THE LIFE OF BUILDINGS: MINOAN BUILDING DEPOSITS IN AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary. This paper discusses the interpretation of the objects deliberately hidden and sealed up in the structure of Minoan buildings. These building deposits are usually interpreted in terms of religion and ritual but this conventional view may actually be based on fallacious assumptions about the nature of human-environment relations in Bronze Age Crete. The present paper outlines an alternative ecological approach, which allows a degree of sociality between humans and non-human entities, and treats building deposits as an essentially practical means of manipulating the relations between humans and the (built) environment in situations of potential stress. It will be argued that buildings and other artefacts can, in some respects, be understood to live and grow similarly as organisms. Thus, in order to appreciate their significance, Minoan building deposits need to be related to the life-cycle of buildings.