Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:55:27.955Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE ARCHAEOBOTANY OF NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE CRETE: SYNTHESIS AND PROSPECTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2014

Alexandra Livarda  and
Georgia Kotzamani
Alexandra Livarda*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham
Georgia Kotzamani
Affiliation:
Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of Southern Greece, Ministry of Culture
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explores the full potential of archaeobotanical research in the investigation of issues such as agricultural practices and resource management and mobilisation in shaping the social dynamics of Neolithic and Bronze Age Crete, through a synthesis for the first time of all available archaeobotanical information to date. To this body of data new information is added from six sites: Kephala Petras, Pryniatikos Pyrgos, Aghia Fotia, Knossos Little Palace North, Sissi and Zominthos. A comprehensive methodology is devised using three units of analysis to allow an in-depth study, firstly of the quality of the available dataset and secondly of its content. A total of 80 archaeobotanical records, compiled in one database, are examined in the light of the methods employed for their sampling, recovery and processing. The reliability of the current dataset is assessed, highlighting shortcomings; methodological issues are addressed to improve its quality. These records are then analysed according to their temporal, spatial and contextual distribution across the island. A synthesis of the full resource base, including cereals, legumes, fruits, nuts, condiments and wild species, is conducted, providing a contextualised picture of their availability and use, and identifying lacunae and interpretational potential. On these bases a research agenda is set and future research priorities and new approaches are suggested that place archaeobotany in the core of current archaeological discourse on social models, practices and meanings for prehistoric Crete.

Η αρχαιοβοτανική της Κρήτης κατά τη Νεολιθική και την Εποχή Χαλκού: σύνθεση και προοπτικές

Το άρθρο αυτό εξετάζει τη δυναμική της αρχαιοβοτανικής έρευνας στη διερεύνηση ζητημάτων σχετικών με τη συμβολή των αγροτικών πρακτικών και της διαχείρισης και διακίνησης των φυτικών πόρων στη διαμόρφωση των κοινωνικών δομών της Κρήτης κατά τη Νεολιθική και την Εποχή Χαλκού, μέσα από τη σύνθεση, για πρώτη φορά, όλων των διαθέσιμων έως σήμερα αρχαιοβοτανικών δεδομένων. Στο πληροφοριακό αυτό σύνολο προστίθενται νέες σχετικές μαρτυρίες από έξι ακόμη αρχαιολογικές θέσεις (Κεφάλα Πετρά, Πρινιάτικος Πύργος, Αγία Φωτιά, Μικρό Ανάκτορο Κνωσσού-Βόρεια, Σίσσυ και घώμινθος). Μέσα από μια νέα, ολοκληρωμένη μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση, που χρησιμοποιεί τρεις ενότητες ανάλυσης, επιχειρείται η σε βάθος μελέτη του περιεχομένου και της ποιότητας των αρχαιοβοτανικών δεδομένων. Ένα σύνολο από 80 εγγραφές, συγκεντρωμένες σε μια κοινή βάση δεδομένων, εξετάζεται ως προς τη μεθοδολογία δειγματοληψίας, συλλογής και επεξεργασίας των αρχαιοβοτανικών δεδομένων. Παράλληλα, επιχειρείται η αποτίμηση της αξιοπιστίας του συνόλου των διαθέσιμων αρχαιοβοτανικών πληροφοριών, υπογραμμίζονται πιθανές ερευνητικές αδυναμίες και προτείνονται μεθοδολογικές διόδοι για την ποιοτική τους βελτίωση. Στη συνέχεια ακολουθεί η ανάλυση των σχετικών δεδομένων με βάση τη χρονική και χωρική τους κατανομή στο νησί λαμβάνοντας υπόψιν την αρχαιολογική τους συνάφεια. Μέσα από αυτήν την αναλυτική προσέγγιση προκύπτει μία σύνθεση ολόκληρου του φάσματος των φυτικών πόρων (δημητριακά, όσπρια, φρούτα, καρποί, αρωματικά φυτά και στοιχεία της άγριας χλωρίδας), διερευνάται η διαθεσιμότητα και οι πιθανές χρήσεις τους και αναγνωρίζονται τα κενά και η ερμηνευτική δυναμική των αρχαιοβοτανικών δεδομένων. Με βάση αυτά επιχειρείται, τέλος, η συγκρότηση ενός ερευνητικού πλαισίου και προτείνονται μελλοντικές προτεραιότητες και προσεγγίσεις της έρευνας, που τοποθετούν την αρχαιοβοτανική στον πυρήνα του σύγχρονου αρχαιολογικού διαλόγου που πραγματεύεται τις έννοιες των κοινωνικών μοντέλων, πρακτικών και νοημάτων αναφορικά με την προϊστορική Κρήτη.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 108 , November 2013 , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2014 

