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25 Khania most important site of West Crete. Palace in LMIIIB, maybe earlier
27 The awesome Idaean cave was in use for cultic activities at the beginning of the Neopalatial period but there may have been some disruption in its use after LM IA to LM III
28 No LM IB deposits in the palace at Knossos
After a great earthquake around the transition from MM IIIB to LM IA, the Palace at Knossos was rebuilt. That is not in doubt. It then suffered a serious but not disastrous destruction during the mature LM IA period after which its occupation and that of surrounding houses appears to have been more limited, perhaps while repairs were being carried out. There is some evidence for cult activities taking place in the West Wing and the Southeast Quarter during LM IB and access to the palace from the north may have become more restricted.
The buidings erected after the MM IIIB/LM IA earthquake are indicative of the greatest construction program of any prehistoric era in the Aegean.
29 Above Archanes towers Mt. Iuktas with its important peak sanctuary. This is one of the few sites of its kind to have been used in LM I, although there is only slight evidence for its use in LM IB,a period when it may have suffered a loss of prestige. A massive temenos wall was added at some point, but the precise chronology is not yet clear. The shrine remained in use into the historic period.
30 At Phaistos itself, there is a good deal of evidence for remodelling in several of the rooms of the palace during LM I.
There is limited evidence for LM IB occupation in the palace with a public shrine seemingly incorporated opening onto the west. Apart from this activity, the palace at Phaistos seem sto have become a ghost building during LM IB, although there was some reoccupation in LM III.
By contrast, there is much activity at Ag. Triada during LM IB.
35. The reader who has been able to browse through the Gazetteer of sites will have gathered that there was no single destruction of Crete in LM I, nor even a single destruction horizon by fire.
37. What seems obvious, however, is that almost all sites discussed in this book suffered at least some disturbance in LM IA or in LM IB but prior to the final destruction: in some cases this is evidenced by repairs or changes, in others by destruction or abandonment levels, and elsewhere by heaps of debris found close to the buildings, e.g. at Zakros, Pseira, Knossos, Malia, and Kannia-Mitropolis.
38. There is as yet no evidence of any settlement found in LM IB
39. The Palace system begins to come apart in the reverse order of its development: "last hired, first fired"
The LM IA settlements themselves often follow the same pattern as before the early LM IA destruction. Now, however, serious attempts were made to align houses along regular streets in an apparent attempt to control circulation. This, together with the paving of the streets and the incorporation of drainage systems, sometimes linked to individual houses, suggests that some central authority was involved.
40. Cretan hill sites were often inhabited during periods of stress. In the period of LM IA to LM IIIA1, however, there is little or no evidence that these sites were considered advantageous, i.e. when lowland settlements were increasingly being abandoned, there was no parallel move to other Cretan topographical zones.
The rising number of abandoned and destroyed settlements from LM IA onward and the absence of new contemporary settlements must then imply a serious decrease in population for we have both fewer houses/rooms occupied in the main settlements and an abandonment of outlying settlement areas.
42. Sometime in the mature LM IA period, the building programmes stopped; a few monumental and prestigious buildings under construction were not finished, the Unexplored Mansion at Knossos being the best known example, the Palace at the same site perhaps another. Other buildings, begun with high expectations, were apparently finished with cheaper material or occupied without being finished.
43. One of the most common reasons to block a room or house is to prevent rubbish and building debris from spilling out.
It is well known that, in times of stress and poverty, one often subdivides larger structures to shelter more families. We have seen the same feature in the towns of Malia, Gournia, Zakros, and Palaikastro, and a proper study might also reveal this to be the case elsewhere.
44. Some recent studies have identified a gradual decline in the kingdom of Pylos on the basis of changes in the architecture of the Late Helladic IIIB Palace at Ano Englianos. An increase in and centralization of storage and workshop space, the restriction of access and circulation, the construction of additions and the loss of elegance due to repairs in inferior materials, are the most telling features.
