,
and pl. 215c. Cf. P Dikaios, Khirokitia (Oxford 1953) pl.
95.194.
36 J. Coleman, "Greece, the Aegean and Cyprus," in
Ehrich I, 255-64; J. Mellaart, The Chalcolithic and Early
Bronze Age in the Near East and Anatolia (Beirut 1966) 114-
17.
7 Watrous et al. (supra n. 10) 223 n. 60. Because of
extensive alluviation in the Mesara, the number of EM I
and II sites discovered by the survey is much smaller than
must have existed, pp. 197-204.
38 Blackman and Branigan 1977 (supra n. 11) 67-68;
Vasilakis 1989 (supra n. 22) 71-74.
39 Because of the difficulty of distinguishing LN from
EM I pottery, several surveys have treated the two ceramic
phases as one period, e.g., Watrous (supra n. 10) 9, 67-68;
Hayden et al. (supra n. 10) 320-21.
40 P Warren and I. Tzedakis, "Debla: An Early Minoan
Settlement in Western Crete," BSA 69 (1974) 299-342.
41 See K. Pope's important report on the geology and
soils of the Western Mesara in Watrous et al. (supra n. 10)
197-204.
42 There is relatively little detailed knowledge about the
EM I phase at Minoan settlements because, in many cases,
it is the basal stratum sealed or destroyed by later Minoan
remains. Chronology 13-14 lists 10 useful EM I deposits, of
which three (either small or unpublished) come from set-
tlements.
43 Burials: Kyparissi, S. Alexiou, "HpmWo[tv uccL MTc caaM
ntapcd to Kavk, Kaot~rht HpactKXEov," CretChron 5 (1951)275-94. Pyrgos: S. Xanthoudides, ArchDelt 4 (1918) 136-
70. The upper level at Pyrgos contained larnakes and so
probably dates to MM I. Partira: C. Mortzos, "HdprtpCa:
MLca 1pCOgtog lOLVtWLK KEPa[1tLKil Oo[ag," Ea7errjpig
Euriotrlpovtuwi v Epevvdv 3 (1972) 386-421.
44 C. Davaras, "fI-pImOLVwl6ov vcEpoa~tELov Ayltag
(WTL~dg ricTrEag," AAA 4 (1971) 392-97; Davaras, ArchDelt
27, Chronika (1972) 648-50. See Chronology 14.
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702 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 2. Tomb 195, cemetery of Agia
C. Davaras, AAA 4 [1971] 394, fig. 7)
stroyed), most of which are simple
dug into the shallow bedrock with a
(facing north and out to sea) plugge
right slab (fig. 2). Often a single vase,
gos ware chalice, stood on the small p
the antechamber in front of the door. The inhumation
lay in the interior chamber, on a floor strewn
with sea pebbles. Finds included vases (fig. 3),
bronze daggers, a sword, knives, a socketed spearhead,
fishhooks, chisels, masses of obsidian blades,
stone axes, two animal-shaped amulets of lead, and
a few stone vases.
Davaras drew attention to the similarity of form
between the Agia Photia tombs and those in the Cyclades,
especially on the island of Ano Kouphonisi.
The pottery at Agia Photia-pans (fig. 4), pyxides,
incised bottles (fig. 5), fruitstands, and jugs (some of
which may be imports)-is similar to the Kampos
Group in the Cyclades. A large proportion of the ca.
2,000 unpublished vases are said to be of Cycladic
type. Crucibles from the cemetery are of a type
known from Syros and Thermi.4 Recent analyses of
Fig. 4. Incised pan from cemetery of Agia Photia. (After
C. Davaras, Guide to Cretan Antiquities [Athens 1976] 131,
fig. 77)
Fig. 3. Bird vase from cemetery of Agia Photia. (After C.
Davaras, Guide to Cretan Antiquities [Athens 1976] 130, fig.
76)
Fig. 5. Incised bottle from cemetery of Agia Photia.
(After C. Davaras, Haghios Nikolaos Museum [Athens, n.d.]
fig. 6)
45 K. Branigan, Pre-Palatial. The Foundations of Palatial
Crete: A Survey of Crete in the Early Bronze Age2 (Amsterdam
1988) 239.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 703
the bronze objects from Agia Photia indicate a Cycladic
source for the metal.46 Another EM I cemetery
has been reported at Nea Roumata southwest
of Chania where a small, circular built tomb with a
slab floor has been compared to similar tombs from
Syros.47 Most Early Minoan burials in North Crete
were made in caves (often in caves inhabited in the
Neolithic period) or rock shelters and are accompanied
by stone idols, a few vases, obsidian blades, and
perhaps an occasional copper tool or dagger.48 At
least five types of idols, all schematic variations of
the Cycladic Pebble form (Brettidolen), are known
from EM I burials.49 The tholos tomb at Krasi, built
in EM I, remains a unique type at this time in the
north. Its basal level, usually dated to EM I but perhaps
actually EM I-IIA, is said to have produced a
lead amulet(?), gold foil, bronze knives, needles, silver
jewelry, a foot amulet, and a clay spindle whorl.50
The earliest Cretan seals, e.g., that from Krasi, may
date to EM I, but more probably are EM IIA.5'
In southern Crete, EM I is the great era of settlement
foundation and tholos tomb construction.
Branigan's newly revised book on the Mesara tombs
lists 25 tholos tombs built in this period.52 It is only
in this period that burials receive special preparations:
individuals are now buried in built tombs,
with a few personal belongings, and are given offerings.
Unfortunately, almost all of the tholoi discovered
in the last quarter century have been robbed,
and are known only from short reports of rescue
excavations published by the Archaeological Service.53
The single exception is the publication of the
British excavation at the (robbed) tomb of Agia
Kyriaki in the Ayiopharango Valley on the south
coast.54 A typical burial offering at Ayia Kyriaki consisted
of a jug, three cups, and a bowl or jar. A bowl
and fruitstand were used in a ceremony held in
front of the tomb.
In his fundamental survey of Aegean metalwork,
Branigan describes EM I Crete as one of the leading
metallurgical centers in the Aegean.55 Recent research
requires a modification of this view. The EM
I tomb deposits in Crete (at Pyrgos, Kyparissi, and
perhaps Krasi) containing metal objects (bronze
daggers, awls, chisels cast in open molds, and gold
foil jewelry) are now recognized to span the EM
I-IIA period: thus, the early date for the beginnings
of Cretan metallurgy is less certain. The earliest Cretan
crucibles, from Agia Photia, are of a Cycladic
type; the EM round-heeled dagger is also probably
a foreign type, as it is known earlier in the Near
East.56 Gale's lead isotope analyses of metal objects
from the Mesara tholoi show that the composition
of the Cretan artifacts there is consistent with an ore
source on the island of Kythnos.57 Early Minoan
metalworkers seem to have been dependent on Cycladic
sources for their copper (as well as silver and
probably gold), rather than having significant indigenous
sources as Branigan believed. Certainly
the amounts of imported obsidian and pottery evident
in EM I contexts point to regular CycladicCretan
connections. The above evidence suggests
that the Cycladic contribution to Early Minoan metallurgy
has probably been underrated.
The dramatic rise in the number of FN-EM I
settlements has generally been explained either
through immigration or population growth.58 The
most likely candidate for a foreign settlement on
46 N. Gale, "The Provenance of Metals for Early Bronze
Age Crete-Local or Cycladic?" Pepragmena 1990 I, 299-
316.
47 I. Tzedakis, "Le passage en Minoen ancien en Crete
occidentale," in C. Nicolet ed., Aux l'origines de l'hellinisme
(Paris 1984) 3-7; H. Catling, "Archaeology in Greece,
1984-1985," AR 31 (1984/1985) 67.
48 See supra n. 43.
49 K. Branigan,"Cycladic Figurines and Their Derivatives
in Crete," BSA 66 (1971) 57-78 and fig. 1, nos. 1-4
and 8.
50 S. Marinatos, ArchDelt 12 (1929) 102-41. In his report
Marinatos clearly distinguishes a lower level with EM
I pottery and the finds noted in the text. This level may
have continued into EM IIA, for the low pedestaled goblet
(pl. 4.2) resembles EM IIA examples at Knossos; cf. D.
Wilson, "The Pottery and Architecture of the Early Minoan
IIA West Court House at Knossos," BSA 80 (1985)
300-302, figs. 10-11, P 29-34, 43-46. I am indebted to D.
Wilson for these parallels.
51 One seal comes from the lower level (EM I/II?) at
Krasi, Marinatos (supra n. 50) 122, fig. 15, no. 56, 123, fig.
16; and CMS II.1, nos. 195-203 from the middle level at
Lebena Tomb II, which produced EM I pottery but may
be mixed since seal CMS II.1, no. 201 is later.
52 K. Branigan, Dancing with Death (Amsterdam 1993)
143-48, plus eight additional possible tombs.
53 Much of the material from the robbed tholoi can be
seen in private collections. See, e.g., L. Marangou ed.,
Minoan and Greek Civilization from the Mitsotakis Collection
(Athens 1992).
54 The robbed Agia Kyriaki tholos was excavated and
published by Blackman and Branigan 1982 (supra n. 22)
1-57. It is a measure of our ignorance that Blackman and
Branigan's report presents the fullest published collection
of painted EM I-II pottery from the Mesara. When published,
Alexiou's excavation of the unrobbed tholoi at Lebena
will be an extremely important contribution to our
knowledge of EM Crete.
55 Branigan 101-105.
56 For the dagger at fourth-millennium B.C. Byblos: M.
Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos I (Paris 1937) pl. 189, nos. 6773
and 6776, cited by Branigan 101.
57 Gale (supra n. 46) 301 and fig. 1.
58 See the discussion in P Warren, "Crete 300-1400
B.C.: Immigration and the Archaeological Evidence," in
R. Crossland and A. Birchall eds., Bronze Age Migrations in
the Aegean (London 1973) 41-50.
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704 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Crete is the habitation site (probably now co
the nearby village) associated with the cem
Agia Photia. Certainly the high proportion
eign features there relative to other cem
such as that at Pyrgos (also on the north co
be significant in this regard.59 The eviden
Agia Photia, however, is unique. Does this m
foreign settlement was rare in Crete at t
Final Neolithic settlements established in defensive
locations, especially in marginal environments, can
also be suspected as intrusive. Examples of such settlements
include Katalimata (lerapetra), Trapeza
(near Kamilari village), Gortyn acropolis, and
Pseira.60 In the Western Mesara, there are some possible
signs of newcomers.61 On the other hand, new
EM I sites founded in areas adjacent to older settlements
probably do represent a growth in local
population. Such patterns are relatively common in
Crete and have been noted in Lasithi, the Mesara,
and the Agiopharango Valley.62 The implication
seems to be that the EM I population expansion
throughout Crete was to a great extent the result of
local population growth. During the FN-EM I period
this mixing of indigenous settlers with newcomers
in Crete creates the regional character of the
succeeding Minoan population.
A new explanation for FN-EM I population
growth focuses on changes in local subsistence.63
With the introduction of certain new technologies--
the ability to plow heavier soils and to make cheese
out of milk-and of new crops, mainly olives and
grapes, the settlers were for the first time able to
take advantage of vast tracts of virgin land. On Crete
it may be possible to recognize two phases in this
transition: 1) a greatly increased focus on pastoralism
with some agricultural changes, and 2) a balance
reached between fully developed agriculture
and herding. The first phase (FN-EM I) is represented
by the widespread occupation of caves and
open sites. The location of and finds from these new
sites in the interior of the island, many of them caves
(such as Miamou and Psychro), indicate that the inhabitants
were small groups relying heavily on pastoralism
supplemented by seasonal agriculture.64
The appearance of EM I seasonal sites such as Debla
where the inhabitants grew and processed emmer
wheat, barley, and oats and kept herds of sheep/goat
mainly for their secondary products (viz., milk/
cheese, wool, and hides) is an archaeological manifestation
of this new subsistence strategy. During the
second phase (EM I-IIA) new crops may have been
introduced and large open settlements established,
primarily near arable land. The small faunal assemblage
from the EM II occupation in the Sedoni
Cave (630 masl) near Zoniana (Rethymnon) offers
some evidence for diversified animal husbandry
since sheep, goat, cow, and pig as well as deer are
present.65
59 Moreover, the results of Tsipopoulou's survey (supra
n. 11) make it difficult to believe that the cemetery of ca.
300 tombs at Agia Photia served a population entirely descended
from the inhabitants of the only nearby Neolithic
site, the Kouphota Cave.
60 For FN at Katalimata, see W. Coulson and M.
Tsipopoulou, "Preliminary Investigations at Chalasmeno,
Crete, 1992-1993," Aegean Archaeology 1 (in press). I am
indebted to K. Nowicki for this reference.
61 The circular house at Phaistos and certain pottery
motifs in the Mesara resemble features of the Erimi culture
on Cyprus. Cf. S. Alexiou, "New Light on Minoan
Dating: Early Minoan Tombs at Lebena," ILN 1960, 227,
figs. 14, 15, and 20 and Blackman and Branigan (supra
n. 22) figs. 7, 10, and 11 with P Dikaios and J. Stewart, The
Stone Age and the Early Bronze Age in Cyprus (SwCyprusExp
IV:IA, Lund 1962) figs. 37 and 42; I. Todd, "Vasilikos
Valley Project, 1977-1978," RDAC 1979, 13-68, pls. 4-5.
62 Lasithi: Watrous (supra n. 10) 9-10. Mesara: Watrous
et al. (supra n. 10) 223-24. This is based on the identification
of these sites as permanent settlements, an assumption
that rests on the fact that the sites are substantial,
equal in size, and similar in their catchment areas. Agiopharango:
Blackman and Branigan 1975 (supra n. 11) 67
and fig. 34.
" The "secondary products revolution" discussed in A.
Sherratt, "Plough and Pastoralism: Aspects of the Secondary
Products Revolution," in I. Hodder, G. Isaac, and N.
Hammond eds., Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of
David Clarke (Cambridge 1981) 261-306.
64 See, e.g., the evidence from Magasa, R. Dawkins,
"Excavations at Palaikastro IV," BSA 11 (1904/1905) 260-
68. The olive apparently first appears in Middle to Late
Neolithic levels in pollen cores from West Crete, Moody
(supra n. 10) 285-86. Ovicaprids show a marked increase
in FN levels at Knossos; see the discussion in P Halstead,
"Counting Sheep in Neolithic and Bronze Age Greece," in
Hodder et al. (supra n. 63) esp. 324-31.
65 Direct evidence for subsistence during EM I-IIA is
scant. The tripod cooking pot, known in Chalcolithic levels
from western Anatolia and the Near East, first appears
in Crete in EM I. The Cretan adoption of this shape may
have been accompanied by dietary introductions as well.
The faunal remains from the Sedoni Cave, excavated by
E. Gavrilaki for the Greek Archaeological Service, will be
published by I. Hamilakis, "ItoL)eLC yLd tqrv HI-nptoxtvOLKTI
KtpTvotpoqLiCa: ZmooapXaLooyLKcg taptvpilEg aCU6 to
XnilkXato lrCv6vt ZovtavyCv," AvOpowJrog Kat EjXr atoJrEptf3ad)Lov
(Athens, in press). Hamilakis cautions that
more large, properly collected assemblages are needed to
prove his hypothesis concerning diversification.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 705
Fig. 6. View of Trypeti, from the northeast. (After A. Vasilakis, ApXatoXoyia 30 [1989] 53, fig. 2)
EARLY MINOAN II
Intensive surveys have documented that settlement
expansion continues in Early Minoan II but at
a demonstrably slower pace. In the Lasithi Plain,
five relatively large EM II settlements at the edge of
the plain replace the more numerous FN-EM I
campsites high on the mountain slopes.66 In the area
around Phaistos, the number of settlements drops
slightly (perhaps a sign of urban nucleation), in contrast
to the continuing growth in the Agiopharango
Valley to the south.67 In the Chania area, settlements
grow in number and size.68 In the Isthmus of
lerapetra settlement dispersion apparently does not
take place until EM II, since the Gournia hill, Vasiliki,
Fournou Koriphi, and Myrtos/Pyrgos are all
founded at this time. While new sites are established
in all parts of Crete, settlement hierarchy does not
change, but continues as in EM I. In the Western
Mesara, the EM II settlement hierarchy, that is, one
village-sized settlement (Phaistos), a few hamletsized
(50-100+ m in length) communities, and
many smaller sites, probably single farmsteads, is
the same as in EM I. While growth occurs at the
lower levels of the hierarchy, large settlements, such
as Knossos and Phaistos, do not reveal any increase
in size during EM I-II.69
Despite recent work at several EM II settlements,
our knowledge of EM II Crete is still dangerously
dependent on cemeteries. The one splendid exception
is Peter Warren's excavation and publication of
the site of Myrtos (Fournou Koriphi), which has
provided new and vivid documentation of an EM II
hamlet.70 Established in EM IIA on a steep, arid hill
overlooking the sea, Fournou Koriphi was a small
community in EM IIB, consisting of five or six
households (perhaps 25-30 persons in total).71 Irregular,
one-story houses of stone and mudbrick
with flat roofs had plastered walls (at times painted
red) and packed earth floors. The settlement was
protected by an outer wall and a tower at its southern,
seaward entrance. Houses were entered
66 Watrous (supra n. 10) 11 and map 5.
67 Blackman and Branigan 1977 (supra n. 11) 68.
68 Moody (supra n. 10) 298-99.
69 Knossos: Whitelaw (supra n. 18) 227-28. Phaistos: T.
Whitelaw, "The Settlement at Fournou Korifi, Myrtos and
Aspects of Early Minoan Social Organization," in Society
338-39 to which EM deposits under the Italian storerooms
should be added.
70 Myrtos.
'1 As reinterpreted by Whitelaw, in Society (supra n. 69)
323-46. The cultural assumptions and formalistic method
of C. Tenwolde, in "Myrtos Revisited: The Role of Relative
Function Ceramic Typologies in Bronze Age Settlement
Analysis," OJA 11 (1992) 1-24 make his study unconvinc-
ing.
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706 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
32'
4S,
340
?E~""L~LIpynmT H 19992
Fig. 7. Plan of the site of Trypeti. (Courtesy A. Vasilakis)
through doorways with wooden doors set on stone
pivots; some rooms were entered from the roof.
Rooms were fitted with benches, working platforms,
cupboards, and hearths or cooking holes. Each
house had a cooking area, storage places for food
and vases, and work areas. One completely preserved
house plan (rooms 72-74, 79-82, 88) is similar
to those at Trypeti and Agia Triada. This house
was entered through a corridor, into a line of outer
workrooms where weaving, milking, and grinding
of grain may have taken place. The central room
had a roof support, cupboard, and storage vases
lined along the south wall. A narrow room to the
east held vases and perhaps a ladder to the roof. A
narrow room to the west had a hearth and cooking
ware and thus can be identified as the kitchen.
The Myrtos community practiced mixed farming,
of barley, wheat, grapes, and olives, and animal husbandry
involving cattle, pig, and especially sheep
and goat. Domestic industries included textile and
perhaps pottery manufacture. Perforated stone
weights may have been used on fishing nets; two
clay balls may have been sling bullets. Stone stamp
seals were used and one stamped clay sealing probably
sealed a container. Two stone "kernoi," perhaps
gameboards, were found in situ set at the edge of
the open central court of the settlement. The original
publication suggested that evidence for external
relations at the site was limited to obsidian, a
copper chisel, and possibly some Vasiliki vases (but
see below).
Recent excavations have revealed an EM II settlement
at Trypeti on the south coast."7 Trypeti was
founded in EM I on a small, steep hilltop on a cove
(fig. 6). Preliminary reports indicate a community of
perhaps eight houses built on either side of a wide
central street (fig. 7). Two architectural phases have
been observed in the houses. Pottery of the EM IMM
I periods is reported. The one-story houses
often have a large central rectangular room with
72 A. Vasilakis, "O FpCopttvWtLKOg otLKLoT6g TpvlYilg',"
Apyato)toyla 30 (1989) 52-56; "TpvJTrni," Kpylrcij Eoria
2 (1988) 331-32; 3 (1989/1990) 287; and "HpWroUvaKxtopLKtg
otLK1otog Tpvflrl'g oTfl N6ttoa KpnlTlY," HIlrpayyEuva
Tovy ' AteOvoP;g KpplroAoytlKvO ivvEbpiov, in press.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 707
Fig. 8. Aerial view of Vasiliki. (W. and E. Myers and G. Cadogan, The Aerial
Atlas of Ancient Crete [Berkeley 1992] fig. 41.2, courtesy W. and E. Myers)
narrower side rooms used as storerooms entered
from above. The central room could possess a
bench, cupboard, and a shallow hearth in the floor.
Carbonized wheat, barley, peas, vetch, figs, bones of
cattle, sheep/goat, pig, hare, and bird, seashells (Triton,
snails, murex, limpets, clams), and fishbones
were present in many of the rooms. Stone tools,
including querns, handstones, axes, hammers, pestles,
and weights, occurred most commonly in the
lowest stratum but also in later levels. Bone tools as
well as obsidian and chert blades, cores, points, and
knapping debris were found. A clay sealing,
stamped twice, and a "kernos" set in a house floor
are reported. Imports to the hamlet included obsidian,
a copper pin, and (in the nearby tholos tomb)
two silver beads.
Twivo prepalatial houses at Agia Triada have recently
been uncovered ca. 100 m southeast of
Tholos A.73 The EM II settlement at Agia Triada
may thus have consisted of two adjacent communities,
east and west of the tholos tombs A and B. The
West House had a large storeroom, with a pi-shaped
central roof support (as at Myrtos) and contained
Agios Onouphrios and dark-ground vases, five
pithoi, a stool, tripod cooking (?) tray, and many
obsidian blades. The narrow north room is similar
to examples at Myrtos and Trypeti. Built over part
of the West House, the East House had a large
room, with central support, which consisted of a
storage area, with pithoi, a stone pestle, and obsidian,
and a work area, with a quern, stone pounder,
and small vases. A wall added on the east enclosed
an apsidal space. Both houses were provided with
benches along their exteriors. The houses were
abandoned in EM IIB.
The patient excavations (1970-present) ofA. Zois
at Vasiliki have greatly improved our understanding
of this complicated and important site (figs. 8-
9).74 Founded in EM IIA, the settlement consisted of
at least four houses, 0 and E on the north edge
73 C. Laviosa, "Saggi di scavo ad Hagia Triada," ASAtene
31/32 (1969/1970) 407-15; "Eabitato prepalaziale di
Haghia Triada," ASAtene 50/51 (1972/1973) 350-53.
74 A. Zois, annual reports in Prakt 1972 through 1982.
A short but useful summary appears in W. and E. Myers
and G. Cadogan, The Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete (Berkeley
1992) 276-81. A. Zois and C. Mortzos will republish the
vases saved from Seager's excavation in the volume
BaoULAL} II.
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708 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
N 'z (26) .1,0./ -NA b1
0
0 0..........
, OPS
i~1 o. ,.'
opA oO
-,'5... . - P .
E-P
r -0I .
0,...----. ' _.-')'..'
?h ,, v : '. ' . ..- .t . ' J CM..~ U );,
0<03
~2
sgr
OU
PAY
- . . Tr,*$ .6-00.4 Pat. :&"
,?.
r2~
0 to
Fig. 9. Plan of the site of Vasiliki, sector OP
of the hilltop and two on the south. The remains o
E and E consist of regular cells, filled in with pack
ing, to create a foundation for the houses.75 House
E was entered from the north from a paved are
The floor packing of the houses contained Koumasa
ware, obsidian blades and knapping debris, groun
stone tools, a ceramic jug, bronze tweezers, and
caprid bones. Structure fl may have been a
separate house or a work area for E; it produce
obsidian. Structures 0, fI, and E were destroyed in
EM IIA.
Zois's investigations have shown that the great
"House on the Hilltop" reconstructed by Seager was
a conflation of houses of different dates.76 The actual
architectural sequence was more complicated. In
the first phase of EM IIB the hilltop was reorganized.
A large structure (Zois's Red House) was built
on the southern half of the hilltop. A large paved
court was laid out west and to the north of the Red
House. The structure almost certainly had two stories,
with red-painted walls and floors, a mudbrick
and pis, superstructure, and a flat roof made with
beams, reeds, and plaster. There were entrances
from the north court, on the south (room 16), and
from room 13. There are two groups of small rooms
(15, 16, 28, 33, and 36-38) used as basement maga-
75 For Minoan architectural foundations, see A. Zois,
"Pour un schema evolutif de l'architecture minoenne. Les
fondations: Techniques et morphologie," in P Darcque
and R. Treuil eds., Ehabitat eggen prihistorique (BCH Suppl.
19, Paris 1990) 75-93.
76 A. Zois, BaoLucitr I (Athens 1976) 34-35.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 709
zines on the south slope at a lower level. Seager
found many jugs and cups in room 42, which may
have served as a pantry. Room 39 was supplied with
an 8-m-deep well. Many pithoi were found south of
room 43. Certain details make it probable that the
Red House structure is in fact two houses: first, the
doorway in room 13/34 that opens out onto a space
(3.50 m in width) between rooms 13 and 39, and
second, the presence of two separate paved courts
and two complexes of rooms, with large ones on the
north (1-3, 6, 13, and 39-42) and smaller rooms
(storage annexes?) on the south.77 Two broken
bronze axes and a knife, much obsidian, and many
whole vases were found in the Red House.7' Zois's
new finds include a steatite seal and a large vase,
stamped with a seal motif typical of EM II.79 A Koumasa-type
marble figurine with folded arms (FAF)
was found in the packing of the east wall of the
structure. Probably out of context, the find is nevertheless
important because it indicates that Cretan
folded-arm figurines were made for use by the living,
not just for burials.80 Amphoras and loomweights
were found between the two houses that
comprise the Red House.
During EM IIB, two new houses (Zois's West
House and the Southwest House) were built on top
of the paved court next to the Red House. The West
House consists of a large central room (5) around
which were added storage annexes and other
rooms. The new excavations found over 70 loomweights
placed in room 27a of the Southwest House.
The Red and West Houses met their end by fiery
destruction in EM IIB. The Southwest House produced
no floor deposits (except for some pithoi)
and contained no signs of fallen roofing, so it may
have been abandoned rather than destroyed.
The EM IIA-B settlement at Vasiliki apparently
consisted of two to four houses."' Zois's excavations
on the southeast slope (area P) revealed fragments
of scrappy walls that may belong to a continuation
of the EM IIB settlement, or to the EM III-MM I
period. Excavations in 1991 under the paved floor
of structure PBb produced a carbonized olive stone
of EM IIB date.82 EM II Vasiliki was thus a hamlet,
ca. 80 x 40 m in extent,83 whose inhabitants farmed,
kept livestock, wove textiles, and made bronze tools
in molds.84 They had access to foreign materials,
copper and obsidian, perhaps via two large EM II
settlements on the north coast of the Isthmus.85
Close to two excellent clay sources (north and south
of the present-day village of Vasiliki), the inhabitants
of EM II Vasiliki may have produced pottery for
export.
