A House on the Hill: Late Bronze Age Pulses and Isotope Agroecology at Knossos Gypsades, Crete

New archaeobotanical and isotopic analyses from the lower Gypsades hill, Knossos provide a detailed snapshot of agricultural practices associated with a modest household during the Late Bronze Age, a few hundred metres to the south of the palace. The discovery of in situ charred concentrations of five pulse crops in a storage room enabled archaeobotanical and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic investigations of the household’s agricultural practices at the time of the fire that destroyed the building. This event took place around the time of or soon after the destruction(s) of the palace. In conjunction with previous archaeobotanical and isotopic investigations at Knossos, particularly those of the Final Palatial Minoan Unexplored Mansion, the archaeobotany and isotope ecology of the Gypsades household illustrate its strategies of resilience under shifting political circumstances and climatic conditions.