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An Early Christian Osteotheke At Knossos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

H. W. Catling  and
D. Smyth
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Extract

In January 1974 traces of a built tomb were found in the angle between the Knossos and Fortetsa roads, close to the Venizeleion Hospital (Fig. 1). A bulldozer had been cutting out a driveway on the south side of the Tzatzadakis house, between it and the adjacent olive grove (plan, Fig. 1) when the discovery was made. At the request of Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, a rescue excavation was carried out from 11 to 15 February 1974 by H. W. Catling, for the British School. The trenches were refilled immediately after the excavation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 71 , November 1976 , pp. 25 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1976

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References

Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, for his invitation to undertake the investigation of this site. Richard Catling was site assistant. The work of excavation was carried out by the School's Foreman, Antonis Zidianakis, with the help of Nikos Daskalakis. Pottery and objects were drawn by Elizabeth Catling and Richard Catling. The description of the excavation and the finds is written by H. W. Catling; all the site plans and drawings, including the burial levels in the osteotheke, are the work of D. Smyth. Dr. J. H. Musgrave, Dept. of Human Anatomy in the University of Bristol, has studied the skeletal material and contributed the general account of it in Appendix A, below. The finds are at present stored in the Stratigraphie Museum at Knossos.

1 See PM ii, 547; BSA xxix, 231 and 225, fig. 1.

2 JHS Ixxiv, 166.

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5 The small animal bones have not yet been studied.

6 Knossos Survev, no. 36; BSA lvii, 186–238.

7 BSA lvii, 217–28.

8 There is a considerable literature on Cretan relief pithoi. Similar rosettes occur, e.g. Schäfer, Studien zu den griechischen Reliefpithoi 18, Group III: 41 = Hesperia xiv, pl. XXX: 1; cf. Antike Kunst (1973) 98 ff., pis. 17 and 18. 4; Dädalische Kunst auf Kreta im 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Hamburg, 1970), C.32, pl. 29. Also Ashmolean Visitors’ Report 1969, 16 and pl. III.

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12 Levant ii, 45, fig. 13:9 and 10.

13 Levant iv, 9, fig. 5 and 71–3, describing P. 157 and P. 105.

14 See n. 12.

15 Levant iv, 9, fig. 5, P. 158.

16 AA 1962, 550, fig. 11.

17 Harden, , Roman Glass from Karanis (1936), 167 ff.Google Scholar; Isings, , Roman Glass from dated finds (1957), 111.Google Scholar For examples from a seventh-eighth century site in Cyprus, , Levant iv, 75Google Scholar, fig. 41.

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19 Corinth xii, 249, nos. 2005–2010, pl. 108.

20 Athenian Agora v, N.13, pl. 35.

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22 Musgrave, in preparation.

23 J. L. Angel, The People of Lerna (1971).

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26 Becker, op. cit.

27 Musgrave, in preparation.

28 AR 1972–73, 10–-11.

29 Becker, op. cit.

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36 Brothwell, Digging up Bones (2nd edn.).

37 Personal communication from Professor J. H. Middlemiss.

38 Allison, A. C., BMJ i (1954) 290–301CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sci. Amer, cxcv (1956) 87–94; Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. xxix (1964) 137–49.

39 Howells, Cranial Variation in Man.

40 Comparative data are taken from D. R. Brothwell, Dental Anthropology, 179–90, and Tattersall, I., J. History of Medicine and Allied Sciences xxiii, 380–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Carr, H. G., Man lx (1960) 119–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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