(Fiorentina, All'Insegna del Giglio; #34, Monografie della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente, 2023), pp. 350.
The volume focuses on a large Protoarchaic block on the southern slope of the Patela of Prinias. Built in several phases during the 7th century BC, the block played an important role within the settlement, in terms of structure and spatial organisation, but mainly because it contained a large building (Building C) with a central eschara and its annexes.
The Protoarchaic building complex is located at the SE vertex of the ideal triangle formed by the Patela plateau. Excavations carried out between 1989 and 1994 by Giovanni Rizza revealed three independent building complexes or blocks and three streets, articulated on an area with a slope of about 17% and arranged on sloping terraces. The protoarchaic complex corresponds to the central block, which is certainly the best preserved due to its position on the slope. The excavation method followed during the exploration of the Protoarchaic complex from 1989 to 1994 involved the successive removal of different layers of earth, the composition and thickness of which are always recorded on the notebooks. The data recording in the various excavation notebooks is always precise and often accompanied by sketches; the description of the operations carried out during the excavation, completed by references to the finds, as well as to the graphic and photographic documentation, was regularly recorded. The re-reading of the excavation reports, together with the study of the materials (804 objects, largely unpublished before this study, and including pottery, coroplastic finds, textile tools, metal objects, small finds of stone, bone, clay and glass, and a very important inscription painted on a vase), has made it possible to note previously overlooked data, which have often proved fundamental to the reconstruction of the complex as well as to its interpretation.
The complex covers an area where older evidence is present. Apart from a few sporadic objects that date to an earlier period than LM IIIC, when the permanent occupation of the Patela dates back, there are a number of rock cut structures in the area. Over time, these structures were first respected by the builders of the complex and later incorporated into Building C. Among them are a tripartite base/bench carved into the rock, a column base and a long bench, as well as several rock carvings. The area also yielded a number of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age objects. Throughout the Protogeometric period (11th-9th centuries) and to a lesser extent during the 8th century, the area was intensively used, probably in connection with the performance of cultic/ceremonial practices, as attested by the presence of coroplastic finds and a considerable amount of pottery, as well as a large burnt area, probably a hearth.
The earlier core of the protoarchaic complex was built in the first half of the 7th century BC, as evidenced by a foundation deposit consisting of four skyphoi. The first structure of the complex was a long oikos, divided internally into three rooms of different sizes, the central room being slightly larger. In a short space of time, by the middle of the 7th century, the complex had expanded to include a series of rooms arranged around a central courtyard. It is worth noting that this earlier structure did not cover the rock carvings, but preserved them on the outside of the southern wall by deliberately retracting its course.
With the construction of Building C and its annexes in the late 7th century, the complex underwent some changes. Building C was not an isolated building, but was structurally and ideologically linked to the pre-existing block, although it did not communicate directly with it. Access to the building was not free or open to a space or a street. On the contrary, it was filtered through a closed passage consisting of a door and a staircase leading to an open space in front of the building, a courtyard created by the division of the north-south street.
Inside Building C, the oldest structures, namely the tripartite bench carved into the rock, were now included in the area of the vestibule. The remaining rock carvings in the area of the main hall were obliterated by the paved floor of the new building, with the possible exception of the bench on the N side, which probably remained in use.
All the material evidence, especially the pottery, suggests that Building C had a function related to communal dining. This function is clearly integrated by the archaeological documentation found in the courtyard and in the annexes. The courtyard was an open space where food was stored, processed and prepared, while an adjoining room, containing some thirteen large pithoi, was a storeroom.
The areas dedicated to the processing and preparation of food, the iteration of table services, the emphasis on the storage of resources on a supra-household level, the organisation of communal meals, the cultic aspect (the tripartite base-bench?), the presence of weapons (a possible fragment of a bronze mitra and a sauroter) and of an inscribed aryballos (whose inscription celebrates ὁ Θλ[- -], the fastest of the dromeis) are all elements related to the conceptual sphere referable to the term andreion. To these data should be added further remarks on the finds (faunal remains of wild animals, dog bones and iron arrowheads) that attest to the practice of hunting, which, along with warfare and athleticism, played a fundamental role in the ideology of masculine identity and constituted one of the fundamental aspects of Cretan agoghè.
The proposed interpretation considers building C as an andreion, complemented by the annexes and the remaining rooms of the protoarchaic complex. This interpretation involved a brief reconsideration of the question of the function of the so-called hearth temples and, above all, a review of some of the most significant examples of buildings with a communal dining function on Crete (notably Aphratì, Azoria and Praisòs). A number of points of contact were found with these buildings, despite obvious planimetric differences.
Finally, the complex was considered in the context of the urban development of Prinias during the 7th century and in relation to other buildings.
The identification of a discontinuity in the function of important public/communal and residential buildings in the late 7th century, coinciding with the construction of the well-known Temple A and the complex of Building C with its annexes, highlights the crucial importance of this period for the development of the Prinias settlement, which corresponds to the definitive rise of the polis. The changes, probably linked to the growth of the settlement and a new organisation of the spaces, must be read in terms of social competition, a phenomenon also evident in the contemporary funerary dimension.
The grant award from the White Levy Program to produce this work was issued to
Dr. Antonella Pautasso in 2020.
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