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.
Minoan lands ? Some remarks on land ownership on Bronze Age Crete
This contribution explores the possibility of developing an archaeology of lan ownership in Minoan Crete by taking as a starting point the methodological approach developed by anthropologist Timothy Earle. It is suggested that the concept of "land marking" may represent the most promising avenue for future research. In East Crete, recurrent spatial relationships between cemeteries and settlements are considered as possible markers of land tenure. Through the example of Late Bronze Age Palaikastro, it is also suggested that an exploration of Minoan land ownership may benefit from intra-settlement architectural studies.
The earliest Minoan scripts – the pre-palatial background
This paper was first conceived during the symposium, on Aegean writing held at the University of Birmingham, in honour of Professor Ernst Grumach, during July, 1968. The stimulating series of papers which were read there once again brought home the great difficulties which face the linguists as they attempt to understand the nature and the meaning of the Minoan scripts. It seemed to the writer that the archaeologist and the prehistorian could, and should, make a contribution towards the eventual solution of these problems, and this paper is an attempt to meet that obligation as it applies to the student of the pre-palatial era in Crete. The purpose of the paper is to define the social and economic context in which, and from which, the earliest Minoan scripts emerged, in the hope that in so doing some light may be thrown on the nature and purposes of these scripts. I begin by discussing developments at the start of the second millennium B. C. in those three spheres of human activity that seem most likely to have motivated, or even necessitated, the invention of a system of writing, namely, religion, commerce and law. I then review the evidence for developments towards a script or scripts during the pre-palatial period; and finally discuss the contacts of Crete in the early second millennium B. C. with regions beyond the Aegean where scripts were already in common use and whence the inspiration, if not the model, for the Aegean scripts might have come.