NEITHER MINOANISED NOR MYCENAEANISED: KARPATHOS IN THE BRONZE AGE

Abstract

Karpathos forms one of the islands of the Dodecanese, situated in the southeast Aegean along the string of

islands between Rhodes and Crete. It is argued in this paper that Karpathos can provide useful insights into

the processes conventionally termed as ‘Minoanisation’ and ‘Mycenaeanisation’. In the first part of the

paper, we outline recent approaches to Minoanisation and Mycenaeanisation, followed in the second part by

a presentation of the available data that indicate external cultural influence. In the concluding section, it is

proposed that the terms Minoanisation and Mycenaeanisation cannot fully account for the processes

unfolding in Bronze Age Karpathos. Our investigation of the available evidence shows that Minoan cultural

influence on the island did not obliterate local traditions, nor was it fully replaced by the adoption of

Mycenaean cultural practices in the final phase of the Late Bronze Age. It is proposed that the amalgamation

of local, Minoan and Mycenaean cultural traits that characterised Karpathos in Late Minoan/Late Helladic

III, can best be explained as a phenomenon of hybridisation, which underpinned a distinct cultural identity.