Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
2012
Over 300 dwelling sites in the mountains of north-east Crete (Agios Nikolaos), datable (by surface pottery and lithics) mainly to the Middle Bronze Age (the Minoan Protopalatial period, ca.2000-1650 BCE) were discovered and studied. Sites were isolated but not more than 300 m (average) apart from each other and interconnected with a network of paths. Most ruin foundations were built with massive block masonry (named “oncolithic” in this study), while long enclosure-walls claimed areas of several thousand square meters (up to 6 hectares) for each habitation, including arable and rocky land. The setting and massive construction of these enclosures, (originally more than a meter high and with a total length of ca 150 km), show that they belonged to the sites. These features were mapped with GPS and used for the GIS study of land use and topography. Archaeologists in the past believed a few of the then known sites (ca. 5, while enclosures and connecting paths were unknown) situated on the old roads, to have been defensible forts or watch-towers because of their so-called “monumental” or “Cyclopean” masonry, but this study shows that the massive settlement including landscape opening (landnam) and structuring (covering an area of ca. 30 sqkm min.) must have been used for mixed agriculture/animal husbandry. The area has been re-used by mixed agriculture (emphasis on pastoral economy) from the second half of the 19th century. Data gained from ethnoarchaeological study are used to corroborate and classify archaeological findings.
The author’s topographical research in the mountains above Agios Nikolaos, Crete, has led to the discovery of over 330 Minoan agricultural sites, datable to the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1700 BCE). With the help of GIS, habitation ruins, enclosure walls and connecting roads have been mapped, and their function as farming installations for mixed agriculture and animal husbandry (including herding of ovicaprids and bee keeping), as well as their possible land use potential could be determined. The paper shows the methods and results of this study.
Proceedings of the 12th ICCS 2016
Connectivity with Minoan mountain farmers: Protopalatial roads and paths in the Agios Nikolaos area2019 •
Along the mountain slopes west of Agios Nikolaos (between 600 and 1400 m), over 330 farms of the Minoan Old Palace period and their relationship to the surrounding landscape were studied by the author for her PhD thesis. These Bronze Age installations also had – apart from house ruins – well discernible wall-enclosed courtyards and animal folds, in many ways characteristic of mixed agricultural mountain farms until recently. Most of them also had very long (often over 1 km) boundary walls (“perivoloi”). Usually the houses and walls were built using massive stones (“oncolithic masonry”) and are thus often well recognizable until today. One of the remarkable features of the landscape surrounding these farms, datable (by surface pottery) to have been built between ca. 2000 and 1650 B.C., is a great number of roads and paths (over 140 km in total), often bordered and thus identifiable by these ancient walls on one or two sides, sometimes also furnished with a cobblestone surface and even steps. When drawn on a map these “roads” constitute an intricate network of connections between sites and towards the regions beyond the settled slopes. In this paper examples of the Minoan roads/paths and their typical landscape features and construction details are discussed, as well as the question what information can be gained by their study, on connectivity in Minoan Protopalatial north-eastern Crete.
At home at the Castle
At home at the Castle. Lifestyles at the Medieval strongholds of Östergötland, AD 1200-1530.2019 •
Östergötland is one of Sweden’s original core provinces and has 25 Medieval strongholds. This book is a study of lifestyles at these sites, based on new excavations and finds, a survey of previous ones as well as the relevant written sources. The activities and roles investigated include: Agriculture Baking Brewing Chivalry Coin use Cooking Crafts Dining Drinking Fashion and jewellery Fishing and eating fish Fur production Gaming Growing up Healthcare Horsemanship Hunting Imprisonment Keeping livestock Keeping pets Keeping warm Lighting Lords and ladies Love affairs Music Relieving oneself Religion Shipbuilding Slavery Smithwork Soldiering Taxation Waste disposal Weddings
American Journal of Archaeology
Toward a Definition of Minoan Agro-Pastoral Landscapes: Results of the Survey at Palaikastro (Crete)Agricultural production and the palatial redistribution of staples have played a key role in the debate concerning the emergence of social complexity in Minoan Crete. However, much of the focus has fallen on major settlements where such products were consumed, rather than on the landscape where agricultural surplus was produced. While there is no shortage of landscape surveys on Crete, their emphasis has typically been on the distribution of rural settlements instead of on identifying landscape structures and arrangements—such as terraces, enclosures, and field systems—that might provide data about a territory's economic focus. A key aim of the new survey at Palaikastro has been to address this bias. By combining extensive archaeological survey with differential GPS (DGPS) measurements, high-resolution aerial photography, and microrelief generation and analysis, the project has identified hundreds of structures, forming an almost continuous fossilized landscape and providing important clues on landscape management practices. The results highlight the importance of pastoral practices, to which a large part of the landscape was dedicated. Agricultural arrangements were also documented in the form of terraced areas adapted for dryland agriculture and reflecting concerns for soil retention. We argue that a highly structured landscape, indicative of pressures in land use, was established during the Middle and Late Minoan periods across Palaikastro's territory.
