Cretan Chronicle: An Archaeological Childhood

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Book One: Idyll

1: Making Marks

2: My Bronze Age Family

3: Down to the Palace, Up to the Villa

4: Thrill of the Chase

5: Round and Round

6: To Market

7: Moving Houses

Book Two: Loving + Leaving

8: Art Makes Permanent

9: Ancestral Footsteps

10: Unto Death

11: Skeletons on the Table

12: War and Peace

13: Doing Archaeology

14: Courtships

Book Three: The Eternal Return

15: Publish or Perish

16: Symbols of Power

17: Are We There Yet?

18: Reprise

19: Aligning Stars

Book Four: Choices

20: Looking for a Stone

21: You Never Know What You’ll Find

22: Stay Out of International Politics

23: Where to Look

24: Follow Your Heart

25: Messara and Monasteries

26: Sitting on a Rock

Book Five: Struggle For Freedom

27: Finding My Passion

28: Christmas Lunch

29: Questions

30: Marbled Cake

31: Resurrection

32: Make Visible

Book Six: Out Of The Labyrinth

33: Mud Glorious Mud

34: Sunsets

35: Pure Joy

36: Weekend Away

37: Postcards

38: Splinted Wings

39: Dancing Out

References

About the Author

Mary Van Dyke was born into an archaeological family and privileged to work with her father, Sinclair Hood, for many years drawing pottery from excavations and helping him record the masons’ marks in the Palace of Knossos, Crete. Mary synthesises research from family archives, scrapbook clippings, conversations and her own journals to recreate vivid scenes and characters from her childhood.

Prior to Cretan Chronicle, Mary published illustrated poems and produced environmental education programmes for schools. She studied architecture at Bristol University, Oxford Polytechnic and University College, London (PhD). Her designs include patchworks and videos about plants, clothes and tin-pan alley music that engage audiences with outdoor beauty.