Long-Term Grain Storage and Political Economy in Bronze Age Crete: Contextualizing Ayia

Triada's Silo Complexes

Author(s): Santo Privitera
Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 118, No. 3 (July 2014), pp. 429-449
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
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article
Long-Term Grain Storage and Political Economy
in Bronze Age Crete: Contextualizing Ayia Triada’s
Silo Complexes
Santo Privitera
Abstract
Since the beginning of archaeological exploration on
Crete, agricultural storage has attracted a great deal of
scholarly interest. The discovery of several palaces on the
island has provided a range of evidence concerning stor-
age: the development of a complex written accounting
system, the production of thousands of storage jars, the
building of storerooms, and built installations apparently
devoted to long-term grain storage (the so-called kouloures
at Knossos, Malia, and Phaistos). However, the presence in
nonpalatial sites of structures that can plausibly be inter-
preted as silo complexes for long-term grain storage has
not attracted much attention. This article is concerned
with the Late Bronze Age evidence from Ayia Triada in
the Mesara Plain, which has four such complexes, two of
which are still unpublished. By drawing on the results of
recent fieldwork, I contrast these buildings with those of
other Mycenaean and Near Eastern sites to place Ayia
Triada in its wider Aegean and Mediterranean context.
Through the use of information found in the local Lin-
ear A and nonlocal Linear B documents, together with
the archaeological evidence, this article highlights the
role that long-term grain storage played within the local
political economy in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.E.*
introduction
Agricultural storage has traditionally been a topic
of major concern for scholars of Bronze Age Crete.
The discovery in 1900 of the West Magazines in the
* This article forms part of a wider research project, “Mon-
umental Architecture and Political Economy in the Mesara
State on Crete, ca. 1350–1200 B.C.E.,” which I am currently
carrying out under the supervision of Yiannis Papadatos at
the University of Athens. The research is being implemented
within the framework of the action “Supporting Postdoctor-
al Researchers” of the operational program “Education and
Lifelong Learning” and is cofinanced by the European Social
Fund and the Greek State. Since 2000, my research at Ayia Tri-
ada has been made possible by the financial support of several
institutions. It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge them here:
the University of Catania, the Italian Archaeological School
at Athens, the University of Venice “Cà Foscari,” and the Insti-
tute for Aegean Prehistory, Philadelphia, which awarded me a
postdoctoral fellowship in 2010. To my friends and colleagues
429
American Journal of Archaeology 118 (2014) 429–49
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palace at Knossos triggered a long-lasting debate about
the economic and social factors that brought about
the emergence of the palatial states on Crete in the
early second millennium B.C.E. (figs. 1, 2). Later, the
discovery of additional palatial complexes and settle-
ments helped produce a well-defined image of Bronze
Age Cretan storage practices at both the palatial and
domestic levels, an image that incorporated the de-
velopment of a complex accounting system and the
production of storage jars in the thousands.
The existence of built installations devoted to long-
term grain storage is still a matter of debate. Such
installations have been tentatively identified at the
settlements of Knossos and Phaistos in the Middle
Bronze Age and at the site of Malia in the beginning
of the Late Bronze Age, or Late Minoan (LM) IA in
the local sequence (table 1). As Strasser has argued,
these structures, which Evans dubbed kouloures (figs. 3,
4), are not homogeneous: at both Knossos and Phais-
tos they are underground hollows, while at Malia they
are aboveground, doorless structures.1 Whereas the
identification of the Malia structures as granaries has
been widely accepted,2 both the size and layout of the
pits at Knossos and Phaistos have allowed for different
functional interpretations, including cisterns, rubbish
pits, and planters for trees.3
Francesco Iacono, Michael Metcalfe, and Simona Todaro,
I owe a particular debt of gratitude for assistance at various
stages in the preparation of this article. Finally, I would like to
thank John Bennet, Nicola Cucuzza, Yiannis Papadatos, and
the anonymous reviewers for the AJA for their comments on
the text, which substantially improved this article. I take full
responsibility for any errors of fact or judgment that remain.
Figures are my own unless otherwise noted.
1
Evans 1930, fig. 34; Strasser 1997.
2
For a recent assessment of the kouloures at Malia and their
interpretation as a silo complex, see Driessen and Macdon-
ald 1997, 185; Strasser 1997; Hitchcock 2000, 64–5; Bradfer-
Burdet 2005, 44.
3
E.g., Halstead 1981, 1997; Strasser 1997; Carinci 2001;
Bradfer-Burdet 2005.
430 Santo Privitera
Fig. 1. Map of the eastern Mediterranean, showing sites
mentioned in the text.
In this article, I deal first with the current status
quaestionis concerning the interpretation of the kou-
loures at both Knossos and Phaistos, which has been
discussed extensively over the last 15 years. I then
argue for the existence on Late Bronze Age Crete of
agricultural storage facilities functionally comparable
to those at Malia (although in the absence of archaeo-
botanical evidence). These silo complexes were built
in the Mesara Plain in south-central Crete as late as
LM IIIA2. This article focuses in particular on the long-
term grain-storage facilities at the settlement of Ayia
Triada, drawing on recent fieldwork by the author at
two unpublished buildings at this site. By contrasting
these buildings with those of other Middle and Late
Bronze Age Mycenaean and Near Eastern sites, I aim
to situate Ayia Triada within its wider Aegean and
Mediterranean context and to answer major ques-
tions concerning the role that long-term grain stor-
age played within the political economy of the Late
Bronze Age Mediterranean states. In particular, this
hitherto overlooked evidence contributes to the on-
going reevaluation of the role played by staple finance
in the Late Bronze Age Aegean states.4
4
See, e.g., Nakassis 2010.
5
Evans 1935, 645–48.
6
Schoep 2010.
7
Finley 1957; Polanyi 1960; Renfrew 1972.
8
Renfrew 1972; Halstead 1981, 1988; Killen 1985; Branigan
1987. For a critical reassessment of the current debate con-
cerning redistribution in the Aegean states, see the articles
in Galaty et al. 2011. Whereas all these contributions seem to
share a common view concerning the problematic character
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[AJA 118
agricultural storage and the emergence
of the state in the aegean: revisiting the
kouloures
In the literature concerning state formation, a
great deal of attention has traditionally been devoted
to agricultural storage, and the Aegean palatial states
of the second millennium B.C.E. are no exception.
On Crete in particular, the discovery of substantial
storerooms dated to the Middle Bronze Age and early
Late Bronze Age, or Middle Minoan (MM) IB through
LM IB in the local sequence (see table 1), has tradi-
tionally been seen as the embodiment of the control of
surplus by local elites and interpreted as an indicator
of the emergence of inequality and social complex-
ity. The origins of such an assumption may be traced
back to the discovery of the palace at Knossos, which
yielded extensive storerooms, plenty of administrative
documents, and hundreds of storage jars.5 As is well
known, comparison with the Near Eastern temple
economy inspired Evans to develop his model of the
Minoan palace-temple, which still remains influential,
although it has recently been challenged.6 A shift in
focus from the ceremonial and religious connotations
of the Bronze Age Cretan palaces to their political and
economic functions was prompted by the decipher-
ment of Linear B texts in 1952.7 These documents
served to highlight how the Greek-speaking palatial
administrations of Crete and the Greek mainland
functioned in a relatively limited phase of the Late
Bronze Age (LM/Late Helladic [LH] IIIA1–LM/
LH IIIB2); it also enabled scholars of Bronze Age Crete
to participate in the wider debate on ancient economic
systems and to put forward an interpretation of the is-
land’s palatial economy as essentially redistributive in
character from as early as the beginning of the second
millennium B.C.E., when forms of written account-
ability are first attested on Crete.8
Because of the influence of Polanyi’s model of redis-
tribution, Bronze Age Cretan (and later Mycenaean)
palatial storage was initially seen as essentially focused
on the control of staples, in primis the so-called Medi-
terranean triad (olive, vine, and cereals).9 In Renfrew’s
words, the Bronze Age Cretan palaces were essentially
of the very term “redistribution,” they also provide the reader
with a variegated range of painstakingly nuanced arguments,
which encompass both an implicit plea to dismiss this term in
favor of others related to specific social institutions (Nakassis
et al. 2011), and a sound defense of redistribution’s “consider-
able heuristic value for enriching our understanding of Myce-
naean political economy” (Halstead 2011, 233).
9
Renfrew 1972; Halstead 2004.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete 431

Fig. 2. Map of Crete, showing sites mentioned in the text.

