1 Shaw 1973, 2009; Driessen 1982, 1989–1990; McEnroe 1982, 1990, 2010; Preziosi 1983; Driessen and MacGillivray 1989; Palyvou 1990, 2005; Letesson 2013.

2 Darcque 2005, 137. Such denomination, through which Darcque summarises a large dataset about Mycenaean architecture, is equated to the distinction between vernacular vs. polite or innovative architecture generally referred to concerning Minoan architecture. McEnroe 1990; Tzedakis and Chrysoulaki 1997. See also Driessen 1989–1990, 5–6 for a summary.

3 Costin 1989.

4 Shaw 2009, 167–68.

5 Shaw 2009.

6 Shaw 2009, 167.

7 McEnroe 1990, 195.

8 Rudofsky 1965; Rapoport 1969, 4; Driessen 1989–1990, 6; Palyvou 1990, 54–5; Elster 1997, 23; Cahill 2002, 203; Darcque 2005, 137.

9 Rudofsky 1965.

10 Palyvou 1990, 45.

11 Abrams 1994, 43; Erasmus 1965, 283; Aaberg and Bonsignore 1975, 46.

12 Devolder 2009, 198–276; 2013, 11–47.

13 La Rosa 2002, n. 59; Fathy 1970, 18–9, 22–3; Startin 1978, 154; Müller-Beck 1965, 128–33; Cranstone 1971, 132–42; Saraydar and Shimada 1971; Abrams 1994, 46.

14 Pegoretti 1869; Hurst 1886; Rea 1913; DeLaine 1997; Techniques rurales 1971; ECAFE 1957; Abrams 1994, 48; Aaberg and Bonsignore 1975, 46–7.

15 Randall 1953; Stanier 1953; Burford 1963, 1969; Hellmann 1999, to take only a few examples.

16 Such a method already made it possible to analyse the development of Mayan society by considering its institutional complexity as mirrored by the involvement of the population in the construction of the ceremonial centres or by the specialisation of the workforce hired on the building sites, Erasmus 1965, 277; Abrams 1984, 1987. A similar analysis of the architectural sophistication of Sardinian nuraghi supported the hypothesis of chieftainships of various size set in a hierarchical network of relationships, Webster 1991, 841. “The picture that emerges is one that shows these sites forming through a succession of building interventions over many generations, probably undertaken by modestly-sized workforces working only part of the year, when agricultural labour requirements permitted”, Grima 2008, 35. See also Clark 2004.

17 Since this paper was presented, an energetic approach of Neopalatial architecture was published in greater detail in Devolder 2013. Adaptation of the standard costs has occurred, but the interpretation of the results remains substantially the same.

18 The buildings at Klimataria-Manares and Achladia are discussed more extensively in Devolder 2012; 2013, 51–60.

19 Abrams 1994, 48; Mathieu and Meyer 1997, 338.

20 Shaw 1973, 63. One is therefore obliged, when considering the cost of ashlar walls, to consider the volume of stone plus 7.5 % more, at least for extraction and manufacture, and for transport if this occurred before manufacture of the blocks.

21 Fathy (1970, 18) estimated the percentage of mortar within rubble walls to be as high as 23 %.

22 Driessen 1995, 70; Rudofsky 1977, 342; Trigger 1990, 123.

23 Note in the case of the South House at Knossos that early occupation of the area to the south of the palace may have already leveled at least part of the building spot on which the edifice was erected, thus reducing the costs of this task, see Knappett 2003.

24 Fotou had stressed that one category of Minoan buildings was characterised by the adaptation of the topography to the formal and functional characteristics of a more complex plan (Fotou 1990). The so-called great cutting in the Neolithic tell of Knossos was interpreted in a similar way by Evans (1921, 203), and it indeed illustrates the subjection of the landscape to an elaborate architectural concept.

25 “L’implantation, c’est-à-dire la disposition du bâtiment par rapport au sol d’occupation et plus généralement la façon dont il se l’approprie, joue … un rôle essentiel dans l’étude d’un édifice architectural, car elle est au point de départ de ses caractères formels et fonctionnels. C’est la première opération qui précède et affecte le caractère de la construction elle-même”, Fotou 1990, 45.

26 Shaw 2009, 169. Similar comments for a later period in Greece, with Burford who stressed the marked difference in the organization of building projects between city-states according to whether or not the number of inhabitants (the scale of demand) could support a class of specialists, Burford 1963, 27–8.

27 Driessen 1989–1990.

28 McEnroe 1982; Darcque 2005, 139–43, fig. 33.

29 “A wide range of ethnographies … indicates that within agrarian societies, construction is predominantly if not exclusively scheduled for the agricultural off-season (excluding of course situations requiring immediate repair). Within the Copan Valley today, this equates to a period of approximately 120 days … This figure, however, is too high, since the four operations within the overall process of construction are to some degree sequential; that is, there is a necessary temporal delay between component operations. Thus I will reduce the duration of work to a 60-day period for most of the tasks in construction”, Abrams 1987, 490. On the basis of interviews of artisans from Copan, Honduras, the same author expands his estimates: “First, construction in Copan is generally undertaken during the dry season, from January to May. The reasons are rather predictable: dry conditions provide for dry materials and better working conditions, and the agricultural off-season provides the necessary time for scheduling house construction”, Abrams 1994, 43. For the Batammaliba (Togo and Benin): “House construction is generally undertaken each year between the dry season months of December and February”, Blier 1987, 19. Preference for the dry-season is also corroborated by ancient Greek sources, as “… a fourth-century record from Eleusis shows that heavy transport from the quarries, in one instance at least, was done during July and August, the driest time of the year”, Burford 1963, 33.

30 Halstead and Jones 1989; Osborne 1996, 51.

31 We cannot rule out that children who were excluded participated in some of the architectural tasks, such as the collection of water or grasses, for brick-making for example, but the labour costs generated by such tasks appeared to be so insignificant that these were excluded, see Abrams 1994, 52.

32 Naroll 1962.

33 Cook and Heizer 1968; LeBlanc 1971; Castleberry 1974; Clarke 1974; Sumner 1979; Kolb 1985; Brown 1987 and Cameron 1999, summarised by Christakis 2008, 35. These offer a very wide array for the surface area per inhabitant, between 6 m² and 50 m², but up to 100 m² per inhabitant.

34 Allbaugh 1953, 89–90.

35 Whitelaw 2001.

36 “Small house owners probably built their own walls of stone, earth, and mud brick, but sometimes they no doubt required help, perhaps from neighbors or family members, to gather the materials necessary, to position ceiling beams or window frames, or to deliver and drag into place a heavy threshold block for a front door”, Shaw 2009, 167.

37 Palyvou 1990, 45.

38 Estimated living surfaces, i.e. off-walls.

39 Hitchcock 1997.

40 Peregrine 1991, 3.

41 Devolder 2005, 2008, 2013.