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

REFERENCES

Bogaard, A., Charles, M., Livarda, A., Ergun, M., Filipovic, D. and Jones, G. in press. ‘The archaeobotany of mid–later occupation levels at Neolithic Çatalhöyük’, in Hodder, I. (ed.), Humans and Landscapes of Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 2000–2008 seasons (Monographs of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California at Los Angeles; Los Angeles).Google Scholar
Bogaard, A., Heaton, T.H.E., Poulton, P. and Merbach, I. 2007. ‘The impact of manuring on nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals: Archaeological implications for reconstruction of diet and crop management practices’, Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 335–43.Google Scholar
Cadogan, J. 1978. ‘Pyrgos, Crete, 1970–7’, Archaeological Reports 24, 70–84.Google Scholar
Chapouthier, F. and Charbonneaux, J. 1928. Fouilles exécutées à Mallia: premier rapport (1922–1924) (Etudes Crétoises vol. 1; Paris).Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1901. ‘Knossos. Summary report of the excavations in 1900: I. The Palace’, Annual of the British School at Athens 6, 3–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, A. 1928. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. 2 (London).Google Scholar
Evans, A. 1935. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. 4 (London).Google Scholar
Evans, J.D., Cann, J.R., Renfrew, A.C., Cornwall, I.W. and Western, A.C. 1964. ‘Excavations in the Neolithic settlement of Knossos, 1957–60. Part I’, Annual of the British School at Athens 59, 132–240.Google Scholar
Fernald, M.L. and Kinsey, A.C. 1986. Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America (New York).Google Scholar
Ferrio, J.P., Araus, J.L., Buxó, R., Voltas, J. and Bort, J. 2005. ‘Water management practices and climate in ancient agriculture: Inference from the stable isotope composition of archaeobotanical remains’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14, 510–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiorentino, G. and Solinas, F. 2006. ‘Carboni e carporesti dal palazzo di Monastiraki. Indagini paleoambientali e paleoeconomiche’, in Kanta, A. and Marazzi, M. (eds.), Monastiraki I. Campagne 2002–2004 (Quaderni della Fondazione Scavolini, Serie Beni Culturali 4; Naples), 123–9.Google Scholar
Follieri, M. 1985. ‘Provviste alimentari vegetali in una casa minoica ad Haghia Triada (Creta)’, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente 57(41), 165–72.Google Scholar
Fraser, R.A., Bogaard, A., Heaton, T., Charles, M., Jones, G., Christensen, B.T., Halstead, P., Merbach, I., Poulton, P.R., Sparkes, D. and Styring, A.K. 2011. ‘Manuring and stable nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals and pulses: Towards a new archaeobotanical approach to the inference of land use and dietary practices’, Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 2790–804.Google Scholar
Galaty, M.L., Nakassis, D. and Parkinson, W.A. (eds.) 2011. ‘Forum: Redistribution in Aegean palatial societies’, American Journal of Archaeology 115(2), 175–244.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1981. ‘Social control and the economy’, in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. (eds.), Economic Archaeology (Oxford), 215–29.Google Scholar
Gennadios, P.G. 1914. Φυτολογικόν Λεξικόν (Athens).Google Scholar
Halstead, P. 1981. ‘From determinism to uncertainty: Social storage and the rise of the Minoan Palace’, in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. (eds.), Economic Archaeology (Oxford), 187–213.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. 1992. ‘The Mycenaean palatial economy: Making the most of the gaps in the evidence’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 38, 57–86.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. 2004. ‘Life after Mediterranean polyculture: The subsistence subsystem and the Emergence of Civilisation revisited’, in Barrett, J.C. and Halstead, P. (eds.), The Emergence of Civilisation Revisited (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 6; Oxford), 189–206.