PAPADIOKAMBOS - 2009

Papadiokambos (Siteia). C. Sophianou and T. Brogan (ΚΔ’ ΕΠΚΑ and INSTAP) report on the excavation of house B1 in the Em. Machairaki plot. Over half of the plan is preserved (the rest having been severely damaged by coastal erosion), with 12 rooms and a staircase (Fig. 1). Room 1 is a large room with a central pillar and the remains of pier and door partitions on two sides. The latter feature may have belonged to an earlier phase and was partially blocked by constructions in the course of Late Minoan I. Room 1 contained two large stone mortars, five jars, a bronze tool, a large basin, and many vessels for storage, cooking eating and drinking. Earlier excavations here found the remains of grapes, and botanical analysis revealed residues of olives, figs, flax and lentils. Room 2, an extension of room 1, contained a bronze chisel as well as objects fallen from the upper floor (a vase imitating stone, a lamp, and a small vase with four gold rings inside: Fig. 2). Room 5 contained 22 spherical loomweights and an object on a built bench that was initially interpreted as a kernos stone. However, since the sizes of the cavities in the stone matched those of the loomweights, it is now interpreted as a device for ensuring that the weights were the correct size. Room 5 also contained a mould for producing earrings. Room 8 contained a large jar and two conical cups; rooms 9 and 10 large numbers of cups; and room 7 a cup and a jug. Finally, room 11 contained a tripod cooking pot sitting on a hearth and other household vessels, together with two pieces of ox-hide ingot, two chisels and loomweights fallen from the upper floor. Late Minoan IIIC burial was placed in the collapse over room 9.