Ancient Crete
From Successful Collapse to Democracy's Alternatives, Twelfth–Fifth Centuries BC

Examines Crete's prehistory to find out why the classical city states of Crete differed considerably from those of central Greece.

Saro Wallace (Author)

9780521112048, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 August 2010

476 pages, 204 b/w illus. 7 colour illus. 11 maps 3 tables
26.1 x 18.6 x 2.5 cm, 1.16 kg

'This book presents a coherent argument and an original synthesis. Wallace's knowledge of the island cannot be equaled.' American Journal of Philology

'Ancient Greece' with its associations of city states, democratic governance, and iconic material culture, can no longer be envisaged as a uniform geographical or historical entity. The Classical city-states of Crete differed considerably in culture, history and governance from those of central Greece. In this book, Saro Wallace reaches back into Crete's prehistory, covering the latest Bronze Age through the Archaic periods, to find out why. It emphasizes the roles of landscape, external contacts, social identity construction and historical consciousness in producing this difference, bringing together the wealth of new archaeological evidence available from the island with a variety of ancient text sources to produce a vivid and up-to-date picture of this momentous period in Crete's history.

Part I. Crete Between East and West, State Collapse, and State Emergence: 1. Introduction
2. Method and structure
3. Text perspectives
4. Chronology, terminology, and dating methods
5. The Late Bronze Age Cretan landscape and its use
6. The broader framework: structures of landscape use by the LBA-EIA transition
Part II. 'Positive' Collapse and Its Effects, c.1200–1000 BC: The Restructuring of Space and Place: 7. Approaches to studying collapse – explanation and characterization
8. The changing use of space: introduction
9. Settlement pattern in Crete
10. Subsistence in the new settlement environment
11. Settlement change outside Crete: islands and peninsulas
12. Mainland central Greece: settlement priorities during and after collapse
13. Constructing post-collapse society: inside Cretan settlements, c.1200–1000 BC
14. Ceremonial and ritual practice within settlements
15. Beyond settlements: the changing cultural landscape
16. Mortuary space and practice in Crete and other areas
17. The structure of collapse in Crete
Part III. After the Fall: Interactions with Other Mediterranean Regions in the Twelfth to Eighth Centuries BC: 18. Introduction
19. Long-distance contacts before and after the collapse horizon, c.1300–1000 BC
20. The social role of exotica
21. Exchange structures inside post-collapse Crete
22. Lift-off: east Mediterranean trade and the central Aegean from the tenth century
23. Nothing to declare? – Crete in the tenth through eighth centuries
24. Modes and routes of exchange within Crete in the later EIA
25. Crete's membership in the 'orientalising' and colonial worlds from the seventh century
Part IV. 'Proto-poleis'? – The Growth of Social Complexity in Crete from the Tenth through the Seventh Centuries: 26. Main sources of evidence discussed
27. Settlement patterns (1): the nucleation phenomenon
28. Settlement patterns (2): small sites and small-group identity
29. Subsistence and land-use in the expanding polities
30. Inside settlements
31. The mortuary record
32. The ritual landscape and the construction of political identity
33. The early Archaic horizon: correlates of state development and growth in the archaeological record
34. The polis as place and as concept in Crete
35. The value of 'classic' state formation models to PG-early Archaic Crete, viewed in its Mediterranean context
Part V. Constructing Difference: The History, Structure, and Context of Cretan States in the Later Archaic through Classical Periods: 36. Introduction
37. Problems in generalization and comparison
38. The central Greek polis structure over time: tensions between tyranny/kingship and participative governance
39. Special aspects of the Archaic to Classical Cretan pols
40. Cretan identities in historical perspective
41. Serfdom and slavery in the construction of Late Archaic to Classical society: comparisons between Crete and other Aegean areas
42. The public feasting tradition and its political significance in Crete and other areas
43. A final comparison: democracy and its alternatives in the Aegean world.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]