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Travels in Crete, 1962

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

Sinclair Hood ,
Peter Warren  and
Gerald Cadogan
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Extract

These travels occupied us during four weeks of July and August 1962. Our initial intention was not to look for new sites, but to visit those already known, in order to revise the lists in Pendlebury's The Archaeology of Crete (1939).

Crete has perhaps been more thoroughly explored than any other part of Greece. Pashley (Travels in Crete (1837)) and Spratt (Travels and Researches in Crete (1865)) identified many ancient Greek and Roman cities. At the end of the nineteenth century came Evans, and the Italians Halbherr, Mariani, Savignoni, and Taramelli, who began the search for Bronze Age sites continued by Pendlebury, Kirsten, and others between the wars. Much has also been contributed by a series of distinguished Antiquities Officers, I. Hatzidakes, St. Xanthoudides, and Sp. Marinatos; and since the war by N. Platon, whose very full annual reports in Kritika Khronika have provided a valuable record of current excavations and discoveries. In recent years P. Faure has located many new sites in the course of exploring the caves of Crete.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 59 , November 1964 , pp. 50 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1964

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References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are much obliged to the Director of Antiquities for Crete, Dr. St. Alexiou, who kindly provided us with a letter of recommendation for our travels. We are also grateful to Mr. Makres, Epimelete of Antiquities in Rethimno, who gave us helpful information about sites in that area; and to the many guides and companions, whose interest in and knowledge of their local antiquities made the visiting of them enjoyable, and the discovery of their whereabouts comparatively painless. In particular we should like to record our indebtedness to Mr. Stavroulakes of Thronos, to Mr. John Volanakes who accompanied us to the sites round Apodhoulou in the Amari, and to two schoolmasters, Mr. Nicolas Niourakes of Khamalevri and Mr. George Demetrianakes of Mirtos, by whose efforts important new sites have been recognized and relics from them preserved in local collections. Mr. Niourakes gave us two whole days of his time, visiting the sites noted by him around Stavromenos and Khamalevri, and others in the Rethimno area. We are grateful to the Keeper of the Department of Antiquities of the Ashmolean Museum and to Mr. H. W. Catling for access to the Diary and other travel papers of Sir Arthur Evans: to Mr. John Hayes for help in the identification of Roman sherds, and to Mr. Mervyn Popham and to Mr. Vincent Desborough for their opinions on some of the L.M. Ill sherds. We are again grateful to Dr. St. Alexiou for suggesting correct spellings for many of the place-names.

The sherds recovered by us have been placed in the new Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos.

List of abbreviations other than those ordinarily in use in the Annual:

AC — Pendlebury, J. D. S., The Archaeology of Crete (1939).

Arch. Reports for … = Archaeological Reports for…published by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the British School of Archaeology at Athens.

CCO = Boardman, J., The Cretan Collection in Oxford (1961).

EEKS =

Ergon for … = To

FK = Matz, F., Forschungen auf Kreta, 1942 (1951).

GIC = Guarducci, M., Inscriptions Creticae i–iv (1935–1950).Google Scholar

HM = Heraklion Museum.

MMRZ 2 = Nilsson, M. P., The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (2nd edition) (1950).

MP — Furumark, A., The Mycenaean Pottery (1941).

Pashley = Pashley, R., Travels in Crete i–ii (1837).Google Scholar

Spratt = Spratt, T. A. B., Travels and Researches in Crete i–ii (1865).Google Scholar

TDA = Evans, A. J., The Tomb of the Double Axes (1914) (from Archaeologia lxv).

1 The first and last of these journeys were made by all three of us together, the second by S. Hood and P. Warren alone. The photographs are by S. Hood.

2 FK 118 f. BSA xlii (1947), 184 f.

3 e.g. MA vi (1895) 332, fig. 88.

4 Like those from Karfi, , in BSA xxxviii (1937–1938) 129Google Scholar, where they are regarded as spindle whorls, not beads.

