The Kavousi Coarse Wares: A Bronze Age Chronology for Survey in the Mirabello Area, East Crete

This paper presents the results of the Kavousi-Thriphti Survey coarse-ware study. It is argued that coarse utilitarian pottery can be used for dating sites in archaeological survey, and further, that coarse pottery on the surface of any site with a domestic or storage function may represent a wider, and thus more accurate, chronological range than the associated fine wares. Detailed descriptions of 18 coarse fabric types identified in the survey region are presented. Thirteen of these fabrics were determined to be chronologically diagnostic. These fabric types, with their proposed chronological ranges and proveniences, provide sufficient data to begin analyzing the distribution of coarse ceramics in the protopalatial and neopalatial periods. The results lay the groundwork for more detailed petrographic analyses and provenience studies of coarse wares in the Bay of Mirabello.