Greek Artifacts > Minoan Pithoi

Minoan Pithoi

Background

Following the natural disasters of the eruption of Thera the Minoan civilization seems to have suffered depopulation and the loss of specialized workers and centralized political, economic, and social structures. Following with the theme of the collapse of civilization and loss of technologies, the Minoans seem to have lost the ability to create and move massive pithoi food storage containers as well as build and field a massive maritime naval presence in the Mediterranean.

This meant a severe reduction in the economic output of the Minoans and coupled with the disappearance of the Minoan fleets depicted in frescos and other archaeological evidence suggest that there was a major collapse of their civilization. However, the presence of grain behind the production capabilities on the island suggests they still retained some aspects of their culture that led them to have continued trade with Egypt and the rest of the Near East.

Despite these seemingly catastrophic losses the diminished Minoan culture appears to have subsisted for several hundred years after the fact. The evidence the author uses in this article includes archaeological evidence from the sites across Crete as well as evidence from other authors as well. Christakis attempts to study the settlement patterns and showcase a movement from a centralized storage of food to a domestic based one which reflects many of the other changes occurring in Minoan society at the time.

Evidence of food such as cereals, fruits, grain, seeds and olive oil has been recovered in the pithoi clay storage containers. Based on the fact that the pithoi do not seem to have been moved from their original positions it suggests that the inhabitants were merely reusing previously existing structures rather than creating new ones as they lacked the technological means to move them as they once had been able to. Overall there have been 320 houses that have been uncovered across Minoan Crete, however only been 70 houses with food storage containers recovered in them.

There was noted to be three different major types of houses built during this period which offered varying degrees of self-sufficiency based on food storage and food preparations locations. By examining this archaeological evidence it was determined that from the diet for ancient Minoans was around 65-70% grains and cereals, 20-25% cereals, 5-15% oils, meats, wine that amounted to on average 2,583 calories.

It was determined that around 76% of the uncovered 70 houses known as Type III contained low food storage capacity, which could have sustained about 5-6 family members. This would have represented a much smaller family than would have been necessary for sustaining an ancient population even based on later Roman demographics. It was inferred that the this majority of families may have only been able to ensure their food requirements for a single year. However, this does not account for food distributed by the palace or the elite.

The next type of house known as Type II encompassed about 17% of the 70 houses with food storage and contained large enough structures to allow the household to be self-sufficient. At these houses it was uncovered they could feed a family of ten for around eight months. The third type of housing structure known as Type I was the most rare at about 7% and contained the largest food storage containers.

These structures could have supported a family of ten for up to between three and eight years. One interesting thing to note is the decrease between the food storage of the elite versus the regular citizens has decreased to the point where the elite would be unable to distribute their surplus in the time of drought or famine. This would have decreased the political and social status of the ancient Minoan leaders as they would have been able to respond to crises that they were used to being able to handle under the centralized palace system.

Sources

Pithoi and Food Storage in Neopalatial Crete: A Domestic Perspective by Kostas S. Christakis

Artifacts