Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-5r2nc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T18:05:48.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

PRAISOS V: A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE 2007 EXCAVATION SEASON

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2011

James Whitley
James Whitley*
Affiliation:
School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is a report on the excavations undertaken in 2007 at the site of Praisos in eastern Crete. Three trenches were opened just next to the so-called Andreion or Almond Tree House on the NW slopes of the First Acropolis, excavated by R.C. Bosanquet in 1901. The upper layers of two of these trenches (A-200 and A-300) consisted of re-deposited material of Classical and Hellenistic date, which we infer came from Bosanquet's dump. Material from these upper layers comprised tile, pottery (including numerous examples of Cretan necked cups), loomweights and terracotta plaques with a distinct masculine iconography. Excavation also reached lower Late-Classical–Hellenistic floor levels, on which a number of pithoi survived in situ. Some of these pithoi are considerably older than the floor level, a terminus post quem for which is provided by a bronze coin. The abandonment of these houses must be dated to the final phases of Praisos' occupation, before 146 bc. There is however nothing to suggest that the city itself was subject to a fire destruction. Rather, the city seems to have undergone a forced abandonment followed by deliberate demolition.

Πραισός V: Προκαταρκτική Δημοσίευση της Ανασκαφικής Περιόδου 2007

Αυτή είναι η προκαταρκτική δημοσίευση των ανασκαφών του 2007 που έγιναν στον χώρο της Πραισού στην Ανατολική Κρήτη. Ανοίχτηκαν τρεις τομές ακριβώς δίπλα στο λεγόμενο Ανδρείο η Οικία της Αμυγδαλίας στη ΒΔ πλευρά της Πρώτης Ακρόπολης, η οποία είχε ανασκαφθεί απο τον R.C. Bosanquet το 1901. Τα ανώτερα στρώματα των δύο τομών (Α-200 και Α-300) αποτελούνταν απο τριτογενές υλικό χρονολογούμενο την Κλασσίκη και Ελληνιστική εποχή, το οποίο συμπεράναμε ότι προήλθε από τα μπάζα του Bosanquet. Το υλικό από αυτά τα στρώματα περιελάμβανε κεραμίδια, όστρακα, (συμπεριλαμβανομένων πολυάριθμων οστρακών από κύπελλα με λαιμό), υφαντικά βαρίδια και πλακίδια από τερρακότα με χαρακτηριστική ανδρική εικονογραφία. Η ανασκαφή έφτασε σε στώματα της Ελληνιστικής-Yστερης Κλασσικής εποχής, στα οποία βρέθηκε αριθμός πίθων in situ. Κάποιοι πίθοι είναι σημαντικά αρχαιότεροι από τα στρώματα στα οποία βρέθηκαν, και για τα οποία ένα χάλκινο νόμισμα παρέχει το terminus post quem. Η εγκατάλειψη αυτών των οικιών πρέπει να τοποθετηθεί στις τελικές φάσεις κατοίκησης της Πραισού, πριν το 146 Π.Χ. Δεν υπάρχει κανένα στοίχειο που να υποδεικνύει ότι η πόλη έπεσε θύμα πυρκαγιάς. Μάλλον, φαίνεται ότι η πόλη έχει υφισταθεί βίαιη εγκατάλειψη και επακόλουθη κατεδάφιση.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 106 , November 2011 , pp. 3 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexiou, St. 1972. “Ανασκαφή εις Αγίαν Πελαγίαν Ηρακλείου”, Athens Annals of Archaeology 5, 230–43.Google Scholar
Alexiou, St. 1975. “Αρχαιότητες καί μνημεία κεντρικής Κρήτης”, Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον, Χρονικά 30, 337–41.Google Scholar
Alexiou, St. 1984. ‘Une nouvelle inscription de Panormos-Apollonia en Crète’, in Nicolet, C. (ed.), Aux Origines de L'Hellénisme: La Crète et La Grèce: Hommage à Henri Van Effenterre (Publications de la Sorbonne, Histoire Ancienne et Médiévale 15; Paris), 323–7.Google Scholar
Beazley, J.D. 1956. Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters (Oxford).Google Scholar
Beazley, J.D. 1986. The Development of Attic Black Figure, 2nd edn, revised by Von Bothmer, D. and Moore, M.B. (Berkeley and Los Angeles).Google Scholar
Boardman, J. 1971. ‘Sickles and strigils’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 91, 136–7.Google Scholar
Bosanquet, R.C. 1901–2. ‘Excavations at Praesos I’, Annual of the British School at Athens 8, 231–70.Google Scholar
Bosanquet, R.C. 1939–40. ‘Dicte and the temples of Dictaean Zeus’, Annual of the British School at Athens 40, 60–77.Google Scholar
Brisart, T. 2007. ‘L'atelier de pithoi à reliefs d'Aphrati: Les fragments du musée Bénaki’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 131.1, 95–137.Google Scholar
Callaghan, P.J. 1978. ‘KRS 1976: Excavations at a shrine of Glaukos, Knossos’, Annual of the British School at Athens 73, 1–30.Google Scholar
