This volume brings together a series of papers reflecting a number of lectures given at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) in 2010-2012 in the frame of a seminar entitled La naissance des cités crétoises. Eight Cretan sites (Axos, Phaistos, Prinias, Karphi, Dreros, Azoria, Praisos, and Itanos), recently excavated or re-excavated, are considered in their regional and historical context in order to explore the origin and early development of the Greek city-state on the island.
Introduction 13
Reading Cretan Cities, writing Cretan cities
Florence Gaignerot-Driessen
1. Axos, a Cretan City (1200-500 BC) 21
Eva Tegou
2. La naissance de la polis de Phaistos 43
Du site mycénien à la cité dorienne
Daniela Lefèvre-Novaro
3. Prinias 59
Une cité crétoise de l'Âge du Fer et son histoire
Antonella Pautasso
4. The Creative City 79
The Construction of Cretan Society after the 1200 BC Collapse
Saro Wallace
5. Dréros : Cité et sanctuaires 103
Vasiliki Zographaki
Alexandre Farnoux
6. Azoria and Archaic Urbanization 119
Donald C. Haggis
7. Commensality and the "Citizen State" 141
The Case of Praisos
James Whitley
8. Facing the Sea: Cretan Identity in a Harbour-city Context 165
Some Remarks on the Early Development of Itanos
Didier Viviers
Athéna Tsingarida