Lost in Translation: Settlement Organization in Postpalatial Crete, a View from the East

Abstract

The 12th century BCE Mediterranean was characterized by the collapse of palace-based societies. The material culture of post-palatial Crete was composed by local and non-local elements. Crete and its Mediterranean neighbors can be regarded as an entangled mixture of the foreign and the local, with populations showing resilience in the face of new realities caused by changes in social organization and technological change. Some features of LM IIIC can be anticipated in the preceding LM IIIA and LMIIIB periods on Crete, as architecture and urban spaces underwent changes on multiple scales. These scales included construction techniques, use of topography (e.g., open spaces used as gathering are..