Dedicated to the people of Crete, this compact book is in many ways a summary of L. Vance Watrous's years of dedication to the island and its archaeology. He uses his vast knowledge of Crete to introduce Minoan culture to students and lay readers. The book is divided into nine chronologically organized chapters, with the insertion of thematic chapters on trade, religion, and art. In its general aims and format, it falls in the decades-long tradition of similar introductions to Minoan Crete, from John Pendlebury's The Archaeology of Crete (1939) to Stylianos Alexiou's Minoan Civilization (1969) and James Walter Graham's Minoan Crete (1974), to name a few. Watrous focuses explicitly on “Crete in its Eastern Mediterranean context” (p. 2). His intent is not simply to present current knowledge of Minoan Crete but to show how Minoan culture abounded with creative readaptations of Near Eastern or Egyptian ideas.

It is this intent—to demonstrate the importance of Crete's broader context to its cultural achievements—that extends this book's appeal to more advanced readers of archaeology. The informed reader will recognize that the central issue is the development of Minoan palatial society. On this question, the relationship between Crete and its neighbors represents a nodal point. Watrous rejects two well-known but opposing theories that see Minoan culture as the product of either outside stimuli (as envisioned by Sir Arthur Evans and early twentieth-century diffusionism) or small, incremental developments from within (Colin Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C., 1972). Watrous proposes instead the concept of creative readaptations of foreign ideas: Crete, exposed to other cultures through eastern Mediterranean trade networks, creatively adapted others’ ideas to its population's needs. To be sure, it has never been doubted that Crete was part of a rich cultural network. Instead, what continues to require explanation are the dynamics that would have made ideas drawn from other eastern Mediterranean cultures percolate through the different levels of Minoan society and become widespread across Crete.

The first two chapters introduce readers to Crete and its history (Chapter 1), and the island's importance in the history of Aegean archaeology (Chapter 2). Four chapters (3, 4, 5, and 9) focus on the main phases of development of Minoan society, using the construction of palaces as chronological criteria, as is typical of the discipline: pre-palatial culture (Chapter 3), the rise and development of the first palaces (Chapter 4), the construction of new palaces and the pinnacle of Minoan culture (Chapter 5), and the decline and collapse of palatial culture (Chapter 9). The remaining chapters (6, 7, and 8) deal with cultural aspects that enrich the overarching narrative. Chapter 6 confronts the vexing question of Minoan colonialism in the Aegean world (described by the Greek historian Thucydides as “thalassocracy” and involving, among others, islands such as Thera and Kythera). Chapter 7 discusses the evidence for Minoan religion and cult, both at household and community levels. Chapter 8 addresses the nature of Minoan art and its relation to Egyptian and Near Eastern models, focusing primarily on the iconography of frescoes and seals.

Although scholars and students can consult The Cambridge Companion to the Bronze Age Aegean (edited by Cynthia W. Shelmerdine, 2008) and The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (edited by Eric H. Cline, 2010), no recent introductory book has specifically focused on Minoan Crete. Watrous's book aims to fill this gap. The text is user friendly, and the book is suitable for introductory undergraduate and graduate courses on Greek prehistory. The up-to-date information offers many opportunities for class discussion, especially regarding the cultural links between Minoans and surrounding societies. For example, Watrous's treatment of Minoan artists traveling abroad and Near Eastern imagery on Minoan seals/sealings in Chapter 8 provides a springboard to explore with students the complexity of intercultural exchange.

The book's weaknesses have little to do with the author. At times, quality issues make illustrations impossible to use. For example, Figure 7.29 shrinks the beautifully decorated Agia Triada sarcophagus so much that the illustration becomes pointless. Moreover, the size and legibility of maps and plans are often problematic: the dark shading and small font sizes make it difficult to read locations on the map of Crete in Figure 1.1. Second, the text itself includes several typos and misspellings, particularly in toponyms. A second edition will hopefully rectify these shortcomings.

Editorial issues aside, Watrous's book is an informative and up-to-date introduction to Minoan Crete that will appeal to a wide range of instructors and readers. It provides a broad and useful basis of knowledge while allowing room to start exploring more specific research questions in Aegean archaeology. In addition to the topics covered in the book, readers will enjoy Watrous's personal anecdotes about doing archaeology on Crete that are scattered across the chapters.