Immagini e realtà della produzione nella Creta minoica: il tema assente

Daily life scenes referring to working activities are very rare in Aegean art. A survey of the evidence demonstrates that they can be found mainly in a homogeneous group of seals (mainly of the prismatic type) coming, with few exceptions, from north-eastern Crete and especially from Mallia, and belonging to the protopalatial period, with a strong concentration in its later part. Only a single scene is to be found outside this area, both in Knossos and Crete. This peculiar distribution can be explained as the consequence of a different organization of craft production or, less probably, as a different communication strategy of élites from Mallia. It demonstrates, in both cases, the differences among the regional power centres during the protopalatial period.