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. 2011. ‘Redistribution in Aegean palatial societies: Terminology, scale, and significance’, American Journal of Archaeology 115(2), 229–35.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. 1982. ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed: Social storage and the origins of social ranking’, in Renfrew, C. and Shennan, S. (eds.), Ranking, Resource and Exchange (Cambridge), 92–9.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. 1996. ‘Wine, oil and the dialectics of power in Bronze Age Crete: A review of the evidence’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 15(1), 1–32.Google Scholar
Hamilakis, Y. 1999. ‘Food technologies/technologies of the body: The social context of wine and oil production and consumption in Bronze Age Crete’, World Archaeology 31(1), 38–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansen, J.M. 1988. ‘Agriculture in the prehistoric Aegean: Data versus speculation’, American Journal of Archaeology 92, 39–52.Google Scholar
Hansen, J.M. 2000. ‘Palaeoethnobotany and palaeodiet in the Aegean region: Notes on legume toxicity and related pathologies’, in Vaughan, S.J. and Coulson, W.D.E. (eds.), Palaeodiet in the Aegean: Papers from a Colloquium held at the 1993 meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Washington D.C. (Oxford), 13–27.Google Scholar
Heaton, T.H.E., Jones, J., Halstead, P. and Tsipropoulos, T. 2009. ‘Variations in the 13C/12C ratios of modern wheat grain, and implications for interpreting data from Bronze Age Assiros Toumba, Greece’, Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 2224–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaakidou, V. 2007. ‘Cooking in the Labyrinth: Exploring “cuisine” at Bronze Age Knossos’, in Mee, C. and Renard, J. (eds.), Cooking up the Past: Food and Culinary Practices in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford), 5–24.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1984. ‘The LMII plant remains’, in Popham, M.R. (ed.), The Minoan Unexplored Mansion at Knossos (British School at Athens supp. vol. 17; London), 303–6.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1987. ‘Agricultural practice in Greek prehistory’, Annual of the British School at Athens 82, 115–23.Google Scholar
Jones, G. 1992. ‘Ancient and modern cultivation of Lathyrus ochrus (L.) DC. in the Greek islands’, Annual of the British School at Athens 87, 211–17.Google Scholar
Jones, G. and Schofield, A. 2006. ‘Evidence for the use of threshing remains at the Early Minoan metallurgical workshop’, in Betancourt, P.P. (ed.), The Chrysokamino Metallurgy Workshop and its Territory (Hesperia supp. vol. 36; Princeton), 153–4.Google Scholar
Jones, M. and Brown, T. 2007. ‘Selection, cultivation and reproductive isolation: A reconsideration of the morphological and molecular signals of domestication’, in Vrydaghs, L., Denham, T.P. and Iriarte, J. (eds.), Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives (One World Archaeology 51; Walnut Creek), 36–49.Google Scholar
Kavvadas, D. 1956–64. Εικονογραφημένον Βοτανικόν Φυτολογικόν Λεξικόν, Τόμοι I–IX (Athens).Google Scholar
Knappett, C., Evans, T. and Rivers, R. 2011. ‘The Theran eruption and Minoan palatial collapse: New interpretations gained from modelling the maritime network’, Antiquity 85, 1008–23.Google Scholar
Kopaka, K. (ed.) 2009. Zakros: Ourania to Froudi: The Cave and the Natural Rockshelters (Athens).Google Scholar
Kopaka, K., and Matzanas, C. 2009. ‘Palaeolithic industries from the island of Gavdos, near neighbour to Crete in Greece’, Antiquity 83, online project gallery: <http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/kopaka321>.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 1991. ‘Südosteuropa. Southeast Europe’, in Van Zeist, W., Wasylikowa, K. and Behre, K.-E. (eds.), Progress in Old World Palaeoethnobotany (Rotterdam), 161–77.Google Scholar
Leporatti, L.L. and Impieri, M. 2007. ‘Ethnobotanical notes about some uses of medicinal plants in Alto Tirreno Cosentino area (Calabria, Southern Italy)’, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 3:34.Google Scholar
Livarda, A. 2011. ‘Spicing up life in northwestern Europe: Exotic food plant imports in the Roman and medieval world’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20, 143–64.Google Scholar
