`THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY': OBSIDIAN AND SOCIETY IN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN EARLY BRONZE AGE Tristan Carter Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London University. August 1998. BILL LONDON U1JIV. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY': OBSIDIAN AND SOCIETY IN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN EARLY BRONZE AGE. Tristan Carter VOLUMEI TEXT and BIBLIOGRAPHY i -ABSTRACT- This thesis considers the social context of Southern Aegean lithic technology during the fourth - third millennia B.C., focusing on the socio-political significance accorded the production and consumption of obsidian blades from the later Neolithic - Early Bronze Age. In Section One (Chapters One-Five) past work on Aegean obsidian is examined critically. Through drawing on data generated by recent surveys and excavations in the southern mainland, the Cyclades and Crete, it is argued that from the later Neolithic - EBII, the working of obsidian shifted from a community-wide basis to being located within a restricted number of settlements. These latter sites, due to their size and associated material culture, are suggested regional centres, acting as loci for skilled knappers and the dissemination of their products. This ability to influence or directly control such individuals is claimed to have played a role in the development of social inequality. The central part of the thesis, Section Two (Chapters Six-Nine) discusses the appearance of fine obsidian blades within the EBI Cycladic burial record, arguing that this new mode of consumption provides a context where one can see the reconceptualisation and political appropriation of lithic technology. The regular association of obsidian blades with materials associated with body modification and personal display suggest their use in depilation and scarification: the physical manifestation of an individual's political identity. This role, however, has to be seen as largely symbolic, as microwear analysis shows that these blades were generally interred unused and in such fresh state to suggest that most were produced specifically for burial. Finally, it is considered that the pan-Southern Aegean adoption of this funerary habit, from the late EBI onwards, was largely the result of social processes, namely the 11 long-distance voyaging that formed such an important factor in forging and articulating ideology and cosmology in the Early Cycladic world. The appearance of this burial practice beyond the Cyclades is investigated in the context of contemporary social- relations and a number of other variables that may have affected the act's meaning in regions such as the Mesara of Southern Crete. Section Three (Chapters Ten-Twelve) deals with those sites where notably higher concentrations of `Cycladica' have led to suggestions that something above and beyond trade and exchange was responsible for creating the archaeological record: that of physical movement and colonisation. Through my studies it has been recognised that a number of subtly different techniques were employed to produce the fine pressure- flaked blades from both domestic and mortuary contexts, some of which have quite specific temporal and spatial distributions. The chipped stone from the three cemeteries central to this controversy: Aghia Photia, Archanes and Manika, were analysed in the context of their relationship to contemporary lithic technology in the Cyclades. Detailed, holistic, contextual analyses have produced remarkably positive results, implying the presence of an immigrant population at the former site, whilst the material from the latter two communities can be largely explained through the adoption and manipulation of exotic social practices. As with every aspect of this thesis' work, these results are then discussed in the light of broader southern Aegean political issues. 111 - CONTENTS - VOLUME I PREFACE Pages ABSTRACT i-ii CONTENTS iii-xx ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xx-xx TEXT xx-xx BIBLIOGRAPHY i-i ii VOLUME II APPENDICES I-CXLV FIGURES TABLES PLATES IV SECTION ONE: THE PROCUREMENT AND CONSUMPTION OF OBSIDIAN IN THE LATER NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE SOUTHERN AEGEAN FOREWORD Pages (i) - Introduction 1-2 (ii) - Chronology and Cultural Geography 2-3 (iij) The Socio-Political Context 3-9 (iv) Aegean Interrelations Through Time 9- 11 (v) Endnote: The Current State of Aegean Lithic Analysis 11 (v.1) Aesthetics and a hierarchy of material culture - the past as exotica? 11-13 (v.2) - A diachronic indifference? 1 3- 14 (v.3) - Familiarity breeds contempt? 14-15 (v) - Conclusions 15-16 V CHAPTERONE: BACKGROUND TO THE ENQUIRY Pages 1. 