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1. ARCHAEOLOGY AND EUROPEAN MODERNITY: STORIES FROM THE BORDERS

Profile image of Nicoletta MomiglianoNicoletta Momigliano

2006, Creta antica

Abstract
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The paper explores the interplay between archaeology and European modernity, particularly through the lens of 'Minoan' Crete, highlighting how archaeological narratives have been constructed within nationalistic and colonial frameworks. It discusses the contemporary relevance of these narratives amid changing demographics and the rise of xenophobic sentiments in Europe, emphasizing the need for critical reassessment of historical and social constructs surrounding European identity. By examining the implications of these constructs on current identities and boundaries, the paper asserts the inherently political nature of archaeological inquiry and its impact on society.

Related papers

The Uneven and Controversial Character of ‘Minoan’ Culture in the Central and Eastern Aegean: A Contextual Analysis
Luca Girella

Pax Minoica Revisited. New Research on Arthur Evans’ Concept of the Political Expansion of Minoan Crete (CAENL 19), 2025

In this paper, I argue that Minoanisation (a term used by archaeologists to explain the adoption of Cretan material culture traits and the practices they represent beyond Crete at the end of MBA and the beginning of LBA) was a multi-sited, multi-directional, and a range of processes. After an outline of the archaeological debate, the paper emphasises that palatial Crete (with its subdivision in two main palatial periods) was never an integrated ‘core’, but rather a complex and composite political landscape that underwent gradual forms of hierarchisation and formalisation in its political, artisanal, and religious systems. It is further argued that the distribution of Cretan cultural traits over the Aegean was never uniform or politically organised and controlled, although at the end of the Neopalatial period (LM IA–IB) one can recognise a leading role played by the centre of Knossos in legitimising a territorial expansion and promoting ideological propaganda on Crete. In order to describe the heterogenous character of Minoanisation, the paper discusses three case studies, i.e., the Cycladic islands, the south-east and the north-east Aegean islands and coasts, focusing on ceramic production and consumption, the mobility of people, things and ideas, and ritual and burial behaviours.

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Post-Minoan Crete (Proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete Held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995)
William Cavanagh

American Journal of Archaeology, 1999

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The Minoan Legacy of the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, presentation at the Joint Interdisciplinary international conference on Island Identities, London, Cyprus High Commission, 29 March 2023
Stella Mandalaki

The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is one of the most important museums in Greece, known worldwide for its unique Collection of Minoan antiquities, which narrates the enthralling story of the Minoan civilisation from its origins to its ultimate decline. Although today’s Museum houses exhibits from every period of the ancient history of Crete, from the Neolithic era to Roman times (6000 BC-300 AD), the finds uncovered by the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in the early 20th century fascinate its many visitors and give the Museum the distinctive character for which it is renowned. The creation of the first Collections of the Museum is interwoven with the historical events of the turn of the 20th century in Crete. The detachment of the island from the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Cretan State in 1898 were decisive factors in the development of archaeological activity on the island by Cretan and foreign archaeologists. A number of artefacts from its unique Collections, representative of the Minoan culture, will be displayed for six months at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge as loans to the two temporary exhibitions on Knossos and the great islands of the Mediterranean respectively.

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Relaki, M. 2018. ‘Routes and roots’: Technologies of life, death, community and identity. In M. Relaki and Y. Papadatos (eds.), From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology. Studies in Honour of Professor Keith Branigan, pp. 10-35. Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow.
Maria Relaki
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Relaki & Papadatos 2018 From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology
Yiannis Papadatos, Maria Relaki