Callaghan, P.J. 1981. ‘The Little Palace Well and Knossian pottery of the later third and second centuries bc’, Annual of the British School at Athens 76, 35–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catling, H.W. and Catling, E.A. 1992. ‘The Lamps’, in Sackett (ed.) 1992, 257–322.Google Scholar
Comparetti, D. 1888. ‘Iscrizioni di varie città cretesi (Lyttos, Itanos, Praesos, Knossos)’, Museo Italiano di Antichità Classica II (Florence), 669–86.Google Scholar
Conway, R.S. 1901–2. ‘The Pre-Hellenic inscriptions of Praesos’, Annual of the British School at Athens 8, 125–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietler, M. 1996. ‘Feasts and commensal politics in the political economy: Food, power and status in prehistoric Europe’, in Wiessner, P. and Schiefenhövel, W. (eds), Food and The Status Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Oxford and Providence), 87–125.Google Scholar
Dietler, M. 2001. ‘Theorizing the feast: Rituals of consumption, commensal politics and power in African contexts’, in Dietler, M. and Hayden, B. (eds), Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics and Power (Washington), 65–114.Google Scholar
Dohan, E.H. 1931. ‘Archaic Cretan terracottas in America’, Metropolitan Museum Studies III, 209–28.Google Scholar
Ducrey, P. and Picard, O. 1996. ‘Recherches à Latô VII: La rue Ouest. Habitations et défense’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 120.2, 721–54.Google Scholar
Duhoux, Y. 1982. Les Étéocrétois: Les Textes, La Langue (Amsterdam).Google Scholar
Ebbinghaus, S. 2005. ‘Protector of the city, or the art of storage in Early Greece’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 125, 51–72.Google Scholar
Erickson, B.L. 2000. ‘Late Archaic and Classical Crete: Island Pottery Styles in an Age of Historical Transition, ca 600–400 b.c.’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin).Google Scholar
Erickson, B.L. 2002. ‘Aphrati and Kato Symi: Pottery, continuity and cult in Late Archaic and Classical Crete’, Hesperia 71, 41–90.Google Scholar
Erickson, B.L. 2009. ‘Roussa Ekklesia, part 1: Religion and politics in east Crete’, American Journal of Archaeology 113, 353–404.Google Scholar
Erickson, B.L. 2010. ‘Roussa Ekklesia, part 2: Lamps, drinking vessels and kernoi’, American Journal of Archaeology 114, 217–52.Google Scholar
Forster, E.S. 1904–5. ‘Terracotta plaques from Praesos, east Crete’, Annual of the British School at Athens 11, 243–57.Google Scholar
Gell, A. 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford).Google Scholar
Greco, E., Kalpaxis, Th., Papadakis, N., Schnapp, A. and Viviers, D. (2000). ‘Itanos (Crète Orientale)’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 124.2, 547–99.Google Scholar
Guarducci, M. 1942. Inscriptiones Creticae Opera et Consilio Frederici Halbherr Collectae III: Tituli Cretae Orientalis (Rome).Google Scholar
Haggis, D.C. 2007. ‘Stylistic diversity and diacritical feasting at Protopalatial Petras: A preliminary analysis of the Lakkos deposit’, American Journal of Archaeology 111, 715–75.Google Scholar
Haggis, D.C., Mook, M.S., Scarry, C.M., Snyder, L.M. and West, W.C. 2004. ‘Excavations at Azoria, 2002’, Hesperia 73, 339–400.Google Scholar
Haggis, D.C., Mook, M.S., Scarry, C.M., Snyder, L.M., West, W.C. and Fitzsimmons, R.D. 2007. ‘Excavations at Azoria, 2003–2004 part 1: The Archaic civic complex’, Hesperia 76, 243–321.Google Scholar
Halbherr, F. 1894. ‘American expedition to Crete under Professor Halbherr’, American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts 9, 538–44.Google Scholar
Halbherr, F. 1901. ‘Cretan expedition XVI: Report on the researches at Praesos’, American Journal of Archaeology 5, 371–92.Google Scholar
Higgins, R.A. 1954. Catalogue of the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, 2 vols (London).Google Scholar
Howland, R.H. 1958. Greek Lamps and Their Survivals (The Athenian Agora iv; Princeton).Google Scholar
Ioannidou-Karetsou, A. 1973. “Δοκιμαστική ερεύνα εις Αγίαν Πελαγίαν Ηρακλείου Κρήτης”, Πρακτικά της eν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 1973, 200–12.Google Scholar
Jenkins, G.K. 1949. ‘The Cameron collection of Cretan coins’, Numismatic Chronicle n.s. 9, 36–56.Google Scholar
Kunze, E. 1967. VIII Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Olympia (Berlin).Google Scholar
Lebessi, A. 1971 [1974]. “Αρχαιότητες καί μνημεία κεντρικής καί ανατολικής Κρήτης: Ανασκαφαί”, Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον, Χρονικά 26, 493–501.Google Scholar
Le Rider, G. 1966. Monnaies crétoises du Ve au Ier Siècle av. J.C. (Études crétoises XV; Paris).Google Scholar
