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EM I chronology and social practice: pottery from the early palace tests at Knossos1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

David E. Wilson
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
Peter M. Day
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield

Abstract

This article presents a stylistic assessment of the pottery from early tests (1900–1905) at Knossos that may be assigned to EM I. There follows a discussion of the problems of ceramic phasing of EM I Knossos and the relative chronology of Central Crete with the South Aegean in EB I. Finally, the social context of ceramic consumption at EM I Knossos and North-Central Crete is explored, and the possible evidence this may provide for ritualised social practice at Knossos and emergent social differentiation and power.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2000

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References

2 For a more detailed discussion of Mackenzie and Evans's ‘West Court section’ and the problems presented by it, see Wilson 1994, 24–5; Momigliano, N., Duncan Mackenzie: A Cautious Canny Highlander and the Palace of Minos at Knossos (London, 1999), 54Google Scholar.

3 Wilson 1994, 24–5.

4 PM i fig. 19 a–b, 59–60. Chalices of Pyrgos type have been found at Knossos in tests made by Evans and Mackenzie and these may be those to which Evans was referring. For examples from these early tests see Hood and Cadogan, forthcoming.

5 Hood, M. S. F., ‘Stratigraphic excavations at Knossos, 1957–61’, Kr. Chron., 15–16 (19611962), 92–8Google Scholar; id., ‘The Early and Middle Minoan Periods at Knossos’, BICS 13 (1966), 110–11; id. 1990 a, 1990 b.

6 For references see discussion of these deposits in find contexts section.

7 Knossos EM I well, West Court Trench FF deposit, and the 1987 North Front soundings.

8 Wilson and Day 1994.

9 Ibid., FG 21–2, 42, 48 and pp. 12–13 for fine grey ware in other possible EM I contexts elsewhere.

10 Ibid., PFC 1–8.

11 Evans, J. D., ‘The Early Minoan occupation of Knossos: a note on some new evidence’, Anat. Stud. 22 (1972), 115–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilson 1985, 281–3, 359–64.

12 Hood, M. S. F., ‘Knossos: soundings in the Palace area, 1973–87’, BSA 89 (1994), 101–2Google Scholar. Our thanks to Sinclair Hood for permission to study these deposits and make mention of them here; the material from these tests is currently under study by Alan Peatfield for publication with Hood.

13 For the detailed description and the origin of fine grey and painted fine to coarse wares found in EM I contexts at Knossos, see Wilson and Day 1994.

14 Full publication of this important deposit will appear in Hood and Cadogan, forthcoming; for preliminary reports see n. 5. Again our thanks to Sinclair Hood for permission to study and sample the pottery from this deposit.

15 For brief discussion of these tests and the EM II A pottery found in them see references to individually listed tests in find contexts section. A selection of EM II pottery from the North-East Magazines will be published in Hood and Cadogan, forthcoming.

16 See n. 13.

17 See n. 13.

18 See n. 13.

19 For EM II A Knossos see Wilson 1985. 295–304.

20 Examples of the stemmed goblet are found in EM I contexts at Poros.

21 e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 10 nos. 75–7.

22 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 1; 1990 b, fig. 1. See Haggis 1997 for detailed discussion of shape typology and distribution.

23 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 8.

24 e.g. Wilson 1985, pl. 37.

25 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 nos. 8–9.

26 Ibid., fig. 1 no. 11; 1990 b, fig. 2 right and fig. 3.

27 Cf. EM I well: Hood 1990 b, fig. 3 left and Pyrgos Cave: A. Zois, ᾿´Ερευνα περὶ της Μινωϊκη̃ς ᾿, ᾿Επετηρὶς ᾿Επιστημονικω̃ν ᾿Ερευνω̃ν του̃ Πανεπιστημίοὐ Αθηνω̃ν, Αθηνῶν 1967–8, 703–32, pl. 26. Such a decorative scheme was standard in the early phase of EM II A at Knossos, e.g. West Court House: Wilson 1985, P220-1.