45. 62 earthquake Pompeii, 79 Vesuvius
Of some buildings at Pompeii, only the ashlar facades survived the earthquakes, with all internal walls needing reconstruction. Many of the changes and repairs were made in terracotta tiles (in contrast to the tuff and marble used before). When Vesuvius erupted and buried the town, repairs were still being carried out; concentrations of building materials and containers with fresh plaster were found. Before the eruption, several domestic buildings had been re-occupied by artisans or owners forced by the events to change their occupation, others were sub-divided into more dwellings. After the earthquake, the industrial areas were the first to be restored, then the private dwellings, then the private dwellings, and only later the public buildings; the rapid re-establishment of normal economic life was the prime mover. After the 62 AD earthquake, a transitional period could be identified during which normal communication and economic networks had to be re-established so that so that food could again be produced and distributed. The wealthiest people, however, had left the city and gone to live in their country houses were food supplies were easier and where there was no interference from repairs and epidemics. They sub-let their damaged houses to masons and artisans and thus many wealthy mansions in Pompeii were subdivided to provide additional housing space.
46. An increase of inaccessibility may imply an increase in inequality or an increase in insecurity.
47. We're still unsure how the Minoans provided themselves with food and water
48. telling indications that water provision became more important in the mature LM I period and remained important in later periods
50. Surprisingly high number of pigs and low number of cattle at Myrtos-Pyrgos, one of the rare LM IB contexts as yet partly published.
51. Large-scale, almost factory production is, to our knowledge, absent in the Minoan archaeological record and this step may only have been taken after the LM IB destructions. The Knossos Linear B tablets reflect the activities of such factories especially with regards to textile and chariot production.
52. possible that many residential & ceremonial buildings were re-used in LM IB as production & storage buildigns
54. The construction of large storage areas seems to suggest a move to decentralization away from the palaces with a centralization within secondary settlements. The advantage of such a system is primarily that it allows autonomy and is more easily controllable.
Attention to storage systems, the increase of food production, and the concentration of industrial activities within settlements in LM IB all seem to imply that something had gone wrong with the traditional systems of food production and distribution. Local authorities seem to have been forced to increase their capacities to provide for shortages since the palaces were unequal to the task.
55. It is still under discussion whether the emergence of palace societies and peak sanctuaries are closely related or whether the latter preceded the former by some centuries (Branigan 1994), a view which we share. Peak sanctuaries should, we believe, rather be seen as a sign of popular religion, which was only gradually absorbed by the regional authorities.
56. Some of the objects (in the Arkalochori Cave), such as the gold and silver double axes, seem to be votive objects such as one would expect in ritual contexts. This cave may also have ceased to be used before LM IB. The large quantity of (fake) swords and daggers on the other hand may then perhaps be related to some kind of warrior cult (cf. kouretes), for which there is also evidence in the Psychro Cave. The deposit including golden double axes and inscribed votive objects from the building at Apodoulou may then suggest a cave-cult brought into a domestic context.
58. The importance that the so-called horns of consecration receive at this time (LM IB), has recently been regarded as being an immediate consequence of the Santorini eruption and their absence in West Crete as explained by the fact that this area was less affected (D'Agata 1992:252). There is, as yet, no direct evidence to link both phenomena but the increase in LM IB should be noted.
59. The most obvious change during the LM I period--a change that is perhaps gradual and not sudden-- is the demise of the Lustral Basin or sunken "adyton" as it is also called. For some, the raising of the floor of the sunken chamber represents a change in bathing habits, for others a change in ritual practices.
61. This obvious concentration of cult areas within the boundaries of settlements and dwellings is regarded by both N. Marinatos and A. Pilali as signs for the influence of the religious palatial system; we wonder if it is not the opposite, with popular ritual practices originally performed in countryside shrines gaining in importance perhaps as a result of greater insecurity beyond main settlement boundaries. The official cult remains enigmatic but includes major display symbols such as rhyta, double axes, and Marine Style.
62. The authors tend to regard the creation of the Marine Style on pottery foremost as an attempt to fill a sudden drop in the production of palatial products in other materials.
