You are invited to an IIHSA Online Lecture on Thursday, May 26th, 2022 at 5.30 pm (Irish time) / 7.30 pm (Greek time) by Dr Anastasia Vergaki (Assistant Director, Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens).

The present study focuses on three Neopalatial settlements of eastern Crete: Pseira, Mochlos and Gournia. It will be suggested that different stages of social development and integration may be observed in each one of them, through the reconsideration of ritual spaces and ritual actions. The latter two factors should be seen as agents of messages, who echo a web of social relationships which form the social milieu during the Late Bronze Age. Gournia includes a so-called palatial building, Mochlos a probable administrative building, whilst specific houses on Pseira seem to compete each other for economic and consequently social hegemony. By having a deep dialectical theoretical background and by applying a contextual analysis on the archaeological data, we can reach at a substantiated suggestion concerning rituals and their repercussions in social organization of prehistoric Crete during the Neopalatial Period.