28 Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 7 nos. 38–9. For possible rare examples at Knossos see Wilson and Day 1994, PFC 3–5.

29 Hood 1990 b, fig. 2 right for complete shape from EM I well.

30 Hood 1990 b, fig. 3 right.

31 Wilson 1985, P182, fig. 21.

32 For EM II A examples at Knossos see West Court House: Wilson 1985, P182.

33 Hood 1990 b, fig. 3.

34 e.g. West Court House: Wilson 1985, figs. 22–5.

35 e.g. West Court House: ibid., pl. 37.

36 For EM II A examples at Knossos see West Court House: ibid., P209–10.

37 West Court House: ibid., 333.

38 For published examples from West Crete, where this is referred to as Scored Ware, see e.g. Warren, P. and Tzedhakis, J., ‘Debla, an Early Minoan settlement in western Crete’, BSA 69 (1974)Google Scholar, pls. 52 d, 53 a–c. There are additional unpublished examples studied by the authors from North Central (Poros-Katsambas); South Central (Phaistos, Ayia Triadha, Moni Odigitrias, Ayia Kyriaki); and East Crete (Mallia, Mochlos). We thank N. Dimopoulou, V La Rosa, A. Vasilakis, K. Branigan, P Darcque, and J. Soles for permission to study these EM I assemblages.

39 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 12; 1990 b, fig. 2 left.

40 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 13.

41 Ibid., fig. 1 no. 8.

42 Cf. EM I Well: ibid., fig. 2 no. 20.

43 Cf. EM I Well: ibid., fig. 2 nos. 17–18; for the general shape in EM II A see Wilson 1985, P428–34.

44 For EM II A examples at Knossos see Wilson 1985, 330–45.

45 West Court House: Wilson 1985, P259–86.

46 Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 10.

47 e.g. West Court House: Wilson 1985, P307–12.

48 For examples in EM II A see the West Court House: ibid. 353–6.

49 Wilson 1994, 27.

50 Hood 1990 a, 371; 1990 b, 152–5.

51 For the EM I Well see Hood 1990 a; 1990 b. This well is also referred to elsewhere as the ‘EM I Palace Well’. For the West Court House: Wilson 1985.

52 Wilson and Day 1994.

53 However, white-on-red pottery, named ‘Lebena ware’ by Branigan, is present in the EM I of South Central Crete: Branigan, K., The Foundations of Palatial Crete (London, 1970), 27Google Scholar; Betancourt, P. P., The History of Minoan Pottery (Princeton, 1985), 31–2Google Scholar.

54 Hood 1990 a, 371.

55 This crucial question of the possible phasing of EM I has been posed recently elsewhere; Zois, A., Κρήτη: H Πρώιμη Εποχή του Χαλκού. Τεύχος 4: Βορεία Κεντρική Κρήτη (Athens, 1988), 47Google Scholar.

56 PM i, 56–64.

57 Ibid., 58–9.

58 Ibid., fig. 17; no contexts were given for these two chalices, which were largely reconstructed in the drawing, neither can now be identified among the extant material at Knossos.

59 Ibid., 59.

60 Hood 1966 (n. 5), no; Hood, M. S. F., The Minoans (London, 1971), 36–7Google Scholar.

61 Cadogan, G., ‘Early and Middle Minoan chronology’, AJA 87 (1983), 508CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilson 1994, 27–30; Wilson and Day 1994; GCadogan, ., Day, P. M., Macdonald, C. F., MacGillivray, J. A., Momigliano, N., Whitelaw, T. M., and Wilson, D. E., ‘Early and Middle Minoan pottery groups at Knossos’, BSA 88 (1993), 21–8Google Scholar. For a similar evolutionary view of the chalice in EM I see Haggis 1997, 292–3.

62 Betancourt (n. 53), 26.

63 Cf. Hood 1990 a, 368, fig. 1 no. 1 with the Pyrgos Cave chalices: e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 10 nos. 75–7 and 82.

