KOUMASA - 2013

Koumasa. D. Panagiotopoulou (ASA) reports on continuing excavation in the settlement, cemetery and ‘sanctuary’.

In the settlement, investigation focused on two areas of the large building. At least six strata were revealed, on the basis of which it is argued that the building was erected in Protopalatial times upon the remains of earlier structures, and remained in use into the Neopalatial period.

In the cemetery, work focused on tholos tomb B, which had been looted. Remains of the tomb fill found outside it, where the wall had been breached, produced, in addition to sherds and human bone, small finds including 14 Protopalatial and Neopalatial seals of steatite, ophite or ivory, three human and one animal figure, 145 stone beads, gold and bronze items, fragments of stone vessels and obsidian blades. Undisturbed deposits inside the tomb produced quantities of bone, covered either with ash or heavily burned material, from earlier burials no longer associated with their accompanying offerings. Only a few Early Minoan IIA sherds, a Cycladic marble figurine, beads, a deal, fragments of stone vessels and obsidian items remained.

In the so-called ‘sanctuary’ complex, located at the highest point of the settlement, excavation revealed plastered walls and a paved floor with red-coloured plaster. Twenty centimeters below that floor lay an earlier floor also with coloured plaster. At least four phases of construction and remodelling were observed.