“redistribution centers for subsistence commodities, Table 1. Middle and Late Bronze Age Dates on Crete
controlled by a well-defined social hierarchy.”10 In this and the Greek Mainland (adapted from Warren 2010).
respect, the function of the underground kouloures dis-
Archaeological Phases Dates (B.C.E.)
covered at both Knossos and Phaistos, structures that
Renfrew was inclined to interpret as granaries, has been MM IB 1930/1900–ca. 1850
much debated over the past 30 years. In 1983, Preziosi MM IIA and MM IIB ca. 1850–1700/1675
drew attention to a wall painting from Knossos, the so-
MM IIIA 1700/1675–1650/1640
called Sacred Grove and Dance fresco, which depicts
a group of women dancing in an open space against MM IIIB 1650/1640–ca. 1600
a background of trees.11 The space is equipped with LM IA 1600/1580–1520/1510
raised causeways that cross so as to form a triangle,
and it can therefore reasonably be identified as the LM IB 1520/1510–1440/1430
West Court of Knossos.12 Preziosi contended that the LM II 1440/1430–1390
position of the trees depicted in the wall painting cor-
LM/LH IIIA1 1390–1370/1360
responds to Kouloures 1–3 in the West Court; the kou-
loures could accordingly be interpreted as monumental LM/LH IIIA2 1370/1360–1340/1330
planters. Based on analogy with the Knossos fresco, he LM/LH IIIB 1340/1330–1190/1180
then inferred that the four kouloures that border the
south side of the West Middle Court (so-called Piazzale
I) at the palace at Phaistos served the same function.13 LH = Late Helladic; LM = Late Minoan; MM = Middle
More recently, Strasser has also argued against the stor- Minoan
age function of such hollows, observing that none of
them has yielded either seed remains or traces of an
inner coating.14 In his view, the kouloures may have been or as tree planters, as suggested by Preziosi.16 Strasser’s
used either as refuse pits, as Evans originally thought,15 analysis represents the most detailed treatment of this

10
Renfrew 1972, 297. A reassessment of the role of central 13
Preziosi 1983, 121; see also Carinci 2001, 53–60.
management of surplus in the First Palace period, albeit on a 14
Strasser 1997. At Knossos, one more kouloura, which
scale that is difficult to quantify, is now offered in Christakis was placed next to the so-called Theatral Area and served
2011, 201–2. by a stone trough, can reasonably be interpreted as a cistern
11
Preziosi 1983, 85. (Strasser 1997, 75).
12
Evans (1930, 32) dated the wall painting to the very end 15
Evans 1921, 554 (Kouloura 1); 1935, 51, fig. 30 (Kou-
of MM IIIB; see also Cameron 1987, 325 (MM IIIB–LM IA); loures 2 and 3).
Immerwahr 1990, 63–4, 173, no. 16 (MM IIIB–LM IA); Hood 16
Preziosi 1983, 85 n. 130; Strasser 1997, 90.
2005, 63–4 (LM IA or LM IB).

