|
Knossos
in the island of Crete, Greece, is a multi-period tell site
with a complex depositional and excavation history. Efforts
to preserve the Late Bronze Age 'Palace' at the site and make
it accessible to the public have necessarily impeded the study
of the earlier levels. Indeed, most of the data gathered from
these lower levels is fragmentary and, in its current form,
resists any coherent overall synthesis.
The present paper summarises the results of an attempt to
model the depositional record of the Neolithic and Early Bronze
Age of Knossos on the basis of the recovered evidence using
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The methodological problems
inherent in digital stratigraphic reconstruction of complex
multi-period tell sites are discussed and the ensuing picture
assessed.
Finally, the analytical value of such reconstructions is explored
further, in relation to demographic modelling of multi-phase
sites via the concept of packed house volume (PHV).
Key words: Knossos, tell, GIS, stratigraphic reconstruction,
packed house volume (PHV)
|