64 Hood 1990 a, 371 n. 7.

65 Wilson 1985, 359–60.

66 See Dimopoulou, N., ῾Πόροϛ–Κατσαμπάϛ᾽, A.Delt. 48 (1993)Google Scholar, Chr. 450–9. Study of the EM I–II A pottery from the 1993 excavations by the 23rd Ephorate under the direction of Nota Dimopoulou is now underway for final publication by Dimopoulou and the authors of this article. For a preliminary summary see Dimopoulou, , Wilson, and Day, , ‘The earlier Prepalatial settlement of Poros Katsambas: trade and craft production at the harbour town of Knossos’, in Day, P. M. (ed.), Metallurgy in the Early Bronze Age Aegean (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, in preparation)Google Scholar.

67 Dimopoulou, Wilson and Day (n. 66).

68 Knossos: Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 11; 1990 b, fig. 3.

69 Knossos: Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 nos. 8, 12; 1990 b, fig. 2 left.

70 Knossos: broad-waisted chalice: Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 no. 1; Pyrgos Cave: narrow-waisted chalice with grooved banding on pedestal: e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 8 nos. 42–5.

71 Knossos: Hood 1990 a, fig. 1 nos. 8, 12.

72 Knossos: ibid., fig. 1 nos. 6, 10.

73 Evans 1994, 16; Manteli, K., The Transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Crete, with Special Reference to the Pottery (unpublished PhD thesis, Univ. of London, 1993), 57–9, 174–3Google Scholar.

74 Vagnetti, L. and Belli, P., ‘Characters and problems of the Final Neolithic in Crete’, SMEA 19 (1978), 125–63Google Scholar; Evans, J. D., ‘Neolithic Knossos: the growth of a settlement’, PPS 37 (1971), 110–14Google Scholar.

75 Vagnetti and Belli (n. 74), 157.

76 Evans (n. 74), 114.

77 Evans 1994, 19.

78 Hood 1990 a, 367–9; 1990 b, 155–6.

79 Hood 1990 b, 156.

80 Wilson and Day 1994, 85.

81 Warren and Tzedhakis (n. 38).

82 Haggis, D., ‘Excavations at Kalo Khorio, East Crete’, AJA 100 (1996), 645–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 For recent discussion of evidence and further references see Day, P. M., Wilson, D. E., and Kiriatzi, E., ‘Pots, labels and people: burying ethnicity in the cemetery at Aghia Photia, Siteias’, in Branigan, K. (ed.), Cemetery and Society in the Aegean Bronze Age (Sheffield, 1998), 133–49Google Scholar.

84 Pyrgos Cave: Xanthoudides 1918; Zois (n. 27). Eileithyia Cave: S. Marinatos, ᾿Ανασκαφαὶ ἐν Κρήτἠ, Praktika, 1929, 95–104; Renfrew, C., ‘Crete and the Cyclades before Rhadamanthus’, Kr. Chron. 18 (1964), 107–41Google Scholar. Kyparissi Cave: Alexiou, S., ῾Πρωτομινωϊκαὶ ταφαὶ παρὰ τὸ Κανλι-Καστέλλι ῾Ηρακλείοὐ, Kr. Chron. 5 (1951), 275–94Google Scholar; Arkalochori Cave: Hazzidakis, J., ‘A Minoan sacred cave’, BSA 19 (19121913), 3547Google Scholar; Krasi: Marinatos, S., ‘πρωτομινωïκος ρολωτòς τάφος παρὰ τò Xωρίον Kράσι πεδιάδος’ , A. Delt. 12 (1929), 102–41Google Scholar.

85 The EM II A pottery includes a dark-on-light painted pedestalled bowl and goblet (Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 5 no. 1; fig. 6 no. 22; Wilson and Day 1994, 34) and dark grey burnished ware footed goblets (Xanthoudides 1918: fig. 9 no. 60 and fig. 12 nos. 105–6; cf. Knossos, West Court House: Wilson 1985, 301).

86 e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 5 nos. 5, 8 and fig. 5 no. 2.

87 e.g. ibid., fig. 8 nos. 42–5 and pl. B.