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432 Santo Privitera
Fig. 3. The West Court at the palace at Knossos, with Kou-
loures 1–3 on the left (Evans 1930, fig. 34).
topic to date, but it cannot be considered conclusive.
Halstead, for example, has rightly pointed out that both
seeds and inner coating would be preserved inside the
kouloures only if a violent destruction had occurred,
such as a fire capable of charring cereals and heavily
baking the inner wall plaster.17 Furthermore, even if
the available evidence does not enable one to conclude
that the kouloures were used for “hermetic” (i.e., prop-
erly airtight) storage, neither their size nor their ma-
sonry are unsuitable for the preservation of dry grain,
in contrast to what Strasser contended. Simple pits dug
into the ground provide a humble yet efficient means
for hermetic storage. The atmosphere can be suffi-
ciently controlled to prevent the production of heat
and moisture and consequently the occurrence of any
biological activity inside the grain.18 Concerning the
iconographic evidence, moreover, both Hitchcock and
Bradfer-Burdet have rightly observed that the Sacred
Grove and Dance fresco, which belongs to the Second
Palace period, was created well after the kouloures had
17
Halstead 1997.
18
Long-term storage in properly airtight silos consisting of
humble pits dug inside the ground is suitable with a moderate
humidity rate, one ranging between 15% and 18%, as experi-
ments carried out by L. Doyère conclusively showed as early
as the mid 19th century (Sigaut 1988, 11–12). In Late Bronze
Age Anatolia, a particularly telling example is represented by
a group of rectangular storage pits dug inside the soil (the
largest of which is 12 x 18 m in size and ca. 2 m deep), which
were recently discovered at Hattuša in the sector of the settle-
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[AJA 118
Fig. 4. The kouloures in Piazzale I at the palace at Phaistos
(after Carinci and La Rosa 2009, pl. B).
gone out of use, as they were paved over already in MM
IIIA.19 Whereas it remains uncertain whether the trees
depicted were actually planted inside such hollows, it
is still possible, at any rate, that the latter were used
as planters only at a later time. The pivotal questions
concerning kouloures, then, are the following: Prior to
MM IIIA, were they empty pits, or were they filled with
earth? And if they were filled, did this happen over time
(as would have been the case if they were refuse pits),
or were they filled with earth right from the start (as
would have been the case if they were tree planters)?
Recent reinvestigation of the ceramic deposits found
inside the kouloures at both Knossos and Phaistos can
help answer this question. At Knossos, MacGillivray has
stressed the presence of “numerous joins between the
fills in the three kouloures and adjacent houses,”20 argu-
ing for a unitary deposition in MM IIIA, which could
possibly hint at a clearing operation in the aftermath
of an earthquake. At Phaistos, the recently reassessed
deposits retrieved inside the kouloures mostly comprise
ment called Büyükkaya (Seeher 2000, 270–78). Such pits, dat-
ed to the 13th century B.C.E., were devoid of an inner coating,
being equipped only with a layer of stones at the bottom, from
which some einkorn has been retrieved.
19
Hitchcock 2000, 65. Bradfer-Burdet (2005, 44) notes that
“il n’y a pas trace dans cette peinture d’un enclos constru-
it entourant les arbres que l’on pourrait comparer avec les
kouloures.”
20
MacGillivray 2007, 145.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete
MM IIB ceramics, and their presence has been inter-
preted as the result of a single action.21 Furthermore, a
group of 12 MM IIIA vessels found at a depth of 1.00–
1.20 m inside Kouloura III could attest that the latter
was still partially empty as late as this phase.22
Based on this evidence, it seems safe to conclude
that the kouloures at both Knossos and Phaistos were
originally empty hollows that were filled in all at once,
perhaps as the result of a destruction. The evidence
strongly undermines the idea that they were used a
principio as either refuse pits or tree pits; conversely, it
still makes it plausible to interpret them, even in the
absence of any archaeobotanical evidence, as under-
ground silos devoted to grain storage.23 The lack of
use of such silos in MM IIIA does not, however, nec-
essarily support the long-held theory of a decrease in
staple storage facilities within the palaces from the
First to the Second Palace periods.24 In particular, in
the palace at Knossos, a decrease in the surface area
and accessibility of the West Magazines, which Evans
dated to MM III, has been acknowledged as occurring
as late as LM IIIA1, whereas new storage facilities were
added in MM III.25 At Malia, it has been ascertained
that the silo complex placed at the southwest corner
of the palace was in fact built in LM IA and not in
MM IB as previously thought. In addition, a further silo
was built within another building of outstanding size
(Maison Epsilon) located to the south of the palace,
which has recently been interpreted as a redistribution
center.26 At Phaistos, furthermore, it is now clear that
the fate of the kouloures went hand in hand with that
of the palace as a whole, the prolonged ruin of which
lasted until an advanced stage of LM IA or LM IB.27
storage practices, staple finance, and
accountability on bronze age crete
Judging from the above overview, it is evident that
until recently most scholars have tried to understand
centralized agricultural storage on Crete as part of a
wider attempt to ascertain the factors that brought
21
Levi 1976, 354–58; see also Carinci and La Rosa 2009,
227–30; Girella 2010, 81–2.
22
Carinci and La Rosa 2009, 230; see also Girella 2010,
81–2.
23
The alternative interpretation of kouloures as cisterns has
been dealt with and soundly rejected in Strasser 1997.
24
Halstead 1981, 203; Christakis 2008, 39–44.
25
Christakis 2008, 41–3.
26
Driessen and Macdonald 1997, 185; Bradfer-Burdet 2005.
27
La Rosa 2002; Christakis 2008, 47–8. Upon reexamina-
tion of selected relevant deposits, Palio (2010) proposed to
date the construction of the Second Palace at Phaistos to a
ripe stage of LM IB.
28
Christakis 1999, 2004, 2005, 2008; Bradfer-Burdet 2005;
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433
about the appearance of the first states on Crete in
the early second millennium B.C.E. By contrast, Late
Minoan storage practices have only recently aroused
interest.28 Concerning the Second Palace period (MM
IIIB–LM IB), a great deal of attention has justifiably
been devoted to the production, use, and consump-
tion of storage containers in both palatial and non-
palatial contexts,29 whereas less common forms of
storage, such as built installations of various kinds,
have attracted less notice. Their importance therefore
has been largely underestimated.30 In this respect, the
LM IA silo complex of Malia appears to be an unparal-
leled example of a storage strategy not well attested on
Crete, despite its having many parallels throughout the
Near East.31 Regardless of possible precedents in the
older underground kouloures, the Malia silo complex’s
technological relation to other, smaller contempo-
rary domestic structures, such as built enclosures and
doorless spaces located in the basements of houses,
remains unexplained.32 The wider social implications
of the presence of such a long-term storage facility at
the site of Malia are elusive as well; its exclusive con-
nection with the palace has been challenged by Dries-
sen and Macdonald,33 who have emphasized the easy
accessibility from the outside and have consequently
envisaged a communal use.
Even with respect to the so-called Final Palatial and
early Postpalatial periods (LM II–IIIB),34 storage strat-
egies are still not well known, for two main reasons.
First, most attention has so far been devoted to the
storerooms of the palace at Knossos, the understand-
ing of which is made difficult by their complicated
building history and contentious date of destruction;35
second, the number of settlements dated to this pe-
riod that have been extensively explored is still small,
and some of them, such as Ayia Triada and Chania,
still await full publication.36
The evidence represented by sealing practices and
written sources in the form of hieroglyphic, Linear A,
and later Linear B documents further complicates the
Privitera 2010.
29
Christakis 1999, 2005, 2008.
30
On this subject, see Graham 1962, 130; Renfrew 1972,
292; Christakis 2008, 14.
31
Strasser 1997, 84–9.
32
Christakis 2008; McEnroe 2010.
33
Driessen and Macdonald 1997, 101; contra Christakis
2008, 50.
34
On the label “Final Palatial,” see particularly Rehak and
Younger 2001, 384; see also Preston 2008.
35
Among the most recent discussions of this subject, see
Panagiotaki 1999; Christakis 2004.
36
Driessen and Farnoux 1997; Preston 2008.
434 Santo Privitera
interpretation of Middle and Late Bronze Age Cretan
storage practices.37 Sealing practices are of great im-
portance for understanding the various administrative
activities directly or indirectly related to storage, but
they seldom offer clues that can be used in identify-
ing the goods stored. Conversely, Linear A and later
Linear B texts enable one to identify the major areas
of interest in the economic activities run by the ad-
ministrative centers. A major caveat in using Linear
A texts is of course the lack of full decipherment, de-
spite that many Linear A ideograms are shared with
Linear B. The recent advances in Linear B studies
have been far more influential in resetting the study
of centralized storage both on Crete and the Greek
mainland in LM/LH IIIA–LM/LH IIIB, since they
have brought about a reevaluation of the Mycenaean
political economy as a whole.38 In the aftermath of the
decipherment of Linear B, Finley drew on Polanyi’s
economic theories to interpret the tablets as evidence
for “a massive redistributive operation” mostly cen-
tered on staple goods (“staple finance”),39 and his view
remained unchallenged for many years.40 Following
Halstead, recent scholarship has stressed the limits
of Mycenaean redistribution and emphasized the in-
volvement of the palaces in a more limited “mobiliza-
tion” of prestige goods (“wealth finance”).41 Against
such a backdrop, even the storerooms located inside
the Mycenaean palaces at Knossos and Pylos have
been convincingly reinterpreted as spaces that func-
tioned hand in hand with administrative departments
located nearby, which dealt with “wealth goods” of a
different nature. This does not mean, of course, that
goods belonging to the “staple finance” system were
not managed by the palaces or that they were only in
the hands of the nonpalatial sector, which consisted
mostly of farming communities.42 It has been noted,
for example, that staples were registered when handed
out during ceremonial feasts.43 Moreover, the discov-
ery inside the palaces of goods that do not appear in
the Linear B texts, such as pulses, obsidian blades, and
vases,44 confirms the highly selective nature and lim-
ited extent of the Mycenaean accounting system and
37
Palaima 1994; Hallager 1996, 2005; Younger 1997;
Schoep 2002; Privitera 2010.
38
Halstead 1992, 1999a; Voutsaki and Killen 2001; Wright
2004, 2010; Nakassis 2010; Privitera 2010.
39
Finley 1957, 135.
40
See, e.g., Renfrew 1972, 296–97; Killen 1985.
41
Halstead 1988, 1992, 1999a; see also Earle 1977; D’Altroy
and Earle 1985, 188; De Fidio 2001.
42
On the economic role of the nonpalatial sector, see, e.g.,
De Fidio 2001; Lupack 2011.
43
Killen 2004; Palaima 2004; Bendall 2007; Lupack 2008;
Nakassis 2010.
44
Halstead 1992; Parkinson 1999; Whitelaw 2001; Nakas-
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[AJA 118
enables one to envisage economic activities that the
palatial administrations probably thought unnecessary
to record when “writing on clay.”45
When reassessed against such a theoretical frame-
work, even the absence of granaries in the Mycenaean
palaces at Knossos and Pylos, not unlike other “infor-
mative lacunae in the archives,”46 may be assumed
to be particularly telling of the palatial management
of staples. In fact, cereals, which are registered in
“harvest tablets” (Knossos only), records of handouts
and monthly rations (Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos), and
“banquet menus” (Pylos),47 could have been stored
in different locations scattered across the Mycenaean
states—situated, for example, along the roads that con-
nected the arable land and the settlements containing
palatial workshops rather than amassed inside or next
to the palaces. In the states run by Knossos and Pylos,
in particular, most granaries and redistributive cen-
ters could have been placed either on the periphery
of the large settlements that surrounded the palaces
or next to outstanding centers in the dependent ter-
ritories.48 On the one hand, the choice of the places
where granaries were built probably depended on
economic factors, such as proximity to major routes,
costs of transport, and the location of places of con-
sumption (including both ceremonial centers, such
as sanctuaries or the palaces themselves, and working
centers). On the other hand, a priori constraints of
an environmental nature certainly affected a granary’s
location, such as the proximity to farmland, climatic
variability, and the nature of the soil. Finally, further
locational constraints related to the farming strategies
of the palaces should not be underestimated; these
strategies may have involved sharecropping with the
village communities,49 as well as the attribution of non-
utilitarian and religious meanings to the stored crops.50
long-term grain storage at late bronze
age ayia triada
The settlement of Ayia Triada (fig. 5) is situated in the
western Mesara plain, the largest arable area on Crete
(362 km2),51 at the western end of an approximately
sis 2010.
45
Van de Mieroop 1997.
46
I borrow the expression from Halstead 1992, 74.
47
Killen 2004, 158–59.
48
For a philological analysis concerning indirect informa-
tion on granaries and storage centers retrieved from both the
Knossos and Pylos Linear B documents, see, e.g., Zurbach
2008, 828; Privitera 2010, 342–43.
49
On sharecropping and palatial strategies in crop cultiva-
tion, see Halstead 1992, 1999b; Killen 1998.
50
Killen 2004; Bendall 2007; Margomenou 2008, 194.
51
Watrous et al. 2004, 29.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete 435

Fig. 5. Plan of Ayia Triada, based on a survey by E. Stefani and B. Salmeri, showing LM I–IIIB building phases and buildings
mentioned in the text: 1, Villa Reale; 2, Casa del Lebete; 3, Bastione; 4, Casa dei Vani Aggiunti Progressivamente; 5, Casa delle
Camere Decapitate; 6, Edificio P/Nord-Ovest; 7, Edificio Ovest; 8, Stoa dell’Agora (adapted from Cucuzza 2003, fig. 2; courtesy
Centro di Archeologia Cretese, University of Catania).

