THE MINOAN FALLACY: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND MORTUARY BEHAVIOUR ON CRETE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BRONZE AGE
Summary 
 
We are becoming increasingly aware of regional data patterning in the archaeological record of Prepalatial Crete, yet a theoretically informed and methodologically systematic study assessing the significance of such differences is still lacking. This article investigates variation through the rich mortuary record of the period and explores the significance of such diversity for our understanding of Prepalatial Crete. A detailed analysis using mortuary data reveals a complex spatial and temporal variation in the record which raises questions about social, political and ideological differences between communities on the island during the early periods of the Early Bronze Age. Prepalatial Crete emerges from this analysis as a complex context resulting from an intricate combination of local and regional histories and trajectories and far from the unified culture that the term ‘Minoan’ implies.
THE ORIGINS OF WRITING AND ADMINISTRATION ON CRETE
During the Protopalatial period, two scripts were used in Minoan administration, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A. Each script system has its own range of typical administrative documents, e.g. roundels for Linear A and medallions for Cretan Hieroglyphic. Some other sealed document types, and especially direct object sealings and noduli, are common to both systems. It is argued here that, prior to the development of script and as early as the Prepalatial period, a single administrative system based on the use of such direct object sealings and noduli existed on the island. The subsequent diversity formed part of an assemblage of cultural features used to mark the different political organisations that were formed during the transitional Early Minoan III/Middle Minoan I period.
Of Storage and Nomads – The Sealings from Late Neolithic Sabi Abyad, Syria
Les fouilles recentes sur le site neolithique recent de Tell Sabi Abyad, Syrie du nord, ont revele des centaines de scellements en argile. Nous argumentons que ces scellements ont facilite a Sabi Abyad le stockage communal par une population nomade tres etendue de toute sorte de produits et de creances. Aussi considerons nous que les scellements sont les temoins de la symbiose entre les populations sedentaires et nomades du Neolithique Recent.