Knossos: the Archaic gap

Coldstream, J. N.; Huxley, George

doi:10.1017/s0068245400000605

Cited by 29 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The dearth of evidence for these initial stages of urbanization is even more pronounced on the island of Crete, where there is a remarkable decline in the quantity not only of settlement remains, but also funerary and ritual activity in the sixth century Be. This situation has led many scholars to suggest that the island witnessed a dramatic drop in population during this period (e.g., Cold stream and Huxley 1999;Kotsonas 2002;Prent 1996Prent -1997Van der Vliet 1996Vink 1996Vink -1997. Such a population decline is particularly surprising considering that the preceding three centuries were characterized by intense and dynamic cultural interaction between the inhabitants of Crete, the Aegean islands, the Greek mainland, and the Near East.…”

Section: F It Zsi M On Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanization and the Emergence of the GreekPolis: The Case of Azoria, Crete

Fitzsimons¹

2014

Making Ancient Cities

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Perhaps the most striking development accompanying the emergence of the Greek city-state (ca. 1200-480 BC) was the appearance of new urban centers whose form, contents, and construction provided the most visible and effective means of creating, reinforcing, and symbolizing the social, political, and economic relationships that characterized the new polis system. Excavations at the site of Azoria (East Crete) have brought to light an unparalleled collection of architectural data, largely unobscured by later activities, that provides one of the best opportunities to study the architectural correlates of urbanization in the Greek world. This paper explores three levels of the built environment at Azoria-the domestic, the civic, and the urb.an-and demonstrates that the architectural landscape of the nascent city-state not only served to reflect the dramatic social and political developments that accompanied the emergence of the polis, but in effect, also functioned a.s an active agent in their creation. Current models of state formation in the Greek world envision a radical shift in sociopolitical structure from either pastoral or mixed village-farming communities operating within a chiefdom-based or big-man society to more elaborate sociopolitical and economic systems characterized by drastically rearranged social organizations, complex inter-and intraregional trade networks, and more extensive integration between rural landscapes and their new urban cen

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Section: F It Zsi M On Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanization and the Emergence of the GreekPolis: The Case of Azoria, Crete

Fitzsimons¹

2014

Making Ancient Cities

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“…Low visibility particularly of the Archaic period is a longstanding and well-known problem on Crete. Traditional accounts attribute the 'gap' to some historical event, such as a famine or invasion (Coldstream and Huxley [1999]). Other interpretations find some explanation in a Crete-specific social trajectory: the island's dour warrior elites had little footprint in the material record (Whitley [2001] 250-52).…”

Section: Archaic To Early Classicalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crete (Iron Age to Hellenistic)

Haysom

2013

Arch. Rep.

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This year, the newly-published material bookends nearly a decade of archaeological work on the island with ADelt covering work on Crete from 2001 to 2004 and the second volume of Archaiologiko Ergo Kritis showcasing work in the years immediately before 2010. Several of the more impressive discoveries from the beginning of the decade have been known to the wider archaeological community for some time, but their publication in ADelt allows us to discuss them in greater detail and in their broader context. Overall, this is an opportune time to look at how some of the fieldwork done between 2001 and 2010 might contribute to our view of post-Bronze Age Crete.The largest single contribution of the 2012–2013 reports to the Iron Age came in the form of the publication of the 2001–2004 seasons at the settlement site on Prophitis Elias hill near Smari (ID3655): an account that rounds out earlier notices for the 1999 and 2000 seasons (AR 53 [2006–2007] 107–08; ID1814). The site of Smari has entered the literature principally thanks to the megara with stone-lined hearths at their centre. The buildings have been interpreted as a ruler's dwelling, with some relationship to Cretan hearth temples, and as a locale for communal dining (Mazarakis-Ainian [1997] 220–21, 296; Prent [2007] 143; Sjogren [2007] 153; Wallace [2010] 112, 119). After a Middle Minoan occupation, the site's main period of use covers the whole of the Iron Age from Late Minoan IIIC through to the Orientalizing period, after which a small cult place remained in use through to the Classical period (fifth-to third-century BC figurines: Hatzi-Vallianou [2000]).

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“…It should therefore be a priority of future work with Archaic-and Classical-period burials to document closely any changes in display and to correlate the burials with probable associated setdements. The so-called gap in the burial record on Crete in the Archaic and Classical periods (Coldstream et al 1999;Prent 1996) appears illusory. Work by Erickson (2002;Donald Haggis, personal comm.…”

Section: Cemeteries and Other Possible Contexts For Open Elite Displaymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaic Polis of Azoria

Small

2011

JMA

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This article seeks to build a structural model for the development of the Cretan polis through an analysis of the civic structure of Archaic Azoria. Azoria's civic structural network is compared to that of the early polis on mainland Greece. Insights gained from comparative modeling of elite-sponsored civic structure in these two regions are applied to Crete, allowing us to construct a more robust network of early 'polital' structure for that island. Results of this analysis indicate that Cretan elites constructed their positions within the Cretan polis through methods such as exclusion. They additionally show that the unique relationship between civic institutions and those of the Cretan inter-polital sanctuary highlights the role that the institutions within the andreion and within civic cult play in polis development, as well as elucidating the unique character of the family-community interface on Crete. Results of this analysis highlight important issues in the emergence of the Cretan polis, and suggest fruitful future research.

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Knossos: the Archaic gap

Cited by 29 publications

References 7 publications

Urbanization and the Emergence of the GreekPolis: The Case of Azoria, Crete

Urbanization and the Emergence of the GreekPolis: The Case of Azoria, Crete

Crete (Iron Age to Hellenistic)

The Archaic Polis of Azoria

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