The Institute for Mediterranean Studies (Rethymno, Crete) organises a ten-day summer school on the civilization of ancient Crete.
The prehistoric civilization of Minoan Crete is world-famous and attracts major scholarly and lay attention. As for classical antiquity, the history and archaeology of Crete have largely remained outside wider purview and mainly explored by specialist scholars. This is despite the variety and fascinating nature of the existing sources about ancient Crete and the important questions and answers they provide.
The purpose of this summer school is to introduce participants to the lost world of ancient Crete and its history, archaeology and culture. The classes offered will explore politics and warfare; the development of institutions and laws; writing systems and their uses; economic and social conditions; sexuality and gender; religion; material and visual culture; the image of Crete and Cretans in ancient Greek literature.
The aim of the summer school is to examine how the Cretan case-studies illuminate wider trends in ancient history, culture and archaeology, as well as how Cretan communities and their institutions and practices differed both between themselves and in relation to the rest of the Greek and the wider Mediterranean world. The trips to archaeological sites and museums will enable participants to gain a first-hand experience of Cretan topography and the Cretan material world and contextualise the classes based on literary sources and inscriptions.
The summer school will employ a long-term perspective on ancient Crete, starting from the second millennium BCE through the novel circumstances of the first millennium to the incorporation of ancient Crete into the Roman Empire and the world of late antiquity. This perspective will enable participants to explore both long-term continuities, as well as major changing points in Cretan history and archaeology.
Organising committee
- Assistant Professor Kostas Vlassopoulos, University of Crete
- Associate Professor Melina Tamiolaki, University of Crete