Sharing Space and Time with the Ancestors at an Early Bronze Age Tomb in South Central Crete

The editors of this volume emphasize that focusing on the interrelationship between space and time can enhance our understanding of the dynamics of social institutions. They underscore that relationships unfold in real time and space. By following their lead, this chapter demonstrates that examination of the nearly millennium-long transformation of the tomb complex at Lebena Yerokambos (henceforth “Yerokambos”) reveals that the relationship between the ancestors and the living in that community was more fluid than traditionally has been acknowledged. Yerokambos, on the south coast of Crete, belongs to a class of communal circular stone tombs known as tholoi that served the population of South Central Crete during the long Prepalatial Period (end of the Neolithic into the early Middle Bronze Age, 3100/3000–1900 BC) (Manning, 2010, Table 2.2) (Figure 9.1).