Our limited knowledge of major Early Minoan I I
settlements comes from small soundings.86 Trial
trenches dug at Mallia in the last 15 years have revealed
traces of irregular EM II house walls under
the palace and its immediate surroundings, indicating
that the site reached village size in EM II.87 Recent
trenches at Knossos revealed the basement of a
single house (West Court House).88 Imported pottery
in this house included Agios Onouphrios vases
from the Mesara, pithoi, and EC II sauceboats. EM
I IA levels found in the palace area and along the
Royal Road indicate that building and extensive terracing
took place at Knossos in EM IIA, including
the construction of an EM IIA or IIB stone-paved
ramp leading to the top of the tell where the north-
77 That the "Red House" is actually two houses is also
suggested by the fact that the west wing is surrounded by
a double wall, a construction usually found on external
walls.
78 The most complete account of Seager's excavations
appears in Zois (supra n. 76).
79 A stray find, the seal is published in CMS V.1, no. 27.
The vase is mentioned in Prakt 1979, 326.
80 As R. Barber and J. Davis have suggested for Cycladic
figurines, cf. L. Fitton ed., Cycladica (London 1984)
10-23.
81 According to Seager, his trials on the lower slopes of
the hill produced no signs of EM settlement, R. Seager,
"Excavations at Vasiliki, Crete, in 1906," Transactions of the
Free Museum of Science and Art 2 (1907) 113. The same is
true for Zois's investigations.
82 I am grateful to the excavator for showing me his
unpublished reports of the 1990-1993 excavations from
which this summary is drawn.
83 New excavations to the north and south may well
reveal more EM II structures. The local topography suggests
that most of the settlement is already revealed.
84 The EM II bronze bivalve mold for a double ax from
Vasiliki indicates that metallurgical activity was carried out
in the settlement. See K. Mavriyannaki, "Mtvt~cic LETACXtIK
'iTpa aLT6 1Tqv BaotXutcl TIqg IepC~Tepcag," Kpqtokoyi
9 (1984) 140-76.
85 These sites were discovered in 1992 and 1993 by the
Gournia Survey under the direction of myself and C.
Davaras.
86 Fragmentary house remains have been uncovered at
Phaistos, Knossos, and Mallia. See Chronology 15 for bibli-
ography.
87 See van Effenterre I, 82-92. Reports on the more
recent sondages have appeared in the BCH Chronique
sections: 110 (1986) 814 and 817; 113 (1989) 770-85; 114
(1990) 908-10 and 921; 115 (1991) 735.
88 Wilson (supra n. 50) 281-364. Wilson has recently
reconstructed an adjacent mudbrick upper story using
the basement roof as a veranda overlooking a terraced
area to the west (where the later West Court was). There
is no evidence for this reconstruction.
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710 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 10. Aerial view of the tholos tom
Cadogan, The Aerial Atlas of Ancient C
Myers)
west corner of the later palace was located.89 Walls of
two houses are known at Phaistos.90 All of these
buildings at the later Minoan centers are no more
advanced than the architecture at Vasiliki. The only
possible exception is at Palaikastro where fragments
of large walls were recorded, although nothing else
is known about them.91
The burials of EM II Crete are of two main types,
the tholos tombs of the Mesara and the house tombs
of the north coast. Despite Branigan's excellent
study of the tholoi,92 our ability to understand these
tombs fully is hindered by the fact that the only
excavations of unrobbed tombs are either unpublished
or were carried out early in this century (and
are therefore incomplete by present-day standards).
Meanwhile the list of plundered tholoi grows longer
each year."3 It is a sad fact that Blackman and Branigan's
publication of their (re)excavation of the
robbed Agia Kyriaki tholos provides our most complete
picture of the range of vases offered at an EM
II tholos.94 Many of the tholoi had additional structures
built next to or around them. The best-preserved
outer complex of a tholos comes from the
recently excavated tombs at Moni Odigitria where a
paved and enclosed court, with an entrance and
auxiliary rooms, can be seen (fig. 10)."5
89 D. Wilson, "Early Minoan Knossos: An Overview," in
N. Momigliano and D. Evely eds., Knossos: A Labyrinth of
History. Papers Presented in Honour of Sinclair Hood (Oxford,
in press).
90 Pernier (supra n. 29) 117, 119; and D. Levi, "Earchivo
di cretule a Fest6s," ASAtene 19/20 (1957/1958) 168-
69, figs. 348-49.
91 Dawkins (supra n. 64) pl. X.
92 Branigan (supra n. 52), a fully revised version of his
earlier Tombs of Mesara, London 1970.
93 See the finds, including pottery, stone vases, Koumasa-type
figurine, gold and stone jewelry, bone seals,
bronze weapons, and stone tools in Marangou (supra n.
53).
94 Blackman and Branigan 1982 (supra n: 22).
95 The Greek Archaeological Service excavation (undertaken
by A. Vasilakis) of the looted tombs yielded 275
vases, 20 stone vases, 11 necklaces, 3 gold diadems, a gold
bracelet, 5 bronze objects, and stone tools, including obsidian
blades; the excavation remains unpublished.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 711
Only two Mesara tombs, Platanos A and Lebena
IIa, have stratified EM II levels. The EM II level at
Platanos Tholos A was poor in finds; Xanthoudides
mentions 14 triangular daggers, a few gold beads, a
diadem attachment, and an electrum pendant.96
Tholos A at Agia Triada produced pottery, 13 seals,97
at least one stone vase,98 and probably most (but not
necessarily all) of the 35 short bronze daggers from
the tomb, and a few pieces of gold jewelry.99 The
unrobbed tombs at Lebena are unfortunately still
unpublished, but preliminary reports indicate that
EM II burial levels contained clay vases, including a
rhyton, two stone spouted bowls, a bronze dagger,
stone figurines, seals, amulets, a gold diadem, necklaces
of clay and steatite beads, and obsidian
blades.""' Outside the Mesara to the north, at Archanes,
Tholos E had an EM II basal level that produced
bone and steatite seals, a few clay and stone
vases, a Koumasa-type figurine, jewelry (many steatite
and bone pendants and beads, a gold bead, a
bronze ring, and bits of gold), obsidian blades, and
animal bones."" Branigan's new study of the Mesara
tholos tombs describes the local EM II burial customs.'12
The deceased were buried with their daily
possessions, which included clay vases (jug, cups,
bowls), jewelry (necklace, pendants, gold diadems),
a sealstone, a bronze toilet article, tool, or weapon,
and perhaps a stone figurine. Reviewing the evidence
from newer excavations, Branigan comes to
the conclusion, surely correct, that the tholoi were
fully vaulted in stone.l"13
New excavations and Soles's study of house tombs
have helped clarify the dates and architectural details
of the prepalatial tombs on the north coast.104
Much of Soles's work has focused on Mochlos.
There, the cemetery consists of three large wealthy
tombs on the upper West Terrace and smaller tombs
on the South Slope. The only tomb at Mochlos with
a secure, pure EM II deposit is Tomb I, which produced
clay vases, stone bowls, jugs, a triangular
bronze dagger and cutter, a necklace of electrum,
gold, amethyst, and crystal beads, and a Syrian cylinder
seal.1'5 The deposits in the other tombs
spanned longer periods (e.g., EM II-MM I). The
range of EM II grave goods at Mochlos seems to
include clay vases, stone vases (bowls, ladles,
pyxides, jars, and teapots), steatite and bone seals,
and jewelry (clay, bone, stone and gold pendants,
gold diadems, floral sprays, bands, appliques, rings,
necklaces of clay, steatite, and crystal and gold
beads). Occasionally a tomb might contain a bronze
dagger, a knife and toilet articles, obsidian blades,
and rarely, a stone figurine. A cache of EM IIB gold
jewelry placed in a silver vase was found next to
Tomb VI in 1971.106
Evidence of extensive Cretan trade with the Cyclades
and the mainland in EB II has continued to
build. A Minoan settlement was established on the
island of Kythera in EM II. The site has close ceramic
ties with West Crete but since no associated
architecture was found, it has been suggested that it
may have been seasonally occupied.107 Various explanations
for the colonization of Kythera-trade
with the mainland, fishing opportunities, population
pressure-have been suggested. Imports into
Crete in EM II include masses of obsidian, invariably
found on every EM II site (especially along the
north coast), metals, clay and stone vases, marble
figurines, and jewelry.108 Signs of Cycladic influence
have been observed in EM II ceramic shapes and
bronze weapon and tool types, jewelry, figurines,
and grave (cist) forms.'09 In contrast, the list of EM
II exports (a few clay vases and perhaps a dagger)
in the Aegean is relatively short."10 Undoubtedly the
"" In VTM 89, Xanthoudides explained the poverty of
the EM II level relative to the upper stratum by suggesting
that it had been robbed. But if so, why were the 14 daggers
of valuable bronze not taken?
97 The Agia Triada seals: CMS 1.2, 11-14, 32, 35, 46, 49,
61, 75, 76, 87, 91.
98 Stone vase: L. Banti, "La grande tomba a tholos di
Haghia Triada," ASAtene 13/14 (1930/1931) no. 78.
"'9 E.g., the gold pendant, Banti (supra n. 98) 194, fig.
63, no. 164.
100 Lebena tombs: Myers et al. (supra n. 74) 164-67
with bibliography. The finds-pottery, stone vases, bronze
objects, jewelry, seals-made by the Greek Archaeological
Service rescue excavations, mentioned in ArchDelt, remain
otherwise unpublished.
101 I. Sakellarakis, Prakt 1975, 292-307.
102 Branigan (supra n. 52) 67-80, 119-41.
103 Branigan (supra n. 52) 41-56.
104 Soles.
105 Mochlos 18-22; Soles 50.
106 C. Davaras, "Early Minoan Jewellery from Mochlos,"
BSA 70 (1975) 101-14; Soles 58-62; Higgins (infra
n. 137) 54-55.
107 Excavation: J. Coldstream and G. Huxley, Kythera
(London 1972) 83-91 and 272-74; Coldstream and Huxley,
"The Minoans of Kythera," Thalassocracy 108. J. Rutter
and C. Zerner, "Early Hellado-Minoan Contacts," in Thalassocracy
75-76 and n. 5 suggest the EM II settlement may
have been seasonal.
108 For Cretan imports, see Branigan (supra n. 45) 185-
86; 245-47. I. Sakellarakis, "The Cyclades and Crete," in
J. Thimme ed., Art and Culture of the Cyclades (Karlsruhe
1977) 145-53.
109 Branigan (supra n. 49) 60; Branigan, "A Transitional
Phase in Minoan Metallurgy," AJA 72 (1968) 219-22; S.
Stucynski, "Cycladic Imports in Crete: A Brief Survey,"
TUAS 7 (1982) 50-59.
110 Branigan (supra n. 49) 76-78; Rutter and Zerner
(supra n. 107) 81; Chronology 17.
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712 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
most significant contribution to the
II external relations has been made
program of lead isotope analysis of
from Agia Photia and seven Mesara th
The analyses have shown the Agia P
be from the Cyclades and the Mesar
primarily from Kythnos, but also La
haps Cyprus (with two examples from
source). Early Minoan lead objects a
Archanes and Mochlos have compo
tent with origins at Lavrion and Siph
contact with areas outside the Aegean
been slight. A silver cylinder seal from
identified as being of mid-third-mill
manufacture, and a hippopotamus b
are the only Near Eastern imports kn
ble Egyptian finds in Crete are limite
bowl fragments from Knossos."14
Recent research indicates that the intensive trade
of EM II Crete was not confined to coastal sites such
as Mochlos, but was carried out among regions
within the island.1"5 This study of the Early Minoan
wares at Knossos, using stylistic analysis, thin-section
petrography, and scanning electron microscopy,
has shown that several sizable ware groups
(fine painted bowls, fine gray ware goblets and
pyxides) were imported from the Mesara to Knossos
in EM IB and EM IIA. These imports at Knossos
mark the earliest known range of specialized pottery
types that were distributed between regions in
Crete. Analyses of Knossian fabrics indicate that
standardization of clays in ceramic production also
increases, especially after EM IIA, in EM IIB and
EM III.116 Mesara imports at Knossos seem to cease
in EM IIB and other contacts develop with East
Crete. As at Knossos, pottery from the Mesara was
also imported to Fournou Korifi in EM IIA. Petrographic
and stylistic study of the larger EM IIB
assemblage at Myrtos indicates that over half of the
pottery was imported to the site. Possible changes in
the scale of ceramic distribution and transport are
indicated by many amphoras and other large vessels
as well as Vasiliki ware, the famous "Goddess of Myrtos,"
and cooking pots imported from the Isthmus
of lerapetra.l" A few small vases at Fournou Korifi
may still be Mesara imports as in EM IIA. Other
finds point to the same pattern: the well-known type
of stone pyxis lid surmounted by a dog, surely the
product of a single workshop, is known at Mochlos,
Agia Triada, and Zakros."8 The contents of the Mesara
tombs-obsidian, copper, marble vases, and
gold and silver jewelry-all indicate intensive trade
relations between the Mesara and the North
Coast."19 The excavators of the tholos tomb at Agia
Kyriaki on the south coast were able to distinguish
35 pieces of Vasiliki ware imported from East
Crete.120
During the last 20 years discussion concerning
EM II Crete has been dominated by the question of
its social organization and complexity. Some have
argued that EM II Crete had reached a level of sociopolitical
ranking implying wealthy elites.121 These
elite families would have had some form of authority
and power within their communities, which
could then be seen as antecedent to later palatial
organization. Other scholars have been more skeptical.
122
" Gale (supra n. 46).
112 Z. Stos-Gale and C. MacDonald, "Sources of Metals
and Trade in the Bronze Age Aegean," in N. Gale ed.,
Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean (SIMA 90, Jonsered
1991) 249-88.
113 J. Aruz, "The Silver Cylinder Seal from Mochlos,"
Kadmos 23 (1984) 186-87. 0. Krzyszkowska, "Wealth and
Prosperity in Pre-palatial Crete: The Case of Ivory," Society
166 and n. 7 where the date is given as "likely" EM II.
"114 Chronology 125. Such finds are possible (since Egyptian
stone vases were traded as far north as Ebla in EB II)
but their uniqueness, as well as Warren's methodology for
dating Egyptian imports to Crete (see below), raises suspicions.
In addition, one of the vases comes from a mixed
context.
115 D. Wilson and P Day, "Ceramic Regionalism in Prepalatial
Crete: The Mesara Imports from EM I to EM IIA
Knossos," BSA 89 (in press), with a contribution by V.
Kilikoglou.
116 P Day, V Kilikoglou, and D. Wilson, "Technological
and Cultural Change in Early Bronze Age Knossos: A
Multi-disciplinary Approach to the Ceramic Record," presented
at the Second European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics,
Barcelona, November 1993.
117 P Day et al., "Pottery Importation in Early Minoan
IIB Myrtos Fournou Korifi, Crete: A Reassessment," Proceedings
of the 29th International Symposium on Archaeometry,
Ankara, forthcoming.
118 P Warren, "The First Minoan Stone Vases and Early
Minoan Chronology," CretChron 19 (1965) 13.
119 VTM, passim; Branigan 1970 (supra n. 92) 56-85.
120 Blackman and Branigan 1982 (supra n. 22) 39-41.
121 K. Branigan, "Early Minoan Society: The Evidence
of the Mesara Tholoi Reviewed," in Nicolet (supra n. 47)
29-37; J. Evans, "The Early Minoan Occupation of Knossos:
A Note on Some New Evidence," AnatSt 22 (1972)
115-28; J. Soles, "Social Ranking in Prepalatial Cemeteries,"
in E. French and K. Wardle, Problems in Greek Prehistory
(Bristol 1988) 49-62; Whitelaw, in Society (supra n. 69);
P Warren, "The Genesis of the Minoan Palace," in Function
47-56.
122 J. Cherry, "Evolution, Revolution, and the Origins
of Complex Society in Minoan Crete," in Society 33-46; V.
Watrous, "The Role of the Near East in the Rise of the
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 713
The main claims for an EM II ranked society are
as follows:
1) There are architectural forerunners of the palaces
in EM II Crete that signal social ranking and
the existence of local chiefs.'"2 The principal evidence
for this argument used to be the large "House
on the Hill" at Vasiliki. Zois's investigations at the
site have shown that there is no large, single house,
however, but several small ones.124 Nor was there a
paved central court since there is no evidence for
EM II structures on the west side of the hilltop. In
addition, storage facilities at Vasiliki are not centralized,
but probably occur as annexes to each individual
house. Sporadic excavations of EM II levels at
regional centers, e.g., Knossos, Phaistos, and Chania,
where one would expect such architecture, have
only produced fragments of small houses. Nothing
approaching the size or planned complexity of the
Greek mainland EH II corridor house is known on
Crete. There does not seem to exist any sign of the
kind of social stratification visible in the MM II architecture
at Quartier Mu at Mallia or the complex
administration of the sealings from MM II Monas-
teraki.
2) The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos, Gournia,
and Mallia show signs of social and economic
ranking.' 25 More recent work at Mochlos has shown
that the differences between Soles's larger "elite"
tombs on the West Terrace and those on the South
Slope are minimal. Soles's careful investigations at
Mochlos have indicated that in EM II the West Terrace
tombs are smaller than previously thought (I/II
and IV/VI, rooms III and V being later additions).'26
Moreover, excavation on the South Slope
has uncovered a tomb (L) as large as the West Terrace
examples.'27 In addition, the architectural
elaborateness of the tombs does not necessarily correspond
to the wealth of their contents.'28 "Ivory"
objects and gold and silver jewelry are hard to accept
as signs of social ranking because examples of
such objects occur in both parts of the Mochlos
cemetery. 129 Not surprisingly the tomb contents do
show some variation in wealth, but any evidence for
deliberate or ascribed social or political hierarchy is
missing.
The danger in inferring social rank from differing
burial data is illustrated by the situation at
Gournia. The argument that the Gournia house
tombs and the separate Sphoungaras rock shelter
burials were indicative of a local social ranking has
been thrown into doubt by the discovery in 1992 of
a separate and sizable EM II settlement on the hill
above Sphoungaras.'13This find implies that the two
cemeteries belong to two different settlements,
rather than to different classes of the same community.
The same situation exists in the Mesara where
the cemetery of Phaistos at leroditis consists of individual
inhumations, while those at Agia Triada are
buried in tholos tombs."'
3) Early Minoan technology shows a steady and
incremental growth leading up to (and thus explaining)
the material achievements of the protopalatial
period. This argument is an outgrowth of
the basic studies made of Minoan metal objects,
seals, and stone vases. In order to evaluate this claim
we must consider these studies in some detail. The
question of the ceramic sequence is discussed separately
below (see below, Early Minoan III).
In his first general study of Minoan metalwork,132
Branigan grouped the metal objects, mostly from
the Mesara tombs, by typology and then dated them
to the Early Minoan period. Subsequent studies
have shown that the Mesara tomb deposits continue
Cretan Palaces," in Function 65-70; J. Cherry, "The Emergence
of the State in the Prehistoric Aegean," PCPS 1984,
18-48.
123 Myrtos 260-61; Branigan (supra n. 45) 48-49,'118-
23.
124 A. Zois's review of this issue in prepalatial architecture,
"Gibt es Vorlaiifer der minoischen Paliste auf Kreta?
Ergebnisse neuer Untersuchungen," in D. Papenfuss and
V. Strocka eds., Palaste und Hiitte (Mainz 1982) 207-15,
found no evidence of any kind for ranking. If future excavation
at Vasiliki shows that the walls in area P belonged
to small, poorly built EM II houses, that might constitute
evidence for social ranking.
125 Soles (supra n. 121).
126 Soles 43-60.
127 J. Soles and C. Davaras, "Excavations at Mochlos,
1989," Hesperia 61 (1992) 420-24 and fig. 4.
128 Soles 71 notes, for instance, that Tomb XIX is modest
in construction, but one of the richest in contents. Nor
can the "orthostate" construction of the West Terrace
tombs be cited as an elite feature, since it does not use real
orthostates nor occur outside the tombs (where it would
have been visible).
129 South Slope tombs with "elite" material: gold jewelry
in Tombs IX, XIX-XXIII (Soles 84 for Tomb IX);
silver in Tomb XX; "ivory" in Tomb XVIII. Moreover, any
comparison of the West Terrace and South Slope tombs
must also take into account the much higher proportion
of robbed tombs on the South Slope.
130 These sites were found in 1993 by the Gournia Survey,
under the direction of C. Davaras and myself.
131 Watrous et al. (supra n. 10) 224. The tombs at Mallia
mentioned by Soles are almost entirely protopalatial.
132 K. Branigan, Copper and Bronzeworking in Early
Bronze Age Crete (Lund 1968).
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714 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
well into the protopalatial period.' 33 Many s
the Mesara tholoi, however, have continued
them as Early Minoan monuments.134 While
that most of the circular tombs were origin
in EM I (or EM II), the final form of the
plexes consisted of the original tholos an
later annexes whose total contents were mo
I in date. For example, Tholos A at Agia Tri
which we have a relatively full (if select) p
spans the EM I-MM II period.135 The potter
is the most numerous and precisely date
artifact in Tholos A, may give us a roug
which finds date to each chronological peri
published 159 vases from the complex. Of t
can be dated to EM I-II; 37 to EM III-MM
94 to MM IB-II. The implications of this
logical sequence have not been thoroughly a
ated. Most of the metal objects, for instanc
certainly date not to the Early Minoan peri
to MM IA-II (see below).
In a subsequent study of metalworking
Early and Middle Bronze Age Aegean, 36
defined new artifact types and metallurgic
niques for EM II Crete and laid out the chro
cal contexts for Minoan metal artifacts, agai
from the Mesara. Very few of these objects
pure EM II levels; most are from EM IIcontexts.
The Early Minoan dates he a
many of the objects, especially the wea
tools from unstratified contexts, are too ear
one cannot assume, as he does, that these ob
contemporary with EBA parallels in the
Aegean.'"7 He also over
of Early Minoan metal
ing all of the artifacts
and MM II periods tog
fers that the history o
II to MM II was one of
This argument is circu
The seals of the EM
cently been admirab
groups and dated by
main prepalatial grou
ons/Spiral and Borde
dates to EM III-MM
respectively.141 His dat
however, since it woul
of seals in the Mesara
IB-II period. Subsequen
Hood and Younger ha
dates are too early.14
Border/Leaf group is
the Parading Lions/S
der/Leaf group uses bo
overlaps with the MM
by Younger to the M
dates the Parading Li
nantly within the MM
Yule compares the
groups of seals. Whil
shapes (conoids, discs,
hammerhead signets,
most commonly deco
hatched lines. EM III-MM IA seals assume a more
133 K. Branigan, "The Mesara Tholoi and Middle Minoan
Chronology," SMEA 5 (1968) 7-23; G. Walberg, Provincial
Middle Minoan Pottery (Mainz 1983) 90-137.
134 Branigan's book (supra n. 52), for example, features
the subtitle "Life and Death in Southern Crete, c. 3000-
2000 B.C." The correct dates are ca. 3500-1800 B.C.
115 Banti (supra n. 98). Any bias in Banti's list of pottery
is likely to favor the earlier periods, as she specifically
mentions, on p. 178, "numerossime" MM I vases from the
annex of which she only publishes representative exam-
ples.
136 Branigan.
137 See R. Higgins, Greek and Roman Jewellery (Berkeley
1980) 53, for the same conclusions. Branigan's conclusion
that the Mesara was a leading center of metalworking in
the Aegean during the EM I-MM II period is based on
assumptions not generally accepted, i.e., that the number
of bronzes in the tombs relative to other parts of the
Aegean is not accidental, that Mesara bronzeworking was
based mainly on local ore sources, and that the use of
deliberate arsenical and tin alloys in the Mesara was in
advance of practices elsewhere.
1"8 Branigan 106-108. Contra Branigan: the only spear
from a certain EM context is that from Agia Photia, and it
may be Cycladic in origin. The Mochlos arrowhead, the
only possible example known from Crete before MM IB,
comes from Tomb XIX. Seager (Mochlos 71) dates the arrowhead
to MM I, later than the main "EM II-III" contents
of the tomb. The tomb should probably be dated EM
II and MM I and the arrowhead to MM I (see below).
There are no type I saws from an EM II context; the only
type I from a secure context dates to MM IB (Branigan
168). There are no known EM II tin bronzes. Gale (supra
n. 46) 301 suggests that the earliest tin bronzes in Crete
date to MM I. The only "short sword" from an EM context
is that from Agia Photia, so again it may be an Early Cycladic
product; the only other example (Branigan 164)
from a good context is MM I-II.
139 Branigan 114; and K. Branigan, The Foundations of
Palatial Crete (London 1970) 78-83.
140 Yule. See also I. Pini, "Ein Beitrag zur chronologischen
Ordnung der friihkretischen Siegel," Pepragmena
1981 1, 421-35; and "Eine friihkretische Siegelwerkstatt?"
Pepragmena 1990 I, 115-27.
141 Yule 208-10.
142 S. Hood, Antiquity 58 (1984) 70-71; and J. Younger,
in GGA 240 (1988) 188-224.
143 Younger (supra n. 142) and personal communica-
tion.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 715
regular repertoire of shapes, i.e., gables, halfovoids,
zoomorphs, and three-sided prisms. The
most frequently occurring motifs include leaves,
loops, hatched triangles, and crosshatching. Using
the list of securely dated prepalatial seals in Pini's
1981 study, we can form a more precise idea of EM
II-MM IA seal development.'44 For the EM II period
there are 20 securely dated seals and one sealing.145
The shapes represented are cones (4), plate
signets (2), rings (2), feet (2), pyramoids (2), zoomorphs
(2), a disc, hemisphere, pyramid, hammerhead
signet, stump signet, and a rod. The motifs on
the 19 seals and the one sealing are crosshatched
lines (12), random lines (4), chip carving/lines,
crossed lines, and a cross.
For the EM III-MM IA period the seal shapes
represented are stamp cylinders (9), cones (6), discoids
(5), three-sided prisms (2), step pyramids (2),
plate, half-cylinder, triangle, button, zoomorph,
wand, scarab, and fly. Decorations consist of spirals
(7), rosettes (6), leaves or petals (4), crosshatched
lines (4), vases (3), double axes (3), ?deer (3), loops
(2), men (2), goats, meander, zigzags, lions, random
lines, drill holes, leg, hand, fish, and chip cuts. Two
important conclusions emerge from this comparison:
EM II seal carving is relatively simple compared
with that in EM III-MM IA and there is minimal
overlap in seal shape and motif between the two
periods.
In his study Minoan Stone Vases (MSV), Warren
concluded that many vessels (vase types 1, 3, 4,
7, 8, 10, 17, 20, 22, 28, 29, 31, 36, 37, and 41)
were manufactured uninterruptedly from EM IIB
through MM II and onward.146 These "transitional"
vases are dated from their contexts (mainly mixed)
and on the basis that they show the same technique
(incision) and material (steatite) as EM II examples.
From this he inferred that the bulk manufacture of
Minoan stone vases began in ca. 2300 B.C., i.e., in
EM III or late EM II.
Let us consider the evidence for the dating of this
transitional group. Warren's alabastron type 1A is
dated EM III-MM I. It is a Mesara form with a
precise 12th-Dynasty parallel, noted by Warren,
which suggests a date of late MM IA (table 1); all
three secure contexts are MM I.147 The "bird's nest"
bowl (type 3) occurs primarily in MM I-II contexts
in the Mesara.148 None are found in EM II contexts.