2 km long chain of low hills. The eastern end is occu-
pied by the Phaistos palace. The coastal harbor town
of Kommos is about 6 km to the southwest. Ayia Tria-
da was continuously inhabited from the beginning of
the Early Bronze Age and by MM II already had paved
courts and streets.52 In MM IIIB, at a time when the
palace at Phaistos lay in ruins, a large architectural com-
plex was built (the so-called Villa Reale), which stands
out on Crete on account of its architectural design and
the quality and quantity of finds. Besides yielding wall
paintings and luxury items, this building contained
about 90 storage jars, copper ingots, and the largest
assemblage of administrative Linear A documents so
far known on Crete. Drawing on all this evidence, sev-
eral scholars have recently suggested that for most of
LM I, Ayia Triada represented the main administrative,
political, and religious venue in the western Mesara.53
To the north of the Villa Reale, a second assemblage

52
La Rosa 1997, 2010; Cucuzza 2003; Puglisi 2003a. Schoep 2010, 235.
53
La Rosa 2002, 2010; Puglisi 2003a; Christakis 2008;

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436 Santo Privitera
of about 70 tablets was found in the basement of a LM
I building (Casa del Lebete). Among other structures,
a freestanding rectangular building (the so-called
Bastione) was constructed a few meters to the east in
late LM IA, midway between the Villa Reale and the
Casa del Lebete and facing a large open space.54 Sev-
eral scholars have broadly interpreted the Bastione as
a storage and/or workshop facility; the lack of floor
assemblages and the alterations the building under-
went in LM IIIA2 have hampered detailed analysis of
its precise function.55
After a violent destruction by fire in LM IB,56 Ayia
Triada was partially resettled by people who reoccu-
pied a few LM I buildings. Whereas the recent excava-
tions at the site have retrieved LM II pottery in limited
quantity, new building activities in the settlement took
place as late as LM IIIA1 and were followed by substan-
tial rebuilding during LM IIIA2.57 In the northern sec-
tor, in particular, after the slope on which the Casa del
Lebete and nearby structures had formerly stood was
terraced anew, residential and storage buildings were
laid out (Casa dei Vani Aggiunti Progressivamente
and Casa delle Camere Decapitate).58 In fact, it seems
highly plausible to hypothesize that by this time Ayia
Triada played an important role within the settlement
hierarchy of the kingdom of Knossos. In light of this
interpretation, attempts have been made to identify it
with one of two place-names, da-wo or pa-i-to (Phaistos),
both of which are mentioned in the Knossos Linear B
documents.59 It is argued here that identification with
the latter is the most plausible, once one takes into ac-
count (1) that Ayia Triada and Phaistos are only 2.5 km
apart, (2) the lack of building activity in the latter site
in LM IIIA2, and (3) that most Linear B place-names
registered in the Knossos tablets refer to extensive
territories rather than to nucleated settlements.60
The last and most monumental buildings at Ayia
Triada have been dated to a mature stage of LM IIIA2;
at this time, a monumental shipshed was also built at
the nearby harbor town of Kommos.61 These build-
ings hint at Ayia Triada’s plausible role as the capital
of an independent polity in the western Mesara and
indirectly support the LM IIIA2 chronology proposed
for the destruction of the Knossos palace.62 During
this stage, the northern sector of the site underwent
54
Halbherr et al. 1977; Puglisi 2003b.
55
Watrous 1984, 131–32; Bennet 1990, 210; Christakis
2008, 66.
56
Puglisi 2003a; La Rosa 2010.
57
D’Agata 2005; Privitera 2011.
58
La Rosa 2010. On the Casa dei Vani Aggiunti Progressiva-
mente, see Privitera 2011.
59
Chadwick 1976, 54; Bennet 1985; Privitera 2009; La Rosa
2010.
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[AJA 118
a broad reorganization in which it was turned into an
extensive storage area: the Casa delle Camere Decapi-
tate was razed to the ground and partially built over
by Edificio P/Nord-Ovest, and Edificio Ovest was built
down the slope to the west. Furthermore, a large court
was created onto which faced a two-story building that
incorporated eight storerooms entered via a portico, el-
egantly framed with alternating stone pillars and wood-
en columns (Stoa dell’Agora). The site was peacefully
abandoned in a late stage of LM IIIB, and most of its
buildings were systematically cleared out by that time.
The Bastione: Long-Term Grain Storage and
Accountability in LM IB Ayia Triada
The LM IB destruction layer at Ayia Triada has
yielded rich evidence of agricultural storage.63 All in
all, clay storage containers were part of the floor as-
semblages of no fewer than seven buildings. In par-
ticular, it has been possible to point out the presence
inside three of those buildings (Villa Reale, Casa Est,
and Casa del Lebete) of groups of rooms exclusively
or mostly devoted to the short- and medium-term stor-
age of staples. In his recent overview of Ayia Triada’s
storage facilities, Christakis estimated that 41% of the
ground floor of the Villa Reale was used for storage
purposes, housing about 90 clay containers for an over-
all capacity of 30,000–33,000 liters.64 No fewer than 30
storage vessels, moreover, were found inside the Casa
Est and Casa del Lebete, providing a capacity of about
3,100–3,600 and 5,100–5,950 liters, respectively. The
archaeobotanical finds and Linear A documents from
the site attest to local administrative practices concern-
ing the movement of staples such as cereals, olive oil,
and figs. The archaeobotanical finds also include a
variety of pulses (e.g., broad beans, lentils, chickpeas,
peas)65 that seem not to have been registered in the
written texts.66 Concerning cereals in particular, sever-
al scholars have emphasized the large quantities of the
crop indicated by the Linear A ideogram 120, which
are comparable to those on Linear B records from the
Mycenaean palaces and accordingly suggest that the
site should be interpreted as a center of a “palatial”
administration rather than as a local estate.67 As noted
by Palmer, this crop can plausibly be identified with
barley rather than wheat.68 According to Palaima, at
60
Bennet 1985; Privitera 2009; La Rosa 2010.
61
Shaw and Shaw 2006.
62
See, e.g., Hatzaki 2005; Macdonald 2005; La Rosa 2010.
63
Halbherr et al. 1977; Christakis 2008, 64–7.
64
Christakis 2008.
65
Halbherr et al. 1977, 51; Follieri 1986.
66
Schoep 2002, 189.
67
Palaima 1994, 319; Schoep 2002, 89.
68
Palmer 1992, 1995; Killen 2004.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete
Ayia Triada barley is listed in 74 entries on 39 tablets;
the total for all entries is 4,148 units, equivalent to ap-
proximately 398,208 liters.69 Despite the possibility that
some tablets could plausibly duplicate the quantities
of goods by listing both incoming and outgoing, a few
substantial entries on seven Ayia Triada tablets seem
to stand out, as they involve quantities ranging from
100 to 976 units of barley, for a total of 3,243 units,
equivalent to approximately 311,328 liters.70 In fact,
such records can be considered particularly telling of
the movements of crops dealt with by the local admin-
istration and, thanks to comparison with later Linear
B “harvest tablets” from Knossos,71 can accordingly be
interpreted as totaling lists of barley in storage.
Where was all this barley stored? As Christakis has
observed, the single largest entry of about 1,000 units
(ca. 96,000 liters), registered on the Ayia Triada tab-
let HT 102, would have filled 226–254 large storage
jars—that is, more than twice as many as actually found
at the site.72 Of course, it is not necessary to hypoth-
esize that all the barley harvested from the fields in
the western Mesara was amassed in a single locality,
let alone at the very seat of the local administration.
Cereals are heavy to transport and may be subjected
to several threats while in storage (e.g., humidity,
parasites, fires); accordingly, a fitting storage strategy
would consist of keeping them in different locations
close to the centers of production.73 Drawing on the
overall quantity of barley listed on the tablets, both
Palaima and Christakis have estimated that the arable
land under the control of Ayia Triada was about 800 ha,
half of which lay fallow at any one time.74 These are
of course minimum estimates, which do not take into
account the possibility that seeds supposed to be sown
in the year ahead could remain unregistered; in addi-
tion, part of the harvest may have been handed out to
the sharecropping rural communities, as is thought to
have occurred later in the Mycenaean states.75 At any
rate, however, such estimates enable one to envisage
the high possibility that peripheral storehouses did ex-
ist and were scattered over the western Mesara. In this
case, only part of the harvest from the fields located
next to Ayia Triada was probably stored at the site, de-
pending on its final destination. Within the settlement
itself, the Bastione (fig. 6) can plausibly be identified as
a granary for long-term (and possibly airtight) storage.
69
Palaima 1994, 319. It should be recalled, however, that
such an amount can be obtained by arguing that one unit was
96 liters, as has been suggested in the case of the Mycenaean
units (Docs 2, 393–94). Moreover, such an amount would prob-
ably be increased if we could take into account the ill-known
Linear A fractions, which appear on the tablets alongside the
entire units (Montecchi 2009).
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437
Built in late LM IA, the Bastione has a rectangular
plan (15.90 x 10.25 m) and thick walls (up to 1.4 m).76
Internally, it is divided into 12 rooms arranged into
three east–west rows. The only safe entrance from the
outside was placed in the south wall of Room 4, which
perhaps contained a narrow staircase leading to the
upper floor but did not communicate with the other
rooms on the ground floor. It is possible that an ad-
ditional entrance that led directly to the upper floor
was located on the upper terrace adjoining the east
wall of the Bastione. The preservation of a few walls
and the envisaged length of the staircase inside Room
4 enable the ground floor to be reconstructed at ap-
proximately 2 m high. Except for Room 4, the rooms
on the ground floor could be entered only from above,
through trapdoors. Six of them, located in the south-
ern and northern rows, are square (Rooms 1, 2, 3, 9,
10, and 11) with sides 2.8–3.2 m long. The rooms in
the middle row (Rooms 5, 6, and 7) are narrower (ca.
1.5 x 3.0 m) and communicate with the next row of
rooms to the north; Room 12, rectangular, is slightly
larger than the others (2.9 x 4.2 m). The capacity of
the Bastione can be estimated at 160,000–170,000 li-
ters. Alternatively, if the rooms of the middle row were
service spaces, left empty to make it easier to take the
grain out of the nearby spaces, the overall capacity
would be about 140,000–150,000 liters. In either case,
this building would have provided the necessary space
to store the approximately 100,000 liters of barley reg-
istered in Ayia Triada’s tablet HT 102.
Fig. 6. Schematic plan of the Bastione (not to scale), show-
ing room numbers (Privitera 2010, fig. 9).
70
Palaima 1994.
71
See, e.g., Killen 2004.
72
Christakis 2008, 121.
73
Christakis 2008; Nakassis 2010.
74
Palaima 1994; Christakis 2008.
75
Halstead 1992, 1999b; Killen 1998.
76
Halbherr et al. 1977, 210–20; Puglisi 2003b.
438 Santo Privitera [AJA 118

