This is the first volume on the Late Minoan III necropolis of Armenoi in western Crete. It sets the scene, introduces the site and its topography, and offers the results of site surveys and their finds.

The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi, Crete (ca. 1390–1190 BC) is the only intact, complete Late Minoan necropolis presently known, of which 232 tombs have been excavated. The research project was the first large-scale genomic sampling of skeletal material from a single site in Bronze Age Greece, as well as being the first time a multi-disciplinary approach with ancient DNA as its focus has been conducted on a large, well-curated necropolis assemblage. As such it provides a unique opportunity to answer archaeological questions, the most important of which are kinship, an analysis of the origin and ancestry of those buried in the tombs, the homogeneity of the population or otherwise, and diet. The analysis program was only possible because the tombs had not been seriously disturbed, and human skeletal remains had survived and been expertly conserved. The results of ancient DNA, stable isotope analysis, osteological analysis, and radiocarbon dating are presented, providing the first detailed record of ancestry and kinship in this iconic period of Eastern Mediterranean prehistory.

In addition, the long-debated problem of the location of the wealthy city of da-*22-to, referred to many times in the Linear B tablets, is addressed and key evidence is presented. The rich finds in the Necropolis, the town excavation, and in the environs, support the interpretation that the ‘city’ that built the Necropolis is da-*22-to.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Contributors
• The Armenoi Project
• Acknowledgements
• Conventions, abbreviations and chronology
• Foreword
• Map of site
• 1. The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi: introduction
  • The discovery of the Necropolis
  • The tombs
  • Publication programme
  • The scientific programme
• PART I: SCIENTIFIC ANALYSES
  • 2. Food and drink: what scientific analysis of pottery revealed through organic residue analysis
    • Introduction
    • Materials and methods
    • Results
  • 3. The osteological study of Tomb 159
    • Introduction
    • Tomb 159: its characteristics and contents
    • Burial context and MNI
    • Preservation
    • Age estimation
    • Biological sex estimation
    • Population variability
    • Dental health and disease
    • Palaeopathology
    • Osteobiography summaries
    • Discussion and conclusions
    • Summary
  • 4. Multi-isotopic (C, N, S, Sr) measurements of human skeletal material
    • Introduction
    • Isotope analysis background
    • Sample selection
    • Methodology
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Conclusions
  • 5. Bioarchaeological analyses of human and faunal skeletal remains and radiocarbon dating
    • Introduction
    • Materials and methods
    • Dietary stable isotopes
    • Ancient DNA
    • Radiocarbon dating
    • Conclusions
    • Appendix: species identification of 13 animal bones from the Necropolis
  • 6. The human dimension: the archaeological significance of the scientific results
    • Introduction
    • The Total Station survey
    • Stable isotope analysis (incorporating skeletal summaries by Darlene Weston)
    • Ancient DNA (incorporating skeletal summaries by Darlene Weston)
    • Conclusions
    • Appendix: catalogue (original compilation by Vicky Kolivaki)
• PART II: THE ‘CITY’ OF ARMENOI
  • 7. The identification of da-*22-to
    • C 979
    • Ce 59
    • V 1002
    • EL Z 1
  • 8. Studies at the ‘city’ of Armenoi, the Necropolis and their environs
    • Faunal collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic analysis (Peter W. Ditchfield)
    • Minerals in the environs of Armenoi (Holley Martlew)
    • Postscript: a tribute to Andrew Giże (Holley Martlew)
  • 9. The archaeological evidence which supports the identification of the Late Minoan III ‘city’ of Armenoi as da-*22-to
    • 1. The ‘city’ of Armenoi
    • 2. The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi (Late Minoan IIIA:1–Late Minoan IIIB:2 ca.1390–1190 BC)
    • 3. Contents of the tombs (with a contribution by Olga Krzyszkowska)
    • 4. Correspondence with Linear B tablets cited as evidence by Godart
    • 5. Unlocked secrets
    • Appendix: catalogue (original compilation by Vicky Kolivaki)
  • 10. Western Crete, the ‘city’ of Armenoi and the fall of Pylos
    • Introduction
    • Seals and seal impressions
    • The frescoes of Pylos
    • Ivories
    • Linear B documents and their chronology
    • Conclusions
    • Postscript: the ‘city’ of Armenoi, da-*22-to (Yannis Tzedakis and Holley Martlew)