This vase shape occurs only in harder stone material
and thus should date to MM IB and later. Block
vases (type 4) are also not found in any secure Early
Minoan context. The earliest example is from Lebena
Tomb IIa dated to MM IA.149 Of the 37 block
vases with find contexts, all examples of type 4 vases
are in MM IA, MM IA-II, or LM I contexts; most
are in MM IA-II contexts.150 Bowl type 7 is dated to
EM III-MM I. The earliest (numerous) certain contexts
are MM I-II.151 The earliest secure contexts
for Warren's bowl type 8 are MM I; other find contexts
are EM II-MM I, LM I, and LM III.152 Not one
of the 50 examples of Warren's cup type 17A occurs
in a secure EM II context. As Warren notes, the
large numbers found in the Mesara tombs indicate
their popularity in MM I.151 The tumbler (type 20)
is typical.'54 It occurs at Mochlos in Tomb VII, where
the only clay vases published by Seager are EM II,
and in the Mesara tombs. Warren thus dates the
type to EM III-MM I. The vase, however, must be
MM IA-II as the earliest safe contexts are MM IB-II
and as the Eastern parallels (see below) show. The
same situation obtains with jug type 22D. In MSV it
is noted that vase type 22D is found primarily in
secure MM IB-II contexts, except for Mochlos
Tombs I and VI, for which Seager only published
"EM II" vases. Thus in MSV the shape is dated to
EM II-MM I.'55 Both of the Mochlos tombs have
later MM material in them, however, and so this vase
type is clearly protopalatial. Miniature amphoras
(type 28) dated EM III-MM I/II come only from
secure MM I and MM II contexts.'56 Miniature goblets
(type 29A) come exclusively from mixed EM
II-MM I tomb contexts. Two examples (P 372 and
377 in MSV) imitate MM IA eggcups.'57 Bowl type
31 comes from mixed EM II-MM I tomb contents
and secure MM I-II settlement contexts at Knossos,
Phaistos, and Chamaizi.158
144 Pini 422-23.
145 Omitted are the five considered transitional EM
II/III from Maronia and Mochlos and CMS II.1 196,
whose date Yule 191 doubts.
146 MSV 182-84. Warren's early dating for his transitional
vases is also dependent on the dates given to the
Mochlos tombs by Seager. These dates are discussed be-
low.
147 MS V 4-5.
148 MS V 7-11.
149 MSV 11-14. The Lebena vase is on p. 12.
150 See P Muhly, Minoan Libation Tables (Diss. Univ. of
Minnesota 1981) 242-52.
151 MSV 20-21.
152 MSV 21-24.
153 MSV 38-39.
154 MSV 44-45.
'155 Jug type 22D is discussed in MSV 47. MM objects in
the Mochlos tombs: Tomb I, "MM III sherds" as well as the
carnelian seal (I s); Tomb VI, cup (VI 6), the breccia jug
(VI 4), seal (VI 26).
156 MSV 71-72.
157 MSV 72-73.
158 MSV 76-78.
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Table 1. Chronology for Sites and Areas in Crete and the East
Knossos Phaistos Mallia Gournia Vasiliki Mochlos Pyrgos Egypt
2200 B.C. (Myrtos)
EM III Upper East E.C.XVIII, 51-56 Period IV Gap F.I. P E
Well (Pits I,II)
2100 B.C.
West Court Premier (Ugarit Moyen )
MM IA seager's Well Material XI Dynasty
Houses Charnier North from Kultepe
2000 B.C- Tombs II -VII,
IX-XI, XIII, 1963 B.C.
MM IAR.Road S Trench XV-XX, XXII Pyr
MM1AR.RoSuth Houses House B
Base't, Lower II a - b ByblosPatrikies House D Karum des o
1900 B.C.I Kanish II
Early West Festos la XII Dynasty
MM Magazines Town Group Early Hesperia 61 Pyrgos
IB-II Festos Ib-II Gournia: House A (1992) 428. II c-d
Trial KV: Quartier Mu Houses Aa,Ek Kanish
Village
1800 B.C.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 717
This leaves the following EM II vase types: 10A,
29B, 37B, and 41. How often do these vases continue
to be made after EM IIB? Bowl type 10A is a
North Coast type found in EM II and EM II-MM I
contexts; of the 49 examples cited in MSV, one (from
Kamilari) is from a secure MM I context.'59 EM II
miniature goblets (29B) differ completely from the
MM I forms (29A).'16 Spouted bowl 37B is an EM II
type; three examples have been found in MM I-II
contexts.'16 The teapot, type 41, is important because
it closely imitates the ceramic form, which in
turn can be closely dated.'62 Type 41A mimics the
EM II clay shape; type 41D imitates the MM IA
carinated teapot. Type 41B copies the MM IA/B Patrikies
form and type 41C the MM IB-II shape.
From the analyses above we can conclude that 1)
there are relatively few EM II stone vase types; 2)
very few stone vase types actually continue from EM
II into MM I; 3) there is an explosion in the number
and range of new vase types, especially small ones,
in MM I (as discussed below, a good many of these
new shapes have Egyptian parallels); and 4) many
stone vases come from EM II-MM I (e.g., Mochlos)
or EM II-MM II (Mesara tombs) contexts. These
vases should be dated to MM IA-II (see below).
Does Early Minoan technology show a continuous
development from EM II to MM I as claimed
above? While it is difficult to trace the technical development
of Early Minoan metal objects because
they often cannot be precisely dated, it does seem
that some of the Early Minoan dates assigned by
Branigan to metal objects are too early. On the other
hand, EM II and EM III-MM IA seals and stone
vases do not show a continuous development but
rather tend to cluster into two separate groups.163
Prepalatial artifacts therefore do not illustrate a
clear tradition of continuous development from EM
II to MM I and cannot be used to infer such a development
for prepalatial Crete.
4) Given the probable size of the EM II settlements
at Knossos, Phaistos, and Mallia, cross-cultural
parallels would suggest that they had reached
some form of social hierarchy.164 As Soles has
pointed out, this is not necessarily true, for there
exist many examples in anthropological literature
of large, relatively egalitarian communities.'65 One
cannot prove or disprove the above assertion; one
can only state that the evidence on Crete does not at
present support such an inference.
Thus, there is at present no archaeological evidence
for a ranked society in EM II Crete that can
be seen as an antecedent to palatial organization.
EARLY MINOAN III
The end of the EM IIB period was marked by
abandonment and destruction of many site
Crete. Traces of destruction by fire have been f
at Vasiliki, Fournou Koriphi, Pyrgos/Myrtos
Mallia.'66 It is becoming clear from recent exca
tions that for the period immediately followin
IIB, that is, EM III, evidence for occupation
large sites is extremely limited, and many sma
sites were abandoned during this period. The e
vators at Pyrgos/Myrtos have recognized a g
occupation, between period I (EM II) and per
(MM IA). The earliest post-EM II architecture at
site is defined by deposits containing polych
pottery (i.e., MM IA).167 At Phaistos there is li
published evidence for EM III. A deposit ove
EM II house under cortile LXX produced pot
stylistically assignable to MM IA, but some cou
earlier.'68 Excavations at Kommos have found v
little evidence of occupation at the site during
EM III-early MM IA period.'69 Palaikastro
have been abandoned at this time, perhaps for
nearby peak of Kastri.'70 Knossos is one of the
sites at which EM III stratigraphic levels have b
identified. A terrace wall running under the
'"1 MSV 76-77. Bowl types 10B and 10C come from
MM 1-LM I contexts and are a different shape from type
10A. Cf. MSV P 150-60 and P 161-73.
160 Cf. MSV P 388-91 and P 369-87.
161 MSV 94-95.
162 MSV 98-99.
163 See Yule 226-29 on the "discontinuous development"
of early Cretan seals.
164 Whitelaw, in Society (supra n. 69) 337-40.
165 Soles 50 and n. 1 with bibliography.
166 For Mallia, see the report of a burnt level with whole
EM IIB vases in Amouretti (infra n. 174).
'67 See Cadogan (infra n. 229) 71.
'68 D. Levi, "Gli scavi a Fest6s nel 1956 e 1957," ASAtene
35/36 (1957/1958) 169-78.
169 P Betancourt, Kommos II (Princeton 1990) 62-64.
170 Relevant stratigraphy at Palaikastro is given for one
area, d32: an upper MM IB level is characterized by the
types of cups shown in R. Dawkins, "Excavations at Palaikastro,"
BSA 9 (1902/1903) 302, fig. 2, nos. 1-2. For no. 1,
cf. ArchEph 1972, Chronika, pl. Ca; for no. la, cf. Walberg
(supra n. 133) 133; nos. 2 and 2a are carinated cups. The
next lower level (0.50 m) consists of a few sherds shown on
p. 199, fig. 2, whose decoration closely resembles that of
Gournia North Trench examples, for which an MM IA
date has been argued. At 1.00 m below, a thickly packed
stratum of EM II vases (Dawkins, BSA 10 [1903/1904] 201,
fig. 3b) was encountered, separated by 0.50 m of deposition
from the earler, MM IA level, suggesting a passage of time
between the two levels. The settlement at the nearby citadel
of Kastri has produced MM IA vases: L. Sackett et al.,
BSA 60 (1965) pl. 72b-c. In addition to the above information,
the earliest published evidence of the post-EM II
reoccupation of Palaikastro is the MM IA and MM IB
vases in Sackett et al. (supra) pl. 72d-e.
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718 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
facade of the first palace and at the north
of the palace has been dated variously to
MM IA."'7 If EM III, this wall may hav
platform for prepalatial structures; if MM
have been associated with the construction of the
first palace. Four other deposits said to be EM III
have been uncovered in various parts of the site.'72
More recently the British excavators at Knossos
have redated the three houses (A, B, and C) and a
well found beneath the West Court to EM III.173 At
Mallia a small deposit stratified over an EM II destruction
level is probably EM III (table 1).174
Recent surveys also indicate that the countryside
was largely deserted during the EM III period. The
1992-1993 survey of Gournia and the northern
Isthmus of lerapetra has shown that following the
EM II period, the rural landscape is first resettled
in the MM IA period. Similarly, the Western Mesara
Survey found minimal evidence of settlement outside
of Phaistos during the EM III-MM IA period.175
Virtually no EM III-MM IA material was found in
the Agiopharango Valley in southern Crete.'76
Many tombs show the same discontinuity of use.
A minimal list of tombs with a gap between EM II
and MM IA includes Agia Eirene; Agios Onouphrios;
Agia Triada B; Archanes Tholos A and
Building 6; Lebena Tombs I, IB, II, IIa, and III;
Mallia, Western Ossuary; Mochlos Tomb XXII;
Palaikastro Tomb II; and Platanos Tholoi A and F.177
As will be argued below, this list can be lengthened
considerably.
Signs of Cretan foreign contact with the Cyclades,
the Greek mainland, or the Near East during this
period are absent."17
Our understanding of developments during this
period is clouded by problems of chronological and
stylistic definition at the beginning and end of EM
III. Early Minoan III has been defined as a ceramic
style, but not stratigraphically. 179 Seager created an
impression of cultural continuity between EM II
and EM III, still accepted today, by describing many
of the vases and "deposits" at Mochlos as "EM
II/III" or "EM III.s180 In 1971, excavation next to
Tomb VI at Mochlos uncovered a deposit of pottery
that was described as EM II/III."81 The pottery from
the deposit consisted of Vasiliki ware (68%), "whiteon-black"
EM III styles (15%), dark-burnished fabrics
(7%), and polished buff and Koumasa style
(3%). Given the apparent homogeneity of the deposit,
there seems little reason not to call it EM IIB.
The excavators' decision to use the term "EM
II/III" was based on caution, dictated by our rel
tive ignorance of EM IIB and EM III pottery an
the lack of deposits ofEM III stratified over EM IIB
The only meaningful stratified EM II and EM
deposits are known at Knossos.'82 There EM IIB
described as being mainly dark-on-light and red- o
black-slipped wares, with lesser amounts of dar
on-light and Vasiliki wares. Thus, from a stylist
perspective, much of the pottery traditionally ide
tified as EM II/III or EM III could be either chronologically
EM IIB or MM IA.
171 Wilson (supra n. 89).
172 Wilson (supra n. 89).
173 G. Cadogan et al., "Early Minoan and Middle Minoan
Pottery Groups at Knossos," BSA 88 (1993) 21-28
have placed several deposits from Knossos in a relative
ceramic sequence and labeled them with conventional
terms, e.g., EM III, MM IA. While the sequence may well
be correct, there is no evidence that permits these groups
to be assigned conventional chronological labels (viz., EM
III, which is dated ca. 2300-2200 B.C.). Specifically, the
deposits labeled "EM III" may be earlier than the Royal
Road South Fill (called "MM IA"), but both groups may in
fact date to the chronological span conventionally assigned
to MM IA (ca. 2100-1900 B.C.). The time to assign
these unpublished deposits conventional chronological
terms is when they are fully published, with their Cretan
and Aegean correlations. There is no basis for the assumption
that a continuous ceramic sequence can be translated
into a chronologically uniform development.
174 M.-C. Amouretti, Fouilles executies & Mallia: Le centre
politique II (EtCret 18, Paris 1970) 51-54 and fig. 5.
175 Watrous et al. (supra n. 10) 68.
176 Blackman and Branigan 1977 (supra n. 11) 68.
177 See the lists in MSV 193-97 and Soles 201.
178 Cyclades, A. MacGillivray, "The Relative Chronol
ogy of Early Cycladic III," in A. MacGillivray and R. Ba
ber eds., The Prehistoric Cyclades (Edinburgh 1984) 73-7
Mainland: Rutter and Zerner (supra n. 107) 76-77.
179 A. Zois, "YtdapFEt IIM III EtoXil;" Herpayp'kva ro
B' AteOvovg KprroAoyKcoL ~IvvEbpiov (Athens 1968) 14
56. Walberg's (supra n. 133) identifications of EM III an
MM IA pottery (Walberg phase 1) are of limited val
because they are not based on stratified settlement depo
its, but are rearrangements of published pottery accor
ing to her own stylistic criteria. One cannot assume,
Walberg does, that vases from different regions of Cre
with shared morphological features are contemporar
(circular argument) nor that individual vases identifi
stylistically as part of groups ("EM III" or phase 1) ca
actually be dated to conventional chronological period
The amount of chronological variation found within h
vase "shapes" indicates this.
1so Mochlos, Tombs I-XII, XIII, XV, XVI-XVIII, XIX
XXII, XXIII.
181 Davaras (supra n. 106); Soles 58-59.
182 See Cadogan et al. (supra n. 173) and esp. Wilson
(supra n. 89).
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 719
The end of the EM III period is also poorly
defined. The clearest sign of this is the controversy
surrounding the EM III-MM IA ceramic sequence
in East Crete. All agree that EM III-MM IA is a long
period, usually assigned 300 years, but with no
chronological fixed points.183 Thus, the phases of
this period have been dated stylistically, i.e., by the
appearance of certain shapes and decoration and
the use of polychromy, but such a ceramic sequence
can only be relative. We have no idea when polychromy'84
actually appears within the chronological
period conventionally assigned to EM III-MM IA.
Moreover, the decision to use the appearance of
polychromy to mark the beginning of MM IA and
to date this to ca. 2100 B.C., as is usually done, is
arbitrary and without supporting evidence. 85 As
conventionally dated, East Cretan "EM III" style is
the most advanced regional style on the island. A
priori, there seems little reason for East Cretan ceramics
to be stylistically ahead of those of Central
Crete. What is known about monumental architecture
and overseas contacts (discussed below) all indicates
that Central Crete was the most advanced
region of the island in MM IA.
Zois, who studied this problem extensively, observed
that the only Minoan site in East Crete with
evidence for EM III stratified over EM II and under
MM IA was Vasiliki.'86 The EM IIB houses on the
site were destroyed, apparently by fire. The following
phase of occupation (Seager's period IV) was
extremely meager, and only in MM IA is the site
extensively reoccupied. Seager, in his 1904 excavation
report, noted that the period IV inhabitants of
the settlement "built their hovels only over the
southeast corner, as there are no signs of their ware
on any other part of the hill."'87 In his 1907 excavation
report Seager writes, "The area in which the
sherds of period IV were found was small, measuring
about eight by ten metres. .... The settlement is
even less extensive than that of the preceding period
(Period III or EM II) and seems to have consisted
of poorly built hovels huddled against the
massive outer walls of the big house of Period III,
already in ruins."'88
At the time that Vasiliki was being dug, Edith Hall
excavated the classic source for East Cretan EM III
ware, the Gournia North Trench.189 Harriet Boyd,
the director of the excavation, described the North
Trench deposit as containing "thousands upon
thousands of sherds" with "a very large proportion"
of the decorated sherds being "Light on Dark
pieces" and "many" similarly decorated fragments
of "Dark on Light," as well as "a considerable number"
of "local proto-naturalistic style of Class IV"
(Boyd's designation for Kamares style), with only "a
few pieces" of Vasiliki and Koumasa styles.190 Hall,
who excavated and published the North Trench
group, also specifically notes the absence of Vasiliki
and red-on-buff (Koumasa style) wares in the deposit.191
She does not identify the deposit as immediately
succeeding EM II (that is, EM III), but carefully
distinguishes it as later than the stratified
sequence of period IV at Vasiliki (pits I and II)
where three strata were observed. These strata contained
the following wares (starting from the top
and proceeding to the bottom): 1) white-on-dark
and Vasiliki ware; 2) Vasiliki ware and red-on-buff
geometric style (Koumasa style); and, finally, 3) only
Vasiliki ware.192 The two lower strata must date to
EM IIB. The top level is either late EM IIB or EM
III. In the end, Hall viewed the Gournia North
Trench deposit as contemporary with Knossian MM
IA, which is almost certainly correct (table 1). In the
EM IIB deposits at Fournou Koriphi, Vasiliki ware
is extremely common,193 but in the North Trench
deposit it is virtually absent. In addition, the main
shapes of the North Trench--cups, jugs, and
bridge-spouted jugs-and their decoration are new
and unrelated to EM IIB antecedents.194 There
must therefore be a considerable chronological gap
1I3 See Chronology 169; Cadogan (supra n. 8) 517.
184 Pace P Betancourt, The History of Minoan Pottery
(Princeton 1985) 53-63.
185 N. Momigliano, "MM IA Pottery from Evans' Excavations
at Knossos: A Reassessment," BSA 86 (1991) 219
has pointed out that in MM IA polychromy is much less
common than usually believed.
186 See Zois's comments in Myers et al. (supra n. 74)
276.
187 R. Seager, "Excavations at Vasiliki, 1904," Transactions
of the Department of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania
I (Philadelphia 1905) 218.
188 Seager (supra n. 81) 118.
189 E. Hall, "Early Painted Pottery from Gournia," in
Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, University of
Pennsylvania 1.3 (Philadelphia 1904) 191-206.
190 H. Boyd, "Gournia," in Transactions (supra n. 189)
186.
191 Hall (supra n. 189) 193.
192 Seager (supra n. 81) 118. Hall (supra n. 189) 193.
193 Myrtos 93-94.
194 For cups, cf. Myrtos figs. 64-65 with Hall (supra n.
189) pl. XXVI and Andreou fig. 6. For jugs, cf. Myrtos figs.
68-73 with Hall (supra n. 189) pl. XXXI and Andreou fig.
6. For bridge-spouted jars, cf. Myrtos figs. 85-88 with Hall
(supra n. 189) pls. XXIX-XXX and Andreou fig. 7. This
scheme makes the spiraliform style of the North Trench
overlap the second phase (defined by the presence of spirals)
of MM IA at Knossos, as S. Hood in CretChron 15/16
(1961/1962) 94.
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720 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
between EM IIB deposits at Fournou Ko
the Gournia North Trench deposit.
This reconstruction agrees with Seager's d
tion of the "EM III" well deposit from
which he dates later than the strata in the EM II-III
pits.195 As Seager noted, the well contents were not a
gradual accumulation, but were dumped in all at
once. Seager distinguished two levels in the major
construction (Houses A and B) at Vasiliki in his period
V. These can now be securely dated to MM IA/B
and MM IB/II.196 By the process of elimination, the
evidence above suggests that Seager's well group is
MM IA (in Knossian terms) material dumped into
the well, probably at the start of reconstruction at
Vasiliki. More recent study by Andreou has shown
that some of Seager's "EM III" deposits at Mochlos
are also later. The deposit under House D, dated
EM III/MM I, is contemporary with Vasiliki House
B, Pyrgos/Myrtos II, and Knossian MM IA (table
1).'19 The excavators at Mochlos acknowledge a gap
in prepalatial occupation of the site,198 which they
date to MM IA. This is unlikely, given the fact that
14 of the Mochlos tombs contain MM IA pottery.199
Since MM IA is a well-documented period200 of occupation
for the Mochlos settlement, this gap then
probably occurs in the EM III chronological (not
stylistic) period.
A Middle Bronze date for the "EM III" East Cretan
style can also be derived independently, by
means of ceramic parallels from outside of Crete.
The kantharos from House D at Mochlos, for example,
is an Anatolian shape characteristic of MB 1,201
decorated in typical MB I Syro-Cilician style.202
From the same deposit at Vasiliki comes a Cycladicizing
jug with parallels from Phylakopi Iii.203
The decoration of early Barbotine ware follows
Anatolian fashion.204 Amiran has pointed out that
the deep rounded cups characteristic of "EM III"
deposits in Crete also have close parallels, including
the same vestigial handles, in the MB I Levant.205
The MB I phase in the Levant is dated ca. 2000-
1900 B.C. and thus corresponds to MM IA.206
The scheme proposed here has the advantage of
offering a solution for some of the problems of the
old chronology, namely, that 1) the tombs at Mochlos
and Archanes were full of costly materials imported
from the Cyclades at a time when the Cyclades
were experiencing depopulation and
turbulence; 2) excavations at Mochlos, Gournia,
and Vasiliki, showed that "EM III" was a period of
prosperity for the first two sites and one of extreme
poverty for nearby Vasiliki; and 3) East Cretan "EM
III" pottery is supposed to represent a chronological
period but it has not been isolated stratigraphically
(and it is found in the same deposits as Central
Cretan MM IA at Mallia, Mochlos, Pyrgos, and
Palaikastro).
One hesitates to step into the whirlpool of Early
Cycladic chronology, but it may be significant that
the "gap" noticed on many Cretan sites in EM III
corresponds closely in time to late EC III when at
least some Cycladic sites (e.g., Agia Eirene on Kea)
are deserted, and that the spread of new settlements
on Crete early in MM IA also seems to correspond
to the time when Phylakopi Iii is established.
MIDDLE MINOAN IA
Excavation of MM IA levels at major s
on Crete is extremely limited. In additi
tion of MM IA deposits has been hampe
lems of ceramic definition.20' Several h
and C) from the Knossos West Court, h
195 Seager (supra n. 81) 119: "Moreover, scattered
sherds of the mottled (Vasiliki) ware were found in almost
every metre, but in much smaller numbers than was the
case in the pits where the cruder light on dark ware, identical
with the sherds from the Gournia dump, was found
side by side with the mottled ware which at first retained
its old popularity. Thus we must suppose that the contents
of the well are of a slightly later date and represent
Period IV at its highest stage of development."
196 Andreou 73-75, 102-103, and 172.
197 Andreou 71-73.
198 Soles and Davaras (supra n. 11) 417.
199 See the list of MM IA tombs in Soles 201.
200 See R. Seager, "Excavations on the Island of Mochlos,
Crete, in 1908," AJA 13 (1909) figs. 6-8 and 13.1, 3-5,
and 7.
201 Cf. the Mochlos kantharos (Seager [supra n. 200]
292, fig. 13, upper right) to Anatolian examples (S. Lloyd
and J. Mellaart, Beycesultan II [London 1965] passim).
202 Levant 68-70, fig. 23, nos. 1-4, 21-23.
203 Cf. the Mochlos jug (Seager [supra n. 200] 292, fig.
13, lower left) with examples from Phylakopi (T. Atkinson,
Phylakopi [London 1904] pl. 9).
204 V. Watrous, "The Anatolian Origin of Minoan Barbotine
Decoration," Proceedings of the Tenth Congress of the
Turkish Historical Society (Ankara 1990) 133-37.
205 E.g., Mochlos fig. 49, nos. 58-60; R. Amiran, "The
Middle Bronze I and the Early Minoan III," CretChron 23
(1971) 52-57, esp. 55-56, and cf. fig. 1, nos. 1-5 and pl.
IA'.
206 Levant 101-108 and table 9 for the chronology of
MB I in the Near East.
207 Three recent ceramic studies, based on stratigraphic
deposits, have redefined MM IA and MM IB-II pottery.
In all cases, the authors have shown that pottery assigned
by Evans to MM IA should be dated MM IB or MM II:
Andreou; Momigliano (supra n. 185) 149-272; and A.
MacGillivray, Pottery of the Old Palace Period at Knossos and Its
Implications (Diss. Univ. of Edinburgh 1986). Thus Hood's
"EM III" deposit at Knossos has been dated later because
the Helladic import in the deposit has been dated to MH
I. See Coleman (supra n. 36) 270.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 721
been identified as dating to MM IA.208 The deposits
from these houses have produced loomweights,
vases for food processing, several large pithoi, and
numerous Cycladic-looking vases.209 The early hypogaeum
underneath the South Porch of the palace
cannot be dated precisely, but Momigliano's recent
restudy of the associated pottery shows it is mostly
MM IA.210 A clay jar stopper, stamped with two different
seals (one from the MM I Parading Lions
group), was found on the floor of an "EM III/MM
IA" house near the south front of the palace.21' Nevertheless,
Knossos seems to have grown considerably
in this period, since MM IA pottery has been
found widely beyond the edge of the earlier Early
Minoan settlement. According to Hood's survey of
the Knossos area, MM IA was a period of rapid
expansion for Knossos, and the site may have been
fortified in that period.212 Evidence for the size of
MM IA Phaistos is more fragmentary but it does
appear that the settlement grew, perhaps substantially,
during this period.213
MM IA Mallia is a large settlement, as scattered
finds from south, west, and north of the later palace
area indicate.214 At this time a wall of immense limestone
boulders, probably for purposes of fortification,
was constructed north of area A and between
the north edge of the town of Mallia and the coast.215
At Palaikastro numerous deposits, including some
with MM IA eggcups, indicate that the settlement
was also sizable in this period.216 On the hilltop of
Vasiliki, Seager's Houses A and B as well as Zois's
Houses F, (D, and X were built.217 On the south slope
of the hill, Zois's 1990-1993 excavations have revealed
two massive walls (PA 1 and PAb), separated
by a corridor, that probably date to this period. Wall
PAb ends at the northeast in a rectangular mass,
which resembles a tower. If so, these walls may be
part of an early fortification. Remains of well-built
structures have also been found on the central hilltop
(E-50), and on the south slope (PB 1).18
At Mochlos substantial deposits of MM IA vases
were found in blocks A and C and under House D.219
Excavations there in 1993 revealed an MM IA building.220
Gournia produced a very large deposit of
MM IA pottery (North Trench Deposit) that had
been dumped over the north edge of a massive
wall.22' Thus, Gournia may have been fortified in
MM IA.
