The organic residues of Mochlos, Crete: An interdisciplinary study of typological and spatial function at an archaeological site

This archaeological project aims to use the most recent techniques in organic chemistry and mapping to better understand typological and spatial function in Bronze Age Crete. Excavations in the Neopalatial settlement at Mochlos in eastern Crete have recovered the complete plan of an intriguing building, C.7. Situated directly behind the modern church of Agios Nikolaos, the structure included nineteen rooms built in several phases during the Late Minoan I period.; Though all the rooms were probably never in use at the same time, the clear diachronic changes to the building portray an interesting picture of Minoan architectural development. Certain repairs to the building are conspicuous, including a series of reinforcing buttresses on the east side. Some rooms appear to have been abandoned during the LM IA/IB transition, including a vat room, while other rooms were clearly remodeled (e.g. storerooms and kitchens) or added (e.g. an impressive work room with a column and two benches) in LM IB. The plan of Building C.7 and the contents of some rooms are unusual, leading us to consider the possibility that the building was not as a typical house but rather some form of manufacturing center.; One path to understanding the various functions of this building is a comprehensive program of qualitative and quantitative organic residue analysis of the well-preserved vessels from C.7. So far, the study has collected samples from more than half of the 200 objects found in six rooms, including a kitchen, two workrooms, storage room, and vat room. This study presents the overall methodology used and specific results produced from the LM I Vat Room---the first of what is expected to be a number of systematic typological and spatial studies of Building C.7 and other areas of the site based on an archaeochemical approach.; It is postulated that the Vat Room was designed for the manufacture of perfumed oils and unguents on an industrial scale. This is not only supported by the architectural features of the room and the general characteristics of the pottery, but also confirmed by the organic residues extracted from the objects.