Cretan Chronicle: An Archaeological Childhood

A memoir of archaeology, identity and family, Cretan Chronicle follows Mary’s childhood between Crete and England, her work with her father Sinclair Hood, and her journey through love, trauma and self‑discovery. Blending myth and memory, it reveals the secrets and complexities of a mid‑20th‑century archaeological life.

Cretan Chronicle: An Archaeological Childhood is about love and stoicism.

As a young child, Mary is uprooted from her home in Crete among an archaeological community and resettles in England. Revisiting Crete each year, Mary begins to assist her father, Sinclair Hood, in his fieldwork. The ruined Palace of Minos transforms from her playground into her workplace. Sinclair struggles to publish excavation reports, preferring to revel in media acclaim. Burying family stories, he wrestles with pacifism and his Anglo-Catholic faith. Mary sets out to study architecture, and mixes pleasure and jealousy in a tangled love triangle with an artist-poet. She must learn to forsake lust, stop working for Sinclair, and figure her way out of her own Labyrinth.

Steeped in the myths of Zeus and his daughter Athena, and born in Greece, but not Greek, Mary interweaves themes of identity, trauma and redemption with stories of fickle deities and the regenerative power of nature. She unearths her archaeological family’s secrets with riveting intricacy to give a unique perspective on her father’s unusual upbringing by a capricious wealthy mother, as well as his loves and career.

Appealing to readers interested in mid-20th century archaeological lives, Cretan Chronicle sparkles with clarity and humour—strengthened and nurtured by the bright Mediterranean sun.

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

• By (author) Mary Van Dyke