MAN OF MANY WAYS - PAPERS IN HONOUR OF PROFESSOR JAN DRIESSEN (ENG) CHARLOTTE LANGOHR

This volume represents a tribute by friends and colleagues to Jan Driessen, a brilliant and inspiring scholar, passionate about archaeology in general and Aegean prehistory in particular. Jan Driessen has led important excavations in Crete at Knossos, Palaikastro, Malia, Myrtos-Pyrgos, and Monastiraki, and most notably has directed the Sissi Archaeological Project since 2007. He also collaborated on projects on Cyprus, at Maroni and Pyla, in Turkey at Sagalassos, and in Syria at Beydar. Organised into eight parts, the diff erent papers speak of Jan's major contributions to various issues in Aegean prehistory and Cretan Bronze Age archaeology. As pointed out by several authors, Jan's scholarship has been peripatetic, covering Linear B epigraphy, architecture, settlement patterns and political geography, social organisation, political structure and crisis studies. Jan's impact in these research fi elds has been groundbreaking, as it has often profoundly altered the conceptual consensus or status quo that predominated in each of them. In particular, several contributions discuss the social confi guration of Minoan society, stemming from his adaptation of Levi-Strauss' House Society model, which signifi cantly reframed our understanding of Cretan Bronze Age collective agencies. A fi nal chapter, written by several members of the Sissi team, is intended as a tribute to the innumerable opportunities Jan gave so generously to members of the Sissi Archaeological Project, fostering new research agendas and paving the way for the future of Minoan archaeology.