Archanes 1999 Overview

ABSTRACT: From Prepalatial to Protopalatal:
Defining the Transitional Early Minoan III - Middle Minoan II Ceramic Phases at Archanes and North-central Crete

The lack of undisturbed, stratified EM III - WM II pottery deposits from the palace of Knossos continues to leave a significant gap in our understanding of the development of north-central Crete at the crucial time of transition from Prepalatial to the Old Palace period (Protopalatial), thus affecting our interpretation of the sequence of social, political, and material culture developments which led to the formation of the first palaces in that region. Despite the efforts of the British scholars, almost a century after the first excavations by Evans, to figure out a secure chronological sequence of the Knossian ceramic developments, the results are far from satisfactory: the pottery deposits from Knossos, apart from having been excavated very early and rather inadequately, are, by their own admission (Cadogan et al., 1993, pp. 21-23), small and hardly representative, heavily selected, often mixed, with limited stratigraphic linkages, and from different locations of the palace, being, therefore, of different functional character, which inevitably raises the issue of whether their quantitative and qualitative differences have chronological or merely functional significance. The problem becomes all the more serious and perplexing on account of the fact that Evans' typological and chronological terms and schemes, however uncertain for Knossos itself they may be, and regardless of their lack of synchronization between ceramic and architectural developments, have been widely adopted, used, even manipulated by archaeologists for non-Knossian material all over Crete.

The solution lies in the development of regional studies (Andreou, 1978; Zois, 1967 and 1969): it is imperative to identify first and define the local ceramic sequences of the different regions of the island and, subsequently, to relate these sequences through the study of imports, exports, and parallels, thus incorporating them into an overall scheme which will generate and reflect a general picture of the ceramic development and cultural history of Crete.

Unlike the Knossian pottery assemblages which evidently cannot form the core of such a regional sequence scheme for north-central Crete, the nearby palatial site of Archanes, and especially the cemetery at Phourni, have produced important, carefully excavated, undisturbed and well-stratified MM I - II pottery deposits, the most significant of which are the ‘Apothetis’ near Tholos B, the assemblage from Room 3 of Burial Building 9, and, mainly, the pottery assemblage of Burial Building 19. The rich, undisturbed pottery deposit of the latter, sealed by the masonry of its collapsed roof, stands out for its quantity (195 complete and incomplete vases, 15 larnakes, more than 200 diagnostic sherds), the great variety of shapes and decoration, and its well-defined stratification and "horizontal" spatial distnbuUon of the finds which facilitate a precise and detailed chronological classification of the pottery into phases and sub-divisions of each phase (early, middle, late).

The purpose of the present research is to define the Early Minoan III - Middle Minoan II pottery phases in north-central Crete, at the crucial time of transition from Prepalatial to Protopalatial, by studying in detail all the ceramic material yielded by excavation in Burial Building 19, and comparing it to material from other earlier or contemporary tomb contexts of the Phourni cemetery, as well as to ceramic material from other Early Minoan and Middle Minoan sites in central Crete, both cemeteries and settlements. The comparative study of this pottery deposit, which is based on stratigraphical and not merely on subjective stylistic criteria or seriation, and of contemporary deposits from other tombs at Phourni, which form an extensive and representative corpus of ca. 1000 vases, will generate first a local typological and chronological ceramic scheme defining the EM III - MM II pottery sequence at Archanes and reflecting, to a large extent, that of north-central Crete; as such, it will then affect the traditional dating of several well-known but poorly stratified pottery deposits in central Crete, thus necessitating their re-evaluation and incorporation into the Archanes ceramic scheme, which at the end of the process will have been transformed and elevated to an integrated regional ceramic scheme.

Furthermore, the present study, supplemented also by thin section petrographic analysis and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), aims to investigate pottery technology and clay sources, to identify local pottery workshops, to detect trade contacts with other regions of Crete through the study of imports, exports, and parallels, to attest an increasing standardization and specialization in pottery production through the interplay or consistency between different aspects of the pottery assemblage (ware, form, type, fabric, microscopic characterization) and, finally, to interpret and contextualize the social connotations of pottery production, use and distribution on the eve of the first palatial centers and of radical socio-economic transformation.

The typological study and chronological classification of the EM III - MM II pottery of central Crete on the basis of the Archanes ceramic sequence, aspires to make a substantial contribution to Minoan Archaeology: it aims to become a basic point of reference for the study of Minoan pottery by publishing an important ceramic corpus, to update a long established relative chronology, to offer stratigraphical identification of these transitional phases, fundamental to the excavator of a Minoan site, to stimulate as a catalyst new interpretations and trigger similar regional studies in the future.