1 - Aims 17 1.2 - Introduction: Obsidian in the Aegean 17 1.3 - The Early Exploitation of Melian Obsidian up to the End of the 18-19 Neolithic 1.4 - Obsidian in the EBA: Melos, Phylakopi and the `Great Obsidian 19-22 Deposit' 1.5 - Renfrew, the `Supply Zone' and Embedded Procurement 22-26 1.6 - The Work of Torrence: Technology, Economy and Society 26-28 1.7 - Obsidian as Valued Good? 28-29 1.8 - New perspectives: Perlis, North Greece and the Neolithic 29-30 Background 1.8 - Conclusion to the First Part: A Critique of Conceptions and 30-35 Methodologies V1 CHAPTER TWO : PERCEPTIONS OF PRODUCTION Pages 2.1 - Introduction 36 2.2 - Context Before Concept: Craft Specialisation and the Re- 36-37 Mystification of Technology 2.3 - From Economics to Politics 37-39 2.4 - From Product to Producer 39-40 2.5 - From the Exotic to the Mundane 40-42 2.6 - Seeing Prehistoric Technology as `Other' 42-43 2.7 - From Production to Perception: Lithic Technology and the 43-47 Ethnographic Record 2.8 - Beyond the Callipers: Stone Tools and Society 47-48 vii CHAPTER THREE: OBSIDIAN CONSUMPTION WITHIN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN Pages 3.1 - Aims 49 3.2 - Deconstructing the `Supply Zone' - Regionalism in the EBA 49-51 3.3 - Maritime Technology and Cultural Geography 51-53 3.4 - Sea-Routes and Settlement 53 3.5 - The Southern Mainland and Euboea 53 3.5.1 - The lands bordering the Euboean Gulf 53-58 3.5.2 - The lands bordering the Saronic Gulf 58-60 3.5.3 - Corinthia and the Isthmus 60-61 3.5.4 - The lands bordering the Corinthian Gulf 62 3.5.5 - The North-West Peloponnese, Ionian Islands and Messinia 62-66 3.5.6 - The Argolis Gulf and East Peloponnese 66-67 3.5.7 - The Southern and Central Peloponnese 68-69 3.6 - Crete: A North-South Divide 70-72 3.6.1 - Knossos 72-74 3.6.2 - Mallia 74-75 3.6.3 - Phaistos 75-76 3.6.4 North coast communities of Palaikastro, Pseira and Chania 76-78 3.6.5 - The `big sites' in context 78-81 3.7 - Endnote 81-82 viii CHAPTER FOUR: THE RECONCEPTUALISATION OF PRODUCTION Pages 4.1 - Introduction 83 4.2 - Cores and periphery: Obsidian and the Laconia Survey 83-84 4.2.1 - The later Neolithic material 84-88 4.2.2 - The EBA material 88-90 4.2.3 - Cores as transferable goods 90-91 4.2.4 - Laconia in context 91-92 4.2.5 - Conclusionsfrom the Laconia Survey 92-93 4.3 - A Return to Melos: The 1989 survey 93-94 4.3.1 - Melian lithic technology: Previous research 94-95 4.3.2 - The later Neolithic sites 96-97 4.3.3 - The EBI sites 97-99 4.3.4 - The EBII sites 100-101 4.3.5 - The EBII settlements of the north coast: Kaminia and Mandrakia 101-104 4.3.6 - Conclusions from the 1989 Melos Survey 104-106 4.4 - Supporting Arguments: The Southern Argolid and Methana 106-107 Surveys 4.5 - Conclusion 108 A CHAPTER FIVE: CRAFT SPECIALISATION AND SOCIO-POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT Pages 5. 1 - Introduction 109-111 5.2 - The Context of Blade Production: Inter- and Intra-Community 111 5.3 - Blade Production in the `Helladic' World 111-114 5.3.1 Arenas ofproduction? 114-116 5.4 - Blade Production in the `Cycladic' World 116 5.5 - Blade Production in the `Minoan ' World 117-120 5.6 - Regionalism 120-121 5.6.1 - Regionalism and chipped stone production: From technological 121-123 `mode' to technological `mechanism' 5.7 - Doing it for Themselves: An Independent Mochlos? 123-124 5.7.1 - The EMIIB structured deposit 124-129 5.8 - Endnote and Conclusions 129-130 X SECTION TWO: THE `NECROLITHIC': OBSIDIAN, DEATH AND THE `BODY POLITIC' IN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN EARLY BRONZE AGE CHAPTER SIX: BLADES AND BURIALS Pages 6.1 - Background to the Enquiry 131 6.2 - Southern Aegean Fashion Victims 131-132 6.3 - Early References and Thoughts 132-133 6.4 - Issues, Aims and Methodology: A Contextual Analysis 133-134 6.5 - The Data-Set 134-135 6.6 - Material Culture, Social Biographies and Use-Wear Analysis 135-136 6.7 - Refitting 136 6.8 - Integrity of the Data 137-138 6.9 - Death and Burial in the Early Cyclades 138-139 6.10 - Origins of the Practice - the EBI Evidence 139-141 6.10.1 - Depositional practices: quantity, associations and life histories 141-143 6.10.2 - Blades and burials in the EBI Cyclades: An FN origin? 143-145 6.10.3 - Political change and technological innovation in the FN - EBI 145-150 Cyclades 6.11 - Endnote 150-151 X1 CHAPTER SEVEN: OBSIDIAN AS `CYCLADICA' AND THE `NECROLITHIC' Pages 7. 1 - The Genesis of the "Internati onal Spirit": Obsidian and Buri al in 152-153 Late EBI 7.2 - Obsidian and Death in the Late EBI Cyclades 153-155 7.2.1 - Something old, something new... 155-156 7.2.2 - Agrilia, Epano Kouphonisi 156-159 7.2.3 - The `necrolithic': A technology for the dead 159 7.2.4 - The technical background 160-163 7.2.5 - Arenas of consumption? 163-164 7.2.6 - Technology as performance 165 7.2.7 - Craft hyper-specialisation and conspicuous production 165-169 7.2.8 - The `necrolithic' - a reconstruction 169-173 7.2.9 - The `necrolithic ;the body and late EBI Cycladic society 173-176 7.3 - Discussion: Body