Exploring A Terra Incognita On Crete

This book brings together for the first time scholars working on the Bronze Age settlement patterns and material culture of the southern Ierapetra Isthmus, a region that actively participated in the coastal and maritime trade networks of East Crete. During the past few decades, while various archaeological projects focused on the northern isthmus, the Ierapetra area remained largely neglected and unknown, a terra incognita. Yet, new excavations at Gaidourophas, Anatoli Stavromenos, Chryssi Island, Bramiana, and the ongoing research at the site of Myrtos Pyrgos are showing that the coastal area of Ierapetra was a vibrant and thriving settlement landscape during the Bronze Age. Far from being simply on the periphery of the major Minoan centers, the southern Ierapetra Isthmus played important roles in the cultural dynamics of Crete. Aiming to be the first building block in the development of an archaeological understanding of the region of the southern Ierapetra Isthmus, this book presents the status of the discipline and indicates future research trajectories.

Contributions investigate the settlement patterns, maritime connectivity, and material culture of the southeast of Crete in a diachronic fashion, in an attempt to define it as a region and trace its history. Papers focus primarily on the archaeology of the sites along the coastal strip spanning between the Myrtos Valley and Kato Zakros.

The theme of this volume, presented in honour of G.W.M. Harrison, whose academic contributions have enriched our perspective of Roman Crete, is change and transition, a topic that challenges some of the earlier approaches to Hellenistic and Roman Crete, and which presents a different perspective on historical events and archaeological evidence.

Reassesses the animal depictions of Bronze Age Crete in terms of human-animal relations rather than a love of nature.

The Neopalatial House of the Frescoes was a small but imposing building near the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos in Crete. Presented here is an analysis of the building's architecture and finds, enriched by recent reinvestigation. The evidence suggests this was a public building with ritual connotations, memorialized by later occupants of the area.

This monograph examines the settlement history of a small island off the coast of southeast Crete and its exploitation by the settlements in the southern part of the Ierapetra Isthmus. Recent archaeological discoveries by the 24th Ephorea on Chryssi Island led to an intensive survey that uncovered numerous sites, dating from the Final Neolithic to the Ottoman period. The results from this study provided significant evidence for the exploitation of this small island (i.e. purple dye) through the centuries, and in turn the broader changes in settlement patterns that occurred along the south coast of Crete. Further, the archaeological investigation on Chryssi Island helped better our understanding of the 'colonization' of such marginal landscapes, the insular character of their communities, and their ties with the nearby coastal towns.

This volume brings together twenty-six papers to mark Susan Sherratt's 65th birthday - a collection that seeks to reflect both her broad range of interests and her ever-questioning approach to uncovering the realities of life in Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory.