This volume is the first in a series reporting the findings of an important, albeit small-scale, excavation, undertaken in the context of conservation and reorganisation for visitors of the ‘Palace of Minos’ at Knossos. More extensive excavations, directed by the late J.D. Evans in the late 1950s and 1960s, recovered substantial Neolithic ceramic and bioarchaeological assemblages, only partially published to date (e.g. Evans 1964; 1994; Warren et al. 1968; Tomkins 2001; Isaakidou 2005; Isaakidou and Tomkins 2008). In addition to its speedy reporting of the recent excavation, the volume is important for two further reasons: first, for presenting datasets of systematically collected archaeobotanical remains, not only charred seeds but also charcoal and phytoliths, for which techniques of recovery and analysis were, at best, less advanced at the time of J.D. Evans's excavations; and, secondly, for inviting a range of specialists who mainly work in other regions (see below) to examine the Knossian Neolithic data from their particular geographical and disciplinary perspective.
The volume comprises an introduction and eleven chapters. The introduction by E. sets out the research agenda of the project, stressing the limitations imposed by the small scale of the excavation. In Chapter 1 excavation levels are described in terms of soils, inclusions, features and architectural remains. Interpretations of the latter are cautious due to the limited extent of the excavation and thus partial exposure. In Chapter 2, a synthesis based on the specialists’ conclusions is presented, against a background of current debates such those on the date, character and provenance of the earliest Aegean Neolithic, the impact of humans on the endemic Cretan fauna, issues of continuity and the nature of habitation at Neolithic Knossos. Chapter 3 by Dimitriadis briefly discusses the results from petrographic analysis of EN ceramics, published more extensively elsewhere (Dimitriadis [2008]), which accounts for the absence of illustrations or quantitative data in this volume. Fumanal García's sedimentological study, cut short by her premature death, is presented in Chapter 4 in the form of very brief descriptions of samples with tables of data and charts.
Sarpaki (archaeobotany), Badal and N. (wood charcoal) and Madella (phytoliths) provide more detailed analyses and syntheses in Chapters 5, 6 and 7, respectively. Sarpaki discusses, inter alia, the possibility of local domestication and the evidence for development of arboriculture (fig and almond) and viticulture, posing interesting questions to which the small available assemblages cannot provide firm answers. In Chapter 6, the most detailed discussion to date of wood charcoal from systematic sampling and flotation of soil samples from any Cretan site is presented. The chapter discusses the present vegetation of the immediate and wider environs of Knossos-Kephala, based on transect recording of modern plant communities, and then undertakes a comparative analysis with the new and previously published charcoal and pollen evidence in an attempt to reconstruct Neolithic vegetation and wood exploitation strategies. The data are also used to investigate the nature and intensity of exploitation of the almond tree and the status – native or otherwise – of the olive tree on Crete. Chapter 7 explores the potential of opal phytolith analysis to shed light on plant exploitation and use of space, providing evidence for the nature (i.e. cereal processing, exploitation of wild plants as fodder and fuel) and intensity of activities undertaken diachronically in the excavated area. While stressing that the lack of associated features limits the potential of the method, Madella usefully contrasts his results with those from the archaeobotanical and wood charcoal studies.
The topic of the next two chapters (8 and 9) is the exploitation of terrestrial mammalian fauna. Chapter 8, by Pérez Ripoll, is a more ‘straightforward’ presentation of the zooarchaeological study, its analytical methods, resulting data and their interpretation. His interpretation mainly draws comparanda from the Iberian rather than Greek Neolithic. Unfortunately, the uneven representation of phases and small assemblage sizes mean that a considerable part of the discussion and conclusions is not supported by the data from the 1997 excavation reported here. More specifically, emphasis is put on themes associated with the nature of animal exploitation in the earliest phases, although table 8.1 suggests that no identifiable remains were recovered from Aceramic levels, and identification of wild/feral species such as wild goats and boar is based on extremely scant metrical data. Lumping of evidence from different periods, imposed by the paucity of data, effectively precludes diachronic investigation of continuity or change in processing and management practices. Horwitz in Chapter 9 provides a detailed discussion on the status and management goals of the main domestic taxa, herd viability and establishment of domestic populations, drawing on ethnographic and other evidence. An extensive discussion of the possible geographic origin of the settlers is based on the taxonomic composition and inferences about the status (domestic/proto-domestic/wild) of the identified introduced taxa. For the reasons detailed above, this discussion relies overwhelmingly on studies of faunal assemblages from J.D. Evans's excavations rather than data derived from the analysis of assemblages collected during the 1997 campaign.
Chapter 10, the last to present data, reports on the results of a (for the scale of the excavation) fairly extensive programme of conventional and AMS radiometric dating. It also helpfully tabulates radiometric dates obtained by conventional radiometric dating from earlier programmes at the site, providing b.p. and b.c. dates calibrated using current statistical packages. Calibrated calendrical dates greatly facilitate comparison with other regions for which such information exists, partly overcoming the problem of the use throughout the volume of the ‘traditional’ Knossian Neolithic chronology (in which the Early Neolithic I is temporally equivalent to the Early Neolithic, Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic periods elsewhere in Greece, Early Neolithic II to Late Neolithic II, etc.; cf. Tomkins [2007], table 1.1). Some aberrant dates may be due to later disturbance (as the authors argue) or to the apparently exclusive dating of charcoal from unidentified parts of oak trees (deciduous and evergreen), i.e. potentially from old parts of long-lived species. None the less, the new dates are broadly consistent in suggesting that, above the thin Aceramic levels at the base of the settlement, the new excavation overwhelmingly investigated levels of the late sixth and early fifth millennia b.c., that is of LN I date in mainland Greek terms. Unfortunately, the intervening level 38 yielded no datable samples, leaving it unclear which part(s) of the Ceramic Early and Middle Neolithic (in mainland terms) it represents and posing obvious limitations on the potential for diachronic analysis. The final chapter is mainly a theoretical discussion by E. of the earliest Neolithic in the wider Aegean and the place of Knossos therein, and its relation to the preceding Mesolithic, especially in light of the recent finds confirming Mesolithic presence on Crete.
This is a meticulously edited book with high-quality images and a wide range of clearly presented, often novel, datasets. It also contains fairly extensive synthetic chapters focusing mainly on the nature and provenance of the earliest Neolithic settlement at Knossos, its role in recent debates over continuity from the preceding Mesolithic and the expansion of the Neolithic, within a broader Aegean, Anatolian and Eastern Mediterranean context. This broader discussion is referenced in the volume's sub-title, but very little of the evidence presented here for the earliest occupation at Knossos (as yet also the oldest documented farming village in the Aegean and in Europe) derives from the recent excavations on which the volume reports. None the less, given that Knossos is one of the three most visited and thus most lucrative archaeological sites in Greece and that (especially early) Neolithic occupation is concentrated mainly beneath the Central Court of the later ‘palace’, opportunities for systematic exploration with modern excavation and recovery techniques are few and far between. The volume presents insights previously unavailable and demonstrates the value of further investigation even of sites that have previously been extensively explored.
