From Diktè to Ida mountains: Territory and political organisations in Crete from the XIV to the VI century B.C. – DIKIDA

The DIKIDA project results out of a close collaboration between the archaeologists of the UMR CNRS 7044 – UDS (Strasbourg) and the paleo-environmentalists of CEREGE – UMR 6635 (Aix-en-Provence). It is our aim to analyse systematically and critically the political, economical, social and cultural evolution of the human communities that occupied two essential but entirely different regions in Central Crete, on the one hand the Messara plain, on the other hand the Mirabello region, and this during a critical time period covering the end of the Bronze Age up to the Archaic period (14th-6th c. BC). The diachronic study of these two regions will evidently not only treat a series of essential archaeological and historical topics but also address paleo-environmental issues and concentrate on the adaptive strategies conceived by the local communities to cope with the geomorphological and topographical constraints of their respective regions. From a historical point of view, the selected chronological period is essential to understand the transition of Mycenaean kingdoms, organised around a palace with a centralised economy, towards the organisation of Greek cities that appear on the island from the 8th c. BC onwards. The troubles and population migrations that accompanied the collapse of Mycenaean society affected both the foundations and material expressions of community life with tremendous impact on political and social institutions, economy, commercial exchange, religion, funerary customs and writing systems. The Messara forms the most important and fertile plain of the island, favored by a double hydraulic system and protected by Mont Ida to the North, the Diktè Mountains to the East and the Asterousia Mountains to the South. The Mirabello region on the North coast, on the other hand, located along the bay with the same name, is characterized by a narrow coastal plain and is bordered by a chain of mountains to the South. It is linked, however, to the south coast by the isthmus of Hierapetra and to the northwest plain of Malia by the Anavlochos valley. During the Mycenaean period, both regions were controlled by the palatial administration at Knossos. Afterwards, their respective territories will encounter serious fragmentation, a situation that would develop into the emergence of numerous cities from the 8th-7th centuries BC onwards. The general abandonment of Mycenaean sites and the displacement of their population to a series of refugee sites in the mountains, the development of a pastoral economy, the significant decrease of imports till the 10th c. BC, the increase of incineration in funerary practices are only a few of the most striking phenomena that characterise this phase.For a full comprehension of the nature and impact of these changes, a paleo-environmental approach is henceforth indispensible. The specific geomorphological conditions of the island, characterised for instance by a karstic environment, as well as the presence of landscapes in which both the sea and the mountains played a major role, forced local populations to invent specific adaptive mechanisms to cope with e.g. surface waters scarcity, hill side collapse, erosion and abrupt relief changes. Only a multidimensional analysis of the landscape, based on geomorphological and topographical research, will allow to answer specific questions such as whether intervisibility played a role rather than the type of geomorphological conditions in the establishment of settlements. This innovative type of approach has hitherto only been done for a limited area of the defined regions and will enable the creation of digital elevation models and thematic georeferenced maps, two tools that are indispensable for the analysis of phenomena linked to the human adaptation of the environment throughout the ages.