Calculating the manpower requirements for the construction of Neopalatial buildings in Crete: pitfalls, challenges and possibilities

Vasso Fotou
Aegean Studies 1, 2016, 57-81

Construction methods and materials have received a fair amount of attention from scholars of Bronze Age Crete. Particularly in recent decades, discussions on materials and techniques are invariably included in publications of individual buildings or settlements. This attention to the subject of materials and techniques in case studies owes a lot to Joseph Shaw’s seminal work published in 1973 and re-edited in 2009, which surveys and synthesizes evidence from a wide range of buildings of all periods, from the beginning of EM to the end of LM , representing all major sites on Crete (Shaw 1973; 2009). It was followed by many articles, each focusing on a particular question (a technique or a type of material) by the same author (Shaw 2009: 220-221 for references) and other scholars, including the reviewer.