63. Many of the ceramic motifs of LM IB can be said to appear first in different media in LM IA, and especially at Akrotiri which surprised a specialist such as Morgan to such a degree that she wondered half seriously if it were not the Theran painters who, saved from their doomed island, initiated the marine trend on Crete.
64. One of the few art forms that has the potential to be assigned by a terminus ante quem and a terminus post quem are the frescoes.
67-70 bronze hoards deposited, not all can be assigned to LM IB, but pretty much reflect unsettled times
70-71 Mycenaean influence and pottery on Crete earlier than usually thought
71. From LM II onward...except for some tombs at Poros near Heraklion which were also used in LM IB and the possible examples mentioned at Mochlos and Knossos, funerary contexts of this period are lacking, a fact which implies that other ways of body disposal may have been carried out, an idea J.A. MacGillivray (pers. comm.) is elaborating. N. Marinatos (in press) has suggested burial at sea for this period.
72. stone bull's head rhyta seem deliberately broken; perhaps a stand-in for sacrifice
74. The problem which we still have to tackle is if Crete was ever united under Knossos. Few if any scholars would think this was the case in MM times but quite a number are inclined to do so for LM I. The arguments usually cited are 1) the absence of fortifications on the island; 2) the sheer cultural dominance of Knossos; 3) the monumentality of Knossos; 4) the presence of LM IB clay nodules with identical seal impressions at a handful of sites.
75. As field experiments have shown, even if a fire destruction occurs, unbaked clay objects rarely become fired enough to be preserved.
80. Were it not for lead isotope analyses, few archaeologists would have believed that the Lavrion could have been a major Bronze Age source of metal, including copper, but would rather have held on to a strong Cypriot connection, thus reducing the apparent importance of Ag. Irini on Kea.
82-83
1. A decline in population, first gradual then dramatic, is punctuated from mature LM IA by abandonments and destructions up to the time of the massive LM IB destructions.
2. After the major building programs at the start of LM IA, there is a tailing off in construction activity. By LM IB, repairs are carried out with little care and new building tends to relate to storage and production. Isolated attempts to impose a grand veneer occur. Very few sites maintain their former grandeur.
3. By LM IB, access and circulation become more restricted as many buildings are modified and facilities such as wells secured within settlements. There is some evidence for defense works.
4. Food and industrial production becomes concentrated within settlements and buildings, some of which, to the detriment of their original design, are specially adapted to perform these new functions. Production and storage become large-scale activities.
5. Ritual activity in the countryside suffers a serious decline in LM IB, perhaps linked to insecurity. There is a parallel increase in cult activity within settlements with the establishing of community and domestic shrines. From mature LM IA onward, there is an increase in religious representations on pottery linked both with the growth of local elites and palatial propaganda which may have reached an unprecedented level in LM IB with the dissemination of the Palatial Style.
6. A general impression of insecurity is evoked, particularly in LM IB but also possible in mature LM IA, by the large number of bronze hoards, some clearly concealed as opposed to openly stored.
7. The finer arts and crafts become more centralized around palatial buildings in LM IB. We have suggested that the finest products (in precious materials or which required the highest skills) were foremost made by Palace workshops in LM IA. The production of such items in LM IB seems to have tailed off with heirlooms and new products gaining in importance as symbols of political/ritual propaganda.
8. The proliferation of Linear A and sealings/nodules at many sites in Crete argued more for localized record keeping than a single integrated economic system with Knossos as capital. Knossian intra-Cretan links, on the evidence of sealings, are too slight to allow its elevation to the status of political capital in LM IB. Whether it held such a place in LM IA cannot be proved but is certainly possible.
9. Within Crete, communications become less secure due to the abandonment or decline of certain sites in LM IA. These abandonments and destructions presage the decline of Minoan influence in the Cyclades with a parallel rise in Mycenaean imports to the islands. Traditional maritime communications were disrupted. In LM IB/LH II, Minoan and Mycenaean pottery styles continue to merge.
10. The proliferation of Linear A, the increase in local storage and production units, and the concentration of ritual and elite goods in regional centres all suggest political fragmentation during LM IB.