Athens section of 'Archaeology in Greece' 2010-2011.
Detailed report/interpretation on my new excavation project at Karfi, Crete
In the mountains south of Agios Nikolaos, north-east Crete, the Minoans of the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1650 B.C.) left behind characteristic vernacular ruins, studied in the author's PhD thesis (http://thesis.ekt.gr/thesisBookReader/id/29129#page/1/mode/2up). The 337 ancient farm sites discovered during this investigation were arranged in a loose settlement pattern. Manifold field-enclosures and animal pen walls surrounded variably sized houses connected by an extensive network of paths. Massive ruins consist of dwelling foundations neutralizing the often steep slope incline they are built upon, so that the original houses would have stood in a horizontal position. Traces of upper structures could only be detected at two sites where fragments of what seemed to be typical Minoan (albeit accidentally fired) mud bricks could be seen. Consequently, it seemed that upper structures must have consisted of unfired mud brick. In 2014 a small experimental house was constructed based on these discoveries. The paper documents some of the findings, events and problems of experimental Middle Minoan vernacular architecture. Published Online (members only): EXARC Journal 2016/4 http://journal.exarc.net/issue-2016-4/ea/minoan-experimental-house-paying-tribute-middle-bronze-age-cretan-vernacular-architecture
"Diktaian" Zeus in eastern Crete, broadening the perspective on ancient myths, modern findings - and how they might improve tourism on the Lasithi plateau. Including the respective interpretation of some Renaissance maps of Crete. Paper presented at the >>International Symposium “Greek Mythology and Modern Regeneration”<< 31 July-2 August 2015, Psychro, Crete. To be published in Greek as "Αναγέννηση του Δικταίου Δία - μία νέα ματιά στους μύθους του Οροπεδίου Λασιθίου" (Crete University Press)
ΣΤΕΓΑ: The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete
Vokotopoulos, L. 2011. A View of the Neopalatial Countryside: Settlement and Social Organization at Karoumes, Eastern Crete. In K. Glowacki & N. Vogeikoff-Brogan (eds), ΣΤΕΓΑ: The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete. Hesperia Supplement 44. Princeton, 137-149.2011 •
Pharos. Journal of the Netherlands Institute in Athens 17 (2), 50-56
"The recording of Greek vernacular architecture" in J. Bintliff et al., "The Leiden-Ljubljana Ancient Cities of Boeotia Project 2009 Season"2011 •
2012 •
From Maple to Olive. Proceedings of a Colloquium to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Canadian Institute in Greece, Athens 10-11 June 2016
Kamares Cave and the early ritual landscape of South Central Crete: Diachronic changes in cave rituals.(Secured).pdf2017 •
Political Economies of the Aegean Bronze Age, D. J. Pullen, ed.
Between and Beyond: Political Economy in Non-palatial Mycenaean Worlds2010 •
J. Driessen, I. Schoep, P. Tomnkins, eds., Back to the Beginning. Reassessing social, economic and political Complexity in the Early and Middle Bronze Age on Crete (Int. Conference, Leuven 1-2 february 2008), Oxford: Oxbow books 2012, pp. 236-272. 978-1-84217-421-9.
P. MILITELLO, Emerging Authority: a functional analysis of the MM II settlement of Festòs2011 •
2019 •
2012 •
2011 •
Defence structures from Central Europe to the Aegean in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa 5, 2006.
Defensive Architecture in Crete in Late/Final Neolithic and Bronze Age2008 •
2007 •
The Annual of the British …
2003 Ceramic fabric analysis and survey archaeology: The Sphakia survey2003 •
The Annual of the British School at Athens
Ceramic fabric analysis and survey archaeology: the Sphakia Survey2003 •
Annual of the British School at Athens
Roman Knossos: Discovering the City through the Evidence of Rescue Excavations2010 •
2007 •
in Tsipopoulou M. (ed.), Petras, Siteia – 25 Years of Excavations and Studies, Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, vol. 16, Athens.
House II.1 at Petras, Siteia: its architectural life.2012 •