CHANIA - 2004

Chania. Chania Bank, junction of E. Venizelou and Michelidaki Streets. E. Kataki (ΚΕ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on the excavations conducted in 2003-2004. While most antiquities were destroyed by modern construction, Prepalatial, Classical and Hellenistic structures were preserved in the southwest, northwest and centre-north parts of the plot. Mostly rubbish pits and wells dug into bedrock remained, containing abundant pottery of all periods.

Minoan structures and pits belong to three phases from EM II to MM IA. Stone walls (to two courses high) were either founded on bedrock or set into cuttings in it; floors are of beaten earth, with two possibly open areas paved with stone slabs. In the centre north, the more substantial wall 9 (6.2m long, and some 0.6m wide), set in a considerable foundation trench, is probably the north wall of a building. It is plastered on its interior south face. One MM IA floor at the southwest has traces of a clay hearth and a pithos, perhaps indicating a kitchen. Of the same date at the west is part of a pebbled pathway running north-south. Small finds include beak-spouted jugs, ‘egg-cups’, cups, and basins, obsidian blades and a ‘Neolithic’ stone axe. These discoveries demonstrate the considerable expanse of the Prepalatial settlement, from the Kastelli hill to the north, to the centre of the modern town at the south, and with the present complex at the east.

Geometric (eighth-century) and Archaic into early Classical remains are found only in pits (10 of the 24 excavated), with no structures surviving. Directly over Bronze Age levels, a Classical and Hellenistic building had at least three structural phases (of the second half fourth to late third/early second century). Its walls of worked and undressed stone survive to a height of 0.5m, and its floors are generally of beaten earth. One probably open cobbled court contained a terracotta water pipe, with a small cistern lined with hydraulic plaster nearby. At the southwest several loomweights of different types lay on the floor, suggesting the presence of a loom. Small finds from the building and nearby pits include loomweights and much domestic pottery (amphorae, cooking pots, basins, plates, salt-cellars and lamps. Stamped amphora handles include one example of a potter’s name, ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΑ. Fourth- to third-century figurines of enthroned females are types often associated with shrines or burials. The house is situated at the east of the city: a little further southeast is a likely city wall (including spolia such as Doric column drums) and beyond that the cemetery.

Ottoman fills in the highest levels yielded clay tobacco pipes and glazed ceramics, although since the plot lay just beyond the city walls at this time, no buildings were found.

In 1994, rescue excavation ca.40m away, on the property of the Provolakis heirs (junction of El. Venizelou and Archontaki Streets), revealed a picture very similar to the above, with many pits containing Hellenistic and Roman pottery, and part of a Roman floor mosaic.