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Degree

PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts & Sciences : Classics, 2003.

Abstract

By combining anthropological approaches to religion with analysis of archaeological remains from south central Crete, this dissertation produces a unique and informative analysis of the location and role of religion in pre- and proto-palatial south-central Crete. I create and apply rigorous criteria for determining religious activity and religious areas in archaeological sites and show that tombs are the only sites in south central Crete with securely observable religious activity in both the pre-and proto-palatial periods. There is little evidence at contemporary settlements, including Phaistos, for areas reserved for religious ritual activity. During the pre-palatial period tombs were used as statements of status. The engineering used in the construction of the tombs, their maintenance over hundreds of years, and the number of valuable objects found in them contrasts greatly with the contemporary settlements. The focus of architectural skill and disposable wealth on creating tombs as ancestral monuments in the pre-palatial period demonstrates an integral connection between religion and wealth during this period. This relationship between religion and wealth changes in the proto-palatial period when the settlements at both Kalathiana and Phaistos have monumental facades. The proportion of wealth invested in religion alters dramatically with the rise of these large settlements. This dynamic speaks for an ideological shift from an egalitarian pre-palatial society dependant on its religion and ancestry for resources to a highly stratified proto-palatial society where religion centered on tombs is no longer the focus of power and no observable rituals take its place. The first section discusses theoretical aspects of religion and the limits of prehistory. It examines various definitions and theoretical frameworks for the study of religion and possible interpretations of its role in the social dynamic. This first part, divided into four chapters, contains key observations and insights into religion that anticipate the second and third part of the dissertation. This study generates a list of criteria for the identification of religious rituals in the archaeological record that I then apply to the pre-and proto-palatial remains from south central Crete. The second section of this dissertation presents and analyzes the archaeological evidence from south central Crete from tombs, settlements, and the palace of Phaistos. It focuses on the application of the criteria for the identification of religion and ritual to the archaeological record, and tracing changes in ritual.

Keywords

Minoan Archaeology; religion; archaeological theory; Crete; pre-history

Advisor

Dr. Jack L. Davis

Pages

519p.

Document number: ucin1068728120
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1068728120

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