Abstract
This study examines the form and character of occupation in the Cretan countryside during the Neopalatial period (second quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C.). It focuses on the lower tiers of the hierarchy of settlement, that is on the scattered hamlets and isolated buildings of the hinterland, the aim being to discuss the character of inhabitation of these sites and their significance - if any - for assessing the social organization of the period. The treatment is based on the so-called Sea Guard-house, a building complex situated on the bay of Karoumes, at the east coast of Crete. This is one of the few excavated sites that could be positioned at the lower level of the hierarchy of settlement. The analysis of the data focuses on the architecture and the ceramics. The character of the occupation in the surrounding area was also studied, so as to approach the aforementioned site in the context of the landscape where it was incorporated, and in order to ascertain whether it should be reg ...
This study examines the form and character of occupation in the Cretan countryside during the Neopalatial period (second quarter of the 2nd millennium B.C.). It focuses on the lower tiers of the hierarchy of settlement, that is on the scattered hamlets and isolated buildings of the hinterland, the aim being to discuss the character of inhabitation of these sites and their significance - if any - for assessing the social organization of the period. The treatment is based on the so-called Sea Guard-house, a building complex situated on the bay of Karoumes, at the east coast of Crete. This is one of the few excavated sites that could be positioned at the lower level of the hierarchy of settlement. The analysis of the data focuses on the architecture and the ceramics. The character of the occupation in the surrounding area was also studied, so as to approach the aforementioned site in the context of the landscape where it was incorporated, and in order to ascertain whether it should be regarded as typical of he region. To his goal, an extensive surface survey was carried in the areas of Karoumes, Chochlakies and Skoinias. The evidence indicates that the general historical context must have been very different during the individual phases of the Neopalatial period. During its early stages, settlement in the area under study was dense and scattered. It took the form of isolated buildings of modest size, which can be regarded as farmhouses. Typically, these buildings are distinguished by their megalithic masonry and their dominant position. The available data do not point to a stratified social organization - at least within the area under study. However, in the course of the later stages of the Neopalatial, the majority of the farmhouses was deserted - something that should be linked to the expansion of the neighboring urban centers, as well as to the rise of a newly formed class of landowners, residing in the so-called county villas. The study of the Sea Guard-house indicated that at the end of the period its inhabitants belonged to the lower ranks of the social hierarchy, but they had not lost the status of an independent cultivator. The presence of some artifacts of a relatively high symbolic value at this site and, and in general the continued occupation of some of the megalithic farmhouses - that is, of those buildings that may be regarded as the symbol par excellence of the social and economic order that had previously prevailed in the countryside - are considered as particularly significant. They imply that, despite the increasingly pronounced differentiation in terms of power and wealth, the progress towards a stratified social organization had not been completed by the end of the Neopalatial period.
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