Craft specialisation, workshops and activity areas in the Aegean from the Neolithic to the end of the protopalatial period

Abstract

This thesis examines the theory behind workshops, including craft specialisation, and presents a catalogue of workshops and activity areas in the Aegean from the Neolithic to the end of the Protopalatial period. No systematic procedure for analysing and classifying workshops has been used or proposed previously. The main aim of this thesis is to develop a method by which loci suggested to be workshops may be analysed, with a view to ascertaining whether this identification is correct. Following on from this, a further objective is to formulate a means of classifying the information to determine the type of working area and the degree of certainty with which it may be called a workshop or activity area. This method will be used in the compilation of the catalogue. For a comprehensive study of workshops, two main theoretical issues are considered in Volume I. Firstly, the theory of craft specialisation, integral to the study and definition of workshops, is examined. Its definition, features, associated aspects and connection with workshops are researched. Secondly, a theoretical study of the possible varieties of workshops and their likely locations, products, and consumers provides a basis for the following examination of actual loci within the Aegean. In Volume II a catalogue of working areas in the Aegean is presented, which also includes other craft-related loci: craftsman's graves, hoards and mines. The method for analysis is employed extensively throughout the catalogue to reinterpret areas previously suggested to be workshops or activity areas. New classifications are suggested for many loci. It is concluded that the proposed method is successful in achieving the aims for which it was developed.