ABSTRACT
From the Middle Bronze Age onwards, the islands adopt a range of Minoan objects, technologies, ideas and, sometimes, religious practices. This phenomenon is called Minoanisation. Key sites are Ayia Irini on Kea, Phylakopi on Melos, Akrotiri on Thera, Mikre Vigla on Naxos, Kastri on Kythera, Trianda on Rhodes, Serraglio on Kos and Koukonisi on Lemnos. A general trend towards a nucleated settlement pattern can be observed. The most common Middle Bronze Age pottery wares are Dark Burnished, Cycladic White, Grey Minyan and Middle Minoan; DoL and LoD from the Dodecanese becomes popular in the later phases. Rock-cut chambers and cist graves continue to be used. Minoan pottery imports and local imitations are predominant. Both miniature friezes and large-scale frescoes can be found depicting naturalistic and figurative art. Lavrion becomes the most dominant source for copper, lead and silver throughout the Aegean, though Cypriot copper is gaining in importance. Lead balancing weights, suggestive of regular trade, have been found in the Cyclades and on Crete. The Linear A script is used in the islands and indicates the actual utilisation of writing and administrative practices. The Temple at Ayia Irini provides glimpses into religious practices. Particularly important is the discovery of large clay statues on stone votive platforms. Rituals are likely to have involved feasting, libations and sacrifices. A Minoan peak sanctuary was founded on Kythera, but others may be present also on Kea, Naxos and Rhodes. Other Minoan ritual features present on the islands are pillar rooms (Phylakopi, Ayia Irini) and lustral basins (Akrotiri). At Akrotiri we can also find many portable finds that point towards the adoption of Minoan ritual practices including offering tables, horns of consecration and libation vessels. The contextualisation section explores the models and interpretations that have been put forward to explain the phenomenon of Minoanisation. The key contributions are the Western String model, the Colonies classification scheme and the ‘Versailles effect’. The notion of a Minoan thalassocracy (‘rule of the sea’) is considered an unlikely scenario. In contrast to these general constructs, recent approaches instead emphasise the specificity of each island’s relationship with Crete.
