Controversies regarding the historical background of the crisis in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean c. 1200 BC, as well as the consequences of that crisis, continue in academic debates despite the fact that much new evidence has been discovered and published during the last few decades. Among the most important elements of the evidence are defensive sites in Crete, the location of which helps to indicate the factors behind the collapse of the earlier settlement pattern. This book’s aims, therefore, are to update the basis of evidence and to present an analysis of settlement changes in Crete between c. 1230 and 900 BC. The arguments made are all supported by archaeological evidence identified and studied by the author. Although the 1200 BC collapse itself has been frequently discussed in the past, very little attention was paid to detailed settlement studies and to the complexity of regional changes during the following centuries which followed the collapse. The proposed explanation of the initial relocations of habitation sites to naturally defensible places, c. 1200 BC, and their later evolution, between 1150 and 900 BC should stimulate further field research in other coastal areas of the Aegean and the East Mediterranean.

Controversies regarding the historical background of the crisis in the Aegean and the East Mediterranean c. 1200 BC, as well as the consequences of that crisis, continue in academic debates despite the fact that much new evidence has been discovered and published during the last few decades. Among the most important elements of the evidence are defensive sites in Crete, the location of which helps to indicate the factors behind the collapse of the earlier settlement pattern. This book’s aims, therefore, are to update the basis of evidence and to present an analysis of settlement changes in Crete between c. 1230 and 900 BC. The arguments made are all supported by archaeological evidence identified and studied by the author. Although the 1200 BC collapse itself has been frequently discussed in the past, very little attention was paid to detailed settlement studies and to the complexity of regional changes during the following centuries which followed the collapse. The proposed explanation of the initial relocations of habitation sites to naturally defensible places, c. 1200 BC, and their later evolution, between 1150 and 900 BC should stimulate further field research in other coastal areas of the Aegean and the East Mediterranean.