Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:41:38.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting the Minoan palaces: ritual commensality at Sissi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2021

Jan Driessen Open the ORCID record for Jan Driessen [Opens in a new window]
Jan Driessen*
Affiliation:
INCAL, UCLouvain, Belgium
*
(✉ [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars have long hypothesised that the central courts of the elaborate Minoan complexes of Crete (c. 1950–1450 BC) were used for ritualised, communal gatherings. New archaeological evidence from the court centre at the site of Sissi offers unique insights into the social practices, regional history and political organisation of this Bronze Age island civilisation. The remains of consumption rituals practised at Sissi's central court, along with the absence of evidence for other specific functions, provide the basis for a more nuanced understanding of the role of different types of Minoan palace. Furthermore, deliberate incorporation of earlier ruins within the Sissi complex suggests that the social power of Minoan palaces drew, in part, on ancestral practices.

Keywords

CreteSissiBronze AgeMinoanSantorini eruptionritual
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 95 , Issue 381 , June 2021 , pp. 686 - 704
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bennet, J. 1990. Knossos in context: comparative perspectives on the Linear B administration of LM II–III Crete. American Journal of Archaeology 94: 19–211. https://doi.org/10.2307/505949CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caloi, I. 2018. Inaugurating the court-centred building? A MM IIIB feasting deposit at Neopalatial Sissi, north-central Crete. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici: Nuova Serie 4: 7–40.Google Scholar
Cucuzza, N. 2010. Game boards or offering tables? Some remarks on the Minoan ‘pierres à cupules’. Kernos 23: 133–44. https://doi.org/10.4000/kernos.1574CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Day, P.M. & Wilson, D.E.. 2002. Landscapes of memory, craft and power in Prepalatial and Protopalatial Knossos, in Hamilakis, Y. (ed.) Labyrinth revisited: rethinking Minoan archaeology: 142–66. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Devolder, M. 2016. The Protopalatial state of the western magazines of the palace at Malia (Crete). Oxford Journal of Archaeology 35: 141–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12082CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devolder, M. 2018. The functions of masons’ marks in the Bronze Age palace at Malia (Crete). American Journal of Archaeology 122: 343–65. https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.122.3.0343CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, J. 2007. IIb or not IIb? On the beginnings of Minoan monument building, in Bretschneider, J., Driessen, J. & van Lerberghe, K. (ed.) Power and architecture: monumental public architecture in the Bronze Age Near East and Aegean (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 156): 73–92. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Driessen, J. 2017. A new ceremonial centre at Sissi (Nomos Lassithiou), in Εταιρια Κρητικων Ιστορικων Μɛλɛτων-Ιστορικο Μουσɛιο Κρητης (ed.) Proceedings of the 12th International Cretological Congress held in Herakleion 2016. Available at https://12iccs.proceedings.gr/el/proceedings/category/38/32/159 (accessed 26 February 2021).Google Scholar
Driessen, J. 2018. Beyond the collective: the Minoan palace in action, in Relaki, M. & Papadatos, Y. (ed.) From the foundations to the legacy of Minoan archaeology: 291–313. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, J. 2019. The Santorini eruption: an archaeological investigation of its distal impacts on Minoan Crete. Quaternary International 499B: 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.04.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, J. & Sarris, A.. 2020. Archaeology and geophysics in tandem on Crete. Journal of Field Archaeology 45: 571–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2020.1826749CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, J. et al. 2009. Excavations at Sissi: preliminary report on the 2007–2008 campaigns (Aegis 1). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Driessen, J. et al. 2011. Excavations at Sissi, II: preliminary report on the 2009–2010 campaigns (Aegis 4). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Driessen, J. et al. 2013. Excavations at Sissi, III: preliminary report on the 2011 campaign (Aegis 6). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Driessen, J. et al. 2018. Excavations at Sissi, IV: preliminary report on the 2015–2016 campaigns (Aegis 13). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Gesell, G.C. 1987. The Minoan palace and public cult, in Hägg, R. & Marinatos, N. (ed.) The function of the Minoan palaces: proceedings of the 4th International Symposium at the Swedish Institute 123–27. Stockolm: Paul Aström.Google Scholar
Girella, L. 2007. Forms of commensal politics in Neopalatial Crete. Creta Antica 8: 135–68.Google Scholar