88 Cf. ibid., fig. 5 no. 3 with Zapheiropoulou 1984, ‘fruitcup’ = fig. 3 c.

89 For discussion of the Aegean ‘fruitstand’ see Manning, S., The Absolute Chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age (Sheffield, 1995), 77–8Google Scholar; Haggis 1997.

90 Sampled for petrographic analysis with the kind permission of C. Davaras, for preliminary publication of the results see Day et al. (n. 83); Day, P. M., Wilson, D. E., Kiriatzi, E., and Joyner, L., Ἡ κεραμεική από το ΠΜΙ νεκροταφείο στην Αγία Φωτιά ∑ητείαζ, in Πεπραγμένα του Η Διεθνούζ Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου (Herakleion, in press)Google Scholar.

91 Davaras, C., ‘Αρχαιότητεζ καὶ μνημεῖα ἀνατολικῆζ Κρήτηζ’, A.Delt. 27 (1972), 648–50Google Scholar, pl. 603 top right.

92 e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 8 nos. 49–50.

93 Davaras (n. 91), pl. 603.

94 Zapheiropoulou 1984, fig. 3 a.

95 Day et al. (n. 83), 138.

96 e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 7 nos. 30–1.

97 Alexiou (n. 84), pl. 14 fig. 1 no. 12.

98 Zapheiropoulou 1984, fig. 1 a–b.

99 e.g. Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 5 no. 9.

100 Renfrew (n. 84), pl. E: fig. 2; Alexiou (n. 84), pl. 14: fig. 1 nos. 9, 17.

101 Davaras, C., Aghios Nikolaos Museum (Athens, n.d.)Google Scholar, pl. 3.

102 Zapheiropoulou 1984, fig. 1 c.

103 Papathanassopoulos, G., ῾Κυκλαδικὰ Νάξου᾽, A.Delt. 17 (19611962), pl. 67 no. 1Google Scholar.

104 Xanthoudides 1918, fig. 12 no. 108.

105 Zapheiropoulou 1984, fig. 2 e–f.

106 Dimopoulou (n. 66); Day et al. (n. 83), 133–49.

107 Day et al. (n. 83), 138.

108 Manning (n. 89), 168–72, 217 including arguments against a higher chronology for EM I.

109 Day, P. M., Wilson, D. E., and Kiriatzi, E., ‘Reassessing specialization in Prepalatial Cretan ceramic production’, in Laffineur, R. and Betancourt, P. P. (eds.), TEXNH: Craftsmen, Craftswomen and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum, 16; Liège and Austin, 1997), 275–9Google Scholar. The study is from Late Neolithic to MM II.

110 Wilson and Day 1994, 79.

111 PMi, 59–60 and fig. 19.

112 Hood 1971 (n. 60), 30; Betancourt (n. 53), 23–4.

113 Renfrew, C., The Emergence of Civilisation (London, 1972), 451–5Google Scholar.

114 Wilson and Day 1994; Day et al. (n. 109); T. Carter, ‘Reverberations of the international spirit: thoughts upon ‘Cycladica’ in the Mesara’, in Branigan (n. 83), 59–77.

115 Nakou, G., ‘The cutting edge: a new look at Early Aegean Metallurgy’, Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 8.2 (1995), 132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

116 Dimopoulou (n. 66), 451, 458; ead., ‘Workshops and craftsmen in the harbour-town of Knossos at Poros-Katsambas’, in Laffineur and Betancourt (n. 109), 433 8. Final results of the detailed analysis of the EM obsidian and metallurgical finds will be presented by Tristan Carter and Roger Doonan respectively in the final publication of the Poros Prepalatial settlement by Dimopoulou, Wilson, and Day (n. 66).

117 Papadatos, Y., Mortuary Practices and their Importance for the Reconstruction of Society and Life in Prepalatial Crete: the Evidence of Tholos Tomb G in Archanes-Phourni (unpublished PhD thesis, Univ. of Sheffield, 1999)Google Scholar.