Levi, D. 1967–8. ‘L'Abitato di Festòs in località Chálara’, Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni italiane in Oriente 45–6, 55–166.Google Scholar
Levi, D. 1969. ‘Un pithos iscritto da Festòs’, Κρητικά Χρονικά 21, 153–76.Google Scholar
Mollard-Besques, S. 1954. Musée National du Louvre: Catalogue raisonné des figurines et reliefs en terre-cuite grecs, étrusques et romains I: Époques Préhéllenique, Géométrique, Archaïque et Classique (Paris).Google Scholar
Morgan, C., Evely, D., Hall, H. and Pitt, R.K. 2008. ‘Archaeology in Greece 2007–2008’, Archaeological Reports 54, 1–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, C., Evely, D., Hall, H., Pitt, R.K. and Whitelaw, T. 2009. ‘Archaeology in Greece 2008–09’, Archaeological Reports 55, 1–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, R.V. 1952. ‘Type, group and series: A re-consideration of some coroplastic fundamentals’, Annual of the British School at Athens 47, 217–26.Google Scholar
Pashley, R. 1837. Travels in Crete. Vol. I (London).Google Scholar
Pendlebury, J.D.S., Pendlebury, H.W. and Money-Coutts, M.B. 1937–8. ‘Excavations in the plain of Lasithi III: Karphi: A city of refuge of the Early Iron Age of Crete’, Annual of the British School at Athens 38, 57–145.Google Scholar
Perlman, P. 2004. ‘Crete’, in Hansen, M.H. and Nielsen, T.H. (eds), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford), 1144–95.Google Scholar
Prent, M. 2005. Cretan Sanctuaries and Cults: Continuity and Change from Late Minoan IIIC to the Archaic Period (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World vol. 154; Leiden and Boston).Google Scholar
Sackett, L.H. (ed.) 1992. Knossos: From Greek City to Roman Colony: Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion II (British School at Athens supp. vol. 21; London).Google Scholar
Savignoni, L. 1901. ‘Cretan expedition XVIII: Fragments of Cretan pithoi’, American Journal of Archaeology 5, 404–17.Google Scholar
Shaw, J.W. and Shaw, M.C. 2000. Kommos IV: The Greek Sanctuary, Part 1 (Princeton and Oxford).Google Scholar
Svoronos, J.N. 1890. La Numismatique de la Crète Ancienne, 2 vols (text and plates) (Macon).Google Scholar
Vogeikoff-Brogan, N. (forthcoming) ‘Domestic pottery from Trypetos Siteias, Crete’, in Ζ’ Επιστημονική Συνάντηση για την Ελληνιστική Κεραμική, Aιγίο 2005, Athens.Google Scholar
Vogeikoff-Brogan, N., Nodarou, E. and Boileau, M.C. (in press) ‘New evidence for wine production in east Crete in the Hellenistic period: An integrated approach of typology and thin section petrography’, in Facorellis, Y., Zacharias, N. and Polikreti, K. (eds), Proceedings of the 4 thSymposium of the Hellenic Society for Archaeometry, held in Athens 2003 (Oxford), 327–34.Google Scholar
Watrous, L.V. 1980. ‘J.D.S. Pendlebury's excavations in the plain of Lasithi: The Iron Age sites’, Annual of the British School at Athens 75, 269–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, W.C. III 2007. ‘Excavations at Azoria, 2003–2004 part 1: The Archaic civic complex: Appendix 2: Inscribed pottery’, Hesperia 76, 312–14.Google Scholar
Westgate, R. 2007. ‘House and society in Classical and Hellenistic Crete: A case study in regional variation’, American Journal of Archaeology 111, 423–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitley, J. 1997. ‘Cretan Laws and Cretan Literacy’, American Journal of Archaeology 101, 635–61.Google Scholar
Whitley, J. 1998. ‘From Minoans to Eteocretans: The Praisos region 1200–500 B.C.’, in Cavanagh, W.G., Curtis, M., Coldstream, J.N. and Johnston, A.W. (eds), Post-Minoan Crete: Proceedings of the First Colloquium (British School at Athens studies 2; London), 27–39.Google Scholar
Whitley, J. 2006. ‘Praisos: Political evolution and ethnic identity in eastern Crete, c.1400–300 B.C.’, in Deger-Jalkotzy, S. and Lemos, I.S. (eds), Ancient Greece From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Homer (Edinburgh Leventis Studies 3; Edinburgh), 597–617.Google Scholar
Whitley, J., O'Conor, K. and Mason, H. 1995. ‘Praisos III: A report on the architectural survey undertaken in 1992’, Annual of the British School at Athens 90, 405–28.Google Scholar
Whitley, J.Prent, M. and Thorne, S. 1999. ‘Praisos IV: A preliminary report on the 1993 and 1994 survey seasons’, Annual of the British School at Athens 94, 215–64.Google Scholar
Woodward, A.M. 1925. ‘Sparta: The Acropolis: The finds’, Annual of the British School at Athens 26, 253–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wroth, W. 1886. Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum: Crete and the Aegean Islands (London).Google Scholar