38 - Ritual and Ideology in Early Iron Age Crete: The Role of the Past and the East

Summary

This chapter focuses on changes in Cretan ritual practices from ca. 1000 to 700 BC. The idea that Early Iron Age (EIA) Crete's history and culture developed along peculiar lines informs, perhaps even justifies, much current scholarship, including the present contribution. Clearly, the differences matter, but in order to bring them out in sharp-relief, study of the island's connections and correspondences with other regions in the wider Mediterranean world is vital. The chapter discusses how scholars see Cretan idiosyncrasies. Two major idiosyncrasies have been recognised: the relatively strong continuity of Minoan traditions, and the early and pronounced Orientalising qualities of the island's material culture. There was a change in local attitudes to vestiges of the Bronze-Age past, as best exemplified by the inception of cult activities amid the ruins of monumental. Phaistos and Knossos, had been the seat of an important Later Bronze Age palace and settlement that continued to be inhabited through the EIA and later.