Crete (Prehistoric to Roman)

General observations Once again, the flow of new publications has not been as great as in previous years, given the severe financial challenges all branches of government in Greece are facing. The next volume of ADelt for Crete is still not available, while publication of the second meeting on ‘Archaeological Work on Crete’ (AWiC), whose first volume made a major contribution to AR 56 (2009–2010), is still awaited (see AR 57 [2010–2011] 63). Just beginning to appear are e-offprints from the Tenth International Cretological Congress held in Chania in 2006 (see AR 53 [2006–2007] 96), some of which are summarized below. In the meantime, publication of the 11 International Cretological Congress held in Rethymnon in October 2011 is promised on-line; a substantial book of abstracts (11th International Cretological Congress, Rethymno, 21–27 October 2011, Abstracts [Rethymnon 2011]) was distributed to participants and is likely to be available in some specialist libraries, such as the BSA’s. Next year’s ‘Archaeology in Greece’ should draw on full publication of both the Tenth and 11 International Cretological Congresses, together with AWiC 2 and ADelt 56. Publications are not completely lacking, however, and as indicated in the Introduction the former Ministry of Culture and Tourism has produced a substantial volume, under the general editorship of Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki (Director General of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage), summarizing the work of all the Prehistoric and Classical and Byzantine Ephoreias over the decade 2000–2010 that goes some way to filling the gap in publication of ADelt (www.yppo.gr/0/anaskafes). Inevitably, the information is brief and selective, but key discoveries are noted, some of which have already been noted in previous issues of AR. Several volumes of conference publications have also appeared. Back to the Beginning (Schoep et al. [2011]) is an important collection of 15 papers examining the Prepalatial and Protopalatial periods (EM–MMII) on Crete; they present both new data and new approaches, which, in general, tend to push ‘complexity’ back into the third millennium BC. Spanning the Prepalatial to the Early Iron Age is Prehistoric Crete: Regional and Diachronic Studies on Mortuary Systems (Murphy 2011), a collection of six papers on funerary practice most originally delivered at a colloquium at the 2007 Annual Meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America. A third conference publication, a collaboration between the Danish Institute in Athens and the Institute of Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete, has a narrower chronological focus, but goes into much greater depth, devoting two volumes to LMIB pottery (Brogan and Hallager [2011]); each of the 16 substantive papers is followed by a short response. Finally, spanning both prehistoric and historical periods is ΣΤΕΓΑ: The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete, a substantial Hesperia supplementary volume containing 38 papers ranging in date from Final Neolithic to the early Roman Empire (Glowacki and Vogeikoff-Brogan [2011]). The historical period is represented by a general book on the Roman province of Creta (Bechert 2011). Publications of two recent theses, one doctoral (Lowe Fri [2011]), one masters (McGowan [2011]), have also appeared: the first an experimental archaeology of Minoan double-axe production and use, the second an attempt to understand Minoan seal imagery, particularly at Agia Triada.