27 The awesome Idaean cave was in use for cultic activities at the beginning of the Neopalatial period but there may have been some disruption in its use after LM IA to LM III
28 No LM IB deposits in the palace at Knossos
After a great earthquake around the transition from MM IIIB to LM IA, the Palace at Knossos was rebuilt. That is not in doubt. It then suffered a serious but not disastrous destruction during the mature LM IA period after which its occupation and that of surrounding houses appears to have been more limited, perhaps while repairs were being carried out. There is some evidence for cult activities taking place in the West Wing and the Southeast Quarter during LM IB and access to the palace from the north may have become more restricted.
The buidings erected after the MM IIIB/LM IA earthquake are indicative of the greatest construction program of any prehistoric era in the Aegean.
29 Above Archanes towers Mt. Iuktas with its important peak sanctuary. This is one of the few sites of its kind to have been used in LM I, although there is only slight evidence for its use in LM IB,a period when it may have suffered a loss of prestige. A massive temenos wall was added at some point, but the precise chronology is not yet clear. The shrine remained in use into the historic period.
30 At Phaistos itself, there is a good deal of evidence for remodelling in several of the rooms of the palace during LM I.
There is limited evidence for LM IB occupation in the palace with a public shrine seemingly incorporated opening onto the west. Apart from this activity, the palace at Phaistos seem sto have become a ghost building during LM IB, although there was some reoccupation in LM III.
By contrast, there is much activity at Ag. Triada during LM IB.
35. The reader who has been able to browse through the Gazetteer of sites will have gathered that there was no single destruction of Crete in LM I, nor even a single destruction horizon by fire.
37. What seems obvious, however, is that almost all sites discussed in this book suffered at least some disturbance in LM IA or in LM IB but prior to the final destruction: in some cases this is evidenced by repairs or changes, in others by destruction or abandonment levels, and elsewhere by heaps of debris found close to the buildings, e.g. at Zakros, Pseira, Knossos, Malia, and Kannia-Mitropolis.
38. There is as yet no evidence of any settlement found in LM IB
39. The Palace system begins to come apart in the reverse order of its development: "last hired, first fired"
The LM IA settlements themselves often follow the same pattern as before the early LM IA destruction. Now, however, serious attempts were made to align houses along regular streets in an apparent attempt to control circulation. This, together with the paving of the streets and the incorporation of drainage systems, sometimes linked to individual houses, suggests that some central authority was involved.
40. Cretan hill sites were often inhabited during periods of stress. In the period of LM IA to LM IIIA1, however, there is little or no evidence that these sites were considered advantageous, i.e. when lowland settlements were increasingly being abandoned, there was no parallel move to other Cretan topographical zones.
The rising number of abandoned and destroyed settlements from LM IA onward and the absence of new contemporary settlements must then imply a serious decrease in population for we have both fewer houses/rooms occupied in the main settlements and an abandonment of outlying settlement areas.
42. Sometime in the mature LM IA period, the building programmes stopped; a few monumental and prestigious buildings under construction were not finished, the Unexplored Mansion at Knossos being the best known example, the Palace at the same site perhaps another. Other buildings, begun with high expectations, were apparently finished with cheaper material or occupied without being finished.
43. One of the most common reasons to block a room or house is to prevent rubbish and building debris from spilling out.
It is well known that, in times of stress and poverty, one often subdivides larger structures to shelter more families. We have seen the same feature in the towns of Malia, Gournia, Zakros, and Palaikastro, and a proper study might also reveal this to be the case elsewhere.
44. Some recent studies have identified a gradual decline in the kingdom of Pylos on the basis of changes in the architecture of the Late Helladic IIIB Palace at Ano Englianos. An increase in and centralization of storage and workshop space, the restriction of access and circulation, the construction of additions and the loss of elegance due to repairs in inferior materials, are the most telling features.
