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This chapter reflects on the main theories concerned with interpreting processes of cultural transmission (e.g., Minoanization, Mycenaeanization, and hybridity), which emphasize the role of western Anatolia as an Aegean frontier rather than a region in its own right. In order to go beyond these approaches, this contribution advocates an interpretation-neutral set of parameters that incorporate bottom-up, local perspectives and aspects of mobility to inves- tigate the manipulation and negotiation of local cultural identities. We provide two exam- ples to illustrate this approach, focused on the interaction with the Minoan and Mycenaean spheres, respectively. The first case study deals with the Middle Bronze Age, when the first palaces were constructed on Crete and contacts with western Anatolia were more consistent than before (especially in the case of the southeastern Aegean). This case study investigates whether Minoanization is the correct way to see the processes of cultural contact between these two areas. It will be argued that the way Minoanization has been conceptualized has, in fact, influenced the interpretative frameworks through which the engagement with the Minoan material culture was explained by scholars. The second case study considers the later stages of the Late Bronze Age, when patterns of exchange between the Aegean and Anatolia were relatively stable and relied on the role of big nodes in regional networks (such as Mile- tos) to facilitate the production and distribution of Aegean-style objects in western Anatolia. This case study suggests that interactions between Anatolia and the rest of the Aegean, usu- ally discussed as a result of increased Mycenaean influence and presence, or described as Mycenaeanization, can be explained in terms of multiculturality and increased strength of maritime connectivity, which allowed local communities to consume Mycenaean culture in distinct, selective ways in an inherently heterogeneous cultural setting.
Ever since the definition of a Bronze Age in the Aegean, more than a century ago, explanations for its origins have been sought in an intensification of external contacts, traditionally placed in EB I. However, the precise nature and timing of these contacts and the social contexts in which they developed have long remained unclear due to insufficient data. While recent decades have seen an upsurge in detailed investigations of late EB I‒II coastal sites, coastal sites of the 4th millennium BC (and earlier) have not been similarly treated. Consequently we have had no means of exploring when, how or why Crete’s relations with the Aegean first intensified. Drawing on the results of recent excavations at the FN IV‒EM IA coastal site of Kephala Petras in east Crete, a picture is sketched of an early trading community of the late 4th millennium BC, which, thanks to its off-island connections enjoyed preferential access to valued raw materials, to the technologies for their transformation and to finished objects. This monopoly over the resource of distance was in turn exploited locally and regionally in east Crete, as a social strategy, to construct advantageous relationships with other communities. As such Kephala Petras appears to represent the earliest of a series of such gateway communities, which are known to have operated along the north coast of Crete in later periods. The implications of this are also discussed in the light of additional evidence from neighbouring regions, as part of an effort to understand the dynamics of the long-distance trading networks that emerge in this period in the Aegean.
Ever since the definition of a Bronze Age in the Aegean, more than a century ago, explanations for its origins have been sought in an intensification of external contacts, traditionally placed in EB I. However, the precise nature and timing of these contacts and the social contexts in which they developed have long remained unclear due to insufficient data. While recent decades have seen an upsurge in detailed investigations of late EB I-II coastal sites, coastal sites of the 4 th millennium BC (and earlier) have not been similarly treated. Consequently we have had no means of exploring when, how or why Crete's relations with the Aegean first intensified. Drawing on the results of recent excavations at the FN IV-EM IA coastal site of Kephala Petras in east Crete, a picture is sketched of an early trading community of the late 4 th millennium BC, which, thanks to its off-island connections enjoyed preferential access to valued raw materials, to the technologies for their transformation and to finished objects. This monopoly over the resource of distance was in turn exploited locally and regionally in east Crete, as a social strategy, to construct advantageous relationships with other communities. As such Kephala Petras appears to represent the earliest of a series of such gateway communities, which are known to have operated along the north coast of Crete in later periods. The implications of this are also discussed in the light of additional evidence from neighbouring regions, as part of an effort to understand the dynamics of the long-distance trading networks that emerge in this period in the Aegean.
