This is the fourth double volume (text and illustrations) in a planned series of seven, which will eventually complete the landmark publication of the Greek–Swedish excavations conducted over several decades. The site has a stratified sequence of continuous occupation from the Neolithic to the Turkish period. Volume IV covers the LMIIIA2 and IIIB1 phases, the latter being the apogee of the Minoan settlement at Khania, a town occupied by a multi-ethnic multi-lingual population that used Linear A and Linear B scripts.
The contents and bibliography at the beginning of the book are followed by two introductions, one on dating methodology, the other an overview and plan of the excavated four buildings, a street, courtyard, spaces and rubbish areas to the north and southeast (about 1% of the settlement). The first half of the 500-page text volume is a presentation of data with descriptions of individual rooms, floors and pits in buildings or outside them, and plans on which find loci are marked, each section followed by catalogues of finds recorded with systematic and relentless detail occasionally relieved by anecdotal mention of the mixing of baskets by the museum dog, or the discovery of the excavation's sole piece of precious metal. If the first half of the book is medicine you may wish to gulp down, in the second half essays examining the architecture, pottery, small finds and Linear B inscriptions are worth savouring on the palate.
The architecture by E.H. presents buildings 1, 2, 3 and the corner of a fourth. These spacious edifices, one with nine rooms, contrast with contemporary two- and three-roomed houses in east Crete. Constructed of solid stone walls with shallow or no foundations, they were evidently one storey high with flat roofs. A narrow street separating buildings 1 and 3 led to an open area between buildings 1 and 2. Interior walls were decorated with blue, red or yellow wall-plasters, discussed by A.-L. Schallin in the next chapter. Inside doors were usually placed in the corners of rooms following Minoan custom, but two doors placed away from corners and a central hearth constructed on a bed of sherds, reflect Mycenaean influence. Hearths in building 2 were for industrial rather than household purposes. Floors within the rooms were at slightly different levels made in one case of broken pottery, but normally of beaten earth, or small pebbles where greater resilience was required, for example for the pivot base of a potter's wheel in building 1. Some rooms were furnished with benches or a cupboard. Sunken shafts were probably for storing food at constant temperatures, while a pithos outdoors was presumably for collecting rainwater.
The weightiest contribution is the exposition of the pottery. B. H., who bravely examined over three tons of it, presents the shapes, decorative motifs and comparanda. Most of the pottery was manufactured in local white clay characteristic of the Kydonian workshop, although other clay sources that fired red or brown were also used, and sometimes coated with white slip and painted to replicate/fake the pottery of the Kydonian workshop. The desirability of Kydonian ware is underlined by the fact that it has been found at over 40 sites on Crete, at Orchomenos, Thebes, Tiryns, Mycenae, Melos, Kos, Rhodes, Cyprus and Sardinia. This extensive distribution not only documents flourishing connections between Khania and numerous sites in a trade network in which Khania was obviously an active player (plying oil/wine in stirrup jars) but also provides evidence of synchronisms, as do imports from Knossos, Palaikastro, Kythera, the Cyclades and Mycenae. A large repertoire of undecorated pottery and coarse ware vessels is treated with equal dedication. A rare grey ware proved to be of local clay. Handmade Burnished Ware in IIIB1 levels, with parallels from sites round the Gulf of Taranto, was like similar wares at Mycenae, Euboea and Cyprus locally manufactured, whereas at Kommos it was believed imported from Sardinia. Either way, this intriguing pottery is suggestive of immigrants. This study clarifies the distinction between LMIIIA2 and IIIB1 adding new shapes and features, which differentiate the pottery production in these two phases. Pottery production statistics in appendix 1 suggest that population growth and prosperity at Khania peaked in IIIB1.
M. Bruun Lundgren focusses on evidence for industrial activities, such as textile production indicated by spindle whorls, mainly recycled kylix stems, and steatite whorls for spinning very fine woollen thread; spherical and discoid loom weights. Eleven pierced stone weights found in a straight line are thought to be weights from a standing loom, which lent against a wall in LMIIIB1 building 1. Evidence for bronze smelting is indirect in the form of scrap metal and slag in LMIIIA 2, and in LMIIIB1 more explicit in the form of moulds, a crucible and various artefacts: tweezers, knives, razors, nails, fish-hooks, arrowheads and a sheet with repoussé decoration. The raw material was sourced from Laurion, Siphnos and Sardinia. Equipment for hunting and fishing included a stone anchor, pumice floats, net-sinkers, whetstones and sling-stones. Stone axes, percussion tools and polishers were for crafts, grinders/querns for processing food. Personal ornaments (beads, pendants and buttons) of faience, rock crystal, shell, bone, ivory and so on are covered here.
M-L.Winbladh studied the stone vases, figurines and terracotta objects, interpreted as possible gaming markers because they were found with knucklebones or, more prosaically, as balance weights, stoppers or lids. The figurines, six human, seven animal, two furniture legs and a false neck from a vase painted with horns of consecration (?), made locally follow Mycenaean tradition mainly, with many parallels quoted from Aphaia, Tiryns, Mycenae or Delphi. Fragments of stone vessels, chiefly bowls and lamps, a possible libation table, a pyxis lid and a fetish stone are discussed. The material (serpentine, peridotite, grey or porous limestone, buff alabaster or marble) from which they were manufactured is mentioned in five cases, but the geological sources possibly of interest are not discussed.
E. Karantzali examined the obsidian tools, 85% from IIIB1 levels. Exhausted cores show that some tools were knapped on site, whilst the low amount of débitage is said to indicate the preciousness of the material, acquired through intermediaries or directly from Melos. Wear analysis was not carried out, but the commonest tools, blades or bladelets, must have been used as sickle elements or cutting tools; scrapers and burins for crafts and domestic tasks.
A fascinating section by E.H. presents 42 inscribed stirrup jars, all of Cretan clay, six Linear B tablets and potters' marks painted or incised on the bases of cups and bowls. Most have been published elsewhere, but are included in this volume for the sake of completeness, notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the dateable material is from IIIB2/IIIC contexts. Most jar inscriptions are personal names known at Knossos, Pylos and Thebes, while others appear for the first time. H. endorses the theory that the names were those of managers who monitored oil and jar production.
Conditions in LMIIIB1 favoured the growth of the settlement's population and prosperity. Destroyed by fire, it was quickly rebuilt because it was prosperous with opportunities for trade and thus attractive to immigrants from the Greek mainland and the Italian peninsula. Linear B tablets, inscribed stirrup jars, sealstones and impressions are evidence of the administration needed to manage trade extending over hundreds of nautical miles, exchanging materials and products at many distant locations from Sardinia to Cyprus. Proof of literacy and the inference that more administrative documents must have existed, indicate Khania as a palatial centre.
The importance of this carefully excavated and meticulously studied site cannot be overstated. The book is printed on excellent quality paper, generously illustrated, sturdily bound to withstand repeated handling and reasonably priced at €95/£77. It will surely become an indispensable work of reference for archaeologists as anyone dealing with the archaeology of Minoan Crete will be handicapped without it.
