Assessing a Polity in Protopalatial Crete: The Malia-Lasithi State

Political Geography and Palatial Crete

“…Schoep 2001) and pottery (e.g. Knappett 1999) might suggest that, for some if not all of this phase, central Crete comprised three or more polities of roughly equivalent influence (including Knossos, Phaistos and Malia). The direct and indirect sealing of containers, regional palatial pottery styles and the use of other resources (e.g.…”

“…Such a baseline model of 'peer polities' has in fact proved to be a potentially key feature in the development of early complex societies (Cherry 1986) and this section therefore begins by exploring possible early peer--polity interactions on Crete and then moves on to consider, first, the possible expanding catchments of major sites and second, more explicitly hierarchical models of political territory. Figure 4 suggests the territory that might be allocated to each of three major palatial sites in central Crete, were we to assume that they exerted roughly equal political or economic influence (see Knappett 1999 for evidence for the extent of one these possible Protopalatial polities is the Malia--Lasithi region). The zones of uncertainty in this figure (shown with double question marks) are those whose allocation to a particular palatial site changes depending on whether we use a cost surface model that models directional travel (an anisotropic approach, as above) or one that does not (an isotropic approach which is often less useful, but possibly relevant here for assessing multi--directional flows of people and goods).…”

“…There are many different aspects of material culture that might conceivably offer purchase on political divisions. For example, discrete regional variations in pottery style can certainly be used to trace production and consumptions strategies, and may sometimes also suggest political affiliations, though such arguments have to be made in a very case--specific and contextual way (for a good discussions, see Knappett and Schoep 2000;Knappett 2002). Another promising approach is to pay close attention to the vicissitudes of individual site construction phases that in palatial Crete clearly suggest contrasting highs and lows (e.g.…”

The Historiography of Landscape Research on Crete

“…theoretical changes include a shift from the search of the origins of civilisations to the study of 'state' evolution and the rise of complex societies (Wright 1977). this is still a very popular research aim in archaeology and regional survey has understandably been acknowledged to be of fundamental importance trying to link major sites with their rural hinterlands and reveal inter-site relationships; however it should be stressed that interpretations do depend on the perception of state organisation and the nature of economic, ideological and political power (Knappett 1999).…”

Hamilakis, Y. (ed.) 2002. Labyrinth Revisited: Rethinking “Minoan” Archaeology

“…Day and Wilson's paper may be considered to belong to this kind of study, but Knappett's and Van der Moortel's papers are directly involved in the attempt to move beyond this approach. Knappett (1997Knappett ( , 1999 recently presented very innovative analyses on 'Minoan' pottery, where through a detailed analysis of the data he reached conclusions about political and economic relations between sites. However, these articles were based on some theoretical assumptions that were not completely developed and discussed, which is exactly what Knappett attempts again in this paper.…”