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J.D.S. Pendlebury's Excavations in the Plain of Lasithi. The Iron Age sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Livingston Vance Watrous
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Extract

John Pendlebury excavated a number of ancient sites in the upland Plain of Lasithi in central Crete (Fig. 1) during the years 1936 – 1938. The prehistoric sites which he excavated were published in this annual before his death in World War II. This article describes the results of his excavations at three Iron Age settlements and their cemeteries in Lasithi.

The three sites – Agios Georgios Papoura, Donadhes, and Kolonna – are located along the northern edge of the Lasithi plain (Fig. 2). The finds from each excavation can be summarized as follows: I. Agios Georgios Papoura: Protogeometric to Archaic pottery from the settlement, and a nearby tomb of the Geometric period; II. Donadhes: a sixth century B.C. pottery deposit from an incompletely preserved building; III. Kolonna: two buildings, the first Archaic in date, and the second a weaving and dyeing establishment of the third century B.C., and a nearby tomb of the Archaic and Hellenistic periods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 75 , November 1980 , pp. 269 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1980

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References

Acknowledgements. Mrs. Mercy Seiradakis (née Money-Coutts) and Dr. Hector Catling kindly invited me to publish the Iron Age material from Pendlebury's excavations in Lasithi. The data contained in this article is derived from Pendlebury's excavation notes and photographs located in the British School of Archaeology at Athens, and from study notes of the sites and artifacts by the author. The author's dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, presently in preparation for publication as a monograph (Lasithi, A History of Settlement on a Highland Plain in Crete) served as a base for the interpretation of the sites and their finds. Of the photographs, Plates 23c-d, 24, 25, 26, 28 (19 & 20), 29, are Pendlebury's; the remainder are by the author. Professor Evelyn Smithson read a portion of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. Mrs. Abigail Camp drew the profiles and plans. My research was assisted in 1976 by a State University of New York Faculty Research Grant.

Abbreviations other than those in general use:

CCO J. Boardman, The Cretan Collection in Oxford, 1961.

Fortetsa J. Brock, Fortetsa, Early Greek Tombs near Knossos, 1957.

PH Preserved Height

All measurements are expressed in metres.

1 Pendlebury, H. and Pendlebury, J., and Money-Coutts, M., “Excavations in the Plain of Lasithi, I.” BSA xxxvi (1935–1936) 5 – 131Google Scholar, and “Excavations in the Plain of Lasithi, II and III,” BSA xxxviii (1937 – 1938) 1 – 145. A summary description of Lasithi appears in BSA xxxvi (1935 – 1936) 5 – 8.

2 Brief reports of these excavations appeared in ILN March 5, 1938, 384ff., and JHS lvii (1937) 140ff. and lviii (1938) 233.

3 Cf. a bibliography of the site in CCO 113 n. 1. Add now Kretika Chronika xii (1958) pl. 13 fig. 1 right, and BCH xci (1967) 130 fig. 10.

4 W. Brice, The Inscriptions in the Minoan Linear Script of Class A, pl. 27 iv 7.

5 Cf. BSA xxxviii (1937 – 1938) 100ff.

6 Ibid. III; I. Pini, Beiträge zur Minoische Gräberhunde, 48ff.

7 ILN (1938) 384.

8 In the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos there is a box of sherds marked 1740 U, Kolonna 3 (Pendlebury's designation for this building) which contains Archaic and Classical sherds. According to the excavation notes, however, the pottery from this building was Archaic. The second building excavated at Kolonna, described below in the text, did produce Classical sherds, which do not appear to be in the museum. Thus, the pottery from the two buildings may have been mixed. Under these circumstances it seems best to publish only the material whose provenance is certain.

9 Rooms 3 – 5 were excavated in 1938. Catalogued objects from 1938 were recorded in the excavation notebook, but there is no record of the digging. The account here comes from notes made by Mrs. Seiradakis during the excavation, and from preliminary notices of the excavation.

10 A similar hearth is known from Dreros, cf. BCH lx (1936) 226ff. and fig. 12.

11 The upper floor is dated to the fifth century B.C. in ILN (1937) 412.

12 Pendlebury suggested a date of ca. 700 B.C. for the construction of the building in ILN (1937) 385.

13 My account is drawn from Forbes, R., Studies in Ancient Technology iv 127 – 143.Google Scholar

14 Cf. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research xxi – xxii (1943) 59 – 62, and AJA lxv (1961) 261 – 266.

15 The objects in PLATE 7 from Kerasa were not located in the museum.

16 Cf. BSA xxxviii (1937 – 1938) 137ff.

17 Mrs. Mercy Seiradakis, who published the pottery from Karphi, in BSA lv (1960) 1 – 37Google Scholar, recalls that several sherds with compass-drawn semicircles were found at the site. Thus, the final abandonment of Karphi may have taken place as late as the early tenth century B.C.

18 CCO 5, and 36 no. 162 (from Italy or Sicily). Two aryballoi in the Herakleion Museum, nos. 2162 (sixth century B.C.) and 2163 (seventh century B.C.) are Corinthian.

19 Athens Annals of Archaeology vii (1974) 209.

20 This can be inferred from the texts of Hellenistic border treaties, cf. Guarducci, M. (Ed.), Inscriptiones Creticae i 16 no. 6Google Scholar, and Kretika Chronika xxi (1969) 1 – 53.