Can we speak of a ‘sacred landscape’ on Bronze Age Crete?
Robert Cromarty The archaeology of Bronze Age Crete, usually termed Minoan Crete, is an area of study which has reached a crisis point. The current generation of scholars have acknowledged the limitations of their field, as known to-date, and are seeking new directions for study, prompting much of the last century of ‘Minoan’ archaeology to be re-evaluated. In no area is this re-examination more profound than in the archaeology of the rituals and religious concepts of the Bronze Age Period. For much of its academic lifetime the religion of Bronze Age Crete has been perceived as a precursor to the Archaic / Classical practices of mainland Greece, and has been discussed in largely similar terms: i.e. that of a consistent monolithic system which homogenised the beliefs of the inhabitants as a whole. One of the most striking aspects of this academic construction, based upon preconceived assumptions, was the creation of a notional ‘sacred landscape’. This construct, founded on the evidence
