CHANIA - 2006

Chania. South of the Walls. E. Protopapadaki (ΚΕ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavations in 2006 immediately south of, and outside, the main historical fortification walls on the junction of Karaoli and Demetriou with Katre Streets.

Immediately at the foot of the wall lies a late Prepalatial structure (EM III/MM IA, 2300-1900 BC) with four rooms preserved in an east-west row. Traces of another set of three rooms lie immediately to the south, but are mostly cut away by the Byzantine rampart. The walls are often up to 1m wide, meticulously built and sturdy, and perhaps partly defensive in purpose; the floors are beaten earth. In the absence of doors, these must be basement rooms entered from above. Inside were domestic coarse vessels, mostly open shapes, with a few cups and small jugs in finer fabrics; obsidian debitage was also recovered. The complex was filled in with a mix of soil and pebbles, with plentiful discarded pottery. A tiny section of an LM I paved floor to the northwest is the sole surviving indicator of Late Bronze Age use of the area.