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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2017

The Chrysolakkos buildings at Malia (Crete): an Update

Résumé

The large rectangular building at Chrysolakkos has been known for nearly a century as one of the earliest examples of ashlar masonry in Crete. It is usually referred to as a "royal ossuary" of Protopalatial date and it has been classified as a house tomb enlarged to monumental scale. However, the funerary function of this rectangular building has been challenged during the past few decades on grounds such as the scarcity of human bones and the domestic aspect of both architecture and pottery. Furthermore, the number, function and date of the successive buildings at Chrysolakkos are still a matter for debate; the dating of the rectangular building alone varies strikingly from one handbook to the other between EM III and LM I. All scholars in Aegean prehistory nevertheless agree that Chrysolakkos is crucial for understanding the development of the Minoan town at Malia. This paper aims to tackle these issues by bringing together the evidence available so far. New information is provided by the careful reading of the original reports and publication in French, the detailed examination of the architectural remains in the field and a new survey of both published and unpublished pottery. In addition, all these data are interpreted in the light of recent advances in Minoan archaeology, in particular burial practices evidenced by the ongoing excavation in the cemetery at Sissi (5 km east of Malia). As a result, a new picture of the stratigraphy and history of Chrysolakkos emerges, as a consequence of the dismantling of some long accepted factoids. First, the rectangular ashlar building must date to the Neopalatial period or at the earliest to the end of MM IIB. Its function remains unclear but neither its type nor the associated material support the hypothesis of funerary use. Second, it must be completely dissociated from the underlying remains, apart from foundation walls that cut through previous constructions. These underlying remains feature a large, probably public, building used for ceremonies possibly related to death management but certainly neither a tomb nor an ossuary. Although noticeably larger than the later building, it was constructed of rubble and did not include ashlar masonry. And third, a Prepalatial cemetery of rectangular house tombs preceded this architectural complex, accounting for the presence of scattered human bones and material matching East Crete Prepalatial grave goods.
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Dates et versions

hal-02615318 , version 1 (22-05-2020)

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  • HAL Id : hal-02615318 , version 1

Citer

Sylvie Müller Celka. The Chrysolakkos buildings at Malia (Crete): an Update. 118th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the Society for Classical Studies (SCS), Jan 2017, Toronto, Canada. pp.384. ⟨hal-02615318⟩
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