Knossos Curator

Dr Kostis Christakis

British School at Athens
Villa Ariadne, Knossos
Herakleio, 71409
+30 281 023 1993

knossoscurator@bsa.ac.uk

Research

My research focuses on the economic and political organization of Bronze Age Aegean, household archaeology, subsistence economy, the production and consumption of storage containers, and the study of Venetian and Ottoman Crete through archival testimonies. I co-direct the excavations at Galatas Pediada and I am responsible, among others, for the publication of the storage sectors of the palace at Knossos and the final publication of the stratigraphy and pottery of the Bronze Age complexes at the sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme, Crete. I have taught in the University of Crete and worked in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Principal publications

Books

  • Christakis, K. S. 2014. The Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite at Syme Viannou V. ΣΗΜΕΙΑ ΚΕΡΑΜΕΩΝ. Potters’ marks from Syme and other sites of Bronze Age Crete (Library of the Archaeological Society at Athens no. 293), Athens: Archaeological Society at Athens.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2008. The Politics of Storage: Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete (Prehistoric Monographs 25) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: INSTAP Academic Press. 
  • Christakis, K. S. 2008. Κρητών επιχειρείν. History and Trade in Crete from Prehistory to the beginning of the 20th century, Heraklion: Chamber of Heraklion. 
  • Christakis, K. S. 2005. Cretan Bronze Age Pithoi: Traditions and Trends in the Production and Consumption of Storage Containers in Bronze Age Crete (Prehistoric Monographs 18) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: INSTAP Academic Press.

Articles peer reviewed & conference proceedings

  • Christakis, K. S.  2018. “The pithoi of King Minos. Potters and potting groups in Late
  • Minoan Knossos” in G. Baldacci and I. Caloi (eds) Rhadamanthys. Studies in Minoan Archaeology in Ηonour of Filippo Carinci on the Οccasion of his 70th Βirthday (BAR IS 2884), Oxford, 189-195.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2016. “From potter’s marks to the potter who marks” in M. Mina, S. Triandaphyllou and Y. Papadatos (eds), An Archaeology of Prehistoric bodies and Embodied Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Oxford, 136-44.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2014. “Communal storage in Bronze Age Crete: re-assessing testimonies” Κρητικά Χρονικά ΛΔ, 201-218. 
  • Christakis, K. S. 2013. “The Syme sanctuary in the transition from the Protopalatial to the early Νeoapalatial period: the evidence of the pottery” in C. Macdonald and C. Knappett (eds), Intermezzo: Intermediacy and Regeneration in Middle Minoan III Crete Villa Ariadne, Knossos, 3-5 July 2008 (British School at Athens Studies 21), London, 169-177.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2012. “Petras, Siteia: political, economic and ideological trajectories of a polity” in M. Tsipopoulou (ed.), Petras, Siteia. 25 Years of Excavations and Studies (Monοgraphs of the Danish Institute at Athens 16), Athens, 205-215. 
  • Christakis, K. S. 2011. “The implications of archaeological deposit formation processes in the study of the domestic sector of Late Minoan IB society” in K. Glowacki and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan (eds), The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete from the Neolithic Period through the Roman Era (Hesperia Supplementary Volume 44), Athens, 213-217.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2011. “Redistribution and political economies in Bronze Age Crete” in FORUM Redistribution in Aegean Palatial Societies AJA 115, 197-205.
  • Christakis, K. S. 2010. “Wine offering to the Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos: the evidence from KN Zb 27” in O. Krzyszkowska (ed.), Cretan Offerings: Essays in Honour of P. M. Warren (British School at Athens Studies 18), London, 49-55. 

Co-authored

  • Rethemiotakis, G. and K. Christakis. 2013. “The Middle Minoan III period at Galatas: pottery deposits and historical implications” in C. Macdonald and C. Knappett (eds), Intermezzo: Intermediacy and Regeneration in Middle Minoan III Crete Villa Ariadne, Knossos, 3-5 July 2008 (British School at Athens Studies 21), London, 93-105.
  • Christakis, K. S. and G. Rethemiotakis. 2011. “Identifying household activities: the case of House 2 at Galatas Pediada, Crete” in K. Glowacki and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan (eds), The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete from the Neolithic Period through the Roman Era (Hesperia Supplementary Volume  44), 177-184.
  • Rethemiotakis, G. and K. S. Christakis. 2011. “Το ανάκτορο και η πόλη στον Γαλατά Πεδιάδος: άξονες και τακτικές επικοινωνίας” Proceedings of the 10th International Cretological Congress, Α2, 233-249. 
  • Rethemiotakis, G. and K. S. Christakis. 2011. “LM I Pottery Groups from the Palace and the Town of Galatas, Pediada” in T. Brogan and E. Hallager (eds), LM IB Pottery: Examining new evidence for relative chronology and regional differences (Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens 11), Athens, 205-227.
  • Rethemiotakis, G. and K. S. Christakis. 2011. “Power strategies and cultural idiosyncrasies: an assessment of the current evidence from the Protopalatial settlement at Galatas, Pediada” SMEA 53, 195-218.