Funerary Ritual and Social Cohesion in Early Bronze Age Crete

Communal ritual in EBA Crete, on present evidence, may have been confined to, or focussed on, cemetery sites. Tomb architecture and funerary behaviour may have been designed to express social identity, and the cemetery sites used to promote social cohesion. In southern Crete a uniform pattern of funerary rites centred on extended family units reveals evidence for limited social differentiation in the EBA. In the north and east of the island a much more varied pattern of funerary behaviour and ritual is observed and appears to be associated with the appearance of some large nucleated settlements, of social differentiation by single family unit, and of the need for some degree of hierarchical social organisation. It is suggested that the relationship between the different social trajectories and the different funerary behaviour of the two regions offers scope for further discussion.