Toward a definition of Middle Minoan III ceramic sequence in South-Central Crete: returning to MM IIIA and IIIB traditional division?

In spite of bulk of papers and books on the pottery of Middle Minoan III during the last years, the first phase of the New Palace period in Crete still remains undefined in terms of characterization, subdivision and dating; even ambiguous turned out the attempts to clarify the terminology of the period. Recent works have stressed the difficulty of distinguishing MM IIIA and MM IIIB. Even discerning an earlier and later stage in the ceramic deposits, many scholars prefer to rejects the traditional division as Evans had established.

The paper aims to identify the valuable contexts for defining the ceramic phases of Middle Minoan III in South-Central Crete . The pottery data from Phaistos, Ayia Triada and Kommos represent a pivotal point of view in order to identify the deposits that can be use to define the main subdivisions of MM III of the South-Central area (IIIA and IIIB). I propose to reconsider the so-called Levi Phase III/ Fiandra period 4 (the designation of MM III from their fundamental sequence) and to retain the traditional nomenclature of two main phases as the published deposits and the new data seem to stress. The dating of many pottery groups used here comes from stratified and/or homogeneous deposits. Newly excavated stratified remains from the area outside the palace at Phaistos and the NE Sector at Ayia Triada have expanded the number of known MM III deposits, so that it is a time to reconsider the chronological sequence of MM III in South-Central Crete .

Luca Girella