The settled landscape of Prepalatial Mesara is dominated by the widespread presence of circular tombs which, being used for communal burials over many generations, have traditionally been taken to suggest residential stability (Branigan 1971). More recently, a close reading of their discontinuous sequences of use, coupled with a deeper understanding of their surrounding territories has led some scholars to argue that most tombs were used episodically by different kin-based groups, i.e. by groups who changing their locus of habitation needed some form of territorial foci to legitimate their control over productive resources in their vicinity (Whitelaw 2001). In terms of settlement strategies, moreover, the plethora of tombs of similar dimensions spread in the region has been taken to represent a dispersed settlement system of small and short-lived hamlets and farmsteads that in the late phases of the EM period were abandoned due to phenomena of population nucleation at a few focal sites (Whitelaw 2001). For example, the site of Ayia Triada, founded in EM I on a relatively low hill near the course of the Geropotamos river, supports this trend as its various EM phases are attested in different parts of the site. Moreover, the two buildings excavated to the east of the necropolis – casa est and casa ovest - belong to different phases of EM IIA and were abandoned before the construction of tholos B, which in turn was used for a few burials in EM IIB and was re-used at the end of the EM III when the necropolis seems to serve a larger population (Todaro 2004; 2013). However, a different pattern is documented at Phaistos, where the locus of activity did not shift across the site but took place through in situ re-building, a strategy that led to the formation of long sequences of floors, paving and walls that at first sight seem to suggest a certain degree of settlement stability favoured by the agricultural potential of the plain. Building on the results of a contextual and environmental study carried out on the Phaistos hills and their territory, in this paper it will be argued that the buildings constructed on the hill in different phases of the EM period, differed from those attested in the region not only because they were served by paved ramps and were characterised by paved areas, red floors and red plastered walls, but because they were the outcome of the common effort of residents and non-residents. They were not, in other words, houses, i.e. residences of individual households, but Houses, i.e. physical representation of corporate bodies that could be inhabited only by the core group (i.e. by the highest-ranking members of the group), but were constructed and/or maintained by various groups whom by doing so claimed an affiliation/membership. From this perspective the mobile way of life exemplified by the short-lived character of the houses attested at sites in the western Mesara, albeit potentially triggered by the marshy and wet conditions of the plain in the stretch of land between Phaistos and Ayia Triada, could also be the outcome of the social fluidity typical of House societies as described by Levy-Strauss.
Residential mobility and Ritual Stability: rebuilding Houses at Prepalatial Phaistos
Simona Venera Todaro
2020-01-01
Abstract
The settled landscape of Prepalatial Mesara is dominated by the widespread presence of circular tombs which, being used for communal burials over many generations, have traditionally been taken to suggest residential stability (Branigan 1971). More recently, a close reading of their discontinuous sequences of use, coupled with a deeper understanding of their surrounding territories has led some scholars to argue that most tombs were used episodically by different kin-based groups, i.e. by groups who changing their locus of habitation needed some form of territorial foci to legitimate their control over productive resources in their vicinity (Whitelaw 2001). In terms of settlement strategies, moreover, the plethora of tombs of similar dimensions spread in the region has been taken to represent a dispersed settlement system of small and short-lived hamlets and farmsteads that in the late phases of the EM period were abandoned due to phenomena of population nucleation at a few focal sites (Whitelaw 2001). For example, the site of Ayia Triada, founded in EM I on a relatively low hill near the course of the Geropotamos river, supports this trend as its various EM phases are attested in different parts of the site. Moreover, the two buildings excavated to the east of the necropolis – casa est and casa ovest - belong to different phases of EM IIA and were abandoned before the construction of tholos B, which in turn was used for a few burials in EM IIB and was re-used at the end of the EM III when the necropolis seems to serve a larger population (Todaro 2004; 2013). However, a different pattern is documented at Phaistos, where the locus of activity did not shift across the site but took place through in situ re-building, a strategy that led to the formation of long sequences of floors, paving and walls that at first sight seem to suggest a certain degree of settlement stability favoured by the agricultural potential of the plain. Building on the results of a contextual and environmental study carried out on the Phaistos hills and their territory, in this paper it will be argued that the buildings constructed on the hill in different phases of the EM period, differed from those attested in the region not only because they were served by paved ramps and were characterised by paved areas, red floors and red plastered walls, but because they were the outcome of the common effort of residents and non-residents. They were not, in other words, houses, i.e. residences of individual households, but Houses, i.e. physical representation of corporate bodies that could be inhabited only by the core group (i.e. by the highest-ranking members of the group), but were constructed and/or maintained by various groups whom by doing so claimed an affiliation/membership. From this perspective the mobile way of life exemplified by the short-lived character of the houses attested at sites in the western Mesara, albeit potentially triggered by the marshy and wet conditions of the plain in the stretch of land between Phaistos and Ayia Triada, could also be the outcome of the social fluidity typical of House societies as described by Levy-Strauss.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