Livarda, A. in prep. a. ‘The archaeobotanical remains from Myrtos-Pyrgos'.Google Scholar
Livarda, A. in prep. b. ‘The archaeobotanical evidence from Bronze Age Kephali at Sissi (Crete)’.Google Scholar
Livarda, A. and Kotzamani, G. forthcoming. ‘Late Minoan archaeobotanical evidence from Zominthos, Crete’.Google Scholar
Mangafa, M. and Kotsakis, K. 1996. ‘A new method for the identification of wild and cultivated charred grape seeds’, Journal of Archaeological Science 23, 409–18.Google Scholar
Megaloudi, F. 2006. Plants and Diet in Greece from Neolithic to Classic Periods: The Archaeobotanical Remains (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1516; Oxford).Google Scholar
Molloy, B.P.C., Day, J., Bridgford, S.D., Carter, T., Isaakidou, V., Kotzamani, G., Nodarou, E., Milić, M., Westlake, P., Klontza-Jaklova, V., Larsson, E., Bates, E. and Hayden, B. forthcoming. ‘Connectivity, complexity and commensality in an East Cretan village community: The Early Minoan I settlement at Priniatikos Pyrgos’.Google Scholar
Nakassis, D., Parkinson, W.A. and Galaty, M.L. 2011. ‘Redistributive economies from a theoretical and cross-cultural perspective’, American Journal of Archaeology 115(2), 177–84.Google Scholar
Renfrew, A.C. 1972. The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. (London).Google Scholar
Renfrew, J.M. 1972. ‘The plant remains’, in Warren, P. (ed.), Myrtos: An Early Bronze Age Settlement in Crete (British School at Athens supp. vol. 7; London), 315–7.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 1989. ‘Palaikastro. Preliminary environmental report’, Annual of the British School at Athens 84, 435–6.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 1992a. ‘A palaeoethnobotanical study of the West House, Akrotiri, Thera’, Annual of the British School at Athens 87, 219–30.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 1992b. ‘A palaeoethnobotanical approach. The Mediterranean triad or is it a quartet?’, in Wells, B. (ed.), Agriculture in Ancient Greece (Stockholm), 61–76.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 1995. ‘Toumba Balomenou, Chaeronia: Plant remains from the Early and Middle Neolithic levels’, Res Archaeobotanicae (Kiel), 281–300.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 1999. ‘The archaeobotanical study of Tzambakas House, Rethymno, Crete’, in Tzedakis, Y. and Martlew, H. (eds.), Minoans and Mycenaeans, Flavours of their Time (Athens), 13–14, 50, 51.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2000. ‘The study of palaeodiet in the Aegean: Food for thought’, in Vaughan, S. and Coulson, J. (eds.), Palaeodiet in the Aegean (Oxford), 115–21.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2007. ‘Résultats archéobotaniques préliminaires dans divers secteurs de Malia’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 131, 882–4.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2009a. ‘Knossos, Crete: Invaders, “sea-goers”, or previously “invisible”, the Neolithic plant economy appears fully-fledged in 9000 BP’, in Fairburn, A. and Weiss, E. (eds.), From Foragers to Farmers (Oxford), 220–34.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2009b. ‘The Cave of Ourania to Froudi, Zakros: The archaeobotanical remains’, in Kopaka, K. (ed.), Zakros: Ourania to Froudi: The Cave and the Natural Rockshelters (Athens), 61–8.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2012a. ‘The taming of an island environment: Crete from dawn to noon (Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age)’, in Cadogan, G., Iacovou, M., Kopaka, K. and Whitley, J. (eds.), Parallel Lives: Ancient Island Societies in Crete and Cyprus (London), 35–45.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. 2012b. ‘Re-visiting the visibility of the grape, grape products, by-products, and some insights of its organization from the prehistoric Aegean, as guided by new evidence from Monastiraki, Crete’, Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica: Natural Sciences in Archaeology 3(2), 211–20.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. forthcoming. ‘A study of the palaeoethnobotanical remains from the site of Kastelli, Chania’.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. and Jones, G. 1990. ‘Ancient and modern cultivation of Lathyrus clymenum L. in the Greek islands’, Annual of the British School at Athens 85, 363–8.Google Scholar
