Data from both recent excavation and survey work at the Minoan city of Galatas, which is located in the Pediada in central Crete, allow one to situate an early Neopalatial (ca. 1700-1600 BC) palace in both its urban and rural contexts. Through the employment of Michael Smith's novel approach to analyzing city planning, and consideration of the associated meanings that may be attached to it, it becomes clear that certain elements of the city of Galatas were constructed with a view toward promoting group cohesion, while at the same time emphasizing, maintaining, and enforcing social differentiation. The fact that these were real concerns for those who constructed the city is highlighted by the various changes to the region's sociopolitical and economic framework. The impetus for the construction of the city of Galatas remains little understood, but it is tentatively posited that it was owing to the expansion of Knossos in the early part of the Neopalatial period.
To date, there have been relatively few discussions concerning the nature of Minoan urbanism, especially as it pertains to city planning. Scholars have suggested that Minoan society was not very urban (e. g., Renfrew 1972:242-244), and that if it was, there was little formal organization or planning involved (e. g., Branigan 2001:45; Hutchinson 1950). Those who argue for planning within Minoan cities do so through models emphasizing the presence of street grids (e. g., Cunningham 2001:78-81), or the use of modular planning (e. g., Palyvou 2002; Preziosi 1983), and metrological systems (e. g., Graham 1960, 1987) in the construction of one element of the urban environment, the palace. Perhaps the fact that very few have attempted to assess the urban environment in its totality is not so surprising, given that there has been an almost exclusive focus on excavation of the palaces. This myopic viewpoint has led to a general reluctance among scholars to describe such settlements as cities. I argue that Minoan settlements with palatial complexes were in fact cities because they were
Highly differentiated from their rural hinterlands, yet functionally interconnected to them as they served as the locations for a number of specialized activities ranging from the political to the ideological; many scholars consider these to be defining characteristics of cities (cf. Cowgill 2004:527; Grove 1972:560; Redman 1978:215-216; Smith 2007:4; Southall 1973:6; Trigger 1972). On this basis, I contend that settlements with palatial complexes were cities and that significant parts of these cities were planned by rulers with a view toward promoting specific messages about identity and social status.
D. MATTHEW BUELL
Rapoport (1990:10) argues that parts oF the built environment are actively created in order to reflect social expressions of culture, including groups, family structures, institutions, social networks, and status relations. For Rapoport (1988, 1990) there are three levels of meanings embedded within the built environment, including high-level meanings (cosmological and supernatural), mid-level meanings (identity, status, and power), and low-level meanings (behavior and movement). According to SmIth (2007:30), these three levels provide an appropriate framework for examining both the intentions of rulers and builders, and the effects of city planning on urban visitors and inhabitants. These different levels of meaning are neither independent, nor are they mutually exclusive as two or three levels are often conveyed in cities and their individual buildings (cf. Fisher and Creekmore, Chapter 1 Of this volume; Fitzsimons, Chapter 7 of this volume). I will examine only mid-level and low-level meanings, for high-level ones are difficult to substantiate in the present case study and more generally (Smith 2007:34-35).
Because parts of the built environment convey messages associated with identity and power relationships, it should be understood that certain aspects of a cultural group's ideology are infused within it. The creation, control, and proliferation of ideology serve as important instruments of social stability and change (Miller and Tilley 1984:8; Mumford 2003; Preucel and Meskell 2003; Whitley 1998:17). ThrougH the strategic employment of ideology, here in its materialized sense, elites may use it as a powerful tool to both reproduce and transform their own social roles within society (DeMarrais et al. 1996; Knapp 1988:139). Because specific parts of the built environment are the products of deliberate, strategic planning by certain individuals, personal agency is implieD (cf. Dobres and Robb 2000:8-9). Thus, there is a link between the elites, agency, and power, which is manifested in certain parts of the built environment.
Minoan cities were planned wIth a view toward promoting both mid - and low-level meanings, for buildings and spaces were organized with specific reference (i. e., simple coordination) to one another, a number of buildings were both formally arranged and monumental in scope, and they were often designed with a view toward controlling and restricting both access and visibility. Taken as a group (i. e., simple coordination, formality, and monumentality) these elements of planning may be referred to as coordination among buildings and spaces (Carter 1983; Smith 2007:8). When cities across Crete are compared to each other, a remarkable number of similarities in design, form, orientation, building materials, and, perhaps, even the use of a common metrological system can be noted. In other words, Minoan cities shared a number of standardized features (cf. Ellis 1995; Smith 2007:8). At its most basic level, the presence of a coordination of buildings, along with some degree of standardization, suggests that there was an active program of central planning that was shared among Minoan cities.
THE RISE OF A MINOAN CITY
In light of the foregoing discussion, I argue that Minoan cities were distinct and differentiated from their hinterlands, and that sig-niicant parts of them were planned by specific individuals in order to promote mid-level anD low-level meanings, specifically those that are concerned with group identity and hierarchical institutions. I assess the relative degree of planning using Smith's (2007, 2008) model for ancient city planning. The constituent parts of this model include: simple coordination, formaLity, and monumentality; access and visibility; and standardization amongst a number of other cities within a cultural koine. These units of analysis can then be linked to meaning. The clearest mid-level meanings of ancient cities, for example, are derived from expressions of monumentality and formality, whereas low-level meanings - those that are concerned with the recursive relationship between architecture and behavior - may be analyzed through a study of visIbility and accessibility (Smith 2007:35-37). As is the case for certain elements of Minoan cities, I believe thaT the hinterlands of cities were often reorganized to meet certain demands imposed by the rulers living within cities.
In order to illustrate the claims presented here, I apply Smith's (2007) model for urban planning to the Minoan city of Galatas, which is located in central Crete in the region oF the Pediada (Figure 8.1). Galatas, which has been continuously excavated by G. Rethemiotakis since 1992, presents an excellent case study for
D. MATTHEW BUELL
Figure 8.1 Plan of Crete with study region highlighted (drawn by author).
Investigations of Minoan urbanism, especially those pertaining to city planning, because it was built anew in Middle Minoan IIIA following a period of abandonment in Middle Minoan II (see Table 8.1 For Minoan chronology). As a result of its clear building history, one can fully assess the level of planning and the sociopolitical messages that it conveyed. In addition, the recent survey of Galatas's territory conducted by the State University of New York at Buffalo allows us to expand the scope of analysis to examine how the newly imposed city changed traditional rural lifestyles (Watrous et al. 2014). The survey data suggest that the ruler(s) of Galatas's concern for promoting messages connected to social rank, power, and group identity was very real and that these messages significantly affected the day-to-day lives of people living within Galatas's hinterlands. The integrated excavation and survey data also offer some tantalizing clues as to the identity of those who built the city on the Galatas Kephala (i. e., hilltop). It seems as though the construction of this new city in the Pediada may have been part of a poLitical strategy employed by Knossos as it expanded the scope oF its regional state.
World History
