Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete by Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete by Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan Carl Knappett Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan. Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete. Philadelphia, PA: INSTAP Academic Press, 2010. Pp. xxx + 316, 144 tables, 137 figures, 70 plates. £55; US $80.00. ISBN 9781931534581. Early Minoan tholos tombs are just as prominent in narratives of social complexity in Aegean prehistory as they are in the landscapes of the Mesara and Asterousia. They are held up as examples of at least four phenomena. First, their architecture is contrasted with that of the house tombs of east Crete, signaling the pronounced regionalism of EM Crete. Secondly, their longevity—many in use for a millennium—shows the continuity of Minoan culture through the third and into the second millennium bc. Thirdly, the addition of annexes and the apparent popularity of drinking and pouring vessels indicate the role of funerary feasting. And fourthly, the relative lack of differentiation intra- or inter-cemetery is taken to indicate a community-focussed, egalitarian form of social organization, in contrast to the differential wealth and incipient hierarchy identified at Mochlos in east Crete. Although more and more attention is being devoted to the study of EM society in its own right, most of the above themes do betray a teleological concern with the factors behind the emergence of palatial society in the subsequent Middle Minoan period. With so much interpretative weight riding on the EM tholoi, one would be forgiven for imagining that they constitute a rich corpus for study. In some ways they do, with c. 80 known tholoi. Unfortunately, they have suffered from extensive looting and this, combined with their multi-generational use, often over more than a millennium, means that we do not have the [End Page 231] detailed understanding we would like. Indeed, the excavation and survey that this volume publishes came about in response to extensive looting of the cemetery in 1979/80. Publication does not always follow smoothly from rescue excavation, and the subsequent appearance of some of the looted material in the personal collection of the former Greek president Mitsotakis would not necessarily have added further motivation. So it is to the great credit of the archaeologists involved that they persevered and brought this project through to full publication. There are precious few other detailed publications of EM tholoi, Ayia Kyriaki being one, by one of the present authors, though this nearly 30 years ago and also looted, and Lebena another, receiving a recent book-length treatment; one might also mention current work soon to be published on Apesokari, and Kamilari. As this work is closely connected with Blackman and Branigan’s 1970s survey of the area, known as the Hagiopharango, it is not surprising that the volume begins with a chapter presenting results of a survey of the immediate environs of the tholos cemetery, in the upper catchment of this area. Though perhaps not up to the standards of mapping seen in current surveys, it does give us important contextual information for the use of the tombs. We learn that the earliest occupation comes at the end of the Final Neolithic, and so just a little before the construction of the tombs in EM I. By EM II we see two small hamlets close to the tholos cemetery (sites 3A and 25A), both of which see continuity into MM I and beyond, seemingly outliving the cemetery. After some Late Minoan occupation, there is a long hiatus until a large Roman settlement of perhaps 5 ha, with the surface pottery indicating a span from the first to fifth century ad; this material is presented in an appendix to the chapter by Jane Francis. Chapter 2 treats the excavation and architecture of the cemetery, with a careful account of what excavated areas were disturbed; and indeed there are very few undisturbed, stratified contexts. The principal structures are the two circular stone-built tombs, Tholos A, seemingly the first to be constructed, and Tholos B, which outlives A, with the addition of an annex named here the Rectangular Building. Part II, consisting of Chapters 3...