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Unpublished Middle Minoan and Late Minoan I material from the 1962–3 excavations at Palaikastro, East Crete (PK VIII)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Carl Knappett  and
Anna Collar
Carl Knappett
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter
Anna Collar
Affiliation:
Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter
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Abstract

Results of excavations in 1962–3 at the Minoan coastal town of Palaikastro were published in the Annual in 1965 and 1970, as PK VI and PK VII. While those publications did report on all excavated contexts, in some cases this took the form of a preliminary report pending fuller study. The current paper (PK VIII) fills in most of the main gaps, particularly where the Middle Minoan period is concerned, but also with some attention to the Early and Late Minoan periods. Contexts and deposits from different blocks in the town are presented, as well as from outside the main town towards the area known as Sarantari. These provide good evidence for the existence of particular phases of occupation in the town, notably throughout the Middle Minoan period (MM IA, IB, II, IIIA and IIIB), as well as in EM IIB and LM IB. Some of these phases are not very well known at Palaikastro, or in east Crete more generally. This paper thus contributes to a fuller characterisation of certain ceramic phases at the level of both the site and the region, as well as supplementing our knowledge of the long-term occupation of this important coastal town throughout the Middle Bronze Age.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 102 , November 2007 , pp. 153 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2007

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References

2 Unpublished EM material from Kastri and Block Chi will be published by Gerald Cadogan in a separate article.

3 Knappett and Cunningham.

4 Knappett, C., ‘The beginnings of the Aegean Middle Bronze Age: a View from East Crete’, in Felten, F., Gauss, W. and Smetana, R. (eds.), Middle Helladic Pottery and Synchronisms, 215–31. (Vienna, 2007 Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der WissenschaftenGoogle Scholar).

5 PK IV 272–3 and pl. x.

6 PK IV, pl. x.

7 PK IV 300.

8 PK IV 284.

9 As seen on plan in PK IV, pl. x.

10 Samples of mud-brick were found, of a reddish colour with straw content and a yellow plaster surface; also fragments of good white lime plaster (c.8 mm thick), with a yellow-cream paint applied to the dry surface.

11 To be presented in a separate article by Gerald Cadogan.

12 Evans, J. D. and Renfrew, C., Excavations at Saliagos near Antiparos (BSA Supp. 5; London, 1968)Google Scholar. See p. 80 and appendix 9.

13 In all, three pieces of pumice stone, showing signs of use as abrasives, were found in the MM I A and EM levels here. The only other piece found in these excavations was in an early (MM) level from Test Trench H3. None was noted in the LM I B destruction levels, even though especial care was taken to look out for it, in view of the then current attempts to link the Santorini eruption with this Minoan destruction, and of fresh reports of the presence of such material at Kato Zakro.

14 PK VI, 251, and pl. 72 d–e.

15 Betancourt, P. P., East Cretan White-on-Dark Ware: Studies on a Handmade Pottery of the Early to Middle Minoan Periods (Philadelphia, 1984)Google Scholar. See pps. 18–20: ‘Late Phase’.

16 Haggis, D., ‘Stylistic diversity and diacritical feasting at Protopalatial Petras: A preliminary analysis of the Lakkos deposit’, AJA 111 (2007), 715–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Momigliano, N., ‘MM I A pottery from Evans's excavations at Knossos: a reassessment’, BSA 86 (1991), 150–271Google Scholar. Momigliano, N., ’Late Prepalatial (EM III–MM IA): South Front House Foundation Trench, Upper East Well and House C/RRS Fill Groups’, in Momigliano, N. (ed.), Knossos Pottery Handbook: Neolithic and Bronze Age (Minoan), 79–103Google Scholar. BSA Studies 14 (London, 2007)Google Scholar.

18 This depends on the assumption, of course, that the wheel begins only in MM I B and no earlier, which does seem a largely robust assumption on the basis of the substantial Knossian deposits discussed above.

