CHANIA - 2012

Chania. 10 Katre Street (Vakalounaki property). M. Andreadaki-Vlasaki (Director General of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture and Tourism) reports on excavations conducted between 1973-1975. A succession of Minoan structures was found, as well as parts of rooms and a paved floor of Geometric date at the west.

Deep trials showed walls and pavements of First Palatial date (MM I and II), over which Neopalatial buildings were erected in MM III. Parts of three such structures were uncovered, all destroyed by fire at the end of LMIB (ca.1450 BC). In the northernmost house, fallen from the upper storey onto a beaten earth floor, was a Linear A archive (of which other smaller parts have been recovered from nearby plots). There are 72 tablet fragments, 104 small clay discs, 28 facetted clay sealings and 58 simpler ones. The texts refer to animals, finished products and counts of people; the roundels carry inscribed signs and ideograms on their faces (as do the facetted sealings) and have multiple impressions from the one seal on their peripheries. Simple sealings have a single imprint. A vase from an MM III context shows a scene of dolphins that presages typical Marine style/LM IB renditions of the theme. After the fire all the three buildings were repaired and continued in use into LM IIIA1. New constructions in LM IIB and IIIC were detected at the east.