Smaller excavated sites of this period are few in
number: Chamaizi, Agia Photia, Pyrgos/Myrtos, and
Patrikies (fig. 1). In the mountains southwest of
Siteia, the oval-shaped structure built (over an EM
settlement) on a hilltop near the village of Chamaizi
has been called an MM IA peak sanctuary, because
of the offering table and figurines discovered
there.222 Davaras's reinvestigation of this building
has revealed new details that suggest its domestic
character.223 Ten rooms, with household pottery,
pithoi (one inscribed with the Linear A sign for
wine), loomweights, and stone tools, face out onto a
small paved court with a cistern.224 Axes, an adz, a
chisel, and a sickle (as well as a spearhead) recov-
208 Momigliano (supra n. 185) 206-36 and 185-95.
209 Momigliano's reexamination of these deposits suggests
that they are mixed, containing prepalatial and MM
II vases (supra n. 185) 167-77, 206-35. For the Cycladiclooking
examples: pyxides (PM I, 166-68, fig. 118b);
askos (PM IV, 79-80); and other vases ( H. and J. Pendlebury,
"Two Protopalatial Houses at Knossos," BSA 30
(1928/1930) 60, fig. 5.8, and pl. 12a. 10. As the parallels for
the Cycladic imports are with Phylakopi Iii (cf. the Knossos
askos and Phylakopi, pl. IX. 11, and other examples in
MacGillivray [supra n. 178] 73), which is in turn connected
with MH I contexts at Lerna and other mainland
sites (see Coleman [supra n. 36] 268 for references), these
Cycladicizing vases, and the prepalatial groups they are a
part of, are better referred to as Middle Bronze I (MM IA)
than earlier, pace Wilson (supra n. 89). MacGillivray [supra
n. 178] 74 states that the evidence for Cycladic contacts is
far more plentiful in Crete in MM IA than during the EB
II period.
210 Momigliano (supra n. 185) 195-98.
211 S. Hood and V. Kenna, "An Early Minoan Sealing
from Knossos," AntCr 1 (1973) 103-106. As Weingarten
(infra n. 329) 3-4 notes, if this sealing was stamped by two
seal owners, it could be a sign of supra-household admini-
stration.
212 Hood and Smyth (supra n. 11) 8. Possible fortification
wall at Knossos: S. Hood, "Archaeology in Greece,
1960-61," AR 1960-1961, 27.
213 The Western Mesara Survey (see Watrous et al., supra
n. 10) found MM IA pottery to the west of the hill of
Ephendi Christou. The Italian excavations have revealed
MM IA deposits in the area of the palace and in Chalara
(ASAtene 19/20 [1957/1958] 170-77; 45/46 [1967/1968] 66;
Fest1s I, 288-94).
214 van Effenterre 30-41 and map on 52. Miiller 1992
(supra n. 10).
215 van Effenterre 266-67. Only two stretches of this
wall are known.
216 Chronology 18 lists the deposits.
217 Seager (supra n. 81) 123-29; and A. Zois, Prakt 1980,
331-36.
218 A. Zois has kindly supplied me with this information
from his unpublished 1992 report to the Epyov.
219 Seager (supra n. 200) 273-303.
220 J. Soles and C. Davaras, "1993 Excavations at Mochlos,"
AJA 97 (1993) 45-46 (abstract).
221 Hall (supra n. 189).
222 N. Platon, "To L p6v Madr KcLt a MLV"OiKd tepi Kopv4
q," CretChron 5 (1951) 122-24.
223 C. Davaras, "The Oval House at Chamaizi Reconsidered,"
AAA 5 (1972) 283-88.
224 Some of these objects come from the original excavation.
See S. Xanthoudides, "Ec Kprjrlq," ArchEph 1906,
116-55.
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722 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
l
0m m
O rl
Fig. 11. Plan of building at Agia Photia. (After M. Tsipopoulou, in E. French and K. Wardle
eds., Problems in Greek Prehistory [Bristol 1988] 32, fig. 1)
ered outside the house also may have been for domestic
use. The large number of stone vessels, some
of them duplicates, may indicate the presence of a
workshop.225 The Chamaizi house may well have
been built late in MM IA, since some of the pottery
has parallels with Patrikies, but it must have continued
into MM IB, since a number of the vases are
protopalatial, including the "Chamaizi pots" whose
MM IB-II workshop has been found at Mallia.226
Excavations in 1985-1986 at the headland ofAgia
Photia east of Siteia have revealed a large rectangular,
one-story building that consists of groups of
rooms (22 in total) opening onto an inner court,
originally with a single entrance on the west (figs.
11-12).227 Located next to the building is a silo-like
structure (kouloura) identified as a place for storage.
A fortification wall with four apsidal towers is preserved
around three sides of the building. Finds
from the building, domestic pottery, numerous
ground stone tools, many obsidian blades (as well as
cores and debris), hearths, a bronze ax, and a loomweight,
indicate that it was used for living and working
quarters. The published pottery from the building
appears to span MM IA and MM IB. After the
abandonment of the building, two additional koulouras
were built on the site in MM II. The complex
is distinctive for several reasons: its fortification
walls, unparalleled architectural plan, and large
225 Xanthoudides (supra n. 224) pl. 11, nos. 2-3, 15-16.
In addition, the stone object, pl. 9.10, looks like a mold for
metal.
226 MM IA-style vases include Xanthoudides (supra n.
224) pl. 9.6-10. Cf. pl. 9.6 and the teapots in N. Bonacasa,
"Patrikies-Una stazione medio-minoica fra Haghia Triada
e Fest6s," ASAtene 45/46 (1967/1968) 7-54. MM IB-II
vases are shown in pl. 8.4 and pl. 9.1-3 ("Chamaizi vases")
and 11. The "Chamaizi vase" workshop at Mallia is published
in H. and M. van Effenterre, Fouilles executies a Mallia:
Maisons IV (EtCret 22, Paris 1976) 66-84.
227 M. Tsipopoulou, "AyLcFw cri T rlTEi'ag: To vEo
Evprlta," in French and Wardle (supra n. 121) 31-48;
Myers et al. (supra n. 74) 66-69.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 723
Fig. 12. Aerial view of Agia Photia. (W. and E. Myers and G. Cadogan, The Aerial Atlas
of Ancient Crete [Berkeley 1992] fig. 6.2, courtesy W. and E. Myers)
number of ground stone tools. Its exposed position
on the coast and the evidence for food processing
and imports point to its involvement in maritime
trade.
The site of Patrikies sits on the ridge that runs
between Phaistos and Agia Triada. During excavations,
six rooms of a larger complex (hamlet?) and a
paved road were revealed.228 Large amounts of pottery
were recovered, especially teapots. Because of
the specialized nature of the pottery, Patrikies has
been identified as the site of a ceramic workshop. At
Pyrgos/Myrtos a settlement was established on the
hilltop in MM IA.229 Small MM IA settlements share
certain characteristics: they are new foundations,
fortified or built on defensible locations, and they
show signs of specialized production and fore
contacts.230
Survey results also show that the countryside is
tentatively resettled at this time. In the northern
Isthmus of lerapetra, survey in 1992-1993 revealed
that, after the abandonment of many EM II sites,
the region is first resettled, in small numbers, in MM
IA. In the Western Mesara, the number of settlements
drops sharply after EM II; moreover, half of
the MM IA sites are new foundations.
Burials thus continue to provide the bulk of the
artifactual information for MM IA Crete. The most
impressive early second-millennium B.C. cemetery
known on Crete is at Archanes, on the southern
hilltop of Phourni. The cemetery appears to be
228 Bonacasa (supra n. 226); Festas I, pl. 16 illustrates
additional vases from the site.
229 G. Cadogan,"Pyrgos, Crete, 1970-7," AR 24 (1976-
1977) 71-74.
230 S. Alexiou pointed to the defensive location of a
number of MM I sites-Chamaizi, Kastri (Palaikastro),
Kastello (Tzermiado), Boubouli (Viannos), Volakas (Koumasa),
and Vigla (Apesokari)-in "TELX' KatL aLKpoo6kXELg
o'q ptLVOil KpTfit," KpriroAoyia 8 (1979) 41-56.
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724 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
4
12
194
01E
0, 10 20mFig. 13. Plan of the Phourni cemetery at Archanes, south
sector. (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, Archanes [Athens 1991]
67, fig. 40)
grouped into four architectural complexes: Tholos
E, Building 16 and perhaps 19; Tholos F, Buildings
5, 8, 9, 13, and 24-26; Tholos B and Building 7; and
Building 6 (fig. 13).
Fig. 14. Necklace of amethyst and sard from Tholos E,
Phourni cemetery (Archanes). (After I. and E. Sakellarakis,
Prakt 1975, pl. 240d)
Tholos E, the earliest structure at Phourni, was
built in EM II (see above). In the upper level of the
tholos were 56 MM IA burials, found in 29 larnakes,
two pithoi, and in the earth between the containers.
Burials consisted of skeletal remains, personal possessions,
burnt animal offerings (caprid, cattle, bird,
fish, and perhaps pig and hare), seashells, and pebbles.
Possessions included bone/ivory and steatite
seals, necklaces (fig. 14), pendants and a ring of
bone/ivory, silver, faience, amethyst, sard, steatite,
and bronze, obsidian blades, pottery, and a few
stone mortars and vases.231 The upper layer is dated
to MM IA by the excavators, but several finds, e.g.,
a bronze ring of the signet type and ajuglet, indicate
that some of the burials there continued into the
MM IB-II period.232 Building 16 contained burials
similar to those in the upper level of E, and may
have served as an annex to the tholos.233 The small
apsidal vaulted Building 19 also served to hold later
231 I. and E. Sakellarakis, Prakt 1975, 268-92.
232 For the signet ring, see Higgins (supra n. 137) 68-69
for its late date. For thejuglet, D. Levi, "La tomba a tholos
di Kamilari presso a Fest6s," ASAtene 23/24 (1961/1962)
85, fig. 113c; Festas II, pl. 38f.
233 I. and E. Sakellarakis (supra n. 231) 307-12; Prakt
1976, 392-98.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 725
burials of the MM IB-III period.234 Larnax burials
at Archanes apparently begin in MM IA; the occurrence
of these burials alongside simple inhumations
within Tholos E might be taken as a sign of increased
wealth and social stratification. The finds
recorded inside the larnakes, however, do not differ
much from those accompanying inhumations.
A second tholos (F) was constructed north of E in
MM IA.235 Tholos F, 3.60 m in diameter, was vaulted
and buttressed by adjoining buildings. In the upper
burial layer were 11 larnakes and a pithos. Except
for animal bones in the pithos, there were no other
finds in this level. Why those larnakes were found
empty remains a mystery. Underneath the larnakes,
a leveling course of stones had been laid on the
bedrock over which earth had been spread. All of
the rich finds (e.g., fig. 15) from Tholos F were
found in the earth floor and among the stones and
probably should be dated to the MM IA period.236
The 269 objects included 13 stone and two ivory
figurines; 15 pendants of ivory, two of faience, and
one of gold; an ivory, silver, and bronze pin; 38
beads of gold, two of rock crystal, and one of ivory;
eight ivory seals; three bronze daggers (fig. 16); a
few clay and stone vases; obsidian blades; animal
bones; and seashells. Evidence of Cycladic contact,
Fig. 15. Finds from Tholos F, Phourni cemetery (Archanes).
(After I. Sakellarakis in J. Thimme and P GetzPreziosi
eds., Art and Culture of the Cyclades [Karlsruhe
1977] 153, fig. 148)
234 I. and E. Sakellarakis 1976 (supra n. 232) 351-85;
Prakt 1977, 481. All the vases illustrated in I. Sakellarakis
and E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, Archanes (Athens 1991) 124,
pl. 102 are MM IB or later. The cup, from the lower level
of the tomb, in Prakt 1976, 377, fig. 13 is MM IB/II. The
small larnax in Prakt 1976, 355, fig. 5 is MM III; cf. Betancourt
(supra n. 169) figs. 31 and 40. See also C. Maggidis,
"Tomb 19, Phourni (Archanes): Originality and Variety in
the MM I Burial Architecture," in ITEjrpaytpFva (supra n.
72).
235 I. and E. Sakellarakis, Prakt 1972, 327-51; 1973,
179-81.
236 The excavators group the two strata together and
date them to EM III, Prakt 1972, 349 n. 2. Such an early
dating may have been influenced by the Spedhos-type
figurines in the deposit, which they regard as EC II (Prakt
1977, 148). All discussions of the Cycladic folded-arm
figurines agree that the duration of their manufacture is
uncertain. Renfrew concluded that they probably continued
into the MBA: C. Renfrew, "The Development and
Chronology of the Early Cycladic Figurines," AJA 73
(1969) 26. More specifically, a Spedhos-type figurine (Atkinson
[supra n. 203] pl. 30.2) comes from a First City
context on Phylakopi, which is almost certainly MC I
(Renfrew [supra] 25, Phyl. 2). The ceramic "EM III" parallels
cited differ considerably in their shape, necks, and
decorations from the Archanes examples. Closer parallels
follow. The small jug (Prakt 1972, pl. 290b, middle) has
single knobs on its belly, an early form of Barbotine typical
of MM IA; cf. BSA 86 (1991) 27, no. 27 and pl. 31, no. 27.
The globular body and short neck of the jug (Prakt 1972,
pl. 290b, right) have MM IA parallels; cf. A. Zois,
Ipof3PAljiara xpovoAoyia; Trr/; Mtvotl4;K KEpaEtwKc1r (Ath-ens 1969) pl. 8, bottom, 10, no. 7022; 18, no. 7003, left.
The miniaturejuglet (Prakt 1972, pl. 290b, left) has a good
MM IB parallel at Kamilari: Levi (supra n. 232) 79, fig.
102, bottom left. Just outside the entrance of the tomb
another burial produced two vases. The conical cup (Prakt
1973, pl. 177b) is an MM IA type (E. Fiandra, in JHEfrpayytpva
rov F' ALeOvoig5 Kp1roloytlKO5 vVE6bpliov [Athens
1973] pl. 19a) that continues into early MM IB (Festbs I,
pl. 16, 1 and p). The slender double jug (Prakt 1973, pl.
179a) is a common MM IB type (ASAtene 23/24
[1961/1962] 79, fig. 102a).
The evidence of strong Cycladic contacts in the deposits
also makes an EM III date difficult to accept. The
chronological sequence of Cycladic imports at Knossos is
clear: imports occur in large numbers in EM IIA and
begin again in MM IA. There are virtually no signs of
Cycladic contact at Knossos in EM IIB and EM III: Wilson
(supra n. 89) where Wilson and MacGillivray's ongoing
study of Cycladic imports at EM II-MM II Knossos is
cited. The excavators at Archanes note that the distinctive
stone-packed lower level in Tholos F is also found in the
bottom level of the adjacent Building 13, which like F, is
built on bedrock. This level of Building 13, which contains
gold, obsidian, and ivory objects similar to those in F, is
probably contemporary with the lower level in F. It is
dated to MM IA in Prakt 1973, 186-87. All of the arguments
above point strongly to an MM IA date for the
lower level in Tholos F.
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726 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 16. Three bronze daggers from Th
cemetery (Archanes). (After I. Sakellarak
and P Getz-Preziosi eds., Art and Cultur
[Karlsruhe 1977] 147, fig. 135)
in the Spedhos-type figurines, meta
is pronounced.237
Built next to Tholos F, Building 13
temporary with the lower level in
child burials, jewelry, a human figu
horn, a gold bird-shaped pendant, an
North of Tholos F, Building 7 was
MM IA to hold burials. Despite be
stroyed by Tholos B, which was erec
building produced a rich series of
floor or in larnakes. Finds included
sions, clay vases (cup, juglet, bowl, co
jars), a bronze knife and tweezers, ivo
seals, an Egyptian faience scarab (
jewelry (ivory and gold pendants, a g
necklaces of crystal, sard, amethyst,
ience beads), and the remains o
stamped sealing, a c
ine of a male with his hands on his chest, a stone
kernos and bird's nest bowl, animal bones including
a boar's tusk, obsidian, and seashells.239
During the MM IA period, Tholos B was built
over Building 7.240 During the protopalatial period
five annexes were added around three sides of the
tholos forming a large rectangular, two-story structure.
Funerary finds indicate that these rooms were
used continuously for burials until the LM IIIA period.
Building 6, originally a single room, was constructed
in MM IA at the highest part of the cemetery.
The two eastern rooms contained 196 burials
accompanied by jewelry (necklaces, pendants, and
rings), 16 seals, and an Egyptian scarab (fig. 17,
lower), as well as offerings such as stone and clay
vases, "sheepbells," and many seashells. Four of the
seals bear hieroglyphic inscriptions, the earliest examples
of literacy found on Crete (fig. 18). One extraordinary
seal has 14 faces (fig. 19). Along the east
Fig. 17. Egyptian faience scarabs from Phourni cemetery
(Archanes): upper, from Building 7; lower, from Building
6. (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, Archanes [Athens 1991] 97,
fig. 69)
237 I. and E. Sakellarakis (supra n. 235) 349-51; I.
Sakellarakis, "The Cyclades and Crete," in J. Thimme and
P Getz-Preziosi eds., Art and Culture of the Cyclades in the
Third Millennium B.C. (Karlsruhe 1977) 147-53.
2'" I. and E. Sakellarakis, Prakt 1973, 186-87.
239 Building 7: I. and E. Sakellarakis, Prakt 1967, 153-
57; 1971, 277-81. This level in Building 7 was not sealed
from above and may have contained finds of a protopalatial
or later date, since an LM III kylix was found in one
larnax.
240 I. and E. Sakellarakis 1967 (supra n. 239) 153-57;
1971 (supra n. 239) 277-82. Tholos B was originally dated
to the Old Palace period, Prakt 1966, 176. Only finds from
its final LM IIIA use remained in the tholos chamber, but
MM IA pottery (Lahanas, infra n. 241) resting against the
south face of its retaining wall dates its construction.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 727
Fig. 18. Hieroglyphic seal from Building 6 at Phourni
cemetery (Archanes). (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, Archanes
[Athens 1991] 102, fig. 75)
side of Building 6 a 3-m-high terrace raised it above
the level of surrounding buildings and provided a
paved area in front of its entrance. Many conical
cups as well as other cups and a human figurine
with its hand on its chest were found on the paved
platform. Excavation below and to the east of the
terrace revealed some 300 vases thrown down from
the paved area above: the finds-kernoi, figurines,
and many cups-seem to have come from some
form of ceremony carried out in front of Building
6. The excavators date the building to MM IA, but
the associated pottery is MM IA-II.241
Fig. 19. Hieroglyphic seal from Building 6, Phourni cemetery
(Archanes). (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, ArchDell 21
[1966] pl. 441a)
211 Finds firom the paved area: Prakt 1973, 174. Seals:
CMS II.1, 391-94. None of the more than 70 vases from
inside Building 6 have been published. The associated
deposit below and to the east of Building 6 appears in I.
and E. Sakellarakis, "AjrOeg KCpaetVKg ;iqg Trek4'T(l(g
qdoe J TOW JTpoavaXKTopLKO)V Xp6vypv e g ApXYOveg,"
ArchEph 1972, Chronika, 1-11. The deposit was dated to
EM III-MM IA in Ar(hDell 21 (1966) Chronika 411-12.
The pottery illustrated from this deposit spans MM
IA-MM II. Parallels follow. Carinated cup (ArchEph 1972,
pls. Eb), cf: Fesl6s 1, 738, no. 3313; Feshos II, pls. 130-34.
Teapot (ArchE)ph 1972, pl. IAb), cf. Festos II, pl. 30h. Thmbler
(ArchEph 1972, pl. Ba, middle), cf. Fesibs II, pl. 119d.
Large cylindrical cup (ArchEph 1972, pl. Ea), cE Feslos II,
pls. 126a-d; 127f. Straight-sided cup (ArchEph 1972, pl.
Da), cf' BSA 86 (1991) 170 no. 9. Eggcups (ArchEp)h 1972,
pl. Ba, right, G) are not the MM IA type (Pepragmena 1990
I, 482, fig. 3) and also show developed, post-MM IA decoration.
The spherical cup (ArchIEph 1972, pl. Za, left) is a
type that continues into MM II (BSA 86 [1990] 250-51,
type 2). For the carinated cup (ArchEph 1972, pl. Fa) see
the example from an MM IB context at Mallia, H. Chevalier
et al., Fouilles exculdees a Mallia: Sondages au Sud-Ouest
du Palais (E/Crel 20, Paris 1975) no. 6. The crinkled rim
of the goblet in pl. 2, upper left, is an Anatolian metallicizing
feature that is known there only after 1900, see E.
Davis, "The Silver Kantharos from Gournia," TUAS 4
(1979) 34-45. For the unique metallicizing kernos
(ArchEph 1972, pl. IG) see T. and N. Ozgig, Kiillepe Kazzsi
Raporu 1949 (Ankara 1953) pl. 55, no. 528. Other examples
from Kiltepe II-lb are on display in the Konya
Museum.
Alter writing this article, I was shown the unpublished
Ph.D. thesis ofAlexandros Lahanas, Ein Keramik Depot aus
Archanes und seine Bedeutung fiir die Entwicklung der mittelminoischen
Keranmik (Freiburg 1994) by I. Sakellarakis. Lahanas
correctly dates, on stylistic grounds, the pottery from
this deposit to the MM IA, MM IB, and MM II periods.
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728 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
The Phourni cemetery provides us with i
tant new information on chronology, bur
toms, the appearance of literacy,242 overs
tacts, and social organization. The Phourni d
illustrate a chronological sequence of asse
useful for defining certain aspects of cultura
opment in EM II-MM II Crete. The EM II
(Tholos E, lower stratum) consists of many
of bone, obsidian, and steatite as well as lesser
amounts of clay, gold, bronze, and local stone. Imports
are probably limited to materials from the
Aegean islands. Possessions and offerings (two stone
vases and animal sacrifices) are relatively few and
simple. In the upper, MM IA level of Tholos E there
is a greater incidence of seals; likewise, there is a
greater range of clay vases. Bronze and shell objects
appear and jewelry comes in varied materials (sard,
amethyst, alabaster, rock crystal, faience, and silver
make their first appearance in the MM IA level).
The use of bone, obsidian, flint, and steatite is less
frequent than in EM II.
The basal level of Tholos F (MM IA) is similar in
most respects to the upper stratum of E but is richer.
The deposit contained many objects of ivory/bone,
obsidian, marble, gold, and bronze. Imported materials
(including lead) are more common and there
is a greater variety in the materials and forms of
jewelry (fig. 15). Building 7, also of MM IA date,
produced a variety of new seal shapes and the first
Egyptian object, a faience scarab (fig. 17, upper).
From Building 13 came a human figurine and a
gold bird-shaped pendant. Clay and stone vases remain
a minor component of both EM II and MM IA
deposits. The first bifacial seals, a clay figurine,
"sheepbells," and miniature pots appear in MM IA.
Burials made in larnakes, pithoi, or jars are often
accompanied by animal bones, seashells, and pebbles.
Generally the MM IA deposits at Phourni are
larger than the EM II deposit and are much more
numerous, suggesting a sharp rise in population at
Archanes. Signs of greater wealth are unmistakable
in the number of personal seals, foreign imports
(from the Cyclades and perhaps lead from Lavrion),
and particularly the more varied imported materials
used in jewelry.
In 1972 I. and E. Sakellarakis suggested, on the
basis of the finds from Tholos F at Archanes, that
island peoples had settled there.243 There is now
more evidence to suggest that not only Archanes but
many north coast settlements received island and
eastern immigrants at the beginning of the MM I
period. Cist graves, a Cycladic form of burial, appear
for the first time on Crete in MM IA, at many
sites along the north coast, at Archanes ("enclosures"),
Mallia, Pseira, Sphoungaras, and Zakros.244
Pithos burials, a type characteristic of western Anatolia
(and rare in the Aegean), appear at this time
along the whole north coast of Crete from Chania to
Zakros.245 At MM IA Knossos Cycladic-style vases
were produced in local clay.246 The suggestion that
Cretan settlements grew in MM IA partly as a result
of immigration fits the evidence from the Aegean
islands and western Anatolia, which at this time
show signs of unrest and population movement.247
MM IA burials at Mallia are numerous and of
many types: burials in rock crevices, pithos or larnax
burials, cist tombs, and house tombs. House
tombs also varied in size. A well-preserved mediumsized
example, the "House of the Dead" was a rectangular
building with a stuccoed and painted
atrium and seven inner rooms that contained inhumation,
cist, and pithos burials continuing into the
protopalatial period. Offerings included stone
vases, an offering table, a teapot, lamps and juglets,
and a clay imitation of an Egyptian stone vase.248
The first phase of the tomb at Chrysolakkos dates
to MM IA.249 According to Soles's new reconstruction,
the paved terrace along the west facade of
242 J.-_ Olivier, "The Relationship between Inscriptions
on Hieroglyphic Seals and Inscriptions," in T. Palaima ed.,
Aegean Seals, Sealings and Administration (Aegaeum 5, Liege
1990) 11-19 and the important article by J. Younger,
"New Observations on Hieroglyphic Seals," SMEA 28
(1990) 85-92 on the use of the hieroglyphic script on seals.
243 I. and E. Sakellarakis (supra n. 235) 350-51 and I.
Sakellarakis, "Td KJKCaKt6cd oot~yEiC to ApyaLvov," AAA
10 (1977) 93-115. This view was criticized by C. Doumas,
"HIpoQToplKL K'Khc'aLFTg onrI Kpnil," AAA 9 (1976) 69-80.
244 I. Pini, Beitrdge ziir minoischen Grdberfunde (Wiesbaden
1968) 9.
245 Pini (supra n. 244). 11-13; T Wheeler, "Early Bronze
Age Burial Customs in Western Anatolia," AJA 78 (1974)
415-25.
246 A. MacGillivray et al., "Dark-faced and Incised
Pyxides and Lids from Knossos: Problems of Date and
Origin," in French and Wardle (supra n. 121) 91-93.
247 For the Aegean islands, see Coleman (supra n. 36)
266-69. Western Anatolia, M. Mellink, "The Early Bronze
Age in West Anatolia," in G. Cadogan ed., The End of the
Early Bronze Age (Leiden 1986) 139-52.
248 Soles 173-76 with references. The Vapheio cups in
H. and M. van Effenterre, Fouilles executes dt Mallia: Etude
du site et exploration des necropoles (EtCret 13, Paris 1963) pl.
38 indicate use continued into the MM IB-II period.
249 The pottery from Chrysolakkos has been republished:
V Sttirmer, "La c'ramique de Chrysolakkos," BCH
117 (1993) 123-87.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 729
Chrysolakkos was bounded by a rubble and mudbrick
wall topped by a series of rounded capping
stones that are unparalleled outside of Egypt.250 A
long corridor, with alternating stone orthostates
and niches, ran along the east facade and joined
several other rooms that formed a shrine. These
rooms were fitted with benches, a plaster bin, and a
clay hearth. In front of the facade is a raised altar
and a kernos set into the floor at its base. The corridor
resembles the "corridor chapel" placed in front
of the facade of Old Kingdom mastabas with its alternating
niches set along the facade to receive
wooden panels.251 The interior of the great structure,
mostly covered by the second building phase,
contained rooms for burials. The pointed-bottomed
cups offered there have no Minoan parallels, but
are quite a common shape in Egypt.252 It is at this
time, in the late prepalatial period, when Chrysolakkos
was built, that undeniable evidence for social
ranking can be found in the Mallia cemeteries.