5 For a Minoan bronze double axe from the cave, see KK (1956) 421. Cf. Faure, , BCH lxxx (1956) 98Google Scholar, who also claims to have noted Minoan sherds here.

6 The tombs were in a row running west-east on the south side of a modern road. Information from Mr. Makres, who kindly showed us the site.

7 Evans, , PM i, map opp. p. IGoogle Scholar, shows Minoan remains in a position which corresponds to this site somewhat to the east of Perivolia east of Rethimno. But these may be meant for the site already noted by Mariani at Stavromenos (see p. 62).

8 A previous visit by S. Hood to Stavromenos alone.

9 The site at Stavromenos was noted by Pococke, , A Description of the East ii (1745) pt. i, 258Google Scholar n. a. He identified it with ‘Pantomatrium’, although he recorded the name by which the site went as ‘Airio and a tradition of a city called ‘Agria’ (a corruption of ALLARIA?) there.

10 Furumark, MP Mot. 69, 1.

11 Ibid., Mot. 31, often used to decorate vase necks.

12 As ibid., Mot. 64, 9.

13 For a somewhat similar scheme of decoration, see L.M. IB jug from Palaikastro (BSA Suppl. i. 46, fig. 35).

14 As Furumark, MP Mot. 32, 5.

15 The base of a small cup of Roman red glaze shown us by Mr. Niourakes in the school at Khamalevri had a stamp in the shape of a human foot with toes to the right and what appears to be CAMVRI (the AM ligatured) inside it. Mr. John Hayes notes: ‘He is a prolific Arretine manufacturer with a range c. A.D. 20–50. The stamp “in planta pedis” is normal’. On the under side of the base a graffito had been scratched.

16 Cf. Faure, , BCH lxxxiv (1960) 204Google Scholar, who, however, appears to call the whole area on both sides of the stream ‘Palaiokastro’.

17 This might be Minoan, or Archaic like CCO 104–5, pi. xxxvii, no. 485.

18 Possibly from an Archaic animal vase (CCO 105).

19 Height preserved 0·037 m. The head is of red clay with a red burnished surface, and hollow. Mr. Reynold Higgins from a photograph thought that it might be classified as ‘Proto-Daedalic’.

20 These are discussed by Alexiou, , KK xii (1958) 179 f.Google Scholar The fragments we found at ‘Manouses’ were taken to Heraklion Museum.

21 e.g. Katsamba, (PAE 1955, 313Google Scholar, with references to others from Gazi, Gournia, and A. Triadha). Other interpretations of these tubular objects apart from homes for sacred snakes are holders for flowers (AE 1937, 286), or libation vases for a chthonic cult (Nilsson, MMR 2 319). Perhaps they were simply stands for bowls with offerings.

22 BSA xi (1904–5) 8 f., fig. 4. PM ii. 342, fig. 198.

23 Faure, , BCH lxxxiv (1960) 203Google Scholar, uses this name for the whole ridge. His account proceeds along it from north to south, ours from south to north. Our deposit of early sherds appears to be his ‘coupure vers le plateau supérieur' called ὁ τӡαμπακᾶς.

24 Cf. Courby, , Les Vases grecs à reliefs (1922) 227Google Scholar, pl. viiia.

25 These were small, about 0·02 m. in diameter, with the ‘seams’ represented by parallel incisions like lines of latitude, cf. early Corinthian ‘football’ aryballoi (Payne, , Necrocorinthia (1931) 291 no. 638 and n. 1Google Scholar). We saw similar clay balls at 22. SYBRITA, where they seemed to come from a sanctuary at ‘A. Fotini’ (p. 71). Others, some of which appeared to be meant for rattles, were shown us at 17. ELEUTHERNA. A model ball from a tomb on Samo-thrace has ‘seams’ like those of a modern football (Archaeology xii (1959) 168, fig. 8). We are grateful to Mr. Reynold Higgins for drawing this parallel to our attention.

