PhD Project

Kinship Groups and Social Organisation in Prepalatial Crete: A Perspective from the Settlement of Myrtos Fournou Korifi and the Circular Tomb Cemeteries of Lebena, Southern Crete (26th September 2024)

Supervisor : Dr. Prof. Jan Driessen (UCLouvain, AegIS) & Dr. Charlotte Langohr (F.R.S.-FNRS - UCLouvain, AegIS )

Prepalatial Crete (ca. 3100-1925 BCE) is consensually described as a typical kinship-based society, that is structured after a network of kinship relationships including blood ties, marriage ties, and multiple forms of cultural kinship. However, the poor state of preservation of the Prepalatial archaeological record has forced most scholars to generalise, suggesting either a hierarchical, heterarchical, or egalitarian social structure often following a very categorised analysis of available data. My research aims to overcome those limitations by exploring local kinship structures through an up-to-date, comparative ethnoarchaeological approach to the archaeological evidence. Instead of relying again on a fragmentary set of evidence, this dissertation focusses on two well-published case-studies, the Circular Tomb cemeteries of Lebena in South-Central Crete, and the settlement of Myrtos Fournou Korifi in the southern Isthmus of Ierapetra. Both sites yielded qualitatively and quantitatively outstanding material evidence, enabling studies on local subsistence practices, craft specialisation, domestic and funerary architecture, trading activities, and gathering events in both settlement and funerary contexts, to be associated with kinship groups. The final results provide multiple innovative perspectives on the social organisation of Myrtos Fournou Korifi and Lebena, also with possible implications for the other communities that populated the island in the Prepalatial period.

Education

• 2017-2024, Ph.D. in Art, Art History, and Archaeology, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

• 2012-2015, Master of Arts, with honours, in Archaeology and Cultures of the Ancient World, Università di Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum, Italy

• 2007-2012, Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy

Choice of publications/conferences (5 max.)

• Vendramin D. (2024) Kinship Groups and Social Organisation in Prepalatial Crete: A Perspective from the Settlement of Myrtos Fournou Korifi and the Circular Tomb Cemeteries of Lebena, Southern Crete. Unpublished PhD dissertation (published version in preparation), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (2024).

• Vendramin D. (2024) Broken in two halves. Addressing evidence for Moiety organisation in the fragmented landscape of Prepalatial Crete, in ScapeCon 2022. Towards an Archaeology of Fragmentation in the Aegean Bronze Age, edited by T. Claeys, L. Dautais, R. Dubois, K. Regnier, E. Tsafou, D. Vendramin & D. Wolf. Presses Universitaires de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (2024), p. 9-25.

• Vendramin D. (forthcoming) A contested landscape. Addressing social organisation in the Prepalatial Asterousia (Crete): the Lebena Tombs as a case-study, in No (e)scape? (R)evolutions: in Search of Radical-Scapes in the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the 4th International Post-Graduate and Early Career Scholars’ Conference, 22-25/10/2021, Rethymno-Crete, Greece, edited by E. Chreiazomenou, P. Vlachou & A. Vratsalis-Pantelaios, Archaeopress (forthcoming).

• Vendramin D. (2022) House and settlement disposition as a reflection of kinship relationships. The Prepalatial hamlet of Myrtos Fournou Korifi as a case-study. Presentation offered (contribution #379) at the 28th EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest, 31 August - 3 September 2022. Session #192: Multi-proxy Approaches to Kinship in the Greco-Roman World, organizer Prof. Dr S. Voutsaki.

• Vendramin D. (2022) Filling the background. Moiety organisation in Final Neolithic Phaistos. Presentation offered at the Aegis Day VI Conference, Louvain-la-Neuve, 17 May 2022.