Ceramic studies enable us to identify much of the
material in the "EM II Mochlos tombs" as actually
dating to MM IA or MM IB. Iconography and style,
now often neglected in archaeological studies, also
allow us to appreciate more fully the extent of Cretan
overseas connections in this period. For example,
Mochlos Tomb II, the richest in the cemetery,
contains many MM IA objects. Two jugs date to this
period.253A clay bowl in Tomb II is unique.254 One of
the two seals in the tomb is engraved with a design
of antithetical cynocephalus apes, an Egyptian motif.255
Many of the stone vases from the Mochlos
tombs have been dated too high. In MSV, Warren
lists parallels for the vases in the Mochlos tombs and
dates the parallels to EM II or EM III on the basis
of the Mochlos examples. Warren's careful lists establish
two things: 1) most of the parallels are from
the unstratified Mesara tombs where the contexts
are EM II-MM IB/II, and 2) in at least a dozen
cases, vases called "Early Minoan" by Seager and
Warren have secure and exclusive MM I-II contexts.256
At least five stone vases are imitations of
Egyptian vase shapes and are not likely to be earlier
than the 12th Dynasty (see below).257 Other finds
from the tombs can be dated on the basis of associated
artifacts to MM IA. They include one or perhaps
two long daggers, a socketed arrowhead, two
knives, and rhyta of a woman and a bull.258
In earlier studies, the gold jewelry from the
Mochlos and Mesara tombs was taken as a sign of
250 Soles 163-66. Cf. P Demargne, Fouilles exdcuties da
Mallia: Exploration des nicropoles I (EtCret 7, Paris 1945) pl.
53.3 and D. Arnold, Building in Egypt (Oxford 1991) 148
and n. 151.
251 Cf. Demargne (supra n. 250) pl. 38.2 and W. Smith,
The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Baltimore 1958)
35-38 and fig. 8.
252 Cf. cups, Demargne (supra n. 250) pl. 39.3 and Stiirmer
(supra n. 249) 139-40, figs. 54-57. Cf. A. Kelley, The
Pottery of Ancient Egypt 1 (Toronto 1976) pl. 21.1 and vol.
II, pls. 36.1:27 and 37.5:173-93 and Dunand (supra n. 56)
pl. 151, no. 4035.
253 Cf. Mochlos, fig. 3, IIb and Momigliano (supra n.
185) 254, fig. 33, types 5 and 6 (MM IA); Mochlos, fig. 3,
IIr and Festas I, pl. 94 (MM IB).
254 Mochlos, fig. 3, IIL. H. Frankfort took it as Near Eastern:
Studies in the Early Pottery of the Near East 2 (London
1927) 122. He cites Eastern parallels for the decoration:
Iraq 15 (1953) 63, fig. 1; 66, fig. 4. The bowl shape is
Minoan, but the metope and butterfly decoration is derived
from the East where it is a hallmark of Syro-Cilician
painted wares at the beginning of the MBA, at Mersin,
Tarsus, Ugarit, and Alalakh. See Levant 68-70 and figs.
20.1; 23.1-14, 21-23. The vase dates to MB I in the Near
East (ca. 2000 -1900 B.C.) and thus is MM IA. See Levant
101-108 and table 9 for absolute dates of the MB I period
in the Near East.
255 PM I, 83; Pendlebury (supra n. 4) 72; V. Kenna,
Cretan Seals (Oxford 1960) 18. As Yule 33-35 observes, the
shape of this early seal (type 3a-b) can be dated primarily
to MM IA-II. Since this type of motif is entirely absent in
EM II Crete, the seal should date no earlier than the beginning
of the Middle Kingdom when strong contacts between
Crete and Egypt begin (see below).
256 All references are to Mochlos vases in MSV. Twobowls (types 8C and E) dated by Warren to EM II-MM
I/II, from Mochlos Tombs II and XIX; secure contexts:
MM IB-II at Mallia and MM II at Phaistos. A bowl (type
10) dated EM II-MM I by Warren, from Mochlos Tomb
XVII; secure context: MM IB onward at Kamilari. Two
jars (type 20) dated EM III-MM I by Warren, from Mochlos
Tombs VII and XIX; secure contexts: MM IB onward
at Kamilari (an imitation of the MM I clay tumbler!). Four
jugs (type 22) dated EM II-MM I by Warren, from Mochlos
Tombs I and VI; secure contexts: MM I-II at
Chamaizi, Mallia, and Kamilari. Three miniature amphoras
(type 28) dated EM II-MM I/II by Warren, from
Mochlos Tombs II and V; secure contexts: MM I at Palaikastro
and MM II at Mallia. Since specific stone vase
shapes change as rapidly as their ceramic counterparts
(e.g., MSV 98-100), the Mochlos vases must be Middle
Minoan (MM I-II) in date, not earlier.
257 MSV 71-72; 92 recognizes Mochlos fig. 7, nos. IIj, k,
and o as Egyptianizing. Three others are also probably
Egyptianizing: cf. Mochlos IId and A. Spencer, Catalogue of
the Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum 5 (London
1980) pl. 20, nos. 216 and 218; Mochlos fig. 7, IIe to be
compared to pl. 12.109 and pl. 14.135 and Mochlos fig. 18,
IV.3 and E Petrie, Funeral Furniture and Stone and Metal
Vases (London 1937) pl. 27, no. 533, without a base.
258 Dagger, Mochlos fig. 44 XIX 27; second dagger, fig.
44 XXI 22; arrowhead, fig. 45 XIX 34; knives, fig. 45 XIII
m and n; rhyta, figs. 28 II 14 and 32 XIIg.
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730 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
the wealth and commercial status of EM II Crete.
Branigan cites the diadems, for example, as an EM
II development and compares the blossoming of
Cretan goldworking to the jewelry from Troy IIg.259
This is problematic because there is only one EC II
gold diadem from the Cyclades. There are no certain
EM II examples from Crete, but there are 18
post-EM II examples as well as 51 "EM II-III/MM
I" examples.260 Much of this Minoan jewelry should
be compared to hoards of similar objects found in
MB I contexts at Killtepe, Byblos, and Egypt.261
Similarly, gold bracelets from Cretan tombs find
precise parallels at MB I Kfiltepe and Byblos.262 Distinctive
gold discs, with two perforations, are known
from tombs at Platanos and Killtepe Ib.263 Gold
bosses from Mochlos also have parallels at
Kiiltepe.264 Similar earrings are found at Mochlos
and MB I Byblos.265Additional gold diadems, beads,
and pendants from the tombs at Platanos,
Kalathiana, Koumasa, and Mochlos have now been
dated to the MM IB-II period.266 Seager compared
the necklace of gold tubular beads from Tomb III to
the common Egyptian "mummy" beads.'67 Precise
Egyptian parallels exist.268 The gold leaf pendants
from Mochlos Tombs II, IV, and XIX have an MM
IB-II parallel from Mallia.269 It is evident that much
of the gold jewelry from the Mochlos and Mesara
tombs is better dated to the beginning of the Middle
Minoan period.
The rich finds from the Mesara tholoi are unstratified,
but a few can be identified as MM IA in date
on the basis of parallels stratified elsewhere. It has
not been recognized that much of the Mesara material
spans the MM IA-II period. Platanos produced
an enormous number of stone vases; three imitate
MM IA ceramic shapes.270 Many groups of vases,
bird's nest bowls, bridge-spouted jars, calyx bowls,
two-handled and spouted bowls, goblets, cups, and
block vases probably begin to be produced in this
period and certainly continue well into the protopalatial
period.27' Platanos produced many Egyptianizing
stone vases: 11 tubular vases, eight pearshaped
alabastra, three cylindrical vases, 11
miniature alabastra, and 15 block vases that are MM
IA-II in date.272 A large number of the bronze daggers
from Platanos also probably date to this period.273
Over half of the 78 published seals from Platanos
belong to the late prepalatial period.274 Many
are part of Yule's Parading Lions/Spiral group, and
nearly all were imported from abroad.275 One figurine
is of a type common at Phylakopi Iii.276 Gold
beads, diadems, bosses, and rings similar to examples
from Mochlos are found at Platanos but cannot
be dated precisely. Gold pendants in the shape of a
259 Branigan 106 and 108. An inspection of Branigan's
list of these diadems and their attachments on pp. 183-84
shows that there are no examples from a secure EM II
context, but only from mixed or post-EM II deposits. The
Cretan gold jewelry bears little resemblance to the Trojan
IIg collection.
260 Branigan 183-84.
261 Cf. the diadems (Mochlos II.1 in figs. 8 and 9 and
VTM pl. 39b, no. 236) with T Ozgiiy, Kiiltepe-Kanesh II
(Ankara 1986) pls. 63.1-4, 64.1. Cf. the diadem (Mochlos
11.7 in fig. 9) with the similarly decorated example in
6zgfii (supra) 119 and fig. 23 dated to ca. 2000 B.C. See
also the diadems from the MB I Tomb II at Byblos in PE
Montet, Byblos et 1'Egypte (Paris 1928) pl. 98, nos. 645-46.
The peaked diadems from Crete are paralleled at MB I
Kiiltepe. Cf. Mochlos 11.4 and 6 in fig. 8 as well as the
example from Lebena Tomb I in ILN 1960, 225, fig. 6 with
Ozgfi? (supra) pl. 63.4 from level 1.
262 Cf. VTM pl. 57, nos. 491, 493 and Ozgiig (supra n.
261) pl. 63, nos. 6, 7, 10, 11, 13-16. Mochlos II.18f and h
and Montet (supra n. 261) pl. 104, nos. 690-91.
263 Cf. VTM pl. 57, middle, and Ozgii (supra n. 261) pl.
65.8-15. The Kiiltepe discs are thought to have been used
to cover the eyes of the deceased.
264 Cf. Mochlos 11.12 in fig. 9 and Ozgiig (supra n. 261)
pl. 72.6-7.
265 Cf. Mochlos fig. 9, 11.15 and Dunand (infra n. 305)
pl. 189, no. 17,755.
266 Higgins (supra n. 137) 58-59.
267 Mochlos 78 and fig. 20, 111.19.
268 Spencer (supra n. 257) pl. 20, no. 235 and also the
MB I example from Byblos, Montet (supra n. 261) pl. 94,
nos. 627-28.
269 Mochlos fig. 10, 11.35; fig. 20, IV.14; fig. 43, XIX.23.
Cf. van Effenterre 496, fig. 677.
270 VTM pl. 54, nos. 1673, 1886, and 1990.
271 For these vases, see VTM 98-104.
272 Pear-shaped alabastra: VTM 100, nos. 1690, 1691,
1682-84, 1689, 1966; cf. Petrie (supra n. 257) pl. 29, no.
605. Cylindrical jars: VTM 101, nos. 1637, 1640, 1904; cf.
Petrie (supra n. 257) pl. 12, nos. 109-27 and comments in
MSV 75-76. Miniature amphoras: VTM 100-101, nos.
1665, 1668, 1669, 1671, 1672, 1675, 1697, 1991, 2497; cf.
MSV 71-72 and P 355-57. Block vases: VTM 99, nos.
1619, 1620, 1622-25, 1627-29, 1633, 1636; cf. E Petrie,
Prehistoric Egypt (London 1920) pl. 42, figs. 213-14 as well
as Muhly (supra n. 150) 242-52. Tubular vases: VTM 101,
nos. 1638-41, 1697, 1916, 1990, 2497, 2515, 2516; cf.
Petrie (supra n. 257) pl. 27, nos. 551 and 595.
273 Branigan 8-10, types II-IV are MM IA, while types
V and VI probably span MM IA-II.
274 See VTM 112-23 and Yule 208-10, with Younger's
important review (supra n. 142).
275 O. Krzyszkowska,"Ivory in the Aegean Bronze Age,"
BSA 83 (1988) 229 identifies these seals as made from
Egyptian hippopotamus tusk.
276 VTM pl. 58, no. 225; Branigan (supra n. 49) 64.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 731
bee and a claw that imitate Egyptian types are MM
IA-II.277 Tholos A at Agia Triada also produced MM
IA finds: pottery, stone vases, 21 seals, some of the
bronze weapons, figurines, and jewelry.278 The unpublished
Lebena tombs have artifacts identified as
coming from MM IA levels. These include seals and
stone and clay vases.279 The two Egyptian scarabs are
important finds because of their secure context:
they establish the overlap of MM IA and the 12th
Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. The stone vases
include an Egyptianizing miniature goblet and an
Egyptianizing block vase ("kernos").280 At Pyrgos/Myrtos
a paved road was constructed south of
the settlement leading to a small courtyard in front
of a large house tomb with two ossuaries. Offerings
there included a rhyton in the shape of a dove and
cups.281
There has much recent work on Minoan peak
sanctuaries.282 A. Karetsou's excavations on Mt.
Jouktas have produced masses of new evidence that
modify Evans's earlier views on the sanctuary.283
Present evidence indicates that the sanctuary at
Jouktas began in MM IA.284 Excavation of the MM
IA-II burnt level on bedrock has shown that the
protopalatial sanctuary already covered an area of
at least ca. 200 x 100 m. The neopalatial architectural
features, the open court, terracing, and rooms
presently visible on the site cover the fragmentary
remains of protopalatial walls, which suggests that
the MM I-II shrine was an open area, perhaps terraced,
but simpler in plan than in MM III-LM I.285
The stepped structure, built next to a deep (over 10
m) chasm in the bedrock, probably served as an
altar in the MM IB-II period. Pottery from within
the chasm dates to MM I-III, most of it being protopalatial.286
Next to the altar was found a large
stone kernos (with ca. 100 cupules) and, in a depression
in the bedrock, a cache of bronze double
axes.287 The massive peribolos wall (over 700 m in
length) encircling the mountaintop, dated by Evans
to MM IA, has now been shown to be Late Minoan,
probably LM IIIC, in date.288 MM I-II levels in the
sanctuary have produced ash, animal bones, and
shells and include large numbers of pots (conical
cups, eggcups, tumblers, goblets, bridge-spouted
jars, jugs, shallow bowls, miniature vases, cooking
pots, pithoi); male figurines (which greatly outnumber
the female figurines); clay representations of
human heads, hands, and torsos; animal figurines
(sheep/goat, pig, birds, snakes, and bucrania); clay
balls; schematic representations of floral branches,
women crouching in childbirth, and phalloi; clay
"offering tables"; miniature stone vases; fragments
of gold foil; a gold pendant depicting a scorpion,
insect, and snake; seals; and bronze votive double
axes.289
277 Fly, VTM pl. 57, no. 487; cf. C. Aldred, Jewels of the
Pharaohs (New York 1971) 189 and pl. 29. Claw, VTM pl.
57, no. 489; cf. J. Bourriau, Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian
Art in the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge 1988) 149.
278 The 10 MM IA-II Egyptianizing shapes are listed
below (infra n. 309). MM IA seals, CMS 1.2, 20, 22, 25-28,
37-39, 52, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 62-65, 82, 89. Bronze
weapon, i.e., Banti (supra n. 98) 207.
279 Seals, CMS II.1, 193, 205-209, and scarabs, nos.
180, 201, and 204. According to James Weinstein (personal
communication), these three scarabs date to the
12th Dynasty. Stone vases, MSV 12, 27, 73, and 77. Pottery,
Alexiou (supra n. 61) 227, fig. 19.
280 Block vase, MSV 12. Egyptianizing goblet, Alexiou
(supra n. 61) 226, fig. 11, left.
281 Cadogan (supra n. 229) 70-84.
282 Aside from the excavations summarized here, mention
should be made of B. Rutkowski's (supra n. 30) republication
of the finds from the peak sanctuary of
Petsofas above Palaikastro. For the protopalatial period
Rutkowski (p. 18, fig. 1) reconstructs the shrine as an open
sacrificial area with terraces on one side. The volume provides
a catalogue of the clay finds (except pottery): male
and female figurines, votive torsos, arms and legs, animal
figurines (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, birds, agrimia, beetles,
turtles, weasels), balls, models of fruit and grain, and miniature
vases.
28" Karetsou's excavations at Jouktas were carried out
mainly between 1974 and 1985. Reports of her work appear
in Prakt 1974, 228-39; 1975, 330-42; 1976,
1977, 419-20; 1978, 232-58; 1979, 280-81; 1980,
1981, 405-408; 1984, 600-14; 1985, 286-96. A sum
of her research from 1974 to 1979 appeared in "T
Sanctuary of Mt. Jouktas," in R. Haigg and N. M
eds., Sanctuaries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age
holm 1981) 137-53.
284 In January 1994 the excavator discussed he
and unpublished study at Jouktas with me and cl
several points. According to Karetsou, the shri
probably established in MM IA and the few EM II
found on bedrock are unrelated to the later san
Her reasons are that 1) while there are a few EM I
on bedrock there is an enormous amount of MM IA
lowest burnt levels, and 2) unlike the EM II sher
MM IA finds-conical cups, sheep bells, figu
pithoi-have a ritual character. She also believes th
amount of white-on-dark wares in these levels is pr
MM IA in date.
285 See the plan in Prakt 1985, opp. p. 289.
286 I am indebted to A. Karetsou for this information,
which comes from E. Banou's unpublished study in 1993
of the pottery from inside the chasm.
287 Prakt 1974, 233 and pl. 173a.
288 Prakt 1979, 280-81.
289 The list above is preliminary and, with future study,
will undoubtedly grow. For MM I-II levels, Prakt 1974,
247-49; bronze axes, Prakt 1974, 232 and pl. 173a.
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732 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 20. View of the Agios Vasilios Valle
A. Peatfield)
In 1989 Peatfield excavated a complete peak
sanctuary at Atsipades in the inland valley of Agios
Vasilios south of Rethymnon (fig. 20).290 This peak
sanctuary was chosen for excavation because it was
a small rural shrine, unlike the great urban sanctuaries
at Jouktas and Petsofas. Finds at Atsipades
were distributed over a limited area (less than 200
m2) on two terraces. No traces of architecture were
found. Votive activity on the upper terrace was
confined to a natural hollow in the bedrock at the
east end. There waterworn pebbles brought from
the river in the valley below were laid out to form a
floor around an artificial earth platform, lined with
schist-like stones, which apparently supported an
(unknown) object that was the central feature of the
shrine. Vase fragments (as well as two clay offering
tables) were plentiful around the platform; especially
numerous were vase forms connected with libations-rhyta
and painted bridge-spouted jars.
While cups, dishes, jars, lamps, and cooking pots
were common at the site, signs of burning and animal
bones were absent. On the lower terrace the
votives as well as cups and dishes were concentrated
in the rock clefts.291 The pottery on the site is predominately
protopalatial and the shrine appears
not to have been used after MM II. It is claimed that
EM I (but no EM II) pottery has also been identified
at the site, but the relationship of that pottery with
the later shrine is unclear. Animal (mostly bovine)
Fig. 21. Animal figurines from the Atsipades peak sanctuary.
(Courtesy A. Peatfield)
290 The preliminary report of the excavation is A.
Peatfield, "Rural Ritual in Bronze Age Crete: The Peak
Sanctuary at Atsipadhes," Cambridge Archaeological Journal
2 (1992) 59-87. The excavator estimates that some 80% of
the site was dug.
291 Peatfield (supra n. 290) 67, fig. 7.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 733
Fig. 22. Heads of male figurines, Atsipades peak sanctuary. (Courtesy A. Peatfield)
figurines (fig. 21), male and female human figurines
(figs. 22-23), and clay phalloi (fig. 24) were numerous.
Aside from its lack of neopalatial finds, the
shrine differs from those at Jouktas and Petsofas in
that the votives at Atsipades are limited to a few basic
types.
The most recent excavation of a Minoan peak
sanctuary has taken place at the peak ofAgios Georgios
on the island of Kythera.292 Excavations at the
shrine have produced an unprecedented number
of bronze figurines (over 50), a votive hand and
legs, model swords in bronze, an oxhide ingot fragment,
melting debris, stone vases and offering tables
(including unworked chunks of Peloponnesian antico
rosso), seashells, sea pebbles, and MM I/II-LM
IB pottery. Pottery and some fragments of relief
ware with a plastic seashell, fish, and horns of consecration
are said to be protopalatial. The large
amounts of MM III-LM I bronze at the sanctuary
indicate the settlers at Kastri had ready access to
copper, which may explain why the Minoans chose
to settle on Kythera.
Peatfield's researches have clarified many details
about the nature of peak sanctuaries.293 Surveys
have modified some of Peatfield's conclusions.
There seems to have been a hierarchy of peak
shrines: regional sanctuaries, e.g., Jouktas, Kophinas,
and Vysinas, as well as local examples belonging
to one or several small communities, such as Agia
Pelagia (Gournia), Ephendi Christos (Phaistos),
leroditis (Agia Triada), Vigla (Pobia), Arolithia (Matala),
and Aphratias (Kalamaki). The smaller peak
sanctuaries do not necessarily exhibit the same
range of finds recovered at regional peak shrines.
This probably means that there exist many more
peak sanctuaries than are currently acknowlFig.
23. Heads of female figurines, Atsipades peak sanctuary.
(Courtesy A. Peatfield)
292 Accounts of the excavations have appeared in the
Greek newspapers, e.g., E4cevOeporvYria (12 October
1992), Ta Nia (11 September 1993), and in an article, A.
Elder, "Embarkation for Kythera," The Athenian 18 (1993)
20-24. The excavator graciously showed me his finds and
discussed them with me prior to publication.
293 A. Peatfield, "The Topography of Minoan Peak
Sanctuaries," BSA 78 (1983) 273-79, and Peatfield, "Minoan
Peak Sanctuaries: History and Society," OpAth 18
(1990) 117-31.
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734 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 24. Clay phalloi from the Atsipades peak sanctuary
(Courtesy A. Peatfield)
edged.294 Peatfield's study has shown that peak sanc
tuaries are thickly distributed across the center and
east of the island.295 It is still uncertain whether th
absence of such shrines in western Crete is merely
the result of a lack of investigation or is an accurat
reflection of the situation
ations in the offerings at t
aries, the impression gained
practiced at all of these shr
The most recent study of
the beginning of worshi
While it is clear that the ea
IA in a number of caves, s
the Idaean Cave, at Psych
ralambos (Lasithi), in mos
been recognized in these ca
to distinguish the cave a
found in tombs.298
Relatively little attention
foreign connections or how
porary events in the Ne
sequence in the Near East i
(and Aegean) archaeology b
text for understanding for
influence in Crete. Several cities of Anatolia and
Syro-Cilicia, e.g., Kiiltepe, Tarsus, Ebla, Ugarit, and
Byblos, were destroyed by fire at the end of the
Early Bronze period.299 Tarsus was destroyed at the
end of EB III, ca. 2200 B.C.300 Ebla was destroyed
twice, at ca. 2250/2200 and again ca. 2000 B.C. During
this interim (level IIB2) the palace (G) was not
rebuilt and the city is said to have entered a period
of economic recession.301 There are few signs of
trade during this period (EB IV, ca. 2250-2000
B.C.) until after 2000 B.C. Imported goods or foreign
ceramic influences at Kiiltepe after level 12
until Karum Kanish II are apparently few.302 Trade
began to revive at the end of this period and by ca.
1950 B.C. with the establishment of Assyrian merchants
in Anatolia it had become extremely active.
Texts relate that ca. 2000/1950 B.C. the MB I cities
294 E.g., Peatfield (supra n. 290) 59, fig. 1. See L.V. Watrous,
"Some Observations on Minoan Peak Sanctuaries,"
in W.-D. Niemeier and R. Laffineur eds., Politeia (Aegaeum
9, in press).
295 Peatfield (supra n. 290).
296 At Atsipades hundreds of phalloi were dedicated;
they are rare at Jouktas and Petsofas. Small animal figurines
are numerous atJouktas and Petsofas, but are said to
be rare at Atsipades. Ash deposits and votive limbs are
common at Petsofas and Kophinas but are few at Atsi-
pades.
297 B. Rutkowski, Cult Places of the Aegean (New Haven
1986) 47-71.
298 The primary data are gathered in L. Tyree, Cretan
Sacred Caves: Archaeological Evidence (Diss. Univ. of Missouri
1974). For the Idaean cave, see A. Vasilikis, "MtVCLKi
KEpaCptELK] cn6 to Ialcov AvTpov," Pepragmena 1990 I,
125-30. Votives different from normal funerary offerings,
i.e., belonging to a sanctuary, only begin in neopalatial
times. Protopalatial cave offerings are discussed by Tyree
(supra) 64-70. According to the excavator of the Idaean
Cave, the first archaeological signs that the cave had become
a shrine begin in MM III (personal communication).
299 Kiiltepe was burnt three times during the EB III
period. T. Ozgfig, "New Observations on the Relationship
of Kiiltepe with Southeast Anatolia and North Syria during
the Third Millennium," in J. Canby et al. eds., Ancient
Anatolia (Madison 1986) 31-47.
300 Mellink (infra n. 302).
301 P Matthiae, Ebla (Turin 1977) 107-13.
302 Ozguig (supra n. 261) and K. Emre, "The Pottery of
the Assyrian Colony Period according to the Building Levels
of the Kani? Karum," Anatolia 7 (1963) 87-99. M. Mellink,
"Anatolian Chronology," in Ehrich 218. At Ugarit, for
example, the "Plain Simple ware" of the nearby Amuq
Plain and Ebla IIB2 is unknown. For a recent summary of
Syria at this period, see G. Schwartz and H. Weiss, "Syria,
ca. 10,000-2000 B.C.," in Ehrich I, 238-40.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 735
at Kiiltepe and in Syro-Cilicia began a period of
intense commerce in metals (silver, gold, and tin)
and textiles. The MB I levels at these sites produce
increased amounts of metal objects, imported pottery,
and seals.
Relations between Egypt and Syria-Palestine follow
the same pattern. With the fall of the Old Kingdom
in Egypt, Egyptian trade with Syria-Palestine
ceased until the Middle Kingdom. Egyptian objects
are not found there in any number until the beginning
of the 12th Dynasty when the expansion of
trade began in Egypt and overseas. With the resumption
of royal control over Egypt (and the royal
monopoly on foreign trade) beginning in the 12th
Dynasty (ca. 1963 B.C.), Egyptian objects begin to
appear regularly at the coastal emporia of the Levant,
at sites such as Byblos.303 Additionally, Egyptian
material in the Levant formerly dated to the
First Intermediate period is now generally regarded
as beginning in the late 11th Dynasty and
only becomes abundant in the 12th Dynasty.304 The
mass of Egyptian and Egyptianizing objects at MB
I-II Byblos includes miniature vases modeled on
Egyptian funerary types (unguent jars). Many of
these vases are similar to the Cretan examples.305
This situation in Egypt and Syria-Palestine has important
implications for Cretan foreign relations
and particularly for the date of Egyptian and Egyptianizing
objects found on Crete. The date and distribution
of Egyptian objects in the Near East make
it likely that the many Egyptian and/or Egyptianizing
objects from "EM-MM" contexts on Crete were
part of the same trade pattern and date no earlier
than the beginning of the 12th Dynasty, ca. 1963
B.C., that is, late MM IA.
Signs of Minoan trade increase dramatically in
MM IA. Within Crete interregional imports and
similarities in regional ceramic styles indicate intensive
internal trade.306 Within the Aegean MM IA pottery
from Central and East Crete is exported in
some quantity to Aegina and the Greek mainland.307
One MM IA dagger and two other MM I-II examples
from Platanos have been shown to be made
from Kythnian ore.308 The Mesara tholoi contain
much evidence for foreign contact during this period.
