On some late Prepalatial pricket lamps in White-on-Dark Ware from beneath the North Wing of the Malia Palace

In 2021, eight pricket lamps or lampes à piton were identified during the study of ceramic materials from the sounding undertaken by Olivier Pelon in 1978 and 1985 in Room IX b, located in the North Wing of the Malia Palace. These lamps, contained in an EM III-MM IA assemblage from the northern part of the room, are local productions in semi-fine red fabric that imitate the elaborate patterns of the Whiteon- Dark Ware, the hallmark of the late Prepalatial productions of East Crete. These elaborate, white-on-dark pricket lamps from the late Prepalatial levels of the Malia Palace seem to represent the prototype of the later monochrome lampes à piton, well-attested across the Malia site from MM I to MM II. This paper aims to present the eight lamps and their context, to provide parallels both from Malia and Minoan Crete, and to trace the development of this specific shape from late Prepalatial through the Protopalatial period in the whole island.