Details
Unlike much of Greece where the end of the Bronze Age has been regarded as a `Dark Age', Iron Age Crete continued many of the traditions of its Bronze Age Minoan past, especially in religion. However, this went hand-in-hand with the social and cultural changes that were sweeping across the Aegean at this time. Covering the period c.1200-600 BC, Mieke Prent's detailed and extensive thesis is based on an assessment of over ninety excavated Cretan sanctuaries, and an examination of what their location, structure, spatial organisation, decoration and votive offerings reveal about Cretan cults and ritual practices. This is preceded by a full discussion of the history of Iron Age archaeology on Crete, traditionally marginalised and overshadowed by the excavation of Crete's Bronze Age palaces.