Around a century ago Arthur Evans began the task of writing up his excavations at Knossos. Whatever his initial intentions may have been, the resulting volumes of the Palace of Minos eschewed a conventional presentation of the site and its excavations in favour of a masterly synthesis of what Evans chose to call Minoan civilisation. Consequently, although Evans’ presentation of the Minoans was strongly influenced by (and seemingly grounded in) the evidence from Knossos, it has been by no means easy or straightforward for us to evaluate the empirical basis for his vision or to use his excavations to develop new interpretations.
The on-going excavations of Eleon are enriching our understanding of central Greece throughout the Mycenaean Age. Located between Thebes and its harbor at Aulis at the Euboean Gulf, the site has been identified with the secondary center listed in the Theban administrative tablets as e-re-o-ni, which is mentioned twice in the Iliad.
Much of our understanding of the mainland Greek prehistory is based on the research in the Argolis. While she was definitely spearheading the contemporary developments during the LBA palatial period, and was spectacularly full of gold and other precious items in the previous Shaft Grave Period, the MBA in the Argolis was a far cry when compared to developments in Central Greece.
The question about the “Coming of the Greeks”, i.e. about the origins of the Greek language and its first association with the later Greek mainland, has always been an important aspect of the wider Indo-European problem. Within the context of this research quest, the understanding of several linguistic and cultural expressions of the Aegean prehistory was very soon attached to the long-standing and predominant epistemological paradigm of the Indo-European problem.
After a long hiatus, new systematic excavations at the hill of Kirrha began in 2009 under the auspices of the French School of Archaeology and the 10th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (now Ephorate of Antiquities of Phocis). The results of the three excavation seasons, though provisional, have shed new light on this major site of the northern coast of the Corinthian Gulf.
The “Middle Kalamas Archaeology Project” in Thesprotia was carried out during the years 2011-2015 under the directorship of the speaker with the collaboration of the Ephoreia of Antiquities of Thesprotia, the French School of Athens and the Universities of Geneva and Tübingen.
Prehistoric communities used and managed woodland resources for everyday domestic needs (fuel) and other more specialized purposes (e.g. woodcrafts and construction). A source of information for the relationship between humans and their vegetational setting are the anthracological remains (the residues of burnt wood found in archaeological sites).
This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion on the symbolic meaning of the double axe in Minoan Crete. I will start by discussing the various interpretations that have been put forward, but my main focus will be on the association between double axes and cattle, which can be seen in different types of representations.
