Examining the Ritual Landscape of Bronze Age Crete through the Lens of Archaeobotany

Abstract

This paper investigates plant remains at three ritual sites from Bronze Age Crete: Kophinas, Knossos Anetaki and Petras. To date, ritual contexts on the island have been little investigated from an archaeobotanical standpoint. Analysis of the plant material from these three sites provides new data for the use of plants in ritual activities in both mortuary and non-mortuary contexts. The results are discussed from a semiotic and emotive perspective, allowing for a better grasp of the potential plant-related rituals responsible for the creation of these archaeobotanical assemblages, including instances of plant sacrifice, symbolic plant sacrifice and the ritual deposition of intentionally charred plant remains. These findings are then integrated with previously published data from Crete and Mainland Greece in order to provide a broader picture of ritual plant use for the island, as well as the Aegean region. The recurrent evidence for the intentional charring of plant material and the presence of taxa commonly associated with everyday contexts indicates that fire was an important aspect of ritual activities involving plants and that the same suite of plant remains was engaged in the social activities of both the domestic and ritual spheres.