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Sixteen leading scholars in Minoan archaeology discuss how our understanding of Minoan society and settlement patterns has developed through the examination of many aspects of material culture, mortuary practices, field survey and osteoarchaeological analysis.

Food and drink, along with the material culture involved in their consumption, can signify a variety of social distinctions, identities and values. Thus, in Early Minoan Knossos, tableware was used to emphasize the difference between the host and the guests, and at Mycenaean Pylos the status of banqueters was declared as much by the places assigned to them as by the quality of the vessles form which they ate and drank. The ten contributions to this volume highlight the extraordinary opportunity for multi-disciplinary research in this area.

Beneath the Bronze Age 'Palace of Minos', Neolithic Knossos is one of the earliest known farming settlements in Europe and perhaps the longest-lived. For 3000 years, Neolithic Knossos was also perhaps one of very few settlements on Crete and, for much of this time, maintained a distinctive material culture.

Of Odysseys and Oddities is about scales and modes of interaction in prehistory, specifically between societies on both sides of the Aegean and with their nearest neighbours overland to the north and east.

Understanding of early farming societies in Greece has been revolutionized by major field projects, by the growing application of specialist ''scientific'' studies, and by new approaches to interpretation. This volume reviews the most significant recent field research, ranging from regional survey, through large-scale excavation of an extensive open settlement, to the investigation of caves. Contributors critically evaluate or revise current ideas on the nature of these early societies at a range of scales from the individual to the region.

Innovative new examination of the cultural role of metals in Aegean prehistory.