26 Cf. Robinson, and Graham, , Excavations at Olynthus viii. 327 f.Google Scholar

27 Ibid. 337 f. Moritz, , Grain-Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity (1958) 57 f.Google Scholar

28 But PHALANNA may be the city at ‘Onithe’ near Gouledhiana farther north as suggested by Kirsten and Platon (FK 135; cf. KK viii (1954) 510).

29 For the cave here, see Faure, (BCH lxxxii (1958) 515 n. 3Google Scholar; lxxxiv (1960) 205 n. 1).

30 Kirsten (FK 148–9) records the name of this spring and of two other places noted by Pendlebury as ‘Sochora’.

31 We are told that several villages once existed in the area, but they combined to settle at Meronas after a light had appeared leading to the discovery of an icon of the Virgin on the spot where the Church now stands (cf. FK 149).

32 The position on a saddle, across which the road must always have passed, is reminiscent of the sanctuary assumed to exist at ‘A. Fotini’ near SYBRITA (p. 71).

33 Dimensions 0·36×0·25×0·12 m. thick. The other was smaller. Compare the grinding-stones used for making stone axes in France and the British Isles (Lacaille, , AJ xliii (1963) 190f.Google Scholar).

34 Kirsten (FK 27) speaks of rings of the M.M. Ill period now in Rethimno Museum.

35 Cf. Furumark, MP 82, and fig. 22.

36 Cities in Crete have changed their sites and their names have wandered. For instance, KANTANOS in the far west appears to have moved during Roman imperial times from its original hill to the plain by the modern village of Kantanos which preserves its name (GIC ii. 83). Similarly the inland village of Ini in the Mesara evidently gets its name from ancient INATOS which was by the sea at Tsoutsouros. The transfer in this case may date from the period of the Arab invasions (7th-gth centuries A.D.), or later Medieval times. Perhaps ‘Ellinika’ was the Roman successor of the little town on ‘Vigla’ (see below).

37 A bronze double axe from Keratokampos is recorded by Buchholz, Zur Herkunft der kretischen Doppelaxt (1959) 37 (HM 1547).

38 For an early-sixth-century stone lamp from Vianno see CCO 125, no. 544.

39 Faure also claims that the latest sherds collected by him from the settlement were Geometric, (BCH lxxxii (1958) 512Google Scholar).

40 Cf. BSA lv (1960) 9–10, pl. 29, from Karri. But they occur at Knossos from E.M. I onwards.

41 At Amira in 1894 Evans obtained a bronze sword and amber beads from a tomb at Arvi (see p. 92, note 52).

42 Mr. John Hayes writes: ‘I read ‥ ]TI with toes of foot. Stamp “in planta pedis”. Arretine or Italian terra sigillala, A.D. 25–100. I suggest a possible reading CRES]TI; his dates are c. A.D. 20–40.’

43 Arvi is not a village in its own right. The territory west of the stream (including the hamlet of Arvi) belongs to Amira, that east of the stream to Ayios Vasilios.

44 Taramelli, (AJA xvi (1901) 442)Google Scholar mentions a bronze double axe from here. Cf. MMR 2 198; CCO 44 n. 4.

45 But he wrongly accuses Pashley of placing the temple of Zeus here. This Pashley (i. 275 f.) suggests might have been on the rocky mountain range across the gorge from (5) ‘Fortetsa’ to the west. The temple according to Steph. Byz. s.v. was on a mountain. But the site here by the sea near the mouth of the gorge is suitable for a temple, cf. the temple of Apollo at TARRHA near the mouth of the Samaria gorge with a church of the Panagia on it (GIC ii. 305). For the ‘hammer of Zeus’ in the gorge of Arvi, see Trevor-Battye, , Camplng in Crete (1913) 147 f.Google Scholar

46 Our informant, Mr. Demetrios Stefanakis, remembered the visits of Pendlebury and Evans to Arvi. He told us that the Roman relief sarcophagus recovered by Pashley (i. 275 f.; ii. 2 f.) and now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, was found in this area near the church. As a boy he had known the owner of the land where the sarco phagus came to light. When the owner was asked by Pashley what he wanted for the sarcophagus he replied, only gun powder with which to fight the Turks.