45. 62 earthquake Pompeii, 79 Vesuvius
Of some buildings at Pompeii, only the ashlar facades survived the earthquakes, with all internal walls needing reconstruction. Many of the changes and repairs were made in terracotta tiles (in contrast to the tuff and marble used before). When Vesuvius erupted and buried the town, repairs were still being carried out; concentrations of building materials and containers with fresh plaster were found. Before the eruption, several domestic buildings had been re-occupied by artisans or owners forced by the events to change their occupation, others were sub-divided into more dwellings. After the earthquake, the industrial areas were the first to be restored, then the private dwellings, then the private dwellings, and only later the public buildings; the rapid re-establishment of normal economic life was the prime mover. After the 62 AD earthquake, a transitional period could be identified during which normal communication and economic networks had to be re-established so that so that food could again be produced and distributed. The wealthiest people, however, had left the city and gone to live in their country houses were food supplies were easier and where there was no interference from repairs and epidemics. They sub-let their damaged houses to masons and artisans and thus many wealthy mansions in Pompeii were subdivided to provide additional housing space.
46. An increase of inaccessibility may imply an increase in inequality or an increase in insecurity.
47. We're still unsure how the Minoans provided themselves with food and water
48. telling indications that water provision became more important in the mature LM I period and remained important in later periods
50. Surprisingly high number of pigs and low number of cattle at Myrtos-Pyrgos, one of the rare LM IB contexts as yet partly published.
51. Large-scale, almost factory production is, to our knowledge, absent in the Minoan archaeological record and this step may only have been taken after the LM IB destructions. The Knossos Linear B tablets reflect the activities of such factories especially with regards to textile and chariot production.
52. possible that many residential & ceremonial buildings were re-used in LM IB as production & storage buildigns
54. The construction of large storage areas seems to suggest a move to decentralization away from the palaces with a centralization within secondary settlements. The advantage of such a system is primarily that it allows autonomy and is more easily controllable.
Attention to storage systems, the increase of food production, and the concentration of industrial activities within settlements in LM IB all seem to imply that something had gone wrong with the traditional systems of food production and distribution. Local authorities seem to have been forced to increase their capacities to provide for shortages since the palaces were unequal to the task.
55. It is still under discussion whether the emergence of palace societies and peak sanctuaries are closely related or whether the latter preceded the former by some centuries (Branigan 1994), a view which we share. Peak sanctuaries should, we believe, rather be seen as a sign of popular religion, which was only gradually absorbed by the regional authorities.
56. Some of the objects (in the Arkalochori Cave), such as the gold and silver double axes, seem to be votive objects such as one would expect in ritual contexts. This cave may also have ceased to be used before LM IB. The large quantity of (fake) swords and daggers on the other hand may then perhaps be related to some kind of warrior cult (cf. kouretes), for which there is also evidence in the Psychro Cave. The deposit including golden double axes and inscribed votive objects from the building at Apodoulou may then suggest a cave-cult brought into a domestic context.
58. The importance that the so-called horns of consecration receive at this time (LM IB), has recently been regarded as being an immediate consequence of the Santorini eruption and their absence in West Crete as explained by the fact that this area was less affected (D'Agata 1992:252). There is, as yet, no direct evidence to link both phenomena but the increase in LM IB should be noted.
59. The most obvious change during the LM I period--a change that is perhaps gradual and not sudden-- is the demise of the Lustral Basin or sunken "adyton" as it is also called. For some, the raising of the floor of the sunken chamber represents a change in bathing habits, for others a change in ritual practices.
61. This obvious concentration of cult areas within the boundaries of settlements and dwellings is regarded by both N. Marinatos and A. Pilali as signs for the influence of the religious palatial system; we wonder if it is not the opposite, with popular ritual practices originally performed in countryside shrines gaining in importance perhaps as a result of greater insecurity beyond main settlement boundaries. The official cult remains enigmatic but includes major display symbols such as rhyta, double axes, and Marine Style.
62. The authors tend to regard the creation of the Marine Style on pottery foremost as an attempt to fill a sudden drop in the production of palatial products in other materials.
