Abstract
Studies of the Bronze Age economy have long privileged discussions pertaining to highlystratified, palatial sites over the examination of non-palatial sites. This thesis argues that non-
palatial sites formed complex systems of economic organization, creating conscious alternatives
to palatial systems. The settlement of Ayia Irini on Kea here serves as a case study. The
application of provisioning theory, developed from principles of feminist economics, and
network analysis to Ayia Irini elucidates a complex system of horizontally transmitted
knowledge, which is accessed through the evidence for use of the warp-weighted loom. Textile
production is a form of labor which is understudied in economic research on the ancient
Mediterranean, but it provides a point of access to activity that was performed by members of all
statuses, using technology to which all members of society ostensibly would have had access.
Chapter One discusses the evidence for loom weights at Ayia Irini and identifies the nature of
textile production at the site within the chronological focus of this paper, ca. 1900-1300 BCE.
Chapter Two provides the theoretical framework used to analyze Ayia Irini and argues for the
validity of alternative forms of organization to palace systems. Chapter Three considers Ayia
Irini within its larger network and analyzes the influence of communities of practice on
producers at Ayia Irini. It also uses the site of Phylakopi on Melos as a brief comparative case,
which demonstrates that different approaches to decentralization existed at different sites in the
Bronze Age Aegean.