From the Foundations to the Legacy of Minoan Archaeology provides a range of new approaches to key issues in Minoan archaeology, inspired by Professor Branigan’s longstanding contribution to the archaeology of Bronze Age Crete. From the way in which the developmental trajectory of a single site can offer insights into regional patterns, to the importance of integrating local survey information in reconstructing general historical processes and the significance of temporal variability in the construction of space, contributors evaluate the general frameworks within which Minoan archaeology operates, assess the usefulness of chronological horizons in understanding continuity and change and provide a critical framework for the diachronic analysis of culture, the degree to which the study of settlement patterns can reveal structural continuity through time and the political reach of territorial states. Articles focus on the way the power bases of Minoan society were articulated through the interplay between individual and collective social strategies, further illustrated by in-depth considerations of the role and value of material culture from a social and technological perspective. The largest portion of discussion is devoted to mortuary practices, reassessing the significance of micro-patterns in the articulation of mortuary behaviour, while also emphasizing broader temporal and spatial processes that affect practices of ostentatious display in burial, critically evaluated by recent osteoarchaeological studies throwing light on mortuary ritual and the constitution of the social units using the cemeteries. The volume is offered in honour of Professor Branigan, as a reflection of his influence in shaping our current understanding of Minoan society.

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This pdf is a digital offprint of your contribution in B. Davis B. and R. Laffineur (eds), Neôteros. Studies in Bronze Age Aegean Art and Archaeology in Honor of Professor John G. Younger on the Occasion of his Retirement, ISBN 978-90-429-4179-3
BC. Gazipaşa Üniversitesi BC. Gazipasa University

This pdf is a digital offprint of your contribution in B. Davis B. and R. Laffineur (eds), Neôteros. Studies in Bronze Age Aegean Art and Archaeology in Honor of Professor John G. Younger on the Occasion of his Retirement, ISBN 978-90-429-4179-3, 2023

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Hamilakis, Y. 2002. What future for the "Minoan" past? Rethinking Minoan archaeology. In Hamilakis, Y. (ed) Labyrinth Revisited: Rethinking "Minoan" Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow.
Yannis Hamilakis
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Tsipopoulou, M. and A. South, 2012. The economics of monumental buildings: a view from Crete, a view from Cyprus, in G. Cadogan, M. Iacovou, K. Kopaka and J. Whitley (eds), Parallel Lives: Ancient Island Societies in Crete and Cyprus, London: British School at Athens.
Metaxia Tsipopoulou
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The perpetuated past: re-use or continuity in material culture and structuring of identity in Early Iron Age Crete
Saro Wallace

The Annual of the British School at Athens, 2003

Some re-uses of Bronze Age remains in Early Iron Age Crete and mainland Greece have been identified as attempts at legitimation and/or identity construction which operated at various social levels and were instrumental in the rise of the polis. This paper enlarges the scope of analysis in assessing the meaning of references to material remains of early EIA (Late Minoan III C/SM), as well as Bronze Age, date during the Protogeometric to Archaic periods in Crete. This was a time at which major spatial and social readjustments were taking place, themselves ultimately rooted in transformations occurring c. 1200 BC. The wealth of settlement data now available for EIA Crete adds an important new dimension to the discussion, which recognizes nucleation through PG–A at a significant number of sites established in the 1200 BC defensible settlement movement. The paper's conclusions are that this, and other elements of continuity and reuse in settlement, cult and mortuary practices, both r...

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Minoans Go Home?(I.) Berg Negotiating Island Identities. The Active Use of Pottery In the Middle and Late Bronze Age Cyclades.(Gorgias Dissertations 31.) Pp. Xxvi+ …
Nicoletta Momigliano

The Classical Review, 2009

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Related papers

Hamilakis, Y. and Momigliano, N. 2006. Archaeology and European modernity: stories from the borders. In Hamilakis, Y. and Momigliano, N. (eds) Archaeology and European Modernity: Producing and Consuming the "Minoans". Padova: Bottega d'Erasmo.
Yannis Hamilakis

2006

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Archaeology and European modernity: stories from the borders
Nicoletta Momigliano

