New Palace Crete

  General Description   Crete is a large island in the Eastern Mediterranean. Here we consider the phase of its history best known as the Neopalatial Era. This period followed a series of conflagrations at the end of the Old Palace era (1700 BCE), which affected almost all Cretan sites. Little agreement exists about the causes of these destructions. Although it has been generally argued that these were possibly caused by earthquake, the senario of war conflicts among major political centers of the period cannot be excluded. ^{[1] [2]} The Neopalatial era ended, in 1450, in a similar way to the previous phase: the central complexes (except for the one at Knossos), many important buildings and whole settlements were violently damaged by fire and abandoned, and the Cretan presence in the Aegean and the Near East came to an end. The causes of these destructions have also been a topic of vivid debate: a massive natural disaster (earthquake), war, internal disruption or system collapse have all been suggested as possible explanations ^[3] , though perhaps human rather than natural causes are more likely ^[4] .
Population and Political Organization
Some scholars argue that, during the Neopatial period, the island was divided into small independent "states" centered upon large monumental complexes generally known as "palaces" ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]} Others favour the notion of a Knossian hegemony, that is, the notion that Crete was politically unified under the control of the ruler at Knossos ^{[9] [10] [11]} Yet other have favored the idea of independent political formations emulating Knossos ^{[12] [13] [14]}
The population of Crete at this time has been estimated at 242,000 ^[15] , 216,000-271,000 ^[16] and 260,000 ^[17] . As for Knossos, the largest urban centre in the whole of Prehistoric Greece, Whitelaw estimated Knossian population to 25,000-30,000 people replacing his previous estimate of 14,000-18,000 individuals ^{[18] [19]}

[1]: (La Rosa 1999, 81-89) V. La Rosa. 1999. "Πολιτική εξουσία και σεισμικές καταστροφές στη Μινωική Κρήτη: η περίπτωση της Φαιστού" in Κρήτες Θαλασσοδρόμοι, edited by A. Karetou. Heraklion

[2]: (Cadogan 2014, 43-54) G. Cadogan. 2014. "War in the Cretan Bronze Age: the realism of Stylianos Alexiou". Kritika Chronika 34: 43-54.

[3]: (Driessen and Macdonald 1997, 106-109) Jan Driessen. and Colin F. Macdonald. 1997. The Troubled Island. Minoan Crete Before and After the Santorini Eruption. Liège: Université de Liège, Histoire de l’art et archéologie de la Grèce antique; Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory

[4]: (Christakis 2008, 144-146) Kostis S. Christakis. 2008. The Politics of Storage. Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete. Philadelphia, Pa.: INSTAP Academic Press.

[5]: (Cherry 1986, 19-45) John F. Cherry. 1986. “Polities and palaces: some problems in the Minoan state formation,” in Peer-Polity Interaction and Socio-Political Change, edited by Colin Renfrew and John F. Cherry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6]: (Bennet 1990, 193-211) John Bennet. 1990. "Knossos in context: comparative perspectives on the Linear B administration of LM II-III Crete." American Journal of Archaeology 94: 193-211

[7]: (Christakis 2008, 2-7) Kostis S. Christakis. 2008. The Politics of Storage. Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.

[8]: (Bevan 2010, 27-54) Andrew Bevan. 2010. "Political geography and palatial Crete." Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 23: 27-54.

[9]: (Betts 1967, 15-40) John H. Betts. 1967. " New light on Minoan bureaucracy. A reexamination of some Cretan seals." Kadmos 6: 15-40

[10]: (Hallager and Hallager 1996, 547-556) E. and B.P. Hallager. 1996. "The Knossian bull-political propaganda in Neo-palatial Crete," in POLITEIA. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 5th International Aegean Conference, Heidelberg, 10-13 April 1994, edited by Robert Laffineur and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier. Liège: Université de Liège, Histoire de l’art et archéologie de la Grèce antique; Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory

[11]: (Wiener 2007, 231-242) M.W. Wiener. 2007. "Neopalatial Knossos: rule and role" in Krinoi kai Limenes. Studies in Honor of Joseph and Maria Shaw, edited by Philip Betancourt, Michael Nelson and Hector Williams. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press

[12]: (Schoep 1999, 201-221) Ilse Schoep. 1999. "Tables and territories: reconstructing Late Minoan IB political territories throughout undeciphered documents." American Journal of Archaeology 103: 201-21

[13]: (Soles 1995, 405-414) J.S. Soles. 1995. "The function of a cosmological center: Knossos in palatial Crete" in POLITEIA. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 5th International Aegean Conference, Heidelberg, 10-13 April 1994, edited by Robert Laffineur and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier. Liège: Université de Liège, Histoire de l’art et archéologie de la Grèce antique; Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory

[14]: (Knappett and Schoep 2000, 365-371) Carl Knappett and Ilse Schoep. 2000. "Continuity and change in Minoan political power," Antiquity 74: 365-71.

[15]: (Branigan 2000, 38-50) Keith Branigan. 2000. "Aspects of Minoan urbanism," in Urbanism in the Aegean Bronze Age, edited by Keith Branigan. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

[16]: (Rackham and Moody 1999, 97) Oliver Rackham and Jennifer Alice Moody. 1999. The Making of the Cretan Landscape, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

[17]: (Renfrew 1972, 249) Colin Renfrew. 1972. The Emergence of Civilization, London: Oxbow Books

[18]: (Whitelaw 2004, 147-158) Todd Whitelaw. 2004. "Estimating the population of Neopalatial Knossos" in Knossos: Palace, City, State: Proceedings of the Conference in Herakleion organized by the British School at Athens and the 23rd Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Herakleion, in November 2000, for the Centenary of Sir Arthur Evans’s Excavations at Knossos, edited by Gerald Cadogan, Eleni Hatzaki and Adonis Vasilakis. London: British School of Athens.

[19]: (Whitelaw 2014, 143-144) Todd Whitelaw. 2014. "Political formations in Prehistoric Crete". BICS 57: 143-144.