118 Carter (n. 114).

119 Dimopoulou (n. 66), 451, 458.

120 Ibid., 451.

121 Wilson 1994, 39–40.

122 Ibid., fig. 1.

123 Wilson 1994, 35–7.

124 For the size of the LN settlement see Evans 1994, 18–19; Broodbank, C., ‘The Neolithic labyrinth: social change at Knossos before the Bronze Age’, JMA 5 (1992), 42–3Google Scholar; for problems of settlement size estimates see Whitelaw, T., ‘Lost in the labyrinth? Comments on Broodbank's “Social change at Knossos before the Bronze Age”’, JMA 5 (1992), 226–8Google Scholar. For the EM II A settlement see Wilson 1994, 36–7.

125 Broodbank (n. 124), 68–9; Wilson 1994, 35–6.

126 For discussion of the possible élite social context of the EM I chalice see Haggis 1997, 296–8.

127 Rosa, V. La, ‘Αρχαιολοϒικέϛ Ειδήσειϛ 1987. Αϒία Τριάδαα’, κρητική Εστία, 2 (1988), 329–30Google Scholar, pl. 13b. Our thanks to Vincenzo La Rosa for permission to study and take samples from this deposit.

128 Wilson 1985; Wilson 1994, 32.

129 Momigliano, N. and Wilson, D. E., ‘Knossos 1993: excavations outside the South Front of the Palace’, BSA 91 (1996), 157Google Scholar; Wilson, D. E. and Day, P. M., ‘EM II B ware groups at Knossos: the 1907–8 South Front tests’, BSA 94 (1999), 162Google Scholar.

130 Wilson and Day (n. 129); Day, P. M. and Wilson, D. E., ‘Consuming power: Kamares ware in Protopalatial Knossos’, Antiquity, 72 (1998), 350–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ibid., ‘Landscapes of memory, craft and power in Prepalatial and Protopalatial Crete’, in Y. Hamilakis (ed.), Labyrinth Revisited: Rethinking Minoan Archaeology (Oxford, in press).

131 For estimates of settlement sizes in Prepalatial Crete, see Whitelaw, T. M., ‘The settlement at Fournou-Korifi, Myrtos and aspects of Early Minoan social organisation’, in Krzyszkowska, O. and Nixon, L. (eds), Minoan Society (Bristol, 1983), 323–45Google Scholar.

132 Evans 1994, 1–2.

133 For Knossos as cosmological centre of the Palatial period, see Soles, J., ‘The functions of a cosmological center: Knossos in Palatial Crete’, in Laffineur, R. and Niemeier, W.-D. (eds), Politeia. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum, 12; Liège and Austin, 1995), 405–14Google Scholar.

134 Helms, M. W., Access to Origins; Affines, Ancestors and Aristocrats (Austin, 1998), 7980Google Scholar.

135 Dimopoulou et al. (n. 66).

136 Dimopoulou (n. 66), 451, 458; ead. (n. 116), 433–4.

137 Day and Wilson (n. 130).

138 For the importance of feasting in the reproduction and legitimation of authority, see Hamilakis, Y., ‘Wine, oil, and the dialectics of power in Bronze Age Crete: a review of the evidence’, OJA, 15 (1996), 132Google Scholar.

139 Dimopoulou, (n. 116); Broodbank, C., ‘Ulysses without sails: trade, distance, knowledge and power in the early Cyclades’, World Archaeology, 24 (1993), 315–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

140 Helms, M. W., Craft and the Kingly Ideal (Austin, 1993)Google Scholar.

141 Day, Wilson, and Kiriatzi, (n. 109).

142 For this view, see inter alia: J. Cherry, ‘Evolution, revolution, and the origins of complex society in Minoan Crete’, in Krzyszkowska and Nixon (n. 131), 33–46; Whitelaw 1983 (n. 131), 339–40; Watrous, V., ‘Review of Aegean prehistory III: Crete from earliest prehistory through the Protopalatial period’, AJA 98 (1994), 712–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

143 Nakou (n. 115), 23.