63. Many of the ceramic motifs of LM IB can be said to appear first in different media in LM IA, and especially at Akrotiri which surprised a specialist such as Morgan to such a degree that she wondered half seriously if it were not the Theran painters who, saved from their doomed island, initiated the marine trend on Crete.
64. One of the few art forms that has the potential to be assigned by a terminus ante quem and a terminus post quem are the frescoes.
67-70 bronze hoards deposited, not all can be assigned to LM IB, but pretty much reflect unsettled times
70-71 Mycenaean influence and pottery on Crete earlier than usually thought
71. From LM II onward...except for some tombs at Poros near Heraklion which were also used in LM IB and the possible examples mentioned at Mochlos and Knossos, funerary contexts of this period are lacking, a fact which implies that other ways of body disposal may have been carried out, an idea J.A. MacGillivray (pers. comm.) is elaborating. N. Marinatos (in press) has suggested burial at sea for this period.
72. stone bull's head rhyta seem deliberately broken; perhaps a stand-in for sacrifice
74. The problem which we still have to tackle is if Crete was ever united under Knossos. Few if any scholars would think this was the case in MM times but quite a number are inclined to do so for LM I. The arguments usually cited are 1) the absence of fortifications on the island; 2) the sheer cultural dominance of Knossos; 3) the monumentality of Knossos; 4) the presence of LM IB clay nodules with identical seal impressions at a handful of sites.
75. As field experiments have shown, even if a fire destruction occurs, unbaked clay objects rarely become fired enough to be preserved.
80. Were it not for lead isotope analyses, few archaeologists would have believed that the Lavrion could have been a major Bronze Age source of metal, including copper, but would rather have held on to a strong Cypriot connection, thus reducing the apparent importance of Ag. Irini on Kea.
82-83
1. A decline in population, first gradual then dramatic, is punctuated from mature LM IA by abandonments and destructions up to the time of the massive LM IB destructions.
2. After the major building programs at the start of LM IA, there is a tailing off in construction activity. By LM IB, repairs are carried out with little care and new building tends to relate to storage and production. Isolated attempts to impose a grand veneer occur. Very few sites maintain their former grandeur.
3. By LM IB, access and circulation become more restricted as many buildings are modified and facilities such as wells secured within settlements. There is some evidence for defense works.
4. Food and industrial production becomes concentrated within settlements and buildings, some of which, to the detriment of their original design, are specially adapted to perform these new functions. Production and storage become large-scale activities.
5. Ritual activity in the countryside suffers a serious decline in LM IB, perhaps linked to insecurity. There is a parallel increase in cult activity within settlements with the establishing of community and domestic shrines. From mature LM IA onward, there is an increase in religious representations on pottery linked both with the growth of local elites and palatial propaganda which may have reached an unprecedented level in LM IB with the dissemination of the Palatial Style.
6. A general impression of insecurity is evoked, particularly in LM IB but also possible in mature LM IA, by the large number of bronze hoards, some clearly concealed as opposed to openly stored.
7. The finer arts and crafts become more centralized around palatial buildings in LM IB. We have suggested that the finest products (in precious materials or which required the highest skills) were foremost made by Palace workshops in LM IA. The production of such items in LM IB seems to have tailed off with heirlooms and new products gaining in importance as symbols of political/ritual propaganda.
8. The proliferation of Linear A and sealings/nodules at many sites in Crete argued more for localized record keeping than a single integrated economic system with Knossos as capital. Knossian intra-Cretan links, on the evidence of sealings, are too slight to allow its elevation to the status of political capital in LM IB. Whether it held such a place in LM IA cannot be proved but is certainly possible.
9. Within Crete, communications become less secure due to the abandonment or decline of certain sites in LM IA. These abandonments and destructions presage the decline of Minoan influence in the Cyclades with a parallel rise in Mycenaean imports to the islands. Traditional maritime communications were disrupted. In LM IB/LH II, Minoan and Mycenaean pottery styles continue to merge.
10. The proliferation of Linear A, the increase in local storage and production units, and the concentration of ritual and elite goods in regional centres all suggest political fragmentation during LM IB.
