Search results for ""Author Krzysztof Nowicki""

Shortly before 1200 B.C. the Aegean, and soon afterwards much of the East Mediterranean, was shaken by disturbances and destructions which considerably changed the settlement patterns, as well as the political and social structures of those lands. This led to the decline of the Mycenaean world which eventually caused the so-called Dark Age in Greece. Crete, being an island located on the cross-roads between the Greek Mainland, Sicily and South Italy, and the Levant, may have been particularly affected by the problems referred to in ancient written sources under the name of "the Sea Peoples". The Dark Age in Crete is potentially better represented than in other areas of the Aegean and explorations in the mountainous hinterland of the island have shown site numbers and a density of habitation only vaguely suggested by the excavated samples of sites. This book is based on fifteen years of field research presenting about 120 defensible sites with comprehensive descriptions, sketches, plans and illustrations of surface pottery. Archaeological evidence (in a large part hitherto unpublished) is analysed in detail to reconstruct changes in settlement patterns alongside the political, social, ethnic and economic aspects of the Dark Age society in Crete. The problem of the function of defensible and fortified sites during the Dark Age is examined against a more general background of similar sites on the island from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. The phenomenon of defensible settlements founded c. 1200 B.C. is discussed here in a wider Mediterranean context with reference to other Aegean islands, Cyprus and the Levant. One chapter presents the historical written sources from the Near East and Egypt which contain references to events that might have caused the dramatic changes suggested in archaeological evidence towards the end of the Bronze Age.

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At first sight, the cliffside site of Katalimata looks like an extreme refuge place where one might expect small groups of people hiding for a brief time during the most serious period of threat. Excavation of the largest of the terraces, however, has shown that use of the place was often long-lasting and more complex. The most interesting result of the project was the identification at Katalimata of almost all the same phases known from elsewhere in Crete as periods of disturbances, relocations, and destructions. This monograph provides a detailed discussion of the six occupational phases recorded on the largest of Monastiraki Katalimata's terraces and offers a reconstruction of the site's role in the context of Cretan history.

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A regional survey was undertaken in the central part of the Mirabello Bay area: along the northeastern coast of Crete in the Gournia Valley and the northern half of the Isthmus of Ierapetra, ending in the valley of Episkopi, to provide a regional context for the Bronze Age palace and settlement of Gournia. As this survey was the last and geographically most central compared to three other surveys (Vrokastro, Pseira, and Kavousi), conducted in the Mirabello region, it ties together the data from all four surveys regarding the environment, population(s), and social organization of an entire region. Furthermore, this volume goes beyond the survey data to consider, at some length, the evidence from local excavations, so as to provide an in-depth and integrated picture of the regional socio-economic development. It is meant as a regional archaeological study of the Mirabello Bay area.

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