Sarpaki, A. and Kanta, A. 2011. ‘Monastiraki in the Amari region of Crete: Some interim archaeobotanical insights into Middle Bronze Age subsistence’, in Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M. and Papadopoulou, E. (eds.), Πεπραγμένα Ιʹ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, Τόμος Α1 – Προϊστορικοί Χρόνοι (Chania), 247–70.Google Scholar
Schlumbaum, A., Tensen, M. and Jaenicke-Després, V. 2008. ‘Ancient plant DNA in archaeobotany’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17, 233–44.Google Scholar
Schmidt, J. and Stavisky, N. 1983. ‘Uses of Thymalaea hirsuta (mitnan) with emphasis on hand papermaking’, Economic Botany 37(3), 310–21.Google Scholar
Shay, C.T. and Shay, J.M. with Frego, K.A. and Zwiazek, J. 1995. ‘The modern flora and plant remains from Bronze Age deposits at Kommos’, in Shay, C.T. and Shay, J.M. (eds.), Kommos I: The Kommos Region and Houses of the Minoan Town (Princeton), 116–62.Google Scholar
Shelmerdine, C.W. 2008. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Skoula, M., Sarpaki, A., Dal Cin D'Agata, C., Georgiakakis, P. and Lymberakis, P. 2010. Άυλη Πολιτιστική Κληρονομιά και Βιοποικιλότητα: Εθνοβιολογική μελέτη στην περιοχή του Κίσσαμου στην Κρήτη <http://www.latsis-foundation.org/files/meletes2010/05.pdf>.Google Scholar
Strasser, T.F., Panagopoulou, E., Runnels, C., Murray, P., Thompson, N., Karkanas, P., McCoy, F. and Wegmann, K. 2010. ‘Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence from the Plakias region for the Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete’, Hesperia 79, 149–90.Google Scholar
Sturtevant, E.L. (ed. Hedrick, U.P.) 1952. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants (Albany).Google Scholar
Tartaron, T.F. 2008. ‘Aegean prehistory as world archaeology: Recent trends in the archaeology of Bronze Age Greece’, Journal of Archaeological Research 16, 83–161.Google Scholar
Terral, J.-F., Alonso, N., Buxó, R., Chatti, N., Fabre, L., Fiorentino, G., Marinval, P., Jorda, G.P., Pradat, B., Rovira, N. and Alibert, P. 2004. ‘Historical biogeography of olive domestication (Olea europaea L.) as revealed by geometrical morphometry applied to biological and archaeological material’, Journal of Biogeography 31, 63–77.Google Scholar
Uphof, J.C.T. 1968. A Dictionary of Economic Plants (Lehre).Google Scholar
Usher, G. 1974. A Dictionary of Plants used by Man (London).Google Scholar
Valamoti, S.M. 2004. Plants and People in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Northern Greece (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1258; Oxford).Google Scholar
Valamoti, S.M. 2009. Η Αρχαιοβοτανική Έρευνα της Διατροφής στην Προϊστορική Ελλάδα (Thessaloniki).Google Scholar
Van der Veen, M. and Fieller, N. 1982. ‘Sampling seeds’, Journal of Archaeological Science 9, 287–98.Google Scholar
Van der Veen, M. and Jones, G. 2006. ‘A re-analysis of agricultural production and consumption: Implications for understanding of the British Iron Age’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 15(3), 217–28.Google Scholar
Vasilakis, A.S. 1989. “Ο Πρωτομινωικός Οικισμός Τρυπητής”, Αρχαιολογία 30, 52–6.Google Scholar
Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J. 1973. Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd edn; Cambridge).Google Scholar
Vickery, K.F. 1936. Food in Early Greece (Chicago).Google Scholar
Warren, P., Jarman, M.R., Jarman, H.N., Shackleton, N.J. and Evans, J.D. 1968. ‘Knossos Neolithic, Part II’, Annual of the British School at Athens 63, 239–76.Google Scholar
Younger, J.G. and Rehak, P. 2008. ‘The material culture of Neopalatial Crete’, in Shelmerdine, C.W. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (Cambridge), 140–64.Google Scholar
Zohary, D. and Hopf, M. 2000. Domestication of Plants in the Old World – The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe and the Nile Valley (3rd edn; Oxford).Google Scholar
Zois, A. 1992. “Βασιλική Ιεράπετρας”, Το Έργον της Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας κατά το 1991, (Athens), 109–10.Google Scholar