HERAKLEION TOWN - 2009
General Information
Record ID
1810
Activity Date
2009
Chronology
Key-words
Bath - Basilica - Church - Fortifications - Cistern - Residence - Hearth/Kiln/Oven - Lamp - Tools/weapons - Dress and personal ornament - Architectural revetments - Architectural terracotta - Metal - Bone - Stone - Glass - Religious building - Hydraulic installation - Production/extraction site
Type of Operation
Institution
Localisation
Linked Record
Report
Herakleion town. L. Starida and E. Kanaki (13th EBA) present a synthetic account of new information about the city’s topography and urban development based on work undertaken in 2006-2008 (AEK 1 [2010], 402-13).
Old city walls: sections of the earlier Venetian walls were found in Chandakos Street (where they follow the lines of still earlier Arab and Byzantine fortifications) (Figs 1-3) and in the basements of the Vikelaia Building. Parts of the Voltone Gate were also explored.
Churches: the importance of the identification of Santa Catarina Ruinata in the area of Bedenaki (Fig. 4) is emphasized. The church was in existence by the late 13th or early 14th century AD on the evidence of its wall-paintings. Parts of a strong wall of large isodomic masonry, probably an earlier coastal defence (Fig. 5), were later incorporated into it, and in Venetian times graves were dug through the floor. The eastern part of the Catholic Monastery of Ag. Fragiskos and sundry annexes were extensively excavated. Various cist graves of the Venetian nobility and important members of the monastery yielded valuable goods; a second area was given over to those who died in the course of the siege; and finally, alongside a stretch of the Arab to Byzantine walls to the east lay a later group of vaulted cist graves for Ottoman officers. The complex stratigraphy of a town like Herakleion is well illustrated in a number of recent excavations (Figs 6-8).
On the Ergoexpert plot (Fig. 9), stout lime-plastered walls were unearthed, as well as arch foundations. Successive associated destructions are dated first by plentiful 13th century plain and glazed wares, and then early Venetian glass vases and drinking vessels. Scattered in the levels were coins of the later Byzantine Comnenes, of the Macedonians and 100 of the Arab period. From a depth of ca. 4m, Arab period levels produced good structural remains, glazed and plain ceramics (lamps and vases of Palestinian type) and coins. A unique Islamic-style well is dated by the ceramics and coins on its marble floor. The later walls contain many Roman and late Christian architectural spolia, which are themselves important evidence for the existence of buildings of these periods in this area (at present the earliest structure unearthed is probably late Christian).
On the Kastellis plot, further Arab material included a range of small finds, pottery and many coins of the Emirs of Crete. A thick destruction layer separated this from a cemetery of the second Byzantine period below. This produced 22 tombs of infants, teenagers and women, with much associated pottery, jewellery and other personal ornaments (crosses, belt fastenings, buttons, etc.).
Excavation on the Koubenakis plot (Fig. 10) revealed the first Late Byzantine (12th- to 14th-century) ceramic workshop to be found within the city, with a large quantity of pottery and kiln furnishings, waste and raw products. The later toponyms and a church name attest to the memory of this centre. An important general report by I. Volanakis (13thEBA) in AEK 1 (2010), 55-73, presents comparable evidence from a range of other building plots.
Baths: along Koronaios Road, two bath complexes were excavated in the 1980s and 1990s on the Paravoliasakis (Fig. 11) and Xekardakis properties, and a third in 2008 on the Xenikakis property (Fig. 12). This last preserved parts of the warm rooms, with hypocausts and hot-air flues, thick plaster floors and white-plastered walls with red lines from tiles. Low benches range along the walls; the floors were surfaced in marble. The bath went through phases of re-use and remodelling, as blocked doorways indicate. Among the tumbled debris were marble architectural remains. The plentiful pottery is mostly plain and domestic. An underground cistern (45m3) below the Union of Agricultural Co-operatives building (Fig. 13) was revisited: built into its walls were arches and pillars (often taken from Roman and late Christian structures as attested by a sixth- to seventh-century AD inscription on a base), architectural spolia and part of a Roman statue.
Author
Don EVELY
Bibliographic reference(s)
AEK 1 (2010), 55-73, 402-13
Legend :
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Date of creation
2011-02-09 00:00:00
Last modification
2023-10-06 11:11:40
Picture(s)
Fig. 1/ Early Venetian wall, Koroglou plot.
Fig. 2/ Early Venetian wall, Aggelakis plot.
Fig. 3/ 'Aktarika', wall.
Fig. 4/ Bedenaki: general view.
Fig. 5/ Kastella: general view.
Fig. 6/ Kounalakis plot.
Fig. 7/ St.Paul of the Serviti Order, Giakoumakis plot.
Fig. 8/ St.Paul of the Serviti Order, Aggelakis plot.
Fig. 9/ Ergoexpert plot.
Fig. 10/ Koubenakis plot.
Fig. 11/ Bath, Paravoliasakis plot.
Fig. 12/ Bath, Xenikakis plot.
Fig. 13/ Underground cistern, OANAK (former Co-op Agricultural Union)plot.