Social Strategies and Spatial Dynamics in Neopalatial Crete
An Analysis of the North-Central Area
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4876164 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellen Adams (0000-0001-8063-8618, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-36 |
| Publication date | 2006-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.3764/aja.110.1.1 |
| OpenAlex | W2329312777 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 13 |
Neopalatial Crete possessed a high degree of homogeneity in its material culture, leading many to interpret political and social unification under the capital of Knossos. Recent studies on the regionalism of particular types of data have questioned this appraisal. This article builds upon such work with an interdisciplinary approach to north-central Crete, which includes the palatial sites of Knossos, Malia, and Galatas, other large and small settlements, ports, and ritual sites. The spatial distribution patterns of a wide range of data are analyzed, with specific reference to the formalized practices and conspicuous consumption resulting from elite social strategies. It is argued that early state-level societies, such as Minoan Crete, were not necessarily formed of well-demarcated territorial "states" possessing a single central place analogous with modern nation-states. Instead, the different types and scales of centralization are explored, with the separation of the ideological, political, and economic spheres. It is concluded that the intense ideological centralization around Knossos is coupled with a high degree of sociopolitical competition among the surrounding elites, leading to a wide spatial distribution of elite features. In contrast, Malia sits in a void of other large and elaborate settlements and ritual sites, but this centralization (if not monopolization) indicates the presence of far weaker power relations on the regional scale
Archaeology · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Elite · Geography · Human settlement · Ideology · Market economy · Monopolization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Regionalism (politics) · Sociology · Unification · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law
Losing One's Head in the Neolithic
The Minoan ‘Palace-Temple’ Reconsidered
The Rise of a Minoan City and the (Re)Structuring of Its Hinterlands
Una antropología política para Creta Neopalacial
Exploring an extinct society through the lens of Habitus-Field theory and the Tocharian text corpus
Cuestionando el concepto de redistribución en Creta Neopalacial
Eating in prosperity
Fire and the Holes
Aegean Prehistory as World Archaeology
Settlement location models, archaeological survey data and social change in Bronze Age Crete
Evolving settlement patterns, spatial interaction and the socio-political organisation of late Prepalatial south-central Crete
The Minoan Fallacy
Large Domestic Pits on the Northwest Coast of North America
Minoanisation in the Middle Bronze Age
Colonialism without Colonies? A Bronze Age Case Study from Akrotiri, Thera
Secondary States in Perspective
Spatial analysis in archaeology
The Symbolic Construction of Community
Archaeologies of Complexity
The Archaeology of Political Structure
Ethnic groups and boundaries
The Corrupting Sea
Outline of a Theory of Practice
The Political Landscape
The Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant
Cults, Territory, and the Origins of the Greek City-State
Archanes
Assessing a Polity in Protopalatial Crete
| Citations per year | 0.84 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2007 - 2024 (18) |
| Highly cited | No |