2006

Archaeology has recently started engaging in a critical manner with its disciplinary heritage and its position within the discourses and practices of Western modernity (e.g. . This represents an important change from earlier traditions of merely historiographic accounts or de-politicised histories of ideas. These new inspiring and important critical studies, however, have tended to view Western modernity as a monolithic and homogeneous phenomenon, and have rarely examined in detail the specific and multivalent links between the diverse expressions of modernity and the equally diverse archaeological discourses and practices. Moreover, these studies have focused almost exclusively on archaeological and other scholarly or artistic productions, ignoring the interplay between these and wider popular receptions, consumptions, and reproductions. This volume goes some way towards addressing these shortcomings: it contributes to current debates on archaeology and European modernity, focusing on 'Minoan' Crete, an area so far neglected in these respects, and one that, due to its geographical and often disciplinary 'marginality', can illuminate issues at the core of the matter. If Europeanism and its project of modernity are about identities and boundaries, it makes sense to examine in detail the archaeological production and consumption of a key borderland, an island that has found itself at the meeting point of three continents, at the centre of endless contestations and quests, and has been hailed as the 'cradle of European civilisation'. In addition, because of the specific historical circumstances in which the rediscovery of 'Minoan' Crete took place and its complex links with later Greek Antiquity (another cornerstone of European modernity), this island seems to offer a particularly intriguing case study. This volume, which brings together the work of historians, archaeologists, art historians, anthropologists, and literary scholars, originates from our long-standing interest in the disciplinary history and reception of the 'Minoan' past, and from our belief in the need for a more reflexive and multi-disciplinary approach to these subjects. Our interests and beliefs were further stimulated by recent events and publications connected with the celebration, in the year 2000, of the centenary of the archaeological rediscovery of 'Minoan' Crete, as symbolised by the first systematic excavations at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans, and at such sites as Phaistos and Gournia, by other archaeologists. This Bronze Age 'civilisation', named after the legendary king Minos , was immediately characterised as 'European' by local and foreign scholars involved in its unearthing (cf., e.g., chapters by CARABOTT,

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Hamilakis, Y. 2006 "The colonial, the national, and the local: legacies of the "Minoan" past".. In Y. Hamilakis and N. Momigliano (eds) Archaeology and European Modernity: Producing and Consuming the "Minoans". Padova: Aldo Ausilio/Bottega d'Erasmo (Creta Antica 7)
Yannis Hamilakis
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Recent developements in the Archaeology of Minoan Crete
Charlotte Langohr, Jan Driessen

This paper summarizes archaeological research on the Bronze Age of the island of Crete during the last decade. It starts off by highlighting the most important excavations and surveys and the publication of data through monographs, periodicals, scientific proceedings and other media. Next it considers how our conventional understanding of Minoan culture has been affected both by recent research and discoveries and by theoretical and interpretive shifts. Emphasis is placed on the influence of various social theories that have questioned the focus on centralization at different scales and increased our appreciation of specific cultural practices and dynamics by using bottom-up and embodied approaches. As such, chronology, architectural studies, pottery, cult, iconography and social and political systems are discussed, as are aspects of materiality, corporeality, performance and gender. Finally, the changes in the academic environments dealing with Minoan archaeology receive some attention.

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Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Minoan Crete
Jan Driessen

This paper summarizes archaeological research on the Bronze Age of the island of Crete during the last decade. It starts off by highlighting the most important excavations and surveys and the publication of data through monographs, periodicals, scientific proceedings and other media. Next it considers how our conventional understanding of Minoan Culture has been affected both by recent research and discoveries and by theoretical and interpretive shifts. Emphasis is placed on the influence of various social theories that have questioned the focus on centralization at different scales and increased our appreciation of specific cultural practices and dynamics by using bottom-up and embodied approaches. As such, chronology, architectural studies, pottery, cult, iconography and social and political systems are discussed, as are aspects of materiality, corporeality, performance and gender. Finally, the changes in the academic environments dealing with Minoan archaeology receive some attention.

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Related topics

  • Archaeology
  • Anthropology
  • History of Archaeology
  • Archaeology of Crete
  • Minoan Crete
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