Tholos A at Agia Triada has one genuine Egyptian
Old Kingdom stone vase and over a dozen
Egyptianizing vases: carinated bowls, cylindrical
jars, miniature amphoras, and alabastra.309 Two of
the Platanos gold beads are decorated with granulation,
a Near Eastern technique that first appears
at Byblos ca. 2000 B.C. and is introduced into Crete
shortly thereafter.31 Pini has identified a large
group (87 examples) of MM IA seals probably made
by one workshop located in the Lebena-Kaloi Limenes
area of South Crete.31 These seals are marked
303 See Montet (supra n. 261). For the date of the 12th
Dynasty see K. Kitchen, "Supplementary Notes on the
Basics of Egyptian Chronology," in P Astr6m ed., High,
Middle or Low? Pt. 3 (SIMA-PB 80, G6teborg 1989) 152-62.
304 J. Weinstein, "Egyptian Relations with Palestine in
the Middle Kingdom," BASOR 217 (1975) 1-16. Warren
dates Egyptian and Egyptianizing vases in Crete as early
as their wide range of parallels in Egypt allows. He then
assumes that they arrived in Crete immediately after this
early date. This practice is unconvincing in the extreme.
Thus he takes the Old Kingdom vase in EM II-MM II
Tholos A at Agia Triada as a sign of EB II trade (Chronology
125-26). W. Ward, Egypt and the East Mediterranean World
2200-1900 B.C. (Beirut 1971) 91-104, has criticized Warren's
use of Egyptian parallels. In addition, the many Old
and Middle Kingdom objects in later Cretan contexts indicate
that Warren's assumption that Egyptian objects
must have been traded soon after manufacture is invalid.
See, for example, L. Pomerance, "The Possible Role of
Tomb Robbers and Viziers of the 18th Dynasty in Confusing
Minoan Chronology," in Pepragmena 1981, 447-53.
Ward's dating of Egyptian material in the Levant is generally
regarded as too high (see J. Weinstein, "The Chronology
of Palestine in the Early Second Millennium B.C.E.,"
BASOR 288 [1992] 36-37). Ward has revised his dates
somewhat in "Scarab Typology and Archaeological Context,"
AJA 91 (1987) 509-12. He now dates the Montetjar,
with its potpourri of Egyptian and Egyptianizing finds, to
ca. 1950-1900 B.C. (= late MM IA).
305 See M. Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos II (Paris 1950) pl.
203 and VTM pls. 53-54.
306 Chronology 17-20 for examples. Note the Cycladicizing
pyxis (Knossian?) from Koumasa, VTM pl. 18, upper.
Stylistic links are collected in Zois (supra n. 179) and Walberg
(supra n. 133).
307 Rutter and Zerner (supra n. 107) 75-83. The first
Minoan exports appear in Cyprus (H. Catling and V. Karageorghis,
"Minoika in Cyprus," BSA 55 [1960] 109-10).
308 Gale (supra n. 46) 314, fig. 6, nos. 9382, 9384, and
9392.
309 Numbers are those in Banti (supra n. 98) 155-251.
Carinated bowls (nos. 80, 87, 88, 90, 92): cf. Petrie (supra
n. 257) pl. 23.386. Cylindrical jars (nos. 96, 98, 99, 103):
cf. Petrie (supra n. 257) pl. 27.545 and Ward 1971 (supra
n. 304) 105, fig. 19. Miniature amphoras (nos. 105, 106):
cf. Ward 1971 (supra n. 304) 104-105. Alabastra (no. 108
and HM 373 in MSV 5): cf. Ward 1971 (supra n. 304)
104-105, fig. 19, no. 22 (12th Dynasty) and Petrie (supra
n. 257) pl. 29.628 (12th Dynasty) and pl. 29.606-607 (12th
Dynasty). The Old Kingdom parallels for the Cretan jars
only indicate that material from the widely robbed Old
Kingdom tombs was on the international market. The
12th Dynasty parallels provide a date for the Egyptian
trade to Crete.
310 Higgins (supra n. 137) 22-23; H. Maxwell-Hyslop,
Western Asiatic Jewellery (London 1971) 36-37.
311 Pini 1990 (supra n. 140) 115-27.
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736 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
by their material ("glazed steatite")
proportion of Egyptian details.
Near Eastern features begin to app
metalwork in this period. Several dag
tan tombs are either Eastern impo
imitations of Eastern forms.312 The M
found in Tomb XI with MM IA pot
called a Near Eastern type.313 A se
dagger, from the Trapeza Cave, may
Branigan pointed out that some of th
gers exhibit Syro-Cilician influenc
shape and hafting details. A dagger f
for example, has distinctive features
dle Bronze I Ugarit.315 In MM IBports
and technological influence on
working become more substantial.316
The first ceramic exchanges betwe
the Near East also begin in the MM
Minoan vases with close Eastern par
this time.318 Miniature stone and clay
Egyptian funerary vessels flood the c
of the hallmarks of MM IA deposits i
the handmade squared-off conical cup
bands. This shape is probably an im
common Early Dynastic cylindrical
cemeteries also produce larnakes, a
to the Aegean. The tub and chest for
are known in Old Kingdom Egypt.320
In the early second millennium B.C.
the vastly expanded network of inter
in the Near East.
MIDDLE MINOAN IB-II
Throughout Crete, MM IB ushers in a
tremendous population expansion. Th
town at Knossos reached its greatest size
houses are known to extend onto Gyp
south of the palace, to the foot of the Ac
the west, and for over a quarter of a mile
the palace.32" The extent of MM IB Kn
been estimated at ca. 75-112 ha.322 In the Western
Mesara, Bronze Age settlement reached its greatest
density in MM IB. Settlement hierarchy is clearly
defined. Phaistos was a state center measuring at
least 0.90 x 1.0 km in size. Fragmentary protopalatial
houses are known from Agia Photini, Chalara,
the palace west court, from near the tourist pavilion,
and the Church of Agios Georgios by the current
parking lot.323 Surrounding Phaistos were many village-sized
settlements, around which were hamlets
and farmsteads. Sites with specialized functions,
e.g., ports (Kommos) and sanctuaries (Kophinas),
appear. In the upland Plain of Lasithi, the number
and size of settlements increase sharply.324 The
Chania survey recorded an increase from 31 to 94
settlements within its area.325 A hierarchy of settlements
develops, with many small sites growing up
around larger centers. Rural farmsteads, sometimes
called "villas" or "forts," agricultural terrace walls,
and dams appear in MM II.326 One can appreciate
the proportions of this growth by comparing the
size of Cretan settlements to other Aegean centers:
312 See K. Branigan, "Byblite Daggers in Cyprus and
Crete," AJA 70 (1966) 123-26. This should be read, however,
with S. Dietz in "Aegean and Near-Eastern Metal
Daggers in Early and Middle Bronze Age Greece,"
ActaArch 42 (1971) 1-22.
313 Dietz (supra n. 312) 17 considers Mochlos XI.22 in
fig. 45 an Eastern type and compares it with examples
from Byblos.
314 Dietz (supra n. 312) 20, who cites an EB IIIB parallel
from Tarsus.
315 K. Branigan, "Further Light on Prehistoric Relations
between Crete and Byblos," AJA 71 (1967) 117-21.
316 K. Branigan, "A Transitional Phase in Minoan Metallurgy,"
BSA 63 (1968) 185-203.
317 E.g., an MM IAjar from Lapithos, Catling and Karageorghis,
"Minoika in Cyprus," BSA 55 (1960) 109-10,
fig. 2, and an EC III/MC I amphora imported to Knossos,
H. Catling and J. MacGillivray, "An EC III Vase from the
Palace at Knossos," BSA 78 (1983) 1-8.
318 The number of generic similarities between Minoan
and Eastern vases in this period is large. A selected list of
close parallels follows: 1) the Mochlos teapot (Mochlos fig.
32, XIIIc) is a Near Eastern type, cf. H. Goldman, Excavations
at Gizlii Kule, Tarsus II (Princeton 1956) fig. 273, no.
571; R. Amiran, Pottery of the Ancient Holy Land (erusalem
1969) pl. 22.7; 2) the carinated teapot (Mochlos figs. 49, no.
75, and 50, nos. 90 and 92) is an Anatolian type, cf. Lloyd
and Mellaart (supra n. 201) 226, fig. P59, no. 29; 3) the
carinated pedestaled bowl (Mochlos fig. 32, XX 1 and PM
I fig. 122, no. 12) is a Syro-Cilician type, cf. Goldman
(supra) fig. 287; 4) the East Cretan rounded cup is an
Eastern shape: see Amiran (supra n. 205).
319 MM IA conical cup, Fiandra (supra n. 236) pl. 21d
and g; pl. 22d. Cf. Ward 1971 (supra n. 304) 99, fig. 16.2
and 4 and Petrie (supra n. 257) pl. 7.18 and 29.
320 Pini (supra n. 244) 11, who believes the Cretan larnakes
were derived from Egypt; see also B. Rutkowski,
"The Origin of the Minoan Coffin," BSA 63 (1968) 219-
28.
321 Hood and Smyth (supra n. 11) 8.
322 Hood and Smyth (supra n. 11) 10.
323 Watrous et al. (supra n. 10) 225.
324 Watrous (supra n. 10) 12.
325 Moody (supra n. 10) 302-304.
326 S. Marinatos excavated a lone house in the Mesara,
whose earliest deposit was protopalatial, ArchDelt 9
(1924/1925) 57. A fort or farm complex in East Crete,
containing domestic pottery and loomweights, and a
nearby dam have been partly investigated and published,
I. Tzedakis et al., "Les routes minoennes: Le poste de
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 737
Knossos, ca. 100 ha, Phaistos, ca. 90 ha, Phylakopi,
2 ha, and Agia Eirene, 1 ha.327
Recent studies have reevaluated Evans's reconstruction
of the Old Palace at Knossos. There is
scant architectural evidence, and thus the form of
the Old Palace remains vague."28 Aside from the
koulouras, much of the evidence is indirect, that is,
protopalatial deposits under the west and east wings
of the palace. By MM II there is evidence for a sophisticated
literate bureaucracy within the palace.329
MacGillivray has also argued that the Old Palace at
Knossos was originally constructed as a single unit
including the west and east wings and central
court330 rather than as separate blocks, or "insulae,"
around the central court as envisioned by Evans.33'
While MM II deposits in the west and east wings of
the palace area indicate the presence of structures
there, the architectural plan is in fact unknown. The
existence of the west facade of Evans's MM IB-II
palace has been called into question.332 The massively
walled Keep dated by Evans to EM III was
apparently constructed in MM IB possibly to store
produce and/or to support a tower alongside the
north entrance passage.333 The Royal Road, traced
for almost a kilometer to the west of the palace, was
cut through the MM IA town. Almost certainly this
creation of a centralized street system came at the
same time as the construction of the first palace.
Thus, a consensus of opinion presently exists that
the Old Palace was built in late MM IA when the
Royal Road was constructed and the tell at Knossos
was leveled to form its foundation.334 What little evidence
there is suggests that it was the first palace to
be built in Crete. The absence of protopalatial ashlar
orthostates at Knossos, the masonry technique
used at the first palaces at Phaistos and Mallia, may
also be due to its early date of construction. The
territory of the Knossos palace has recently been
estimated to include the area between Gournes and
Agia Pelagia on the north and the Pediada villages
of Kastelli and Agia Varvara on the south (fig. 1).335
Poursat's excavation and ongoing publication of
Quartier Mu have given us a clear example of
wealthy business establishments of the MM II period.336
Quartier Mu consists presently of two large
houses, built in early MM II. Next door are five
small workshop establishments: that of a seal engraver,
a potter, and perhaps two or maybe three
metalworkers. These establishments had a secondfloor
workshop and living quarters downstairs, each
entered separately. The seal engraver's workshop
yielded 150 seals, worked material of steatite and
rock crystal, broken and unfinished seals, and
tools.337 A total of about 550 seals have been identified
as belonging to this workshop, most of which
are three-sided prisms of steatite.338 A second workshop
produced pottery, ceramic reliefs, different
types of shells (including Tritons) as well as Agrimi
horns used for funerary and perhaps other kinds of
cult.339 Molds for bronze tools come from other
workshops.
Houses A and B are large (each with 30+ rooms
on the ground floor) and have an elegant stuccoed
section with vestibules, polythera, a light well, suites,
a lustral basin, staircases leading to the second floor,
and a magazine section. Nine tablets, 13 medallions,
two inscribed cones, 16 noduli, and various types of
sealings were found in Quartier Mu. Hieroglyphic
Xotp6ctav8peg et le contr1le des communications," BCH
114 (1990) 43-65. See also A. MacGillivray, "The Cretan
Countryside in the Old Palace Period," in R. HEigg and N.
Marinatos eds., The Minoan Villa (Stockholm, in press).
MacGillivray's claim for a deserted MM I countryside is
contradicted by recent survey data.
327 M. Wiener, "The Isles of Crete? The Minoan Thalassocracy
Revisited," in D. Hardy et al. eds., Thera and the
Aegean World III.1: Archaeology (London 1990) 131; Hood
and Smyth (supra n. 11) 8.
328 G. Cadogan, "What Happened at the Old Palace of
Knossos?" in Function 71 and J. MacGillivray, "The Early
History of the Palace at Knossos," in Momigliano and
Evely (supra n. 89).
329 I. Pini, "The Hieroglyphic Deposit and the Temple
Repositories at Knossos," in Palaima (supra n. 242) 33-60
and J. Weingarten, "Sealings and Sealed Documents at
Bronze Age Knossos," in Momigliano and Evely (supra n.
89).
330 MacGillivray (supra n. 328).
33' PM I, 203-204.
332 N. Momigliano, "The 'Proto-palatial Fagade' at
Knossos," BSA 87 (1992) 165-75.
333 K. Branigan, "The Early Keep, Knossos: A Reappraisal,"
BSA 87 (1992) 153-63. The construction of much
of the present palace cannot be dated any earlier than MM
II. Pendlebury (supra n. 4) 129 dated the Keep, the present
form of the West Magazines, the Koulouras and West
Court (which he excavated), and the single East Wing to
MM II.
334 MacGillivray (supra n. 328) 70-72.
35 G. Cadogan, "An Old Palace Period Knossos State?"
in Momigliano and Evely (supra n. 89).
336 See B. Detournay, J.-C. Poursat, and E Vandenabeele,
Fouilles executees a Mallia: Le Quartier Mu II (EtCret
26, Paris 1980) and Poursat's summary, "Ateliers et sanctuaires
' Malia," in Society 273-76.
337 BCH 102 (1978) Chronique 831-34; van Effenterre
551-61.
338 Yule 212-13.
33 BCH 105 (1981) Chronique 964-65.
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738 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
inscriptions occur on tablets, potte
and cones, and on impressions stam
and sealings from the upper floor.3
complex, with a variety of docume
noduli related to the delivery of good
chests or doors), has been identifie
entrance of House A. Tablets were
areas to keep track of produce. Both
sided rectangular tablets and the m
probably first drafts used in the sto
workshops. Crescents may have be
with goods brought into the storer
tion, Houses A and B produced hun
stone vases, bronze cauldrons, and a bowl, seals,
moldmade ceramic reliefs (including a sphinx), several
swords including one with a gold-covered handle,
and five spearheads. A number of the finds,
human and animal figurines as well as miniature
and Chamaizi vases and offering tables, point to the
existence of domestic shrines. The area above room
IV 4 in House B was a storeroom for costly objects.
In addition to domestic dwellings, the large houses
had an administrative role, which involved production,
storage, record-keeping, and redistribution.
Glimpses of the wealth of these households appear
in the finds and in the records: one tablet records
the number 7,000 (sheep?). It appears that each
family had a group of clients who worked for them
(and were fed in return). International connections
are apparent in the sealings (Anatolia), reliefs
(Egypt and Anatolia), stone and faience beads (of
Egyptian shape), a sword (Syria), and two stone anchors.
The international mercantile character of
Quartier Mu is reminiscent of the contemporary
houses from the karum at Kiiltepe-Kanish.
The French excavators have uncovered much
new evidence for the urban development of Mallia
in the MM IB-II period.341 Areas of the protopalatial
town outside of the palace include the open
court called the "Agora" and the large specialized
building at its southwest corner ("Crypte Hypostyle");
Houses A and B (south of the palace), which
together flanked a narrow entrance into the town
protected by a tower; the Southwest Building; and
houses in quarters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Mu, and
Th^ta.342 Because of its cache of stone funerary
vases, the protopalatial Villa Alpha near the cemetery
has been identified as a priest's house.343 The
paved road west of the palace was constructed in
MM IA.344 Beginning in the early 1980s a series of
trial trenches sunk around and inside the Late Minoan
palace at Mallia have uncovered walls and
floors from lower levels, which because of their size
and orientation have been interpreted as belonging
to the first palace.345 Sondages under the central
court have found surfaces of packed whitish earth
identified as belonging to the protopalatial central
court. Along the south border of the central court a
water channel of protopalatial date was found, perhaps
defining the edge of the protopalatial court.346
These trials have also established the MM II stratigraphy
of the two great swords found in the palace at
Mallia.347 Pelon, the excavator, also claims to have
discovered a foundation deposit in a cist containing
an MM IA jug connected with the construction of
the early palace.348 The case for the existence of an
early palace at Mallia seems convincing, but evidence
for its plan and date of construction remains
minimal. The discovery of a clay bar inscribed in
hieroglyphic, in a protopalatial context in the town
some distance west of the palace, should indicate
that literacy at Mallia was not strictly limited to the
palace and its appendages.349
340 See J.-C. Poursat, L. Godart, and J.-P Olivier, Fouilles
executies a Mallia: Le Quartier Mu I: Ecriture hieroglyphique
critoise (EtCret 23, Paris 1978) and J.-C. Poursat, "Hieroglyphic
Documents and Sealings from Mallia, Quartier
Mu: A Functional Analysis," in Palaima (supra n. 242) 24-
33. The economic holdings described on the tablets from
Quartier Mu are separate from the administration of the
first palace and do not necessarily tell us anything about
the latter, pace T Palaima, "Administration in Minoan and
Mycenaean Society," in Palaima (supra n. 242) 93.
341 J.-C. Poursat, "La ville minoenne de Malia: Recherches
et publications recentes," RA 1988, 72-74, 77-80.
342 Agora: H. and M. van Effenterre, Fouilles exdcutees a
Mallia: Le centre politique I: lEagora (1960-1966) (EtCret 17,
Paris 1966). "Crypte Hypostyle": Amouretti (supra n.
174). Quartier Theta: H. and M. van Effenterre, FouiUles
executees & Mallia: Maisons IV: Le Quartier ThIta (EtCret 22,
Paris 1976). Synthesis in van Effenterre 155-200 and for
the First Palace, 201-28; discussion in J. MacEnroe, Minoan
House and Town Arrangement (Diss. Univ. of Toronto
1979) 17-20, 182-89. For the tower at Mallia, see Y.
Spence, "Was There a Guarded Southern Entrance Way
to the First Palace at Mallia?" BSA 85 (1990) 369-74.
343 van Effenterre 181-84.
344 BCH 113 (1989) Chronique 770.
345 Reports have appeared in the Chronique section of
BCH: BCH 108 (1984) 881-87; 110 (1986) 814; 113 (1989)
711-77; 115 (1991) 726-35; 116 (1992) 1-36.
346 0. Pelon, "Particularites et developpement des
palais minoens," in E. Levy ed., Le systeme palatial en Orient,
en Grice et & Rome (Leiden 1987) 187-201.
347 0. Pelon, "E'pde A l'acrobate et la chronologie
maliote II," BCH 107 (1983) 679-703.
348 0. Pelon, "Un dep6t de fondation au palais de
Malia," BCH 110 (1986) 9-16.
349 S. Miiller and J.-P Olivier, "Prospection 'i Malia:
Deux documents hieroglyphiques," BCH 115 (1991) 65-
70.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 739
An ongoing survey of the urban extent of Mallia
will eventually inform us about the size and development
of the site.350 Several studies on the size of
the territory controlled by the first palace at Mallia
have suggested that this area extends from Gournes
in the west to Chamaizi in the east, and includes the
upland Plain of Lasithi and the Mirabello/Isthmus
of lerapetra as far as Pyrgos in the south; it has also
been defined by a common ceramic style called the
"Mallia Town Group."351 Poursat has posited a similar
area of influence on the basis of Chamaizijuglets
(whose workshop has been found at Mallia) and
hoards of bronze tools.352These suggestions are convincing
as areas of palatial commercial contact, but
whether that can be translated into political terms is
harder to determine. One notices too a lack of Cycladic
imports at Mallia, unlike Knossos.353 What is
distinctive about protopalatial Mallia is its evidence
for Eastern connections, particularly with Egypt.
One wonders whether the two north coast palace
states had not already developed separate economic
spheres.
Levi's monumental publication of his excavations
at Phaistos has provided the best documentation for
the development of an Old Palace on Crete.354 The
architectural phasing of the Old Palace has been
controversial, but the weight of opinion now favors
three phases, roughly equivalent to Knossian MM
IB, MM IIA, and MM IIB.355 Levi reports that in its
earliest phase the First Palace consisted only of three
groups of rooms (LIX, LX, LXIV, LXI, LXIII,
LXIV; LXIIIa-e; and LIII, LI, LIV, LV, LXII) with
an ashlar orthostate facade and central entrance facing
onto the (lower) paved west court (fig. 25). The
southern block (partly covered today by the Second
Palace) extended up to the area of the central court,
but the nature of these rooms is unclear. Aside from
its monumentality, the most distinctive palatial feature
of the structure is its west facade built of massive
ashlar orthostates, a masonry technique origFig.
25. Plan of Levi's excavation of the First Palace at
Phaistos. (After D. Levi, The Recent Excavations at Phaistos
[Lund 1961] fig. 2, courtesy Italian School of Archaeology
at Athens)
XXVil XVIII
BhBAOliONE I
Llh~flOLl
Lill I-XII
LVI
LVIIIa d
LIX LX
LXIV
??--?LXI?- LXW LXV
LXVI(
XLVI
inating in Syria.356 During MM IB a paved ramp ran
from the level of the lower west court to a second
paved court to the north. According to Levi, at the
beginning of MM II the palace was enlarged to include
the northern block of magazines dug by
Pernier and the corridor (III) leading eastward to
350 See Miuller 1992 (supra n. 10).
351 G. Cadogan, "Lasithi in the Old Palace Period,"
BICS 37 (1990) 72-74. For the Mallia Town Group, see
Andreou 134-63.
352 J.-C. Poursat, "Town and Palace at Malia in the Protopalatial
Period," in Function 75.
353 van Effenterre 536-37 makes this point. He mentions,
436 n. 136, one possible MC I import. A second
possible import is a "Cycladic idol" referred to in BCH 113
(1989) Chronique 771.
354 Festas. My account of Phaistos is based on Levi's first
volume, which must be supplemented by E. Fiandra, "I
periodi struttivi del primo palazzo di Fest6s," CretChron
15/16 (1961/1962) 112-26 and Festas II, esp. 299-307. On
many essential points these primary sources do not agree.
I am grateful to V. La Rosa for discussing Levi's excavations
at Phaistos with me. S. Damiani Indelicato, Piazza
pubblica e palazzo nella Creta minoica (Rome 1982) 85-120
must be used with care.
355 See the summary in Chronology 47-52.
356 Watrous (supra n. 122) 69. The Syrian constructions,
with orthostates, set on a protruding plinth, and
with their upper surfaces drilled with dowel holes (for a
wooden framework), are identical to examples at Mallia
(and Chrysolakkos). The early and wide geographic distribution
of this technique in the Near East leaves little doubt
as to its eastern origin. See G. Hult, Bronze Age Ashlar Masonry
in the Eastern Mediterranean (G6teborg 1983) 44-49,
66-67.
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740 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
the area of the later central court. Th
west facade of the north block repeats t
lower southern section. Later in MM II rooms were
added to the northwest "shrine" and koulouras to
the middle court. While the paved corridor between
the north and south blocks of the First Palace might
well be taken to imply the existence of a "central"
court, the earliest architectural elements (i.e., colonnade
and pavement) of the central court are dated,
according to Levi, to MM III.357 The fact that the
central court shows no signs of construction between
EM I and the time that the MM pavement was
laid down could argue for its use as an open area
already in MM IB.358 Levi's reconstruction of the
architectural development of the palace is not entirely
convincing. The presence of two paved courts
in MM IB and the deliberate symmetry of the west
facades of the north and south blocks, which are laid
along a single line at the east edge of these two
courts, argue for their contemporaneity. In addition,
there does not seem to be any appreciable
chronological difference between the earliest pottery
in the levels below the north and south blocks.359
The earliest artifacts from the First Palace, found
in the MM II destruction level, help us to understand
the palace's function. The north block contained
storage magazines and complexes where
food was prepared and served (rooms V-IX, XIX,
XX), each opening directly onto the west court by a
door. An alcove (with shelves?) of an archive room
in the southeast portion of the storage wing yielded
over 6,500 sealings. Protopalatial Linear A inscribed
objects were found in room 25 (18 tablets, one sealing,
and five roundels), room 51 (three sealings and
five roundels), and between rooms LIII and LV
(one tablet). A small MM II complex of six rooms,
with benches, tables, two clay hearths, cult objects
(Triton shell, stone offering tables), and areas for
food preparation and storage, opened onto the west
court, which contained an open-air hearth; the
complex is generally called a shrine.360 It is more
accurate, however, to say simply that within this
complex people were served food (accompanied by
rite or ceremony) at the palace's expense.361 The
southern block of the palace is organized into two
areas: 1) the rooms (LIX, LX, LXIV) leading from
the entrance (with annexes LXI, LXIII, and LXV
for the storage of pottery and a potter's wheel) to
the magazines (LVIIIa-e); and 2) the complex of
residential rooms and workrooms (LI, LIII, LIV,
LV, LXII). The benches and hearth in the first area
as well as the many pitchers and cups and the nine
pithoi (one with the remains of grapes) indicate that
wine and perhaps food was dispensed here. The
second area included signs of residence: a possible
bedroom dais in LIV, a cosmetic palette, loomweights,
a hearth with animal bones, and possible
signs of manufacturing and domestic activities, viz.,
a mortar, grindstone, whetstones, stone vases, inlays,
lamps, stone and bronze tools, and a potter's
wheel. This second area is connected by a staircase
(and the presence of sealings) to the upper floor.
Thus it is likely that the workshops were actually
upstairs, as in Quartier Mu at Mallia.362 The upper
floors (Levi's phase II) gave evidence of a wider
variety of activities, viz., food preparation, weaving
of textiles (many loomweights), bronzeworking
(lost-wax mold of a human hand),363 a small
shrine(?) (LI), and sealings from an administrative
system. Sealings from the upper floor have been
found in rooms LI, LXIV, LV, and in rooms 10 and
11 to the northeast. The main group of sealings
along with inscribed tablets, bars, and roundels was
found in room 25 in the north storage block. The
inscriptions are written in an early form of Linear A
and mention men, vases, wine, grain, and figs.364
The preserved inscriptions all record relatively
small amounts of agricultural goods.
There has been much progress in understanding
protopalatial administration at Phaistos and elsewhere.
Fiandra's early studies made two main contributions:
they showed how the sealings were used
and how the administrative system worked. She
documented that the clay sealings at Phaistos were
used mainly to seal the wooden pommels or knobs
of boxes and doors as well as jars and basketry. The
57 See Festas I, 262-81 and note the spacing of the column
bases of the colonnade vis-a-vis corridor III. Pernier
(supra n. 29) 353-75 dated a group of rooms (XL-XLIII)
northeast of the palace to the protopalatial period because
they rested on a "probable MM I" level. The pottery illustrated
is MM III, however.
