GAVDOS Siopata-Katalymata - 2008

Gavdos. Siopata-Katalymata. K. Kopaka (University of Crete) reports on excavations at Katalymata near Siopata, in the complex of about 450m² explored in recent years.
Its main period of habitation is LBI, when it was destroyed, very probably by an earthquake, and partly burnt. MBA pottery and some architectural remains are also present. This building hosted mixed activities, as shown by its rich contents, whether fallen or in situ. Storage, grinding and pounding, and more specialized industrial work, perhaps related to perfume, metal and pottery manufacture, were certainly among them.
The pottery is mainly locally made and includes pithoi, jars, basins, cooking pots, dishes, jars and many jugs and/or amphorae, but few cups, as well as some small, nicely decorated eye-jugs (Fig. 1) reminiscent of Cyc ones, and at least one small stirrup jar. Local clays are generally soft to medium hard, pale and gritty, and the coarse fabrics recall Cretan oatmeal fabric. Despite its obvious M style, the pottery shows long-lasting and conservative local technical and aesthetic features. Thus, handmade vases and pushed-through handles are dominant throughout the 2nd millennium BC, and there is a clear preference for glossy surfaces, often painted with vivid orange-red colours, and with familiar, repeated motifs (for example, crosses, pairs of spirals, groups of pendent semicircles and wavy lines etc.) which point to a Gavdiot workshop.
Among other finds are small stone vases and several stone and clay lids, a few bronze items, and jewellery, including beads in faience, Egyptian blue, rock crystal, steatite, agate and amethyst (Fig. 2). Two seals have been recovered: a MBIII−LBI ‘talismanic’ seal in veined agate, with a finely executed sailing boat, and a small discoid seal in steatite with random scratching or a cross with filling. All this reflects considerable comfort in the life of the users of the Katalymata building (Fig. 3), and general prosperity in the life of Gavdos; both conditions must be linked to the contemporary cultural acme of Minoan Crete.