Crete in the Protopalatial period: a ceramic view

The paper looks at topics such as patterns of production and consumption within a Protopalatial scenario which lacks known pottery workshops, and the definition of possible cultural regions on Crete from a diachronic perspective. It highlights fundamental changes from one area to another of the island, and from the earlier to the later phases of the period. Collating the suggestions made by the various authors in the volume, prospects and avenues for future studies are also listed here. The main needs for pottery studies of the Protopalatial era – and also Minoan Crete in general – are a systematic programme of radiocarbon dates and petrographic analyses coupled with an internal site phasing. These are both fundamental tools in the creation of intercorrelations among the Cretan sites, and of an opportunity for the major exploration of sites from neglected or less investigated areas of Crete, i.e. Western, South-Eastern, and Eastern Mesara.