358 See Vagnetti (supra n. 27) 12-13, and fig. 2a.
359 Pace Fiandra (supra n. 354) 116-17 with pls. KET'
nos. 1-3 and I', K' nos. 1-2. On present evidence the
pottery below the north and south blocks appears to be a
mixture of MM IA and MM IB.
360 G. Gesell, Town, Palace, and House Cult in Minoan Crete
(G6teborg 1985) 11, 120-24.
361 Muhly (supra n. 150) 270 minimizes (rightly, in my
opinion) the religious character of the complex.
362 Identified by K. Branigan, "Craft Specialization in
Minoan Crete," in Society 26.
363 C. Laviosa, "Una forma minoica per fusione a cera
perduta," ASAtene 29/30 (1967/1968) 499-510. Laviosa
lists some of the Near Eastern and Egyptian antecedents
for this type of statue mold.
364 GORILA 1 (Paris 1976) 286-319; 2 (Paris 1979) 89-
96.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 741
sealed objects were constantly being opened and
resealed; broken sealings were stored in room 25 as
records of transactions.365 By comparing the Phaistos
sealing system to identical examples throughout
the Near East (where written documents explain
the bureaucratic system that the sealings were a part
of), Fiandra hypothesized that the Phaistos sealings
were made by officials who oversaw the redistribution
of palace stores to guard against theft. The sealings
were kept so that if necessary they could be
checked against written orders for the redistributions.
This sealing system is relatively simple in comparison
with that of the neopalatial system. It is generally
accepted that this sealing system derived from
the East.366 Weingarten's recent review of Minoan
sealing administration emphasizes the lack of earlier
precedents for this MM II sealing practice and
sees it as an importation to the island at the time of
the first palaces.367 Within the protopalatial period
the Minoans introduce two new practices to their
system: crescent-shaped sealings meant to hang by
a cord and flat-based nodules pressed directly on
leather strips that may have been written documents.
The MM II administration at Phaistos used
Linear A, while those at Knossos and Mallia used
cursive hieroglyphic script, as well as hieroglyphic
engraved seals and sealings stamped with two or
more different seals.368 Hieroglyphic seals are interpreted
as belonging to high officials as opposed to
the lower status of "non-literate" seal owners.369 It is
the complete absence of this distinction between
types of seals and any complex sealing practice in
EM II-III Crete that makes it difficult to believe in
any developed social ranking in Crete before late
MM IA. The transactions recorded in the Hieroglyphic
Deposit from the Palace at Knossos differ
from those at Phaistos because the seals used on the
sealings rarely repeat: thus, they do not directly
reflect palatial storeroom accounting (where certain
seals, presumably those of palace officials, predominate).
Weingarten has noted antecedents for the
multiple stamping system (as well as for the motifs
of the Phaistos seals) at MB II (ca. 1750 B.C.) Karah6yiik
in Anatolia.370
New archaeological evidence from Phaistos and
Mallia and the flurry of studies on aspects of the Old
Palaces bear directly on one of the most discussed
questions in Aegean archaeology, namely, the process
whereby palatial or state society was first developed
on Crete in MM I.371 The architectural development
of the Minoan centers is clearly a central
aspect of this process. At present three reconstructions
have been suggested.72 The first sees an early
stage of urban construction over which the first palaces
were superimposed. Van Effenterre hypothesized
that at Mallia the "Agora" and its street system
as well as the "Crypte Hypostyle" comprised the
political center of the settlement before the first palace.
They thus represent a "democratic" stage of
political development at Mallia before the superimposition
of palatial control.373 The pottery associated
with the hypothetical first palace and the "Agora"
and "Crypte Hypostyle," however, does not allow
any chronological distinction. Moreover, there is no
365 E. Fiandra, "A che cosa servivano le cretule di
Festbs," in HeFrpayyuEva (supra n. 179) 383-97 and Fiandra,
"Ancora a proposito delle cretule di Fest6s," BdA 60
(1975) 1-25.
366 The similarity of the MM II system to Egyptian practice
even extends to the flaring pommels and their containers-see
Fiandra, in HFeFrpayypava (supra n. 365)
386-94 and pls. PAZ'-PNA' and Fiandra 1975 (supra n.
365) 10-17. J. Weingarten, "The Sealing Structures of
Minoan Crete: MM II Phaistos to the Destruction of the
Palace of Knossos," OJA 5 (1986) 280 gives additional Eastern
parallels for the Phaistos pommels and suggests that
the wooden containers may have been imported from the
East to Crete.
367 J. Weingarten, "Three Upheavals in Minoan Sealing
Administration: Evidence for Radical Change," in Palaima
(supra n. 242) 105. See also the remarks following Pini's
suggestion (supra n. 329) that prepalatial seals were used
as part of an administrative system, 55-60.
368 Detournay et al. (supra n. 336) 157-229. Weingarten
(supra n. 329) 7-11 notes two possible exceptions
to this difference in scribal tradition between North and
South Crete in MM II.
369 Poursat interprets hieroglyphic seals used with a
"non-literate" seal on sealings as the countermark of the
supervising official. J.-C. Poursat, "Fonction et usage des
sceaux en Crete 'i l' poque des premiers palais," in W.
Muiiller ed., Fragen und Probleme der bronzezeitlichen iigiiischen
Glyptik (Berlin 1989) 222.
370 J. Weingarten, "The Multiple Sealing System of Minoan
Crete and Its Possible Antecedents in Anatolia," OJA
11 (1992) 25-37, esp. 33 and n. 11; Weingarten, "The
Sealing Structure of Karahoyiuk and Some Administrative
Links with Phaistos on Crete," OA 29 (1991) 1-33; and J.
Aruz, "Crete and Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age: Sealings
from Phaistos and Karah6yfik," in M. Mellink, E.
Porada, and T Ozguii eds., Aspects of Art and Iconography:
Anatolia and Its Neighbors (Ankara 1993) 36-51.
371 For reasons of time and space, this complex question
cannot be fully addressed here, but will be considered in
detail in V. Watrous and D. Hadzi-Vallianou, The Plain of
Phaistos, in preparation.
372 For the earlier idea that the palaces can be explained
exclusively as an outgrowth of Early Minoan society, see
supra.
373 van Effenterre 33-41, 155-74 for his "archaeopalatial"
period at Mallia, and H. and M. van Effenterre (supra
n. 342) 142-44 for the prepalatial role of the "Agora" and
the "Crypte Hypostyle." Damiani Indelicato (supra n.
354) esp. 123-39.
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742 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 26. View of the MM I-II settlemen
evidence for the political functions add
Effenterre for the "Agora" and the first
The second view stresses the evolutiona
the first palaces worked out during M
This seems true for certain aspects of t
The MM IB storage facilities at Knossos
tos are augmented in MM II by the add
louras in the West Court and a magazin
in the east wing at Knossos. Similarly,
trative system of the palaces underg
ment."76 If it could be proved that the
trolled the fine Kamares ware works
products are exported overseas begin
II, then that could be seen as an evolved
the later first palaces.
The third view does not necessarily
second. It simply emphasizes that all
characteristics of the palaces are appare
very beginning of their construction. T
tos it seems probable that the First Pal
MM IB consisted of the southern block
and workshops), the north block (sto
zines), two west courts, perhaps one ko
a central court.377 Both architectural a
ministrative evidence indicates that th
Phaistos should be regarded as a "palace
the residence of a powerful authority,
literate bureaucracy, which controls a sy
distribution. Architecturally the Phaist
differs in distinctive ways from earlier
niques: in its monumentality, ashlar ort
timber-braced super
frescoed floors and w
tures, which cannot
practice, are employ
from the more traditional residential structures of
the Phaistos community. While no sealings or tablets
have been found in MM IB contexts at Phaistos, the
developed nature of the MM II administrative system
and the continuity of function apparent within
the rooms of the MM II palace leave little doubt that
the MM IB building served a similar purpose.378
What seems to distinguish the MM IB palace at
Phaistos is its architectural pretension, its storage
block, and its inclusion of the west courts as part of
its plan (and function).
Ongoing excavations at Monasteraki promise to
document a provincial town of protopalatial date.
The settlement of Monasteraki sits on the top and
slopes of Charakas, a steep, flat-topped hill overlooking
the widest part of the Amari Valley. Part of
Monasteraki's importance must have derived from
its location on a natural route between the Mesara
and the coastal plain of Rethymnon. The ceramic
finds at Monasteraki resemble the pottery at Phaistos.
The settlement was founded in MM I and
passed through two or possibly three architectural
phases. It was apparently abandoned-no skeletal
material and virtually no metal has been found on
the site-before being destroyed by fire in MM II.
The site was not reinhabited until Hellenistic times,
which greatly increases the potential value of the
374 See J. MacEnroe's review of Damiani Indelicato (supra
n. 354) in AJA 88 (1984) 75.
75 K. Branigan, "A Dynamic View of the Early Palaces,"
in Pepragmena 1990, 147-59.
376 MacGillivray (supra n. 328).
377 S. Damiani Indelicato, "A New Kouloura at Phaistos,"
AJA 88 (1984) 229-30.
378 For the already evolved nature of the MM II sealing
system, see Weingarten (supra n. 366) 281.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 743
Fig. 27. Building west of open area at Monasteraki. (Courtesy A. Kanta)
information to be gained from excavation. During
the protopalatial period the settlement was extremely
large, measuring perhaps 20 ha in area. In
MM I-II it must have been the main settlement in
the Amari Valley. The recent excavations, directed
by A. Kanta, have focused on three areas on the
hilltop. The first area (fig. 26), on the south slope of
the hilltop, has revealed a number of small rooms
(probably part of a house or, at any rate, a larger
structure), one of which produced ca. 150 clay sealings,
the context of which is still unclear. Immediately
south of these rooms was a possible ramp and
a retaining wall along the south side of which was a
fill with many MM IB-II conical cups. In this area
was found a protopalatial clay two-storied house
model.379 While this model is different in plan from
the MM III Archanes house model, it clearly is an
earlier example in the same tradition. The context
of the sealings is as yet unclear.
The second area is immediately to the north on
the flat saddle at the summit of the hill. Excavations
there have shown that the limestone bedrock was
trimmed and a level of earth packing was laid down
to form a flat open area, which may have been a
court. The north edge of the "court" was supported
by a cyclopean retaining wall (fig. 26) and on the
terrace below (north) there was a line of storage
magazines containing pithoi that had been partly
dug by German excavators during World War II.380
The south side of the "court" is formed by a massive
cyclopean terrace wall. At the west end of the
"court" sits a (domestic?) building built of immense
limestone blocks. Its interior rooms are fitted with
large threshold blocks, a round cut-limestone column
base, and a doorway with L-shaped doorjambs
of (non-local) sandstone (fig. 27). The house faces
onto a flagstone court to the west.
The third area under investigation is on the
southeast corner of the summit, which is separated
from the north by a rock outcropping. Current excavation
there is revealing part of a large building,
apparently a single structure, of more than 60
rooms (fig. 28). This two-story structure was built of
rubble and wooden beams with a second story of
mudbrick. Most of the rooms are quite small (a few
are long and rectangular); all seem to have been
basement storerooms. No certain exterior entrance
has yet been found. The 1993 excavations revealed
rooms on the north, with pithoi and masses of carbonized
material and a few vases at an upper level
that were from the second floor. Some 700 clay sealings,
most of them fallen from the upper floor, have
379 The house model is illustrated in L. Godart and I.
Tzedakis, Thmoignages archdologiques et ?pigraphiques en Crate
occidentale du Niolithique au Minoen recent IIIB (Rome 1992)
pl. 87, I.
380 E. Kirsten and K. Grundmann, "Die Grabung der
Charakeshohe bei Monasteraki, I, II," in E Matz ed., Forschungen
auf Kreta (Berlin 1951) 27-71.
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744 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 28. Building in southeast sector
been found in the building. For the most
from the upper floor have been relatively
it is uncertain how much of the structure had an
upper story. Two deposits found within the building,
the skeleton of an animal with conical cups set
next to it and a cache of miniature vases, may represent
cult activity. The character of this southern
structure remains uncertain (domestic or official?),
although its sprawling, diffuse plan vaguely resembles
the plan of MM I house structures at Mallia.38'
Ultimately the chief importance of Monasteraki
may be the more than 900 clay sealings from the
site, which promise to shed much light on the nature
of MM II administration. These clay bullae
preserve clear imprints on their undersides of the
containers, apparently of wood and basketry, that
they sealed (fig. 29).s32 The face of each sealing is
stamped several times with different seals. The administrative
system for storage at Monasteraki
seems to closely resemble that at Phaistos (including
the presence of door and knob sealings). Likewise,
many of the Monasteraki seal motifs are also found
at Phaistos. Although no inscribed tablets or roundels
have yet been recovered, one loomweight inscribed
with a Linear A sign indicates the existence
of literacy at Monasteraki. At present Monasteraki
gives the impression that it was controlled by a central
administration, housed perhaps in the building
north of the "court." The Monasteraki "court" resembles
that at Gournia in shape and topographical
siting.
Cemeteries of the MM IA period continue to be
used into the protopalatial period. Publication of
MM I-II pottery deposits and ceramic studies have
helped to make this clear.383 Many "MM IA" deposits
actually consist of MM IA and MM IB and even MM
II style vases. The composition of these widespread
deposits tells us that the late MM IA-MM IB/II period
should be considered a single cultural continuum.
At Mallia the tomb at Chrysolakkos was thoroughly
reconstructed in MM IB.384 The tomb was
given a monumental limestone facade in ashlar orthostates
with a paved terrace around it. A room
with an elaborate stuccoed platform may have
381 See van Effenterre 157, fig. 223 (houses south of the
palace) and 183, fig. 254 (Villa A).
382 Only a few of the sealings have been published: from
the old excavations, Kirsten and Grundmann (supra n.
380) pl. 38.1 and 3; from the new excavations, BCH 111
(1987) 578, figs. 99-102 and Godart and Tzedakis (supra
n. 379) pls. 77-86. A. Tsigkanaki is undertaking the publication
of these seals.
383 A list of deposits appears in Chronology 51, to which
Archanes Tholos C, Buildings 6 and 13, Knossos West
Court Houses and Vat Room Deposit, and the "House of
the Dead" at Mallia should be added. Middle Minoan ceramic
studies, G. Walberg, Kamares: A Study of the Character
of Palatial Middle Minoan Pottery (Uppsala 1976) and Walberg
(supra n. 133) with bibliography.
384 Soles 166-71.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 745
Fig. 29. Sealing from Monasteraki. (After A. Kanta, BCH 111 [1987] 578, figs. 99-100)
served as a shrine. Even though it was robbed, the
tomb of Chrysolakkos produced figurines, stone
vases, seals, bone/ivory inlays, a bronze vase and
weapons, gold diadems, appliques and pendants
(including the famous bee pendant), an indication
of its rich contents.:85 This tomb certainly contrasts
sharply with contemporary burials around it, in the
Second Charnier and the Pierres Meulibres, which
contained only a few pots, stone vases, lamps, and
personal possessions. At Gournia four house tombs
had MM IB-II burials. In Tomb I were two clay
kantharos imitations, the famous silver kantharos,
clay vessels, seven stone vases, tweezers, two seals, a
necklace of silver beads, a gold-plated bead, and
ivory inlays (from a box?). Tomb II contained MM
IA-IB/II ware, conical cups, seven stone vases, three
bronze tweezers, and a zoomorphic amulet. Outside
the tomb a conical cup was found next to a kernos.
Poorly published Tombs VII and VIII held cookpots,
three bronze knives, and a fragment of gold.386
Along the shore (at Sphoungaras), MM IA-II burials
consisted of larnakes and pithoi next to which
were found jugs, cups, and bowls.387 At Knossos the
earliest of the chamber tombs at Mavrospelio date
to MM II.188 In Tomb XVII pithos burials were redeposited
in a pit with MM II pottery, beads of amethyst
(of 12th Dynasty type), steatite, faience and
crystal, seals, a stone jug, and a lump of meteoritic
iron.
The Mesara tholoi continue to be used well into
the protopalatial period. The Kamilari tholos tomb
is particularly useful for protopalatial burial customs
since it was only constructed at the beginning
of the protopalatial period. During the MM IB-II
period, offerings at Kamilari included bridgespouted
jars, miniature juglets and pithoi, cups,
jugs, teapots, stone vases, seals, conical cups, and a
few pieces ofjewelry.189 Most of the (published) material
from the tholos tombs at Agia Triada dates to
the protopalatial period. This includes masses of
pottery, especially from the annexes, stone vases,
including the Old Kingdom imported pyxis,390
bronze weapons,39 jewelry (beads of rock crystal,
carnelian, faience; pendants of gold and ivory/
bone), and 21 of the seals.392 Tholoi A and B at Platanos
continue at least into MM II. These tombs
contained MM IB-II pottery,3"3 many stone vases,394
over 30 bronze daggers,395 a short sword and two
385 Demargne (supra n. 250) pls. 61-68. For a discussion
of the date of the pendant, see G. de Pierpont,
"Reflexions sur la destination des edifices de Chrysolakkos,"
in R. Laffineur ed., Thanatos: Les coutumes fundraires
en Egie a l'dge du bronze (Aegaeum 1, Liege 1987) 84-85.
386 Soles 3-28, 39-40.
387 E. Hall, Excavations in Eastern Crete: Sphoungaras
(Philadelphia 1912) 55-60. Soles 51 is right to point to the
difference in wealth between these two groups of protopalatial
tombs. The distinction between the tombs does
not hold completely, for House Tombs VII and VIII held
simple larnax burials like those at Sphoungaras.
388 E. Forsdyke, "The Mavrospelio Cemetery at Knossos,"
BSA 28 (1926/1927) 243-96.
389 Levi (supra n. 232) 7-148; Festos I, 703-43.
390 Pace Chronology 125. Stone vases, Banti (supra n. 98)
nos. 79, 87, 92, 96, 98-108.
991 Branigan 160-61: 279, 314, 316, and a short sword,
BSA 63 (1968) 203 no. 25.
392 MM IB-II seals from Tholos A at Agia Triada: CMS
1.2, 9, 29, 44, 58, 70, 72, 78, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 90, 94,
96-101, and 103.
393 Some 25 examples are published in VTM, e.g., pl. 9.
394 Banti (supra n. 98), e.g., bridge-spouted jars, bowls,
bird's nest bowls, cups. There are over a dozen Egyptianizing
shapes: alabastra, nos. 108 (cf. Ward 1971 [supra
n. 304] 104-105, fig. 19, no. 22) and HM 373 (cf. MSV 5
[HM 373] and Petrie [supra n. 257] pl. 29.606-607);
bowls, nos. 87, 88, 90, 92 (cf. Petrie [supra n. 257] pl.
23.385-86); cylindrical jars, nos. 96, 98-100, 102, 104 (cf.
Ward 1971 [supra n. 304] 97-104 and Petrie [supra n.
257] pls. 2.22, 5.161-62, 173); miniature amphoras, nos.
105-106 (see MSV 71-72).
395 Branigan 10-12, types V, VI, and IX, which span
MM IA-II and types X and XIV, which are MM IB-II:
159-61, nos. 230-53, 274-76, 280-82, 287-90, 309, 313,
and the tin bronze HM 1934 in K. Branigan, "The Mesara
Tholoi and Middle Minoan Chronology," SMEA 5 (1968)
20-23. See also Branigan (supra n. 312).
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746 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
Fig. 30. Clay sistrum from Building 9, P
(Archanes). (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, A
1991] 121, fig. 99)
double axes,:96 30 seals,3"' an Old Bab
der seal,'98 three Egyptian scarabs,
amulets.400 Gold jewelry of late MM
cludes three gold diadems,401 22 gol
gold discs, rings, and pendants.40
tombs had MM IB-II clay and ston
and human figurines, seals, at leas
long daggers,404 st
jewelry including a
its mane rendered
The cemetery at P
in use in MM IB-II
over Building 13 pr
als, in addition to a
rines and a rhyto
North of Tholos F
lier structure (Bu
topalatial burials.40
constructed over traces of an earlier structure
(Building 24), held burials of the MM IB-II period.408
North of Tholos F the large Building 5 was
constructed over an older structure (Building 25).409
Buildings 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16, 18, and 19 contained
substantial protopalatial deposits (fig. 31). Materials
characteristic of MM IA burials, including seals of
ivory/bone and steatite, obsidian blades, gold bands,
pendants and bosses, necklaces with beads of bone,
crystal, steatite, faience, seashells, silver rings, and
stone vases, continued to be found in these protopalatial
levels. Distinctive of the protopalatial deposits
are the large number and types of clay vases
offered as well as the presence of clay figurines (human
and animal) and bull rhyta similar to those
found on contemporary peak sanctuaries. Individual
burials were often marked by a single cup orjug,
and perhaps animal bones (including bird and fish),
an obsidian blade, pebbles, and seashells. A single
burial of a child in ajar with a silver ring, a cup, and
three sacrificed animals might be interpreted as a
case of inherited wealth.410 Unique finds include a
clay sistrum and a lapis lazuli cylinder seal.41" Relative
to the large number of deceased in these upper
levels, the burials appear markedly poorer in possessions
than in MM IA, a change most easily seen
396 Branigan 164, nos. 481, 521, and 522.
397 MM IB-II seals from Platanos: CMS 1.2, 241, 242,
247, 255, 260, 261, 269, 270, 275, 277, 279, 281, 282, 284,
285, 289, 293, 298, 301-303, 306, 307, 324, 328, 330, 332,
337, 349.
98 V. Kenna, "Ancient Crete and the Use of the Cylinder
Seal," AJA 72 (1968) 322-24.
9 W. Ward, "The Scarabs from Tholos B at Platanos,"
AJA 85 (1981) 70-73 and Ward 1987 (supra n. 304) 507-
32.
400 VTM pl. 15, nos. 1026, 1145-47, and 1252.
401 VTM pl. 57, nos. 481-83. See Higgins (supra n. 137)
58.
402 VTM pl. 57, upper two rows.
403 VTM pl. 57; nos. 487 (fly) and 489 (claw) are imitations
of 12th-Dynasty Egyptian types ofjewelry, cf. Bourriau
(supra n. 277) 141 and 149.
404 Branigan 160-61, types 10-11, 13-14.
405 VTM pls. 3-5, 19-24, 26, 29-32.
406 Prakt 1971, 281; 1972, 351-52; 1973, 181-86. Sistrum,
Sakellarakis and Sapouna-Sakellaraki (supra n. 234)
121, fig. 99; bull figurine and rhyton, Prakt 1972, pl. 277.
407 Room 8, Prakt 1971, 281-82; 1973, 177-81; 1982,
495-99.
408 Prakt 1976, 344-51. The juglet (Prakt 1976, 350, fig.
3) from the lower level of Building 18 dates to the MM
IB-II period, cf. Zois (supra n. 236) pl. 17, MM IB; Festas
I, pl. 196a-c, e and g, MM II.
409 Prakt 1967, 159-61; 1971, 281; 1972, 319-27.
410 Prakt 1976, 359-60.
411 Cylinder seal, Prakt 1967, pl. 152. Building 5 is
dated to the MM IA period by the excavators, but its pottery
indicates it continued into a later date. The low conical
cup (Prakt 1972, pl. 270a) is MM II-III (Fiandra [supra
n. 236] pl. 3 la-g). The small amphora is of the same date
(Levi [supra n. 232] 55, fig. 59a). The basket-shaped
kalathos (pl. 275a) is a protopalatial shape (Festas I, pl.
117d).
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 747
Fig. 31. Pottery from Building 6, Phourni cemetery (Archanes). (After I. and E. Sakellarakis, Archanes [At
101, fig. 24)
in the jewelry. Signs of overseas contacts reach a
peak in this period: obsidian, probably sard, gold,
silver, lead, and bronze from the Aegean; ivory and
lapis from the Near East; and possibly ivory, gold,
and faience from Egypt.
Recent studies have shown that the widespread
and intense trade connections usually associated
with LM I Crete had already begun in the protopalatial
period. Relatively little is known about
Middle Bronze I-II levels in the Aegean islands, but
Minoan pottery and other objects have been found
at a number of sites. While MM IA is presently unknown
at Phylakopi, MM IB-II vases (and local
imitations) are found in the City Iii level.412 Papaiannopoulou's
recent study413 of the saved Minoan pottery
from Phylakopi records two Barbotine vases,
over three dozen MM II-IIIA cups, and a few jugs
or amphoras and hole-mouthed jars as well as a
figurine. Palatial-quality vases, with parallels at
Knossos and Phaistos, predominate (as a result of
sorting?). Three possible East Cretan cups are mentioned.
Minoan imports appear on Kea (period IV)
in small quantities at the beginning of the Middle
Bronze Age and they increase rapidly until the end
of the period when their numbers are said to be
"immense." Kamares ware from palatial workshops
occurs.414 The few soundings made under LM I levels
at Akrotiri on Thera have also produced MM II
pottery, mostly fine Kamares cups as well as one or
two East Cretan examples.415 On Samos an MM IA
type goblet and MM II-III pottery have been
found.416 At Knidos painted Minoan pottery and
cooking pots are said to begin in MM I.417 On
Rhodes MM II pottery, stone vases, a spindle whorl,
and a loomweight have been found on the acropolis
at Ialysos. The high proportion of Minoan-type artifacts
(12 out of 13) in the floor deposit at Ialysos
led Benzi to call the finds evidence for a Minoan
settlement.418 The Minoan town site of Trianda on
Rhodes is said to be founded in MM III, but the
412 R. Barber, "The Status of Phylakopi in Creto-Cycladic
Relations," in Thalassocracy 179-81.
413 A. Papaiannopoulou, The Influence of Middle Minoan
Pottery on the Cyclades (G6teborg 1991) 84-116.
414 J. Caskey, "Investigations in Keos," Hesperia 41
(1972) 376, fig. 8, nos. D8-10, 382 and pl. 83. The pottery
of period IV is now published in J. Overbeck, Keos VII:
Ayia Irini, Period IV (Mainz 1989); see 11 for a summary.
415 S. Marinatos, Thera VI (Athens 1974) 31 and pl. 67b.
See the more recent catalogue in Papaiannopoulou (supra
n. 413) 51-53.
416 The MM I eggcup reported in J. Davis, "The Earliest
Minoans in the South East Aegean: A Reconsideration
of the Evidence," AnatSt 32 (1982) 32, fig. 2 has a monochrome
interior and is Momigliano's type 3 (supra n. 185)
246, fig. 30. It is from north-central Crete and, on present
evidence, should date to MM IA. For other Minoan finds,
see W.-D. Niemeier, "The End of the Minoan Thalassocracy,"
Thalassocracy 206-207.
417 Reported in M. Mellink, "Archaeology in Asia Minor,"
AJA 82 (1978) 321.
418 M. Benzi, "Evidence for a Middle Minoan Settlement
on the Akropolis at Ialysos (Mt. Philerimos)," Thalassocracy
93-105. For the Profitis Elias site, seeT Marketou,
"New Evidence on the Topography and Site History of
Prehistoric Ialysos," in S. Dietz ed., Archaeology in the Dodecanese
(Copenhagen 1988) 27-28. Marketou identifies the
pottery as local.