While the inner layout of the Bastione is unparal-

leled on Crete, it strongly recalls several aboveground
Egyptian granaries that are dated to the Middle King-
dom, such as those at Kahun (fig. 7), which were essen-
tially designed as grids of square rooms.77 The Kahun
granaries, whose thick walls were made of mudbrick,
had an outer entrance placed in a single room, while
the inner passages leading to the other inner spaces
were progressively walled in once they had been filled
with grain. It has been hypothesized that the single
storage spaces were loaded from trapdoors in the
roof and that the inner passages were progressively
opened, starting from the outer one, when grain was
taken out.78 The Egyptian granaries are contemporary
with the First Palace period and are therefore older
than the Bastione; as Strasser has stressed, however,
the discovery of Kamares Ware at Kahun and other
Egyptian sites is evidence of contacts between Egypt
and Crete.79 Accordingly, one wonders whether such
contacts could have also entailed the borrowing of
Egyptian technologies, such as those concerning grain
storage, as early as the First Palace period.
By accepting the identification of the Bastione as
a granary, it is possible to bridge an apparent gap in
the evidence concerning agricultural storage at Ayia
Triada. In fact, the building’s key role within the settle-
ment is emphasized by both its impressive masonry and
its proximity to the Villa Reale, which makes it possible Fig. 7. Silo complexes at Kahun, Egypt (after Kemp 1986,
fig. 2).
to consider it an annex of the latter.80 Furthermore,
its location near a large court made it easily accessible
from the outside while providing space to carry out
auxiliary operations, such as drying the grain, putting the LM IB destruction.81 Consequently, it cannot be
it in perishable containers, and eventually loading it ruled out that at least part of the ground floor of the
into the single storage spaces. Drawing on the data Bastione was used as a storage area as late as LM II or
available, it is not possible to shed light on the fate of at any time prior to the general rebuilding that took
the Bastione after LM IB. In fact, the building yielded place at Ayia Triada in LM IIIA2.
no floor assemblages belonging to this phase, nor was
any trace of fire discovered inside it that might show Under and After Knossos: Long-Term Grain Storage in
it was seriously damaged in LM IB, as were the Villa LM IIIA2–IIIB Ayia Triada
Reale to the south and the other houses on the slope Ayia Triada underwent substantial rebuilding activ-
to the west. On the contrary, that it was the only build- ity in early LM IIIA2. Among the structures built at this
ing of the Second Palace period at the site that was time, it is possible to identify an aboveground silo com-
partially restored and enlarged during LM IIIA2 sug- plex—namely, the Casa delle Camere Decapitate (figs.
gests its relatively good condition in the aftermath of 8–10), which was both built and destroyed in LM IIIA2.

77
Kemp 1986; Strasser 1997, 84–7. cate the original east–west size of the building, which was now
78
Kemp 1986, 121–22. divided into two noncommunicating sectors. Conversely, the
79
Strasser 1997, 87. original south wall was pulled down and rebuilt ca. 2 m to
80
Puglisi 2003b. the north. As a result of these alterations, the Bastione took
81
The building activities, which profoundly transformed an elongated, rectangular plan, its east wing now consisting
the Bastione by LM IIIA2, have been analytically dealt with of a large room endowed with a central pier. The inner floor
in Puglisi 2003b, 581–84. In particular, it seems clear that the of the room was laid ca. 2 m above the LM IA ground floor.
structure’s west and north outer walls were still standing and Eventually, a monumental staircase adjoining the north wall
in good condition prior to this phase; in LM IIIA2, the north was built in LM IIIB, which led La Rosa (1997) to envisage the
wall was made longer eastward, so as to substantially dupli- presence on the upper floor of a balcony or a sort of loggia.

