Plain of Phaistos: Cycles of Social Complexity in the Mesara Region of Crete


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Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 23
ISBN: 978-1-931745-14-7
Publication Date: Feb 2005
Price: Hb $14.95, Ebook $20.00
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L. Vance Watrous, Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou, and Harriet Blitzer

The volume presents the results on an interdisciplinary regional field project (1984 - 1987) carried out on the island of Crete. This volume traces the changing patterns of settlement and cycles of social complexity fromPlain of Phaistos  the Late Neolithic period to the present day within the heartland of the state of Phaistos. The authors and contributors publish geological, archaeological, environmental, Plain of Phaistosbotanical, historical and ethnographic studies that establish the regional identity of the Western Mesara. Using a combination of empirical, processual and post-processual theoretical approaches, the volume investigates a central problem - how and why did the Bronze Age and Classical states arise at Phaistos?

Plain of Phaistos
Table of Contents

PART I: THE WESTERN MESARA PROJECT

Chapter 1. The Field Survey by L. Vance Watrous, Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou, and John Bennet
Chapter 2. Study and Interpretation by L. Vance Watrous

PART II: THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND ITS USE

Chapter 3. A Cultural Geography of the Island by L. Vance Watrous
Chapter 4. Geoarchaeology of the Western Mesara by Kevin O. Pope
Chapter 5. Environment, Land Capability, and Botanical Studies in the Western Mesara by Jennifer M. Shay and C. Thomas Shay
Chapter 6. Agriculture and Subsistence in the Late Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Mesara by Harriet Blitzer 

PART III: PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY

Chapter 7. Initial Growth in Social Complexity (Late Neolithic–Early Minoan I) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou 
Chapter 8. Emergence of a Ranked Society (Early Minoan II–III) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou
Chapter 9. State Formation (Middle Minoan IA) by L. Vance Watrous              
Chapter 10. Palatial Rule and Collapse (Middle Minoan IB–Late Minoan IIIB) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou       

PART IV: HISTORICAL SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY

Chapter 11. The Polis of Phaistos: Development and Destruction (Late Minoan IIIC–Hellenistic) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou                 
Chapter 12. Creation of a Greek City-State (Late Minoan IIIC–Orientalizing) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou          
Chapter 13. Mesara Romana (150 BC–AD 400) by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou
Chapter 14. A Province under Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman Rule, AD 400–1898 by Dimitri Tsougarakis and Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis

PART V: FINAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 15. Conclusions by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou

Appendix A: Land Classification and Botanical Studies Methods by C. Thomas Shay and Jennifer M. Shay 

Appendix B: Botany Figures and Tables by Jennifer M. Shay and C. Thomas Shay

Appendix C: The Chipped and Ground Stone: Raw Material Sources, Production Sites, and Finds by Harriet Blitzer

Appendix D: Register of Archaeological Sites by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou

Appendix E: Chronological Framework for the Survey by L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou

Appendix F: The Physical and Economic Development of Pitsidia, 1961–2001: A Cautionary Tale for Survey Archaeology by L. Vance Watrous

Appendix G: Catalogue of Sites of the Byzantine–Ottoman Period by Dimitri Tsougarakis and Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis

Appendix H: Byzantine–Ottoman Period Settlements in Kainourgio and Pyrgiotissa: First Appearance and Continuity by Dimitri Tsougarakis and Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis