Regions within Regions

Archaic Crete has always provided a useful counterweight to Athenocentric views of how early Greece developed. This paper's focus is on Crete's epigraphic habits. It proposes that there is a deep-seated connexion between these and other features of its material culture-its austerity, and apparent lack of interest in narrative art. It goes on to compare epigraphic habits in Western, Central, and Eastern Crete. It concentrates on inscriptions from the three known Archaic political communities in Eastern Crete: Azoria, Praisos, and Itanos. They differ as much from each other as they do from the pattern to be found in Central Crete. Insofar as there is an East Cretan pattern, however, it seems in part to relate to a greater interest in figurative art than was the case in Central Crete. Whether this relates to linguistic differences, which seemed to have required modifications to the Cretan epichoric script, is also discussed.