Abstract:

The model of the Minoan palace as a centralised political, economic and ideological authority, and of Minoan society as a hierarchical power structure, has to a large extent guided discussion of social complexity in the Middle Bronze Age on Crete. This paper draws attention to alternative models of power in which more agent-centred perspectives, such as heterarchy and factionalism, are preferred. On the basis of a case-study of the proto-palatial town of Malia (Crete), it is argued that these alternative models of power may offer a better explanation for the first palace and its role in Middle Minoan II Malia.

Author: Ilse Schoep