LAGOUTAS - Skinias (Kolokithi) - 1997

Lagoutas, Skinias. S. Mandalaki (ΚΓ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the excavation in 1997 of a Neopalatial building (ca.250m²) on a low hill-top, dominating the local plains. The two southernmost rooms had been destroyed by quarrying, and the north exterior wall is also lost (large blocks at the northeast show its line).

The ground-floor was largely used for storage (Room 1, a later addition at the west, plus the series of Rooms 4, 5, 6 and 8, at the east). The main south entrance had a porch with two columns set on terracotta bases, a stone threshold, and a heap of vessels including 35 conical cups. In a remodelling, the columns were incorporated into a rough wall, and the north side closed to create a small enclosed pithos store. A secondary entrance at the southeast gave onto a staircase to the upper storey and gave access to the internal yard and thence the storage rooms. Mudbricks had fallen onto the four preserved treads. A deposit of clay, brick, lime and small stones served as under-floor support for the staircase. Eight large hemispherical cups were found, two decorated with ivy or iris flowers, one with olive spray and another a crocus pattern, while the remaining four were monochrome. Around the foot of the staircase were a further 33 vases, mostly small but including a large cylindrical kados, a tall alabastron with olive spray decoration, two cups with bands of leaves and running spirals, and a conical rhyton. Nearby is a small area with a bench on the north wall.

Room 2 was partly open-air, and Room 7 contains a possible light well. The walls were of local field-stones in earth, and mudbrick; the floors were pebble in earth and there are also remains of flags and cobbles. The external walls are 0.95m wide, the internal 0.5–0.6m, and they stand to around room height: roof debris lay over Room 1 and the southeast areas. Some 900 sherds include ca. 650 conical cups. Decorated sherds are paralleled among LM IB collections from Knossos and East Crete, with one possible Mycenaean (LH IIA or B) squat alabastron from Room 1.

Room 1 is a later addition against the original west wall, sunken in contrast to the main range. It is built of mudbrick, small stones and lime. Despite damage from looters, 11 vases were found on the floor and a further 26 among retrieved fragments (pithoid amphorae, bridge-spouted jugs, spouted tubs, pithoi, amphoriskoi and conical cups). Two large 3-handled kadoi were recovered, one of which has a tall conical lid, and is decorated with white running spirals in white on the red/orange-yellow clay ground. A globular stirrup jar is decorated with arcs and flower motifs. A functional bronze double-axe, three querns and some 20 loomweights were retrieved. The room was entered from the west through a paved antechamber (containing three jugs and a Neolithic axe), and had no internal connections to the main structure. It was a sizeable storage unit, possibly also used for food processing.

Room 7, north of Room 1, is tentatively seen as a lightwell. Five small vases, probably originating in Room 1, include a small two-handled amphora with spirals on the shoulder. On the paved floor of the internal yard to the north of the entrance was a large tripod cooking pot with 11 smaller vases (mostly cups) inside. These too may have originated in Room 1. Three storerooms on the east of the building are accessed from the east side of the yard. Room 4 contained 30 vessels, mostly small cooking jugs plus hemispherical cups, a tub, a tall alabastron and a basin. A stone Bird’s Nest Bowl was also recovered. Room 5 yielded around 100 vases including jugs and basins piled up inside each other, ten bridge-spouted jugs with reed decoration and one with spirals, 38 wide-mouthed jugs, and conical cups. Room 6 had at least 550 conical cups with many more in fragments. At the east side of the room were ten kalathoi, 12 hemi-spherical cups, a bridge-spouted jug and a four-handled pithoid amphora. Room 8, the northernmost of the storage areas, was used for stone vases, two with high pedestalled foot plus parts of other shapes.

The building was destroyed by fire, possibly due to earthquake, in LM IB: no Marine style sherds were found. The structure was used for the storage and processing of foodstuffs (though the four pithoi present suggests short-term or small-scale storage), cooking and food consumption. Ritual activity, cloth-making, woodworking and similar activities suggest a typical Minoan rural villa.