19 Cf. PK VI 313, no. 102.

20 PK II 291 and pl. 6.

21 Cf. Reese, D. S., ‘Palaikastro shells and Bronze Age purple dye production in the Mediterranean basin’, BSA 82 (1987), 201, 203Google Scholar.

22 See grid in PK V, pl. 65.

23 PK II 289.

24 Floyd, C., ‘The alternating floral style as evidence for pottery workshops in East Crete during the Protopalatial period’, in Laffineur, R. and Betancourt, P. (eds.), TEXNH: Craftsmen, Craftswomen and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum, 16; Liège, 1997), 313–16Google Scholar. Floyd notes four examples from Palaikastro, a figure which can certainly be increased.

25 See PK II (523, fig. 22. 1.

26 PK VI 251.

27 Floyd (n. 24).

28 See Boyd-Hawes, H., Williams, B. E., Seager, R. B., and Hall, E. H., Gournia, Vasiliki and other Prehistoric Sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete (Philadelphia, 1908), 187–9Google Scholar.

29 Haggis (n. 16).

30 MacGillivray, J. A., Knossos: Pottery Groups of the Old Palace Period (BSA Studies 5, London, 1998), 59Google Scholar.

31 Poursat, J.-C., ‘Notes de céramique maliote à propos de la céramique de Chrysolakkos’, BCH 117 (1993), 603–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; contra Stürmer, V., ‘La céramique de Chrysolakkos: catalogue et réexamen’, BCH 117 (1993), 123–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Cadogan, pers. comm.

33 See also early examples in Myrtos Pyrgos phase II c–d.

34 And even the MM III of the upper levels; see e.g. the intrusive tortoiseshell ripple sherds shown at the bottom right of fig. 20.

35 PKU 10–12.

36 Also shown in PK II 303, fig. 2.

37 Evans, , PM i. 182–5Google Scholar, figs. 133–4.

38 PKU 12.

39 This is of course before the discovery of the EM III burials of Ellenika presented in PK IV.

40 Poursat, J.-C. and Knappett, C., Le Quartier Mu IV: la poterie du Minoen Moyen II: production et utilisation (Études Crétoises, 33; Paris, 2005)Google Scholar.

41 Knappett and Cunningham, fig. 25.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid., fig. 16.

44 PK VII 210–15.

45 For location of DD, see PK VI, pl. 64.

46 PK VII, 211–12.

47 Knappett and Cunningham.

48 See PK VII, fig. 21 for the few significant sherds.

49 Knappett and Cunningham.

50 Brogan, T., ‘The incised and relief lily jars from Mochlos’, in Day, L. P., Mook, M. S., and Muhly, J. D. (eds.), Crete Beyond the Palaces: Proceedings of the Crete 2000 Conference. (Philadelphia, 2004), 29–41Google Scholar.

51 An additional note from Knappett and Collar: see Sbonias, K., Frühkretische Siegel: Ansätze für eine Interpretation der sozialpolitischen Entwicklung auf Kreta während der Frühbronzezeit (BAR S620; Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar. Ivory seals seem quite clearly to be an EMIII-MM I A phenomenon— which fits with the context of the seal, being found with a deposit of MM I A pottey. The type shown here is what Sbonias describes as ‘Stempelzylinder mit konkaven Seiten’ (p. 4). See also Krzyszkowska, O., Aegean Seals: An Introduction (London, 2005)Google Scholar, in which it is noted that on bifacial cylinders “more often we find decorative motifs on one face, pictorial on the other’ (p. 67). The shape of this seal is similar to Krzyszkowska's cat. nos. 111 and 112, from the Platanos and Marathokephalo tholos tombs respectively (i.e. in the Mesara).

52 Included here are some EM small finds from Kastri and Block Chi; note that the accompanying EM pottery will be presented in a separate article by Gerald Cadogan.

53 Seager, R., Explorations in the Island of Mochlos (Boston, 1912), 72Google Scholar, fig. 4 xix 5, Her. Mus. 1177; Warren, , Vases, 58Google Scholar, type 10A.

