Sissi - 2025

Excavation continued in the south wing, where a series of differently oriented spaces (16.110 to 16.113) were found at a lower level beneath later constructions (Fig. 1), along with several Middle Minoan IIB ceramic deposits. In the northeast wing (Fig. 2), excavations further explored the eastern parts of corridors 6.24 and 6.25, adjacent to a well-preserved plaster floor associated with LM IA ceramics. The exterior eastern wall is only poorly preserved in this area. To the south, space 6.26 was covered by a destruction layer of burnt and disintegrated mudbrick and plaster, sealing pottery including a small jug that confirms the abandonment of this part of the Court Building during LM IA. The area around the northern entrance and façade was also investigated. Immediately east of the northern entrance were two small rooms (6.33–6.34), built against the descending hillside. Their eastern wall functioned as a terrace wall, and large quantities of sherds and stones had been used as fill to create a level surface with the paved northern entrance road. The latest pottery from this fill dates to LM IA. Access to the rooms was blocked at a later stage following a period of abandonment. Beneath the blocking in the west wall of space 6.33, however, a distinct 5–8 cm layer of whitish ash was identified, provisionally interpreted as Santorini tephra. This layer overlay a shallow abandonment deposit above the LM IA floor, repeating a pattern observed elsewhere on the site: the Court Building appears to have been abandoned before the Santorini eruption, with a considerable interval preceding the LM III blocking phase. In space 6.29, part of a destruction layer containing numerous fragments of coloured plaster was excavated. Study for final publication focused particularly on Burial Building 9, the Middle Minoan I–II funerary structure, and Building CD, the Postpalatial complex situated on top of the hill.