A political anthropology for Neopalatial Crete

Abstract

The study of political relations on the island of Crete during much of the Bronze Age has sparked some of the oldest debates in the archaeology of the Eastern
Mediterranean. This is mainly due to the absence of deciphered written sources, the historiographical peculiarities that the study of Minoan culture has had,
and the complex nature of the archaeological evidence on the island. For such reasons, this paper has at least three purposes: the first is to review the
political models employed for studying the Neopalatial period (ca. 1700-1450 BC) on the island of Crete; secondly, it seeks to highlight new theoretical trends
on this topic, pointing out their respective strengths and possible argumentative shortcomings; finally, it intends to emphasize the value of social dynamics over
the schemes devised by academics who have addressed this problem. In this way, we will conclude by presenting the most important dynamics of political
power during the Neopalatial period that have been presented so far, and it will be highlighted why it is necessary to introduce some postulates of political
anthropology in this debate.