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2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete 439

The peculiar name of the building (literally, “House of

the Decapitated Rooms”) dates back to Federico Halb-
herr (who excavated in 1911) and refers to the fact
that its walls were razed when a main open area (the
so-called agora) was laid over it.82 The Casa delle Ca-
mere Decapitate consists of an L-shaped corridor that
divides two groups of three doorless rooms endowed
with thick walls founded directly on the bedrock. It is
a substantial building, 180 m2, whose plan is a com-
bination of a larger rectangle to the east (ca. 20.1 m
north–south x 7.7 m east–west), which incorporates
the corridor and five doorless rooms, and a smaller
rectangle to the west, corresponding to a single door- Fig. 8. Schematic plan of Casa delle Camere Decapitate (not
to scale), showing room numbers (Privitera 2010, fig. 15).
less room (ca. 7.6 m north–south x 3.6 m east–west).
The Casa delle Camere Decapitate was originally laid
out across two superimposed terraces: to the east, the
corridor had its beaten-earth floor at the level of the
upper terrace; to the west and north, the six door-
less rooms made up a basement, which had its floor
placed 1.5–1.8 m deeper than the corridor and was
built aboveground on the lower terrace to the west.
The outer walls, 0.8–0.9 m thick, are preserved only
at the basement level and only on the south, west, and
north sides. The outer walls are not interrupted by
passages. It can only be hypothesized that they were
present on the upper terrace to the east on the east
wall of the corridor, which was razed in late LM IIIA2.
Not unlike the rooms on the ground floor of the LM
IA–B Bastione, the six doorless rooms in the base-
ment can reasonably be interpreted as aboveground Fig. 9. Casa delle Camere Decapitate, from the northeast.
silos for the long-term storage of cereals. Drawing on
the current preservation of the walls, it is possible to
calculate the capacity of these silos: Rooms 1 and 3
(2.50 x 3.70 m and 2.75 x 3.70 m) could contain 18,000
and 19,000 liters, respectively; Room 4 (5.9 x 2.5 m),
about 26,500 liters; each of Rooms 5–7 (3.5 x 3.1 m),
about 15,000 liters. All in all, the basement of the Casa
delle Camere Decapitate could store at least 108,500
liters. This is a minimum estimate, since it cannot be
ruled out that the silos, which were loaded through
trapdoors in their roofs, were originally taller than
they are now. Moreover, it seems plausible that space
on the first floor of the building was also devoted to
short- and middle-term storage of staples. Halbherr’s
excavation daybooks state that fragments of storage
jars were found in the debris thrown inside the door- Fig. 10. Casa delle Camere Decapitate, from the southwest.
less rooms when the so-called agora was laid out.83
Given the scanty data available for early LM IIIA2
Ayia Triada, the role that the Casa delle Camere De- on the one hand, to the LM IB architectural and ad-
capitate played in the local management of staples ministrative evidence from the site and, on the other
can be only tentatively sketched by making reference, hand, to the LM IIIA2 Linear B texts from the palace

82
Cucuzza 2003; La Rosa 2010; Privitera 2010, 105–7. cussed in Privitera 2010, 105–6.
83
The relevant passages of Halbherr’s notebooks are dis-

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440 Santo Privitera
at Knossos. The former allow this issue to be envisaged
diachronically, while the latter highlight the wider
economic and political contexts from a synchronic
perspective, since Ayia Triada was part of the state run
by Knossos, if only for a limited time. Concerning the
architectural and administrative evidence, it seems safe
to consider the Casa delle Camere Decapitate as the
“heir” to the Bastione: the overall capacity of the two
buildings is comparable, all the more so as the capacity
of the Casa delle Camere Decapitate may have been
higher prior to its razing. Both the Bastione and the
Casa delle Camere Decapitate accordingly hint at a
local grain-storage strategy, which seems not to have
been deeply affected by the Mycenaean takeover of
Crete and the formation of the Knossos state in LM II.
As Hayden has observed, estimates of storage capacity
primarily indicate comparable consumption patterns,
rather than provide corresponding estimates of sur-
plus.84 Now, whereas it seems plausible to suggest that
the storage capacity at Ayia Triada underwent minimal
change between the end of LM IB and the beginning
of LM IIIA2, the production of surplus and the exten-
sion of related farmland may indeed have substantially
changed. In fact, we cannot rule out the possibility
that the formation of the Knossos state—despite that
the state was short-lived and accordingly “weak”—en-
tailed a reorganization of central Crete that involved
the creation of administrative districts that correspond
to the place-names registered in the Linear B texts.85
Concerning the Mesara Plain, the Knossos Linear B
tablets attest to the preeminence of two sites: pa-i-to and
da-wo. Both of these sites appear on tablets registering
large quantities of barley. In particular, at pa-i-to, which
as noted above is safely identified with the place-name
“Phaistos,” the Knossos tablet KN E 777 records the
issue of rations to women working as “decorators of
cloth.”86 The large quantity of barley listed (100 units,
corresponding to 9,600 liters) entails the local pres-
ence of a large number of textile workers (possibly
500). Furthermore, if, as it is commonly assumed,87
this is a monthly ration, it then becomes possible to
84
Hayden 1995.
85
Bennet 1985, 1990; Sherratt 2001.
86
On this tablet, see Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 214–15;
Killen 2004, 166–67; Del Freo 2005, 27–8.
87
See, e.g., Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 215; Killen 2004,
167.
88
Bennet 1985, 247; Shaw and Shaw 2006, 874; Privitera
2009. Chadwick (1976) wondered whether da-wo should be
searched for in the eastern Mesara, possibly in the area of
the village of Protoria; there, a mansion dated to the Second
Palace period has been recently identified and partially ex-
cavated. At any rate, it is worth recalling that in the central
Mesara from the Early Archaic period onward (eighth centu-
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[AJA 118
hypothesize that the barley annually stored at pa-i-to
reached 1,200 units, corresponding to about 115,000
liters, an amount that closely matches the capacity of
the Casa delle Camere Decapitate at Ayia Triada. An-
other important storage center was da-wo, as Knossos
tablet KN F(2) 852 lists the hyperbolic “harvest” there
of not less than 10,300 units of barley, corresponding
to about 1,000,000 liters. The location of da-wo has
been much debated over the last 50 years, variously
identified with Ayia Triada, Kommos, or an as yet un-
known settlement in the central or eastern Mesara.88
It has been calculated that da-wo’s “harvest” was the
produce of not less than 20–25 km2, 60 km2 at best, of
farmland.89 Whatever the exact location of da-wo, Ayia
Triada can safely be ruled out, since a territory that
large would have to include the nearby site of Phaistos
to encompass the large amount of land implied by the
Knossos tablet KN F(2) 852.
The Casa delle Camere Decapitate was razed in
late LM IIIA2. This period represents a turning point
in the urban development of Ayia Triada. The north
sector of the settlement was transformed into a sort of
citadel centered on a large court, the so-called agora.
The agora was bordered on the east by a large build-
ing, variously labeled since its discovery as either Stoa
dell’Agora or Stoa del Mercato, which encompassed
a sequence of eight large rectangular rooms entered
via a pillared portico.90 The discovery of fragments of
large storage containers in these rooms attests to their
function as short-term storage areas that were used
throughout late LM IIIA2 and LM IIIB side by side with
a new group of aboveground silos built on the slope to
the west. In particular, a complex of exceptional size,
Edificio P/Nord-Ovest (22.2 x 22.2 m), was built over
the north rooms of the Casa delle Camere Decapitate
and down the slope to the west.91 Drawing on Cucuzza’s
plausible reconstruction,92 the layout of this complex
can be interpreted as a proper Mycenaean-type struc-
ture, the so-called corridor house, consisting of two
sectors divided by a corridor: to the east, a pillared ves-
tibule and a large hall; to the west, two groups of three
ry B.C.E.), there was another first-rate economic and political
venue, the city-state of Gortyn. In the area where the settle-
ment of Gortyn was later located, excavations have uncovered
a monumental building from the Second Palace period (LM
IA–B), the so-called Villa at Kannia-Mitropolis, which yielded
an impressive number of large storage containers (Cucuzza
2009).
89
Bennet 1985, 247; Privitera 2009, 72.
90
La Rosa 1997, 259–61; 2010; Cucuzza 2003, 217–18; Privi-
tera 2010, 111–13.
91
Cucuzza 1997, 2003; La Rosa 2010.
92
Cucuzza 1997.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete 441