Communication Uneven. Acceptance and Resistance to Foreign Influences in the Connected Ancient Mediterranean , 2020
In a landmark article published in 1996, L. Vagnetti argued that Crete in the Final Neolithic period (4500-3000 BC) ended a seclusion lasting two millennia, and entered the wider Aegean world in the context of “a new trend of establishing long-distant communications, urged by the introduction of new technologies, such as metallurgy”. The basis for this statement was provided by the pottery found at Nerokourou, in west Crete, which linked more strongly with sites located in other Aegean islands, than with sites located in Crete itself. Subsequent research into the Final Neolithic of Crete confirmed its importance as a period of major socio-economic reconfiguration, but opened up a debate regarding the trigger that initiated these changes, because some scholars interpret them as the result of the arrival of new groups from overseas late in the Final Neolithic (henceforth FN) (Nowicki 2002; 2014), and others as the outcome of an increase in long-distance connectivity originating from Crete (Papadatos &Tomkins 2013). In the first scenario, based on the appearance of new types of sites with new ceramic types, the Cretan population had a rather passive role in the process of reconfiguration; in the second, based on the results of analytical studies conducted on pottery from old and newly excavated sites, the change started from Crete thanks to sites like Kephala-Petras that established long-distance relationships with areas as remote as Attica to get products and raw materials that were not locally available (Papadatos 2008; Papadatos & Tomkins 2013). The results of recent geological and archaeological research conducted at Phaistos, an elevated site located in south-central Crete, permits the reconsideration of some of these issues because it has been shown that the site, until the very end of the 4th millennium BC, was on the coast and, after sporadic frequentations that occurred during the 5th millennium BC, was settled by people who shared the same material culture as the extremely mobile groups that colonised most of the Aegean islands between the end of the 6th and the end of the 4th millennium BC. Phaistos therefore provides a good opportunity for ascertaining whether and to what extent substantial changes in material culture could have been triggered by human mobility, and also allows questions of where, and why people moved, to be addressed while also providing important insights for interpreting the uneven nature of the relationship between Crete and the southern Aegean between the 5th and 3rd millennia BC.
2014
Abstract: Ever since the deinition of a Bronze Age in the Aegean, more than a century ago, explanations for its origins have been sought in an intensiication of external contacts, traditionally placed in EB I. However, the precise nature and timing of these contacts and the social contexts in which they developed have long remained unclear due to insuficient data. While recent decades have seen an upsurge in detailed investigations of late EB I‒II coastal sites, coastal sites of the 4 millennium BC (and earlier) have not been similarly treated. Consequently we have had no means of exploring when, how or why Crete’s relations with the Aegean irst intensiied. Drawing on the results of recent excavations at the FN IV‒EM IA coastal site of Kephala Petras in east Crete, a picture is sketched of an early trading community of the late 4 millennium BC, which, thanks to its off-island connections enjoyed preferential access to valued raw materials, to the technologies for their transformatio...
2019
The Aegean area has represented since at least the Upper Palaeolithic the most vital theatre of mobility in the Eastern Mediterranean. The motivation, the direction and the scale of mobility has led scholarship to define limited or more extensive land or sea trade networks and changing spheres of interaction in the Aegean in particular from the late 5th through the 2nd mill. BC. Contacts between Crete and the East Aegean / Western Anatolia cannot so far be traced before the Early Minoan II (EM), as finds from Liman Tepe V and Miletus II indicate. Increased interaction is registered at the end of the Middle Bronze Age (MB) with the erection of the New Palaces in Minoan Crete. Recent excavations at the Heraion of Samos have revealed for the first time a flourishing, strongly fortified MB settlement with evolved political, economic and social structures, which interacted with Mainland Greece, the Cyclades and the Old Palaces of Crete. In this paper, Minoan imported pottery and small finds as well as pottery of Minoan inspiration will be discussed within their Samian context in order to clarify the scale and the value of interaction between Crete and the Southeast Aegean during the Old Palace period.
3 262 GIORGOS VAVOURANAKIS 325 CROSS-CRAFT AND CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS 14. Cross-craft and cross-cultural interactions during the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age ann BrysBaerT abstract In the context of the Late Bronze Age Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, cross-craft and cross-cultural interactions are discussed in order to understand the concept of 'cross-craft interaction' (CCI). CCI is connected with the chaîne opératoire to demonstrate that it consists of three aspects: production processes, circulation/distribution patterns and consumption of the final product. Only if we consider CCI and thus technologies this way, can we fully comprehend the social relationships and identities that are shaped and negotiated through people's interactions. The case study of painted plaster presents four types of interactions and when contextualised, it becomes clear that CCI contributes to technological changes, innovations and transfer of a craft. Moreover, the appearance of specific technologies, i.e. al fresco, were short-lived and context-specific (elites), from a sociopolitical and ideological perspective, and much was done to keep it there. With the end of the Mycenaean palaces and elite's structure collapse, however, painted plaster disappeared with it.