One State, Many Worlds: Crete in the LM II-IIIA2 early period 

The conference is organized by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), the Εφορεία Αρχαιοτήτων Χανίων, and Università Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno. It will be a platform to discuss one of the thorniest periods of Late Bronze Age Crete, when cultural identity and political power on the island went through a profound transformation.

The last twenty years of research into LM III Crete have provided plentiful data and several theoretical frameworks that have become fundamental to our understanding of the interactions between Crete and the Greek Mainland in this period, as well as of aspects of micro-regionalism in the definition of material culture on Crete. Drawing on these themes, the international conference One State, Many Worlds: Crete in the Late Minoan II-IIIA2 period (1470-1350 BC ca) will focus on the many largely-unresolved issues arising from the cultural and political processes that were in play during the earlier part of the period, in the crucial years after the LM IB destructions (variously defined as Monopalatial or Final Palatial) down to LM IIIA2. The major transformations that have been detected until now are principally embodied in radical changes at the palace of Knossos and the invention of a new administrative script, and in the funerary domain.

With the intention to provide a comprehensive view of this revolutionary period of the Aegean Late Bronze, a group of distinguished scholars are asked to investigate such specific topics as follows:

1. Definition of cultural processes on Crete after the LM IB period. While archaeological data concentrates on Knossos and Khania, only the first site has been scrutinized with particular attention to the funerary domain, yet with fluctuating interpretation between local elites adopting foreign costumes and customs as opposed to the arrival of a foreign group installing a new power structure. How can we move between the poles of ‘ethnic identity’ and intentional individual behaviour when interpreting changes in funerary practices at Knossos and Khania? What is the nature of the Mycenaean kingdom at Knossos and how does it compare to the Mainland kingdoms? How do the common script and bureaucratic procedures emerge? What does the systematic analysis of regions/sites outside the two main centres of the island tell us about the new order?
   
   
2. Ceramic, culture and politics. Can we refine pottery chronology by considering new stratified contexts and/or by synchronising the published evidence in order better to understand the transformations of Cretan culture in this period?
   
   
3. Aspects of continuity and change in specific areas of cultural production, e.g. pottery, architecture, funerary and religious practices, iconography, administration, and developments in such fields as transportation or manufacturing.
   
   
4. Population change and migration; international relations.