54 Seager (n. 53), figs. 4 i h; 28 xi 4, 7; 37 xvi 5; 46 xxi 3, xvii a; Xanthoudides, S., Vaulted Tombs of the Mesara, tr. Droop, J. P. (Liverpool and London, 1924)Google Scholar, pls. 22 top row; 23. 721 (Koumasa); 38. 1047, 1042, 1043 (Porti); 54. 1912 (Platanos); Warren, , Vases, 39Google Scholar, type 17 A1.

55 Seager, R., Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Crete (Pennsylvania Anthropological Publications, 3. 1; Philadelphia, 1910), 36Google Scholar and fig. 16; Demargne, P. and de Santerre, G., Mallia: Maisons, ii (Paris, 1959), 18, 62Google Scholar and pl. xvii. I. Warren (n. 53), 28–9, type 10B.

56 Mon. Ant. xiv. 471Google Scholar fig.77, 480 fig. 87.

57 PMI 497 fig. 355; Warren, , Vases, 63Google Scholar, type 26 1A.

58 PK VI, fig. 22. Warren, , Vases, 97Google Scholar, type 26 1A.

59 Evans, J., ‘Excavations in the Neolithic settlement at Knossos, 1959–60’, BSA 59 (1964), 229Google Scholar; Warren, P. M., ‘Knossos Neolithic, part II: stone axes and maceheads: maerials’, BSA 63 (1968), 239–41Google Scholar; Strasser, T., ‘Knossos celts and their implications for Neolithic society’, in Knossos: Palace, City and State. Heraklion, 15–18 November 2000 (BSA Studies, 12; London, 2004)Google Scholar.

60 Warren, P. M. in Hood, S., Warren, P., and Cadogan, G., ‘Travels in Crete, 1962’, BSA 59 (1964), 98Google Scholar and pl. 16 f; Warren, P., Myrtos: An Early Bronze Age Settlement in Crete (BSA Supp. 7; London, 1972), 231Google Scholar and fig. 101, no. 171. For a fine series from the Cyclades, possibly used in the Early Bronze Age: Sherratt, S., Catalogue of Cycladic Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum: The Captive Spirit (Oxford, 2000), 60–7Google Scholar, figs. 14–29 and pls. 32–9.

61 MacGillivray (n. 30).

62 Haggis (n. 16).

63 See Betancourt, P. P. and Davaras, C. (eds.), Pseira VI: The Pseira Cemetery 1. The Surface Survey (Philadephia, 2002)Google Scholar. On p. 125 they note that the latest sherds from the cemetery are MM II B, and that the town suffers a widespread destruction in the same period. They also comment on the difficulty of isolating MM III in east Crete, and the paucity of MM III pottery from the town on Pseira, perhaps indicating that the town was not immediately or rapidly rebuilt after the MM II B destructions.

64 Knappett, C. and Nikolakopoulou, I., ‘Colonialism without colonies? A Bronze Age case study from Akrotiri, Thera’ Hesperia 77Google Scholar (in press)

65 Brogan (n.50).

66 PK II 367–8, pl. 8.

67 Cf. PK II pl. 9. 6 for an example from Petsofa; and for a bronze with similar back profile, Boardman, J., The Cretan Collection in Oxford (Oxford, 1961), 6 and pl. 1. 1Google Scholar.

68 Cf. PK VI 305, no. 42.

69 PK VII 240, no. 10, fig. 24, pl. 55 c. For Gournia, see Boyd-Hawes et al. (n. 28), pl. V3; for Mochlos, Seager (n. 53), fig. 32 xx 3. At Malia there is an LM I clay imitation: Demargne, P. and de Santerre, G., Mallia: Maisons, i (Paris, 1953), 89Google Scholar, no. 13 and pl. 41. 3.

70 For these stones, see Hood et al. (n. 60), 98; PK VI 313–14; Warren, , Myrtos (n. 60), 216–17, 237–9Google Scholar, (n. 60), 216–17, 237–9 figs. 104–5 and pl. 79 c–d.

71 Cf. Boyd-Hawes et al. (n. 28), pl. iii. 33.