Learn about our fellows' research projects: Tina Kalantzopoulou on the findings of rural prehistoric communities in East Crete's Dikte mountain range

Guest post by Tina Kalantzopoulou, Early Career Fellow in Hellenic Studies 2022-2023

Research topic during fellowship: Narratives of Mountainous Areas in the Prehistoric Aegean: A Case-Study of the Dikte Mountains, Crete

My research consistently focuses on the economy, subsistence, social, and political organization of rural prehistoric communities, particularly those located in marginal and/or mountainous areas. The principal aim of my current postdoctoral research, facilitated by the fellowship with the CHS, is understanding the nature of the occupation of mountainous landscapes, the reconstruction of their importance, and their relationship with state-level economies of the lowlands.

During my appointment, I had the chance to execute a vigorous field survey campaign, under a 5-year permit with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), on the eastern part of the Dikte range in East Crete, on altitudes from 600 to 1200 m. The scope of the survey was to revisit a poorly documented area and to collect several different datasets about the use of the mountainous zone in prehistory. The survey was executed by a five persons team of NKUA students, the MA student E. Vereketi and the Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge University A. Xenaki, under my supervision and the direction of Prof. Y. Papadatos, and it identified and documented 138 Bronze Age sites. More than 90 sites included architectural prehistoric remains, which were documented using Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) and drone imaging. From all sites, movable finds were sampled to understand the chronology and character of their use. After the survey, I processed the raw data further, creating orthophoto maps of all architectural remains, which will be used, together with on-site measurements, as base maps for the stone-by-stone digital plans. The pottery sampled from all 138 sites is currently being studied. The units have been sorted by fabrics and ceramic recipes, recognizing the provenance of the clay and typological analysis to establish chronology and the variety of shapes repertoire.

I have already presented preliminary results during my appointment at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) international conference held in September in Budapest and at the Belgian Day of Greek Archaeology in Brussels. This day was dedicated to Prof. Jan Driessen. On this latter occasion, I had the chance to present my theory about the significance of the mountain occupation for the political organization of Neopalatial Minoan society for the first time. My work was also presented in Washington to the fellows of CHS on my recent trip to the US, which was an opportunity to broaden my horizons both in academia and culturally. Finally, I have scheduled to present my work at a specialized conference discussing the integration of pastoralist communities into the Bronze Age palatial establishments in Rome in March 2023.

About Tina Kalantzopoulou

Apart from her academic work, Tina is a field archaeologist with a strong interest in the methodology of excavation, site formation, and the documentation of cultural remains. After an MA at the University of Leiden, Tina Kalantzopoulou completed her Ph.D. at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), where she works as a fellow researcher and a tutor. She is also the assistant director of the Belgian Archaeological School at Athens (EBSA). Her research mainly focuses on the prehistoric habitation patterns of the island of Crete and especially on mountainous and marginal landscapes. She has been a member of the ‘Minoan Roads’ project since 2009, collaborating in fieldwork through excavation and survey in the far eastern part of Crete. She has also collaborated in several field projects with the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Piraeus & Islands Ephorate of Antiquities, mostly on Crete but also in Attica, the Saronic Gulf, and elsewhere, excavating in Bronze Age, Archaic and Classical sites, such as the extended Archaic-Classical period cemetery at the Phaleron Delta, during the construction of the New National Opera and the National Library of Greece in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC). Tina has published many papers on the Cretan Mountains in Prehistory. She published her first monograph in 2022, Volume 22, in the Aegean Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS) Series of the Presses Universitaires de Louvain (PUL), entitled: Taking the High Road. Prehistoric Habitation and Exploitation on the Mountains of East Crete, New Evidence from an Extensive Survey.

Early Career Fellowships in Hellenic Studies in Greece and Cyprus

The annual Early Career Fellowships in Hellenic Studies in Greece and Cyprus program aims to support postdoctoral researchers whose work requires continued access to material on site. Learn more about this research opportunity on the Early Career Fellowships in Hellenic Studies webpage.