Ritual Activity and Regional Dynamics: Towards a Reinterpretation of Minoan Extra-Urban Ritual Space.

Abstract

My dissertation seeks to re-examine the role of extra-urban ritual spaces in the ritual and socio-political landscapes of Bronze Age Crete during the second millennium BC. Within the context of the transformation between the heterarchical relationships that appear to have characterized the earlier Protopalatial period and the more distinctly hierarchical structures of Neopalatial times, I consider the role played by ritual spaces — including peak sanctuaries, caves, and sacred enclosures — in these shifting power dynamics. By looking at the performance of ritual activity, as expressed through archaeological assemblages, my work investigates how regional interactions influenced ritual activities and their material signature in the landscape. Two opposing but complementary forces appear to have shaped the character of the material deposited at each of these site-types. Each site constituted an integral part of the ritual landscape of Minoan Crete that influenced the performance of ritual and votive dedication. At the same time, its specific context in local and regional scale socio-political landscapes shaped permutations of activity and material culture. The tension between these forces accounts for the distinctiveness and variability in the assemblages. Each of the sites and categories of sacred site is explored to assess specifically the effects of this tension on site-based activities and the assemblages that resulted. Sacred caves are considered with respect to the sensory experience of ritual activity and the presumed links to an emergent elite. Peak sanctuaries are examined with particular regard to their assemblages and the subtle but distinct variations that highlight local and regional influences. The huge, unpublished pottery assemblage from Vrysinas is closely examined as a detailed case-study that provides new perspectives on the nature of ritual activity. Sacred enclosures are shown each to have a distinct character and landscape setting, which, more than peak sanctuaries or caves, directly influenced the sites’ appearance, material culture, and performed ritual. I argue that each site must be understood as part of a whole, but simultaneously as having a precise and distinctive trajectory that reflected and was informed by its specific role in a complex network of dynamic relationships and associations.