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748 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
published pottery, a Patrikies-type teapo
nated cups, looks like material from M
Minoan pottery of the Old Palace perio
from Mikre Vigla on Naxos.420 Protopala
has been found on Kasos and Karpatho
noan settlement, with Minoan artifacts,
a peak sanctuary, was established at
Kythera by MM IA and continued unti
The Italian excavations at lasos report
ware, pithoi, conical cups, lamps, and l
in a large building.423 MM II pottery has
reported at Miletos.424
Beginning in MB I, Minoan pottery w
first time traded to the Greek mainland.425 Sites receiving
Minoan pottery include Kolonna on Aegina,
Asine, Athens, Argos, Agios Stephanos in Laconia,
Eutresis, Lerna, Mycenae, and Iolkos and Pefkakia
in Thessaly. On Aegina, Hiller reports that the earliest
Minoan imports are MM IA eggcups, followed
by some 30 MM II vases, most of which are Kamares
ware cups.426 At Lerna the amount of imported Minoan
pottery as well as Minoanizing imitations is
said to be in excess of 200 vases.427 Minoan imports
at Lerna consist of Barbotine fine ware and larger
storage containers. The Minoan route using the
"Western String" of islands ending in Lavrion seems
to have been motivated by the Minoan desire to
acquire copper, silver, and lead.428 Thus it appears
that the route defined by Davis for LB I already
existed in MM II. Papaiannopoulou's study indicates
that MM I-II pottery in the Cyclades was
mainly fine ware exported for its own sake; by MM
III, Minoan ceramic exports were commonly larger
vases traded as containers.429 She also stresses how
beneficial the trade in Minoan ceramics and metals
must have been to the Cycladic middlemen.430
A wide range of foreign imports first appears in
Crete in the protopalatial period. Cypriot pottery in
MM IB contexts has been found at Kommos.431 Copper
objects analyzed from the Mesara tombs are
consistent with a Cypriot source.432 Substantial
amounts of tin first appear in Minoan objects of
protopalatial date,433 signaling commercial ties with
the East (Syria?). On the other hand, Middle Helladic
pottery on Crete is conspicuously rare.434 The
famous silver kantharos from Gournia is a sign of
Cretan trade, probably for metals with Anatolian
Cappadocia.435 Egyptian scarabs appear in tombs at
Archanes, Gournes, and Lebena.436 Wiener has emphasized
the importance of the Near East in the
metals trade with MM IB-II Crete.437
Within the Aegean three Minoan "routes" leading
to different areas are discernible: 1) Kythera, Agios
Stephanos, and the Argolid (Lerna); 2) the "Western
String" of islands (Thera, Melos, Kea) to Lavrion;
and 3) Kasos, Karpathos, and Rhodes to the Ana-
419 Marketou (supra n. 418) 28-29 and fig. 5L. Papazoglou-Manioudaki,
ArchDelt 37 (1982) 142-51. Patrikiestype
teapot, 149, no. 7 (with incorrect reference in n. 30)
and pl. 62.7; this necked spout with an outturned rim
should be compared to Patrikies-phase examples, Bonacasa
(supra n. 226) 47, fig. 36 and Festks I, pls. 98 and 102.
The Trianda example dates to MM IA-B. The carinated
cups, pls. 62.1, 4, and 9, 63.11-12, and p. 150, fig. 5, TP
163, represent a common protopalatial type. Papaiannopoulou
(supra n. 413) 309 mentions MM IA pottery
from Trianda.
420 R. Barber and O. Hadjianastasiou, "Mikre Vigla: A
Bronze Age Settlement on Naxos," BSA 84 (1989) 107-
108 and 140.
421 E. Melas, The Islands of Karpathos, Saros and Kasos in
the Neolithic and Bronze Age (G6teborg 1985) 173.
422 Coldstream and Huxley, in Thalassocracy (supra n.
107) 107-12.
423 C. Laviosa, "The Minoan Thalassocracy, lasos and
the Carian Coast," Thalassocracy 183-85.
424 Discussion in Thalassocracy 189; A. Papaiannopoulou,
"Were the S.E. Aegean Islands Deserted in the MBA?"
AnatSt 35 (1985) 86-87.
425 Rutter and Zerner (supra n. 107) 75-83.
426 S. Hiller, "Minoan and Minoanizing Pottery on
Aegina," in C. and P Zerner and J. Winder eds., Wace and
Blegen: Pottery as Evidence for Trade in the Aegean Bronze Age,
1939-1989 (Amsterdam 1993) 197-99. Hiller lists other
Minoan imports or Minoan-type artifacts from MH contexts:
stone vases, loomweights, a stone kernos, and a potter's
wheel.
427 Rutter and Zerner (supra n. 107) 79 n. 14.
428 For the Late Cycladic I period, see J. Davis, "Minos
and Dexithea: Crete and the Cyclades in the Later Bronze
Age," in J. Davis and J. Cherry eds., Papers in Cycladic
Prehistory (Los Angeles 1979) 143-57.
429 Papaiannopoulou (supra n. 413) 267-73.
430 Papaiannopoulou (supra n. 413) 273-79.
431 V. Watrous, "Late Bronze Age Kommos: Imported
Pottery as Evidence for Foreign Contacts," Scripta Mediterranea
6 (1985) 12.
432 Stos-Gale and Macdonald (supra n. 112) 267.
433 Branigan 150-51, nos. 554, 780, 4, 375, 73, 93,
3351, 1467, 537, 122, 702A, and 956A. The MM IB-II
dates are indicated typologically (375, 537, 1467) or by
find context (554, 754, 702A, and 956A). No. 93 is said to
have come from the lower (EM II and later?) level at Platanos
A. EM-MM I: 73, 3351, 122. See Gale's remarks
(supra n. 46) on the probable MM I date of the tin bronze
9402.
434 Rutter and Zerner (supra n. 107) 81-82.
435 Davis (supra n. 241).
436 Listed in Chronology 129. The authors' citation of
literature on the chronology of scarabs is selective; they do
not acknowledge Ward's 1987 article (supra n. 304) lowering
the dates of exported scarabs. C. Lambros-Phillipson,
Hellenorientalia (Giteborg 1990) 51-54 collects the evi-
dence.
437 M. Wiener, "The Nature and Control of Minoan
Foreign Trade," in Gale (supra n. 112) 327-34.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 749
tolian mainland (lasos, Knidos, and Miletos) and to
Cyprus and the Near East. These routes may to
some extent be regionally organized, that is, route 1
seems to be connected with Chania and western
Crete, route 2 with Knossos and north-central
Crete, and route 3 with eastern Crete (including
Mallia). Along route 3 Yiali obsidian was imported
to Mallia.438 Poursat believes that Minoans must
have traveled to Egypt in MM II because local clay
vases with relief scenes based on Egyptian wall
paintings are known.439 Two silver Egyptian objects
of the 12th Dynasty are claimed to be made from
Lavrion silver.440 Fresco fragments of kyanos blue
found in an MM II context at Knossos can be linked
to Egypt.44' Obsidian from southern Anatolia (the
Qiftlik area) appears in MM I contexts at Knossos
and in Tholos B at Platanos.442 The eastern trade
route, via Cyprus to the ports of Syro-Cilicia, points
to Minoan acquisition of metals (silver, tin, and copper).
Many seals of the Old Palace period were
carved from Near Eastern raw materials (agate,
onyx, carnelian, sard, lapis lazuli).443 The Egyptian
diorite statuette of User from the palace at Knossos
may, like the similar royal statuettes found at Byblos,
be a sign of links with Middle Kingdom Egypt.444
Signs of Near Eastern technology appear in MM
IB-II metalwork, in the form of copies of eastern
artifact types and new techniques of alloying, casting,
and granulation.445
Evidence for Minoan trade outside the Aegean
first appears in MM IA. The earliest object is the
famous MM IAjar found in Tomb 806A at Lapithos
in northern Cyprus.446 MM IB-II pottery, mostly
cups, has been found at Karmi on Cyprus, and in
Syria-Palestine at Ugarit, Qatna, Beirut, and Byblos.
Kemp and Merrillees have studied Minoan imports
in Egypt.447 MM IB-II sherds are known from
Lisht, Harageh, Kahun, Abydos, and Qubbet elHawa
near Aswan. The contexts of these vases in
Egypt range from the 12th to the 13th Dynasties.
Knossian and Phaistian potters also made for export
clay vases in imitation of foreign metal vases.448
Warren and Hankey have argued that the silver
vases in the Tod treasure, which probably date to
the 12th Dynasty, are Minoan (or can be taken as
evidence of similar Minoan work).449 Since the one
gold and 153 silver Tod cups are a single group,
technically and stylistically, the standard shapes in
the deposit may indicate their place of manufacture.
The four main shapes (accounting for over 90% of
the vases) are the hemispherical and shallow cups,
kantharoi, and conical cups.450These shapes are elements
of the Anatolian MB I ceramic repertoire.45'
None are Aegean. Only two unique shapes in the
Tod treasure are standard Minoan vase forms, the
globular cup and cylindrical cup.452 Thus, an Anatolian
source for the Tod vases seems likely. Objects
mentioned in Near Eastern written documents supplement
the list of Minoan exports. A Mari tablet
mentions clothing and a pair of leather shoes from
Crete.453 A tablet of ca. 1800 B.C. records tin sent to
Mari from the Caspian area for Cretans and others
at Ugarit. Two Mari tablets refer to a Cretan weapon
and Cretan products being sent from Mari to Baby-
lon.
While Minoan trade is now better documented,
the structure of that trade remains less clear. Was
protopalatial trade mainly controlled by the palace
or were other sectors of society also involved? Wiener
stresses the importance of the palace in protopalatial
overseas metals trade.454 Metal products
convincingly associated with the palace at Mallia in-
438 E Chapoutier and P Demargne, Fouilles exdcuties a
Mallia: Palais III (EtCret 6, Paris 1942) 54 and pl. 52.26.
439 J.-C. Poursat, "Une thalassocracie au Minoen moyen
II?" in Thalassocracy 87.
440 N. Gale in discussion, Thalassocracy 87.
441 S. Immerwahr, Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age
(University Park, Pa. 1990) 16.
442 C. Renfrew, J. Cann, and J. Dixon, "Obsidian in the
Aegean," BSA 60 (1965) 239. As Wiener notes (supra n.
437), the Anatolian obsidian comes from an area near metal
sources in the Taurus Mountains and is a sign of Cretan-Anatolian
metals trade (see A. Yener and P Vandiver,
"Tin Processing at G61ltepe, an Early Bronze Age Site in
Anatolia," AJA 97 [1993] 207-38), just as Melian obsidian
is a sign of Cretan-Cycladic metals trade in the EBA.
443 Yule 192-97.
444 PM I, 286-90.
445 Branigan 114-29, esp. 122-23 and fig. 10.
446 See Cadogan (supra n. 8) 514-17.
447 Kemp and Merrillees (supra n. 8).
448 Chronology pls. 6-11.
449 Chronology 131-34. The examples adduced in Chronology
132-33 show only that Minoan potters imitated a
few of the types of metal vessels found in the Tod cache.
For the eastern origin of the Tod vases, see E. Davis, The
Vapheio Cups and Aegean Gold and Silver Ware (Diss. New
York Univ. 1973) 69-79.
450 See E Bisson de la Roque et al., Le tresor de 7Td (Cairo
1953): hemispherical cups, pls. 12-13, 22-27; shallow
cups, pl. 14; kantharoi, pl. 17; conical cups, pls. 19-21.
451 See Lloyd and Mellaart (supra n. 201): hemispherical
cups, 90, fig. P4, nos. 9 and 11; shallow cups, 92, fig.
P5, nos. 10-12; kantharoi, 92, fig. P5, nos. 23-27; and
conical cups, 90, fig. P4, nos. 15, 16, 18, and 92, fig. P5,
nos. 13-16.
452 Bisson de la Roque (supra n. 450) pl. 15, nos. 70583
and 70580.
453 Wiener (supra n. 437) 329.
454 Wiener (supra n. 437) 330-34.
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750 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
clude the two MM II swords and the molds for axes
and blades (from the area adjacent to the Mallia
palace).455 At Knossos a crystal core, gold, alabaster,
Giali (?) obsidian, and faience and shell inlays as well
as clay sealings, ca. 400 loomweights, and miniature
faience vases are probably indirect evidence for palace
workshop activity.456 MacGillivray's study of
Kamares ware production centers at Knossos postulates
workshops serving Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia,
Vasiliki, and Palaikastro.457 The excavation of Quartier
Mu (producing, e.g., the mold for a "Kamares"
lobed bowl and the stone anchors) serves as a warning
that "palatial" workshops of artisans fed
through redistribution and maritime trade were not
limited to the palace but were also controlled by
families living outside the palace. We do not know
the exact relationship between these families and
the residents of the palace. It is very likely that they
were closely related, as at LBA Ugarit, but their
commercial and political interconnections remain
unknown. Links between Kamares ware workshops
and the palaces are equally tenuous. As MacGillivray
points out, the kilns for the Knossian area
seem to have been located some 3 km south of Knossos.458
Certainly quantities of Kamares ware were
destined for the palaces but, equally, quantities have
been found in other sectors of palatial towns. Similarly
there is no evidence that the palaces had any
predominant role in the distribution of Kamares
ware either in Crete or overseas. "Palatial" goods
such as Kamares ware, precious metals, and artwork
should probably be regarded as coming from
groups of wealthy families or royalty located at the
principal Minoan towns.459 The construction of a
large architectural complex at the port of Kommos,
however, may have been initiated by the palace at
Phaistos.460 There is now an impressive body of literature
based on Near Eastern texts that illustrates
the wide range of possibilities for the structure of
protopalatial trade. The royal monopoly of Egypt
seems exceptional. Far more normal in the Near
East is the situation in which private commerce and
royal trade (a mixture of commerce, gift exchange,
and internal taxation) exist side by side.461
Finally, one of the most distinctive features of Minoan
civilization is its early adoption of representational
art under strong Syrian and Egyptian
influence.462 Prepalatial representations on seals,
pottery, and even sculpture are for the most part
abstract.463 In the late prepalatial period (MM IA),
figural representations on Minoan seals, made of
ivory imported from Syria and Egypt, become common.
On the earliest (MM IA-IB) group featuring
pictorial motifs, the range of subjects is relatively
limited: lions, spiders, scorpions, and goats.464 The
successive MM IA-II group, distinctive for its highly
pronounced Egyptian influence in its shapes and
motifs, features a wider repertoire: man, deer, boar,
goat, lion, ape, calf, fly, lily, ship, and jug as well as
hieroglyphic characters (e.g., sistrum, leg, and double
ax).465 Many of these early motifs are derived
from Syrian or Egyptian workshops.466 The Mallia
Workshop group (MM II) depicts men, goats, pottery,
fish, waterbirds, bucrania, ships, spiders, scorpion,
octopus, dog, double ax, and a fly.467 The MM
II Phaistos sealings add to the Mallia repertoire with
scenes of galloping animals in a landscape, an owl,
and a Triton shell. Egyptian motifs include the bull
and battlement, ape, griffin, bee, and Tu-art.468 A
few pictorial motifs are depicted on pottery469 and
the sphinx also makes its appearance on seals and
ceramic relief.470
455 0. Pelon, "Minoan Palaces and Workshops: New
Data from Malia," in Function 269-72.
456 PM I, 165-75, 248-70. For a discussion of the MM
IA-II Vat Room deposit, see Momigliano (supra n. 185)
167-71; K. Branigan, "The Economic Role of the First
Palaces," in Function 247-49 and ns. 4 and 6.
457 J. MacGillivray, "Pottery Workshops and the Old
Palaces in Crete," in Function 273-79.
458 MacGillivray (supra n. 457) 276.
459 See the careful discussion in M. Wiener, "Trade and
Rule in Palatial Crete," in Function 264-65.
460 See J. Shaw, "Excavations at Kommos (Crete) during
1986-1992," Hesperia 62 (1993) 184-85 and 164, fig. 10b.
461 See the comments by W. Helck and B. Foster on
Egyptian and Old Babylonian trade in Function 267. For
the Near East, see P Garelli ed., Le palais et la royaute' (Paris
1974); M. Heltzer, Goods, Prices and the Organization of Trade
in Ugarit (Wiesbaden 1978); Heltzer, The Internal Organization
of the Kingdom of Ugarit (Wiesbaden 1982); C. Zaccagnini,
"Aspects of Ceremonial Exchange in the Near
East during the Late Second Millennium B.C.," in M.
Rowlands, M. Larsen, and K. Kristiansen eds., Centre and
Periphery in the Ancient World (Cambridge 1987) 57-65; E.
Gaal, "The Social Structure of Alalah," in M. Heltzer and
E. Lipinski eds., Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean
(Louvain 1988) 94-110.
462 See the excellent summary in Immerwahr (supra n.
441) 26-37.
463 Cretan figurines in stone and clay are, for religious
reasons, an obvious exception.
464 Yule 208-209: the Parading Lions/Spiral group.
465 Yule 210-11: Border/Leaf Complex.
466 Yule 210-11; Pini 1981 (supra n. 140) 421-35; and
Pini 1990 (supra n. 140) 115-27. P Yule, "Early and Middle
Minoan Foreign Relations: The Evidence from Seals,"
SMEA 25 (1987) 161-75.
467 Yule 212-13.
468 CMS 11.5, nos. 253-326.
469 G. Walberg, Tradition and Innovation: Essays in Minoan
Art (Mainz 1986) 6-38.
470 J.-C. Poursat, "Le sphinx minoen: un nouveau
document," AntCr 1 (1973) 111-14.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 751
The Old Palace period is brought to a close by a
series of destructions in MM II, observed at Phaistos,
Knossos, Mallia, Monasteraki, Pyrgos/Myrtos,
and Palaikastro as well as at other sites.
CONCLUSIONS
During the last 20 years it has become increasingly
apparent that excavation must go hand in
hand with other techniques if it is to answer some of
our current questions about Minoan Crete. Surveys,
for example, have not only documented changing
patterns of settlement, but they provide us with a
general context that is invaluable in interpreting
excavation finds. Surveys also present a unique diachronic
perspective. We now know that defensively
located settlements, for example, are not confined
to the EM II period but are also characteristic of the
FN, EM I, and MM I periods. The systematic use of
watersieving to recover organic remains has the potential
to answer basic questions about the evolving
Minoan exploitation of the environment, about economic
organization, population, and diet. Many
problems involving chronology, trade, and religion
in Minoan archaeology are in fact Aegean, or even
Mediterranean, problems and are most profitably
approached from a wider perspective. Much would
be learned, for instance, about the structure of Minoan
overseas trade by the thorough excavation
and publication of an EBA Cycladic settlement connected
with a mined ore source.
Studies of Early and Middle Minoan pottery deposits
have helped to define these ceramic phases.
Thanks to recent research we now know that the
EM IIA and EM IIB periods are very different in
some ways. Research on Middle Minoan pottery has
made clearer the strongly regional character of Minoan
Crete. For the EM I-MM II periods, however,
we still lack a continuous stratigraphy (or even part
of one) based on a single site. At Phaistos, for example,
we have published deposits of FN, but nothing
from EM I through MM IA. For Knossos there are
informative publications of EM IIA and MM IA, but
no EM I, EM IIB, EM III, MM IB, or MM II. Both
sites possess excavated material from these missing
periods but it has not been published. Consequently
we depend on deposits from widely separated areas
of Crete and from tombs for our ceramic sequence.
In the past this has resulted in controversies concerning
dating and has hindered our understanding
of important historical questions, such as
the development of Minoan social complexity,
Aegean interrelations, and the evolution of Linear
B. What is needed is the publication of as full as
possible a sequence of deposits from a single site.
Knossos is the obvious place for this to happen.
Scholars of Early Minoan Crete have reconstructed
a society at the threshold of palatial
achievement made up of elite families whose centralized
authority included control of specialized
workshops. These families are thought to have
reached a peak of prosperity and technical
proficiency during the "international era" of the
Aegean EB II period. A generation of research has
confirmed some of these claims and cast doubt on
others. Current multidisciplinary ceramic analyses
are beginning to demonstrate the highly specialized
nature of EM II ceramic production and the volume
of long-distance trade in pottery within Crete. Similarly
the startling amount and range of Cretan access
to Aegean metals have also been documented
by scientific and archaeological work.
On the other hand, recent excavation and research
have yet to yield any evidence for a complex
sociopolitical organization in Early Minoan Crete.
Some aspects of EM II material culture are indeed
sophisticated and rich, but if the culture of EM II
Crete is compared with that of other areas in the
contemporary Aegean or with later MM IA achievements,
it is relatively modest. Future research may
well modify this view. We need an excavation of a
large EM II settlement, at one of the later palatial
sites, or at Koumasa, Platanos, or Agia Triada, only
the cemeteries of which have been investigated.
Such an excavation would correct the present bias
in our EM II evidence toward tomb material. Because
so many Early Minoan tomb groups are unstratified,
the publication of the tombs at Lebena
and Agia Photia would be particularly valuable.
Data for most aspects of the all-important economic
component of EM II society continue to be extremely
rare-the excavations at coastal Myrtos, for
example, produced no fish bones and only one olive
stone-largely due to the lack of watersieving for
organic remains. It is disturbing that while such economic
questions are being actively discussed in the
literature, many current well-financed foreign excavations
in Crete are failing to watersieve. A large
program of analyses of Cretan metal artifacts is another
desideratum, as it would undoubtedly yield
valuable information on Minoan society, technology,
and trade.
The EM III period has generally been regarded
as one of smooth transition and continuity between
EM II and MM I. This prevailing view is based on
past scholarship dealing with pottery, stone vases,
and seals. Faced with a lack of stratigraphy for the
EM III period, these studies created a uniformitarian
sequence from EM IIB to MM IB based exclusively
on style. The production of seals and stone
vases during the EM II-MM I period is not, however,
an uninterrupted tradition. Recent excavation
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752 L. VANCE WATROUS [AJA 98
and survey work have also shown tha
widespread, but by no means total, disc
settlement on Crete at the end of the E
period, and that there is no basis for as
this period proceeded without interru
this indicates rather strongly that previ
ous stylistic sequences, while perhaps in
rect, have little historical validity. EM
derstood in the current literature is sim
creation. Much that has been called "EM III" could
easily be EM IIB or MM IA. The hard truth is that
we know next to nothing about Crete during the
EM III period.
This EM III controversy closely resembles the old
problem, debated in the 1970s, of Late Minoan IIwhether
it was a style or a chronological periodand
I believe it has the same solution. Before the
mid-1970s it was thought that LM II was a Knossian
style contemporary with LM IB in the rest of the
island. Subsequent excavation and stylistic analysis
showed that LM II is a chronological period, with its
own ceramic style,471 which had been missed by earlier
excavators because it was rare and ill defined.
This suggests that once EM III levels at Knossos are
fully published, EM III material will eventually be
recognized by excavators in the rest of the island. It
may well turn out that no discrete decorative "style"
exists for EM III and that we will recognize the
pottery of the period in terms of certain shapes and
their relative incidence within an assemblage. Excavation
might help: a stratified EM II-MM I sequence
certainly exists at the major centers and possibly
at some smaller sites, such as Chamaizi,
Gournia, Koumasa, and Mochlos.
In the past, our image of the MM IA period has
been vague, largely because of chronological problems.
Consequently, studies of the early Middle Minoan
period have been relatively rare, particularly
in comparison with the amount of research on the
Early Minoan period. This has certainly tended to
obscure the importance of MM IA and its development.
Over the last 20 years, however, studies of
chronology, pottery, seals, and metalwork have
helped us to comprehend better what was actually
achieved during the period. It is now clear, for instance,
that exported Minoan pottery, our best evidence
for the development of Cretan trade with the
rest of the Aegean, is rare in EM II and increases
dramatically in quantity and distribution in MM IAII.
This should cause us to reevaluate the older view
that most of the rich finds from the EM II-MM I/II
Cretan tombs should be dated to EM II. Most would
now agree that MM IA is a long period and one of
dynamic development. Little is known about the
early, first phase of MM IA but the evidence seems
to indicate that there is initial recovery and great
population growth, visible at major centers, and
probably the beginning of an influx of new settlers
at this time.
During the later, second phase of MM IA, the first
true Aegean urbanization takes place on Crete.472
The major population centers are reorganized:
street systems, open squares, fortifications, and the
first palaces are constructed. Literacy is introduced.
Wealthy burials signal continued recovery and at
the same time settlements spread across the countryside.
Foreign imports from tombs at Archanes,
Mochlos, and from the Mesara are a sign of the
renewed international relations that are made possible
by the stabilization of the Near East and the
opening up of maritime contacts in the eastern
Mediterranean with the rise of the 12th Dynasty in
Egypt. Foreign influence is apparent in the number
of imports and in new burial customs, architecture,
ceramics, and seals. The Egyptian scarabs from Lebena
and Archanes indicate that this later phase of
MM IA corresponds roughly to the 20th century
B.C. Peak sanctuaries are established in MM IA,
and at the end of the period the first palaces are
constructed at Knossos and Mallia. With the consolidation
of these city-states, direct international relations
are established with other polities outside the
Aegean. Like their counterparts in the Near East,
these Minoan states enter an era of widespread
prosperity.
The outlines of the protopalatial period were securely
established by excavators early in this century.
For this reason, the period has been relatively
neglected until recently. Several excavations-at
Phaistos, Phourni cemetery (Archanes), Quartier
Mu at Mallia, and Monasteraki-have helped to fill
certain gaps in our knowledge. Levi's excavations at
Phaistos have revealed a large portion of the Old
Palace, but now need to be supplemented with tests
to resolve important problems of relative dating for
certain sectors of the palace. The revelation of
Quartier Mu at Mallia makes one wish for excavation
of another MM IB-II sector of the city (further
471 This view was put forth by M. Popham, in "Late
Minoan II Crete: A Note," AJA 79 (1975) 372-74.
472 The archaeological correlates of urban states are
usefully listed in C. Redman, The Rise of Civilization (San
Francisco 1978) 218.
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1994] CRETE FROM EARLIEST PREHISTORY THROUGH THE PROTOPALATIAL PERIOD 753
out from the palace?) to understand better the
range of urban dwellings and daily life at Mallia.
The important excavations at Monasteraki, when
fully published, will help fill out our picture of an
MM IB-II provincial town. Sites such as Chamaizi
and Agia Photia throw into relief the problem of
rural "villas" or farms and their functions. Claims
for lines of Minoan "forts" linked by paved roads in
East Crete need further substantiation: the complete
publication of one of these complexes would
be helpful. The identification by survey and subsequent
excavation of rural constructions, such as
check dams and built terraces, is particularly exciting.
More such work needs doing to document Minoan
land use and engineering capabilities. Two areas
of prime importance begging for intensive
survey work are the Knossos-Archanes region and
the plain of Rethymnon.
Some 20 years ago two scholars, C. Renfrew in
The Emergence of Civilisation (London 1972) and K.
Branigan in The Foundations of Palatial Crete (London
1970), presented an influential outline for the cultural
development of pre- and protopalatial Crete.
This sequence was one of rapid cultural development
during the EM I-II periods followed by a
continuous and uneventful transition into the protopalatial
period. Twenty years of excavation and
research on Crete have documented a different pattern.
Cultural development in EM I-II Crete appears
to have been gradual and relatively modest;
there is at present no evidence for social ranking in
EM II Crete. Society in EM II Crete was sharply
interrupted at the end of the period by widespread
turbulence and the abandonment of many settlements.
Only in the subsequent MM IA period is
order gradually restored to the island. In MM IA,
Minoan Crete first achieves urbanization, sociopolitical
complexity, literacy, and wealth based on international
trade, all cultural features we traditionally
associate with civilization.
DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY
605 CLEMENS HALL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO
BUFFALO, NEW YORK 14260
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