and six almost-square, doorless rooms. The masonry is

impressive throughout, incorporating very thick walls
(1.2–2.0 m); the doorless rooms, which match in plan
those of the Casa delle Camere Decapitate (ca. 3 x 3 m),
are anyway much deeper (3.5–4.0 m). Like the Casa
delle Camere Decapitate, they have been built entirely
aboveground on the lower terrace to the west, making
up a basement that was accessed through trapdoors
from above; the upper floor probably had one or more
entrances on the upper terrace to the east. Despite the
lack of floor assemblages, Cucuzza convincingly inter-
preted these spaces as storage areas.93 Considering the
interpretation put forward above concerning both the
Bastione and the Casa delle Camere Decapitate, they
can be identified as built silos, the overall capacity of
Fig. 11. Edificio Ovest, Room f, from the southeast.
which can be estimated at approximately 300,000 liters.
After Edificio P/Nord-Ovest, but still in an advanced
stage of LM IIIA2, one more structure was built on
the lower terrace to the west of the Casa delle Camere
Decapitate—namely, Edificio Ovest (figs. 11, 12), the
abandonment of which can be dated to LM IIIB.94 It in-
corporates six spaces, only two of which (Rooms e and
f) are sufficiently preserved to be identified as quad-
rangular doorless storage rooms; 3.8–3.9 m deep and
slightly smaller than those of Edificio P/Nord-Ovest
(Room e: 1.90 x 2.50–2.75 m; Room f: 1.9 x 3.5 m),
they could contain up to 45,000 liters. The western wall
of Edificio Ovest, conversely, is too ruined to provide
clues as to whether Rooms a, b, and c, which are also
quadrangular, had the same function. At any rate, this
possibility can be safely ruled out for Room b, which
was entered through a regular passage placed on its
east wall. Conversely, it is possible that Rooms a and c
Fig. 12. Edificio Ovest, east–west section through Room f
(3.00 x 2.50 and 3.00 x 2.75 m, respectively) could have
(courtesy Italian Archaeological School at Athens).
been doorless spaces entered from trapdoors; together
they provide a capacity of approximately 60,000 liters.
From the available evidence, it seems safe to con-
clude that, at a late stage of LM IIIA2, 11 new silos (and Knossos regime and was characterized by the presence
possibly 13) were built at Ayia Triada, replacing the six of several independent polities across Crete.95 From
smaller ones of the Casa delle Camere Decapitate. The this perspective, it seems impressive that the overall
overall storage capacity accordingly increased from capacity of the granaries built at Ayia Triada in late
about 100,000 liters to not less than about 340,000 LM IIIA2 closely matches the total quantity of barley
liters (or possibly even 400,000 liters). Furthermore, registered in the local LM IB Linear A tablets. Yet, even
this substantial expansion in long-term storage ca- if it is tempting to hypothesize that the movement of
pacity was enhanced by the construction of the eight crops controlled by the local administration in both
storerooms of the so-called agora, which were devoted LM IB and late LM IIIA2 could have been roughly
to short-term storage. It is understandable that several similar, we must first explain the economic and social
scholars have interpreted the local late LM IIIA2 urban factors that underlay such a concentration of long-
phase against the backdrop of the new political sce- term storage facilities in the northern sector of the
nario, which was brought about by the collapse of the settlement over this comparatively limited time span.

93
Cucuzza 1997, 83. 95
E.g., Cucuzza 2003; Rutter 2005; Preston 2008; La Rosa
94
La Rosa 2010; Privitera 2010, 109–11. 2010.

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
442 Santo Privitera
long-term grain storage and political
economy: interpreting the evidence
Patterns in Long-Term Grain Storage amid Surplus and
Consumption
Cereal storage has long been recognized as primary
evidence of a political economy. Yet the way storage
strategies reflect surplus cannot be generalized, since
they are affected by patterns of production and con-
sumption that are intrinsically related to the varying
degree of socioeconomic inequality inherent in hu-
man societies.96 A major caveat, in particular, is how
surplus is defined. As Halstead stressed, a “normal
surplus” can be envisaged even at a domestic level as
an expected overproduction in response to risk.97 In
complex societies, however, production, management,
and uses of surplus are linked to economic strategies,
which are influenced by societal factors as well as eco-
logical factors.98 In a recent discussion of food storage
in Late Bronze Age Macedonia, Margomenou has
convincingly argued for a more inclusive definition of
surplus, which she has defined as excess production
used to address four major basic needs: “(a) to pro-
tect against environmental or other risks (Halstead’s
normal surplus); (b) to provide the seeds for next
year’s crops; (c) for fodder, and (d) for socio-political
reasons such as conspicuous consumption and public
displays.”99 Within the context of agrarian states of a
limited extent, such as Bronze Age Cretan and Myce-
naean palatial states,100 this definition may be further
widened by incorporating the use of surplus for forms
of payment and remuneration. Such forms included
proper redistribution, including monthly allocations
of rations to dependent laborers and handouts for at-
tached craft specialists and high-status individuals,101
and selective mobilization of resources, encompass-
ing the exchange of staples for both raw materials
and high-value goods (e.g., alum and some textiles
at Pylos) acquired or produced by subjects who were
outside palatial control.102
An inclusive definition of surplus undoubtedly rep-
resents a useful heuristic tool for a general top-down
reappraisal of the variety of storage activities docu-
mented in the archaeological record. In fact, drawing
on the envisaged purposes of accumulating surplus,
attempts at a typology of storage activities have been
made, such as Pfälzner’s scheme of “modes of storage”
(domestic, community, redistributive) and Margome-
96
Halperin 1994; Feinman 1995; Hayden 1995.
97
Halstead 1989.
98
Feinman 1995, 259.
99
Margomenou 2008, 198.
100
Nakassis 2010, 130; Wright 2010, 250–53.
101
Chadwick 1988; Palmer 1989.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
[AJA 118
nou’s comparable but more refined “ideal patterns of
storage distribution,”103 which encompass (1) house-
hold dispersed storage, (2) communally centralized
storage, and (3) regionally centralized storage. By
contrast, it is argued here that the diverse relation-
ships between archaeologically documented storage
areas, surplus, and consumption patterns can be better
highlighted by using a contextual approach in which
one envisages storage as one link in a chain involving
a set of activities that both precede and follow it. In
this view, grain storage inside underground bins and
built silos, encompassing both long-term and proper
airtight storage, merits analysis on its own account,
since it is characterized by well-defined technological
features that hint at specific production and consump-
tion patterns, respectively.104
It is proposed here that the wider economic implica-
tions of centralized long-term grain storage on Crete
can be better understood by making reference to its
co-occurrence along with spaces devoted to short-term
storage and facilities for cereal processing. Further-
more, the economic and social behavior underlying
grain storage is highlighted by the degree of accessi-
bility and visibility of the facilities involved.105 Within
such a framework, it is of some interest to recall the
evidence represented by both the First Palace period
kouloures at Phaistos and the Second Palace period silo
complex at Malia. At both sites, these structures occur
alongside substantial storage areas located inside the
palaces, which have yielded dozens of clay vessels, at-
taining in a few cases a capacity of 1,000 liters.106 Con-
versely, in neither site are food preparation facilities
found next to the alleged grain-storage spaces. More-
over, the location of the latter in the west courts and
next to raised walkways made them accessible and
easily visible to people approaching the palaces from
the surrounding settlements. Such peculiarities prob-
ably hold true also at Knossos, despite that the store-
rooms belonging to the First Palace period have not
been preserved. All in all, it seems possible to point
out a recurrent pattern at these three sites that en-
tails a well-defined storage strategy. On the one hand,
short-term storage took place inside the palaces and
a few outlying buildings, within sectors that were not
given particular visibility and that were provided with
restricted access; the spread of clay vessels allowed
for the storage of both liquid and dry products, the
102
See, e.g., Nakassis 2010.
103
Pfälzner 2002, 261–66; Margomenou 2008, 199.
104
Sigaut 1988; Forbes and Foxhall 1995.
105
Margomenou 2008, 199.
106
Pernier 1935, 277–85; Christakis 2005, 11; 2008, 48–50;
Militello 2012.
2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete
latter of which were sometimes held inside perishable
containers or heaped directly on the floor.107 On the
other hand, both the underground kouloures and the
aboveground silos located in the west courts of the
palaces seem to have been characterized by a higher
degree of visibility. Such peculiarities, while hinting
at important nonutilitarian significations, can serve to
highlight the specific patterns of consumption of the
cereals in storage. In particular, the lack of implements
for processing and cooking cereals, such as grinders,
hearths, and ovens, must be emphasized, since this
lack makes one question the role of the kouloures in
events involving the ritualized consumption of food,
which could have been performed in the large courts
of the palaces on important occasions.108
Interpreting the Ayia Triada Silo Complexes
The silo complexes at Ayia Triada represent impor-
tant evidence for the use in Late Bronze Age Crete of a
specific long-term storage technology over more than
three centuries (the late 16th century B.C.E. through
the late 13th century B.C.E.). In particular, they seem
to confirm the contextual pattern pointed out above
concerning both the underground and aboveground
kouloures, since, like those structures, the silo com-
plexes were highly visible and were placed alongside
one another in open spaces and storerooms devoted
to short-term agricultural storage. Like the kouloures,
moreover, neither grinding implements nor hearths
or ovens are attested in the open spaces next to such
structures, thereby ruling out the possibility that the
cereals stored inside them were intended to be cooked
locally and consumed en masse on important occa-
sions. Yet the relation between the Ayia Triada silo
complexes and surplus remains problematic because
of both the wide-ranging character of the latter and
the long period under examination. In LM IB, in
particular, the discovery at this site of both adminis-
trative documents and archaeobotanical remains has
suggested that the Bastione should be interpreted
as a facility that was devoted to the storage of about
half the barley registered in the local Linear A docu-
ments. Christakis has proposed that the Bastione was
probably the most monumental granary in a group of
several that stored the barley either for the rations of
the dependent personnel registered in the Ayia Triada
tablets or as a reserve in case of need.109
A connection between silo complexes and redistri-
bution can be put forward for early LM IIIA2. It does
107
Renfrew 1972, 291–92; Christakis 2008.
108
Schoep 2010, 231; Militello 2012. It is worth recalling
that, concerning the Second Palace period, Christakis (2011,
203) has convincingly stressed the lack of evidence concern-
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
443
not seem too far-fetched to suggest that at this time,
during which Ayia Triada probably represented the
major storage location of the district of pa-i-to (Phais-
tos), the Casa delle Camere Decapitate could have
stored the barley necessary to feed dependent person-
nel for a full year, such as the textile workers listed in
the Knossos record KN E 777. Conversely, after the fall
of the Knossian state in mature LM IIIA2, the situa-
tion changed; the threefold or even fourfold increase
in the capacity of the silos built at Ayia Triada during
this period cannot simply be attributed to the larger
scale of redistribution. Rather, the increase in capac-
ity probably hints at a more encompassing local eco-
nomic strategy, one that the newborn small agrarian
state centered on this site developed to cope with the
new state of affairs in the western Mesara. This strategy
probably entailed the following:
1. A local pattern of consumption broader in scope
than before, which could reflect the substantial
political shift generated by the fall of Knossos. It
cannot be excluded that the territory controlled
by Ayia Triada was now more extensive and in-
cluded communities that formerly belonged to
nearby administrative districts of the Knossian
state, such as the much-debated da-wo. Accord-
ingly, the use of local silos could have been more
diversified and encompassing than had earlier
been the case, depending on the species of crops
stored (e.g., barley and/or emmer), the envisaged
duration of storage, and the quantity, gender, and
identity of the consumers.
2. Production of a larger surplus. Increased surplus
was an outcome of more intensive exploitation of
farmland, which itself could be regarded as one
more reflex of the new political state of affairs in
the Mesara. In this respect, Halstead has rightly
recalled that the grain-production strategies of
the Mycenaean palaces at Knossos and Pylos were
based on the ownership of many plow oxen as
well as sharecropping with farmers.110 In fact, the
ox-drawn plow played a key role in the develop-
ment of cereal crop cultivation beyond bare sub-
sistence but also required access to large quantities
of fodder. The increase in storage spaces at late
LM IIIA2 Ayia Triada could accordingly be related
to the need to provide fodder for a larger number
of plow oxen than before.
3. The need to amass a larger part of the harvest
as a reserve in case of drought and crop failure,
ing forms of “immediate redistribution” such as that envis-
aged on occasions of communal feasts.
109
Christakis 2008.
110
Halstead 1995, 1999b; see also Palaima 1992.
444 Santo Privitera [AJA 118

