CHANIA - 2007

Chania. Agios Rokkos. M. Milidakis (ΚΕ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavations within the church in Daskaloyianni Street carried out in 2007 in collaboration with the 28th EBA. Protected by their position, phases elsewhere removed since World War II were here available for study.

The first occupation was in EM II (2600-2300 BC): a stone scatter on bedrock, accompanied by pots of Vasiliki ware. Though a continuous presence was noted thereafter, up to LM IIIC (1200-1100 BC), little can be said of the use of the area. Numerous finds are associated, and two walls of different phases recorded. One hearth was associated with an LM IIIA1 floor – ash, stone tools (pounders and grinders) and limpet shells suggest work or food preparation was carried out here – and another hearth at the same depth and perhaps date was found a little to the west, outside the church. A second hearth, in the same area as the first, is associated with an LM IIIC floor.

A fourth-century BC pit at the northwest extended outside the church: its presence forced the Venetian builders to provide deeper and stronger foundations for the church wall here. Other pits are associated with the preparation of the ground for the construction of the church, and before the laying of the terracotta floor tiles.