CHANIA - 2009

Chania. 43 Kanevaro Street (Mathioudaki property). M. Andreadaki-Vlasaki (Director General of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture and Tourism) discusses the Minoan settlement remains excavated by I. Tzedakis between 1972-1982.

The earliest structure revealed is Neopalatial: large and elaborate, the portion exposed has three rooms on a north-south alignment at the east, and a corridor serving them to their west in which is a doorway opening into a north-south lane at the very west of the plot.

A polythyron hall at the very south belongs to the first construction phase. Of the three sides located, the south set of jambs have recesses cut to take the leaves of the open doors, the others to west and north are formed from dressed sandstone blocks. Immediately to the north is Room A with a floor of fragmented coloured plaster, which may be an open area; north again this gives onto Room B with a staircase at its east side. Room B contained a deposit of conical cups and a few other vessels (70 in total) mixed with large fragments of frescoes and material for making plaster, including four pieces once contained in conical cups. A sard sealstone is decorated with plant motifs in the Talismanic style. There is clear evidence in this area for several later architectural phases within LM I. A paved floor was laid above part of the pot deposit, and elsewhere in Room B a floor of clay and crushed limestone was laid on a deep fill, full of pottery. A new entrance was opened at the west into Room B, as a previous one to Room A was blocked. Further repairs to the floor were made in Room B; pumice laid over this and walls to the north and west was partly covered by crushed limestone. General repairs were carried out at the start of LM IB (1600 BC), before the great fire at its end.

In LM II, the former polythyron hall was cleared and used as a workshop. At the north, a new structure with at least three rooms was erected: a spouted jug was found on an earthen floor. An LM IIIAI Mycenaean building survives best at the north, where the walls of a rectangular room (A1) stand to a considerable height. Two floors of pebbles with later clay repairs are associated with further wall-building, the closing of an entrance to the north, and the creation of a small Π-shaped clay oven accompanied by small stone walls and clay channels. A nearby trial showed that the Mycenaean occupation had numerous structural phases.