Sisi - 2017

General Information

Record ID

8242

Activity Date

2017

Chronology

Bronze Age - Early Bronze Age - Middle Bronze Age - Late Bronze Age

Key-words

Public area - Cemetery - Public building - Palace - Tomb - Hydraulic installation - Well

Type of Operation

Excavation - Research excavation

Institution

École Belge d'Athènes (EBSA) (Belgian School at Athens (EBSA))

Localisation

Toponym
Sision, Kato Sisi

Linked Record

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2015 201620172018 2019

Report

J. Driessen (Université Catholique de Louvain / EBSA) reports on the 8^th excavation campaign that took place on the Kephali-hill at Sissi (Lassithi, Crete) A large team of experts and students from many Greek and foreign universities continued the exploration of the Minoan settlement and cemetery at Sissi. Much attention focussed on the continuous excavation of the monumental court-centred building on the southeast summit of the hill (fig. 1). Started in 2015, the team finally achieved the clearance of its sizeable plastered central court, which is seen to have a maximum size of 16.50 by 33 m. Several ritual installations – kernos, potential horns of consecration, ash pit, and sacrificial slab - were found on and along this central court, which was directly accessible from the outside to the southwest via a finely paved corridor with ashlar walls (fig. 2). A shallow circular water collection basin, connected to a cistern next to this paved corridor, was episodically filled in with large quantities of pottery, especially drinking vases. The entire complex largely dates to the Neopalatial period, roughly the 16^th c. BC, and was abandoned close in time to the Santorini eruption, ash of which was found within the complex. The excavation further revealed parts of the east and west wings of the complex. Elsewhere on the site, excavation identified an early phase of Mycenaean occupation (end of 15^th c. BC) while, following GPR survey, more areas of the Protopalatial cemetery and the Neopalatial settlement were explored.

Author

Michael Loy

Bibliographic reference(s)

Unpublished field report, EBSA