which could have become more frequent by late

LM IIIA2 as a result of climatic change in the
Aegean. In fact, Moody has argued that by 1300
B.C.E. summer and winter temperatures probably
increased, generating a hotter and drier climate
than that of the modern Aegean.111 As a reserve
for bad years, centralized storage would have
been considered advantageous, despite the ef-
fort needed to transport large quantities of grain
across the western Mesara plain.
Of course, such explanations for the increase in
long-term grain-storage facilities at late LM IIIA2 Ayia
Triada are not mutually exclusive and can be consid-
ered simplifications of an undoubtedly more varie-
gated situation. It should be stressed, at any rate, that
monumental granaries were built both on and outside
Crete during the Late Bronze Age (16th through 13th
centuries B.C.E.). In recent years, silo complexes of
comparable or even more monumental size have been
excavated in several sites in central Anatolia and on the
Greek mainland. For example, at Hattuša, the capital
of the Hittite empire, an incredibly large silo complex
consisting of 32 doorless rooms was functioning during
the 16th century B.C.E. (fig. 13); its capacity has been
estimated at approximately 8,400,000 liters.112 Whereas
the complex had initially been interpreted within the
framework of redistribution, it was later suggested that
both the absence of grinding facilities and the discov-
ery of humble varieties of cereals, such as einkorn and
two-rowed barley, could hint at its connection with
palace-run animal husbandry.113 As for the Greek main-
land, Iakovidis has published a new storage complex
at Mycenae, the Northwest Quarter (fig. 14), which
was built in the citadel above the Lion Gate not long
after ca. 1250 B.C.E. and destroyed by an earthquake
in LH IIIB2.114 I would suggest that such a complex,
which comprised six large, doorless spaces, along with
blind corridors and backyards, and which was served
by a sophisticated drainage system, was probably a silo
complex, as it is comparable in layout to those of Ayia
Triada. The overall surface of the six doorless spaces
is about 240 m2; their capacity could be estimated at
not less than 700,000 liters. It should be stressed that
at Mycenae, as at Ayia Triada and Hattuša, there were
no implements to process the cereals.
conclusion
The lack of artifacts, archaeobotanical remains,
and administrative documents, which may be due to
Fig. 13. Plan of silo complex at Hattuša, showing room
numbers (after Seeher 2000, fig. 6).
the peaceful abandonment of Ayia Triada, represents
a substantial hindrance to any holistic reconstruc-
tion of the local political economy in LM IIIA2 and
LM IIIB. Despite this lack, a bottom-up approach,
which draws on a comparative insight into the archi-
tectural evidence, can at least help make sense of the
local “staple finance” through the analysis of the silo
complexes. In this regard, in his recent reevaluation of
state finance at Pylos, Nakassis has convincingly argued
that “staple finance” cannot be regarded as an isolated
category but that it should be seen as one point along
a continuum, at the opposite end of which productions
recognized as part of “wealth finance” were located.115
Against such a backdrop, individual states carried out
diversified strategies of political economy, emphasiz-
ing certain types of finance and de-emphasizing oth-
ers. In particular, thanks to its advantageous location
within the largest farming region of Crete (indeed,
one of the largest and most fertile in the Aegean),
Late Minoan Ayia Triada seems to have drawn an
important part of its economic wealth from the ce-
real yield of the surrounding fields. In fact, thanks to
information provided by both the local Linear A re-
cords and the Linear B ones from Knossos, it seems
clear that between LM IB and early LM IIIA2 cereals
were handed out to dependent personnel (who in
LM IIIA2 belonged to the Knossian wool-textile indus-
try), who occupied the opposite end of the local “finance

111
Moody 2005. 114
Iakovidis 2006.
112
Seeher 2000; Seeher and Baykal-Seeher 2006, 45–84. 115
Nakassis 2010, 130.
113
Seeher and Baykal-Seeher 2006, 81–3.

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2014] grain storage and political economy in bronze age crete 445

Fig. 14. Plan of Northwest Quarter at Mycenae (after Iakovidis 2006, fig. 1).

continuum.” The similarities between the under- substantial agricultural surplus, played a key role in
ground and aboveground kouloures on the one hand the formative stage of such a state.
and the silo complexes of Hattuša and Mycenae on the
other with the last and most monumental stage of Ayia department of archaeology and history
Triada’s urban development (late LM IIIA2 and LM of art
IIIB) suggest that, by late LM IIIA2, the silo complexes university of athens
at Ayia Triada stored fodder for plow oxen in addition 157 84 zographou, athens
to storing food for dependent personnel. This increase greece
in capacity should be related to the attempt to set up santoprivitera@hotmail.com
a well-defined palatial farming strategy. We are not
able to say whether this strategy was successful over
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