Download or read book The Plain of Phaistos written by Harriet Blitzer and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2005-02-01 with total page 773 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Plain of Phaistos presents the results on an interdisciplinary regional field project (1984-1987) carried out on the island Of Crete. This volume traces the changing patterns of settlement and cycles of social complexity from the Late Neolithic period to the present day within the heartland of the state of Phaistos. The authors and contributors publish geological, archaeological, environmental, botanical, historical and ethnographic studies that establish the regional identity of the Western Mesara. Using a combination of empirical, processual and post-processual theoretical approaches, the volume investigates a central problem - how and why did the Bronze Age and Classical states arise at Phaistos?