47 BSA lvii (1962), 186–238. A similar church in a cemetery area has recently been explored at Corinth (Ergon for 1961, 130 f.; 1962, 81 f.).

48 Evąns, Unless (AJA xi (1896) 465)Google Scholar, when he speaks of ‘other traces of early habitation’ below (5) ‘Fortetsa’, is thinking of this site.

49 For M.M. defence walls, see now Mallia (Études Crétoises xi (1959) 4). Cf. Gnomon xxxiii (1961) 827.

50 The stone vases published by Evans, in Cretan Pictographs and Pras-Phoenician Script (1895) 112 and 117Google Scholar, figs. 114–19, look M.M.; but the clay pyxis (fig. 101) could be E.M. These finds from Arvi are now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (CCO 168–9).

51 But the steatite pendant which he illustrates (ibid., fig. 16) may be of Iron Age date (Boardman, CCO 125, no. 541)!

52 The tomb was at Arvi, although Evans secured the objects from it in Amira village (Diary 4. 4. 94; cf. AJA xi (1896) 465; PM ii. 174, n. 2). Here Evans describes several amber beads; but later (TDA 43 n. 2) he implies that there was only one. One in the Ashmolean Museum (AE 313) has been analysed by Werner, (BSA liii–liv (1958–1959) 238, 261 f.Google Scholar). Among the beads catalogued under AE 313 is a carnelian lentoid seal.

53 BSA xxxviii (1937–8) 75 f.

54 See p. 91, note 49.

55 JHS lv (1935) 168; AC 121, pl. xx. 3; Hutchinson, , Prehistoric Crete (1962) 166 f.Google Scholar, pl. 14a.

56 As Pendlebury, for instance, believed (AC 121).

57 These heavy clay disks were recognized as belonging to potters’ wheels by Hatzidakes, (AE 1912, 230–1, fig. 39)Google Scholar and Xanthoudides (Essays in Aegean Archaeology (1927) III f.). They are found on sites all over Crete.

58 Evans, , AJA xi (1896) 450.Google Scholar Cf. JHS xvii (1897) 328; PM iv. 232. In Phylakopi (JHS Suppl. No. 4 (1904)) 196, it is suggested that steatite vases from a centre of manufacture somewhere in the Arvi district were being exported to other parts of Crete and to Melos.

59 This is a common E.M. III-M.M. I Shape. Two close parallels come from Mochlos (Seager, Mochlos 71, fig. 4, xix. 3) and Koumasa (Xanthoudides, , Vaulted Tombs of Mesará 20, pl. xxiiiGoogle Scholar, no. 715). The latter is also of breccia.

60 A low type of lamp of this shape without pedestal, but often finely decorated, is regularly found on the major L.M.I sites.

61 These small steatite lids with pawn-shaped handles are usually for Bird's Nest or Blossom Bowls. They are of two main types, those with the underside flat and those with it cut to fit the bowl. This lid (10) is of the former type.

62 Some development of types was noted by Tsountas at Dhimini and Sesklo. See under Axe (2). The collection of stone axes from Ireland, Gothland (Sweden), Denmark, and the Nagada Desert in Egypt in the Museum of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, shows how similar types were invented independently in widely different parts of the world in Neolithic times. Some of the examples are very similar to Cretan axes.

63 The parallels cited are from the Late Neolithic levels at Knossos. It thus becomes clear that these two types at least continued into the Early Minoan period. Cf. Pendlebury, , AC 35, 52.Google Scholar

64 Information from L. H. Sackett.

65 Evans noted gypsum outcrops at Roufas on the north edge of the Mesará, north-east of Phaistos, (PM ii. 80 n. 5).Google Scholar