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TITLE Pirates of the Crete-Aegean: migration, mobility, and Post-Palatial realities at the end of the Bronze Age
AUTHOR Hitchcock Louise A. , Maeir Aren M.
SECTION a
LANGUAGE Αγγλικά / English
PUBLISH DATE 07.08.2018
KEYWORDS Minoan Thalassocracy, Sea Peoples, piracy, pirates, defensible settlements, geography, Mycenaeans
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Abstract


Our recent research has used historical accounts of piracy to briefly examine pirate leadership, pirate culture and social organization, feasting activities, and studies of pirate geography to propose an interpretive framework for understanding the migration of the Sea Peoples as, inter alia, pirate tribes who plundered some of the great centers of the Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age. We suggest that as Mycenaean control over trade routes collapsed with the destruction and/or eventual abandonment of the Mycenaean palaces, Crete became particularly vulnerable to piracy, because of certain geographical and topographical features that characterized its coastlines. Unless defended, rocky coastlines, natural harbors, promontories, and river valleys were susceptible to piratical activity, as we shall discuss. Historical records indicate that piracy resulted in a desolation of coastlines, as coastal settlements and coastal plains might be attacked at night, with villages burnt and pillaged, and fields devastated. Inhabitants of such areas were motivated to move to defensible places further inland. Such abandonment and movement to defensible areas characterized early Iron Age Cretan settlements, such as Karphi, Kavousi, Kephala-Vasiliki, Chalasmenos, Monastiraki, Thronos-Kephala, and many others, which were relatively inaccessible from the surrounding landscape and represent only a fraction of the total. Our paper considers the role of piracy at the end of the Bronze Age in influencing migration, new realities, social practices, and changes in the cultural environment and social organization of post-palatial Crete. We also explore the idea that just as certain areas of Crete were geographically suitable for seeking refuge from pirates, other sites in Crete became similarly suitable hideouts for pirates.