Graham, J.W. 1962. The palaces of Crete. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. 1981. From determinism to uncertainty: social storage and the rise of the Minoan palace, in Sheridan, A. & Bailey, G. (ed.) Economic archaeology: towards an integration of ecological and social approaches (British Archaeological Reports International Series 96): 187–213. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Knappett, C., Rivers, R. & Evans, T.. 2011. The Theran eruption and Minoan palatial collapse: new interpretations gained from modelling the maritime network. Antiquity 85: 1008–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00068459CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legarra Herrero, B. 2016. Primary state formation processes on Bronze Age Crete: a social approach to change in early complex societies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26: 349–67. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774315000529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letesson, Q. 2014. Fire and the holes: an investigation of low-level meaning in the Minoan built environment. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22: 713–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-014-9206-yCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathioudaki, I. In press. Reconstructing the Neopalatial pottery sequence at Sissi, in Driessen, J. (ed.) Excavations at Sissi V: preliminary report on the 2017–2019 campaigns (Aegis 21). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
McEnroe, J. 2010. Architecture of Minoan Crete: constructing identity in the Aegean Bronze Age. Austin: University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moody, J. 1987. The Minoan palace as a prestige artefact, in Hägg, R. & Marinatos, N. (ed.) The function of the Minoan palaces: proceedings of the 4th International Symposium at the Swedish Institute: 235–41. Stockholm: Paul Aström.Google Scholar
Palyvou, C. 2002. Central courts: the supremacy of the void, in Driessen, J., Schoep, I. & Laffineur, R. (ed.) Monuments of Minos (Aegaeum 23): 167–78. Liège & Austin (TX): Université de Liège.Google Scholar
Poursat, J.-C. 1988. La ville minoenne de Malia: recherches et publications récentes. Revue Archéologique 1: 61–82.Google Scholar
Prent, M. 2003. Glories of the past in the past: ritual activities at palatial ruins in Early Iron Age Crete, in Van Dyke, R.M. & Alcock, S.E. (ed.) Archaeologies of memory: 81–103. London & New York: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470774304.ch5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rethemiotakis, G. & Christakis, K.. 2013. The Middle Minoan III period at Galatas: pottery and historical implications, in Macdonald, C.F. & Knappett, C. (ed.) Intermezzo: intermediacy and regeneration in Middle Minoan III palatial Crete (BSA Studies 21): 93–105. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Sarris, A., Manataki, M., Déderix, S. & Driessen, J.. 2017. Revealing the structural details of the Minoan settlement of Sissi, eastern Crete, through geophysical investigations, in Jennings, B., Gaffney, C., Sparrow, T. & Gaffney, S. (ed.) 12th International Conference of Archaeological Prospection: 206–208. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Shaw, J.W. 1973. The orientation of the Minoan palaces, in Caratelli, G. & Rizza, G. (ed.) Antichità cretesi: studi in onore di Doro Levi 1 (Cronache di Archeologia 12): 47–59. Catania: Università di Catania.Google Scholar
Shaw, J.W. 2010. Setting in the palaces of Minoan Crete: a review of how and when, in Krzyszkowska, O. (ed.) Cretan offerings: studies in honour of Peter Warren (BSA Studies 18): 303–14. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Soles, J.S. 1991. The Gournia palace. American Journal of Archaeology 95: 17–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/505157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todaro, S. 2013. The Phaistos Hills before the palace: a contextual reappraisal (Praehistorica Mediterranea 5). Monza: Polimetrica.Google Scholar
Tzachili, I. 2016. Η κɛραμɛική της ανασκαφής 1972–1973: συμβολή στην ιστορία του Ιɛρού Κορυφής (ΒΡΥΣΙΝΑΣ II). Athens: Ta Pragmata.Google Scholar
Vansteenhuyse, K. 2002. Minoan courts and ritual competition, in Driessen, J., Schoep, I. & Laffineur, R. (ed.) Monuments of Minos (Aegaeum 23): 235–50. Liège & Austin (TX): Université de Liège.Google Scholar
Warren, P.M. 2004. Terra cognita? The territory and boundaries of the early Neopalatial Knossian state, in Cadogan, G., Hatzaki, E. & Vasilakis, A. (ed.) Knossos: palace, city, state: proceedings of the conference in Herakleion organised by the British School at Athens and the 23rd Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Herakleion, November 2000, for the centenary of Sir Arthur Evans's excavations at Knossos (British School at Athens Studies 12): 159–68. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Watrous, L.V. et al. 2015. Excavations at Gournia, 2010–2012. Hesperia 84: 397–465. https://doi.org/10.2972/hesperia.84.3.0397CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitelaw, T.M. 2017. The development and character of urban communities in prehistoric Crete in their regional context: a preliminary study, in Letesson, Q. & Knappett, C.J. (ed.) Minoan architecture and urbanism: 114–80. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198793625.003.0014Google Scholar
Whitelaw, T.M. 2018. Recognising polities in prehistoric Crete, in Relaki, M. & Papadatos, Y. (ed.) From the foundations to the legacy of Minoan archaeology: 210–55. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, M. 2007. Neopalatial Knossos: rule and role, in Betancourt, P.P., Nelson, M.C. & Williams, H. (ed.) Krinoi kai Limenes: studies in honor of Joseph and Maria Shaw: 231–42. Philadelphia (PA): INSTAP Academic.Google Scholar