Aspects of Ritual and Changes in Funerary Practices Between MM II and LM I on Crete (original) (raw)
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Burying the Palaces? Ideologies in the Shaft Grave Period
The 'Shaft Grave Phenomenon' is often seen as a straightforward development caused by increased access to precious ('prestige') items. It shall be argued here that it rather mirrors a gradual transformation of the self-identity of the mainland élites. The Shaft Grave chiefs strongly took over symbols from Crete, where the palatial élite had a strong religious connotation. This points to the conclusion that the mainland élite tried to establish a more sophisticated system of religious control, unlike the individual and personal cult visible in the MH burials. They realized the potential institutionalized religious authority had as a means of domination, connected with complex and standardised systems of representation, centralization and administration of cult, and tried to introduce this idea to the mainland. However, the symbols had to be modified and translated into a language mainland people would understand, and placed in contexts traditionally used as arenas of social display. These contexts were different from the ones the symbols originally were associated with, since on the MH mainland the grave (as opposed to the Minoan palace) was the place where transcendental ideas were articulated through material actions and expressions. * This paper is a revised version of my 1998 M.Phil. dissertation at the University of Cambridge.
This thesis constitutes an attempt to approach and interpret a Prepalatial tholos tomb, Tholos Γ at the cemetery of Phourni, in Archanes, Crete, and Prepalatial mortuary practices in general, within the conceptual framework and the theoretical developments of the archaeology of death. The study follows four main stages. The first is the study of the evidence from Tholos Γ (presented in more detail in the Appendices of Volume 2), which allows the reconstruction of the entire history of the tomb, from its construction until its excavation. Thus, Tholos Γ, apart from being one of the very few well excavated and unlooted Prepalatial tombs, becomes the only tomb the history of which can be followed in relative detail. In the second stage, a synthesis of the existing theoretical approaches to the mortuary archaeological record is attempted, and the problems, potentials, advantages and significance of the archaeology of death are examined. The theoretical framework within which we approach Prepalatial mortuary practices is also presented. The third step is a description and discussion of the mortuary practices of Tholos Γ and other Prepalatial cemeteries, and particular emphasis is given to variations, differences and changes through time and space. The evidence presented and the conclusions made in the first three stages are used in the final stage of analysis, where an attempt is made to reconstruct the mortuary beliefs, and the horizontal and vertical organisation of Prepalatial society on the basis of the available mortuary evidence. Concerning the last two topics, we also discuss the Cycladic character of the Tholos Γ assemblage, and, more generally, the character of Creto-Cycladic relations during the early Prepalatial period. At the end of the thesis conclusions are made on the basis of what was discussed before, and possible issues for future research are investigated.
This thesis constitutes an attempt to approach and interpret a Prepalatial tholos tomb, Tholos Γ at the cemetery of Phourni, in Archanes, Crete, and Prepalatial mortuary practices in general, within the conceptual framework and the theoretical developments of the archaeology of death. The study follows four main stages. The first is the study of the evidence from Tholos Γ (presented in more detail in the Appendices of Volume 2), which allows the reconstruction of the entire history of the tomb, from its construction until its excavation. Thus, Tholos Γ, apart from being one of the very few well excavated and unlooted Prepalatial tombs, becomes the only tomb the history of which can be followed in relative detail. In the second stage, a synthesis of the existing theoretical approaches to the mortuary archaeological record is attempted, and the problems, potentials, advantages and significance of the archaeology of death are examined. The theoretical framework within which we approach Prepalatial mortuary practices is also presented. The third step is a description and discussion of the mortuary practices of Tholos Γ and other Prepalatial cemeteries, and particular emphasis is given to variations, differences and changes through time and space. The evidence presented and the conclusions made in the first three stages are used in the final stage of analysis, where an attempt is made to reconstruct the mortuary beliefs, and the horizontal and vertical organisation of Prepalatial society on the basis of the available mortuary evidence. Concerning the last two topics, we also discuss the Cycladic character of the Tholos Γ assemblage, and, more generally, the character of Creto-Cycladic relations during the early Prepalatial period. At the end of the thesis conclusions are made on the basis of what was discussed before, and possible issues for future research are investigated.
LM III MORTUARY PRACTICES IN WEST CRETE: THE CEMETERIES OF MAROULAS AND ARMENOI NEAR RETHYMNON
2017
The aim of this paper is to present data from the two organized LM III cemeteries near Rethymnon, Maroulas and Armenoi, in order to explore and understand the mortuary practices that took place there. The data comes mainly from the cemetery of Maroulas and to a lesser extent from that of Armenoi near Rethymnon. 1 The examination of two burial assemblages is not limited to descriptions of data, but also addresses the functional role of the objects, which can lead to more interpretive approaches, based on a theoretical framework. Looking at the evidence of the two cemeteries, one can deduce that there was a specific burial programme, in which there was an accepted way of treating the dead. Whether the picture portrayed by the burial practices corresponds to social reality, and to what extent it reflects social structures that really existed, is very difficult to verify. There is no doubt, however, that the dynamic course of the relationship of each society with its past creates multiple channels of expression, which, depending on the cultural environment can be represented in complex or simple ways.