Lucia Nixon

Relative sea-level changes in crete: reassessment of radiocarbon dates from Sphakia and west Crete

This article is concerned with the recognition and dating of Holocene relative sea-level changes along the coast of west Crete (an island located in the active Hellenic subduction arc of the southern Aegean) and in particular in Sphakia. Radiocarbon data for changes in sea levels collected and analysed previously must (a) be recorrected to take into account isotopic fractionation, and (b) recalibrated by using the new marine reservoir value. These new radiocarbon dates are analysed using Bayesian statistics. The resulting calendar dates for changes in sea level are younger than previously assumed. In particular the Great Uplift in western Crete in late antiquity must be dated to the fifth or sixth century AD, not to AD 365. Moreover, recent work on tectonics suggests that the Great Uplift need not have been accompanied by a catastrophic earthquake. Finally, we consider the consequences of the Great Uplift for some coastal sites in Sphakia.

Ceramic fabric analysis and survey archaeology: the Sphakia Survey

Macroscopic Fabric Analysis, the systematic study and description of ceramic fabrics with the aid of a handlens and other simple equipment, has grown in importance along with systematic archaeological survey. Microscopic Fabric Analysis, or ceramic petrology, is better known, but more expensive and time-consuming. Using examples drawn from Sphakia Survey material, the authors show that Macroscopic Fabric Analysis of large pottery collections with a high proportion of coarse ware sherds, when combined with targeted microscopic analysis, provides detailed, reliable information on crucial topics such as chronology, in this case from FN/EM I–Turkish; function (cooking, transport, storage, and beehives); and regional interaction. The authors also discuss issues connected with publication, including the use of electronic publications such as the Sphakia Survey website, and the rigorous comparison of individual fabrics, and they make a case for adopting standard ceramic terminology.

The diachronic analysis of pastoralism through comparative variables

Diachronic analyses of pastoralism over the millennia pose a problem. Studies of one period can use models based on other periods as heuristic devices, to pose problems and questions for investigation. But survey archaeologists and others engaged in diachronic analysis cannot assume a period-specific model as a starting point. Instead, we propose that investigation begin from a set of seven variables, which constitute the elements for the formulation of comparative analyses: environment, location, scale, specialization, links with agriculture, gender/division of labour, and cultural integration. The first five have been discussed before in the literature, but the last two have not previously been given sufficient attention, because of the old dominance of environmental and economic preoccupations.

Seeing Voices and Changing Relationships: Film, Archaeological Reporting, and the Landscape of People in Sphakia

Film is an excellent way of showing human interaction with the landscape, as anthropologists and, more recently, archaeologists have realized. Film also raises other issues that are important to a reflexive and interactive archaeology: the relationship between archaeological investigators and local people, the desirability of reporting in various ways to various constituencies, the use of film as an appropriate way of reporting, and the value of peoples responses to film for further archaeological analysis. Here the issues are discussed in the context of making a film about the Sphakia Survey, an archaeological field survey in southwestern Crete.

Women and the City

literary women’s studies and comparative literature are traditionally applied. The search for critical and analytic methods adequate to the purposes of the Society seemed to be the underlying aim of the whole meeting. Somehow, the very notion of literature seemed inadequate to the flourishing intersections encouraged by cultural, media and gender studies, not to mention the impact of women historians in Italy, whose considerable influence led to the creation of the

Agiasmatsi: a Greek cave sanctuary in Sphakia, SW Crete 1

The Agiasmati cave in SW Crete, investigated as part of the Sphakia Survey, served as a sanctuary in the Hellenistic-Early Roman period. It has four points of interest, (1) Two of its principal types of artefacts, ladles and multiple-nozzle lamps are rare or even unique to this site. (2) Fabric analysis has enabled significant progress to be made with the interpretation of the pottery. (3) Cave worship in this period is not well known on Crete. (4) Intensive exploration by the Sphakia Survey of the region in which the cave lies enables us to place the cave in the context of the contemporary settlement pattern and to reconfirm the value of archaeological survey.