PERA GALINOI - 2000

General Information

Record ID

1832

Activity Date

2000

Chronology

Bronze Age

Key-words

Lamp - Tools/weapons - Metal - Minerals - Stone - Religious building - Sanctuary

Type of Operation

Excavation - Research excavation

Institution

ΚΕ' Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων (ΚΕ' ΕΠΚΑ)

Localisation

Toponym
Milopotamos

Linked Record

199920002001 2005

Report

Pera Galinoi. E. Tsivilika (National Museum, Athens) and E. Banou (25th EPCA) report on the second season of excavation on the Minoan peak sanctuary in 2000. The aim was to excavate completely the rooms begun in 1993. Slight subsidence in the schist pavement of room 2 was due to the presence of a small space below (room 2a); this had a medial wall and conical cups on a floor that showed traces of burning. Below room 1 was a similar space (room 3) (Fig. 1), again with a medial wall. The upper fill contained large schist slabs from the ceiling of room 3/floor of room 1. Traces of wood inside the west wall might indicate an access ladder. In lower levels of the fill of the room, alternating red and brown soils may derive from mud-brick. In the southeastern corner, an L-shaped installation of two rows of mud-brick, earth and a plaster coating may perhaps be a couch. Other fittings of mudbrick and phyllite are recorded. It is suggested that this room might be a forerunner of the Lustral Basin; a lamp was found and, on the floor, two conical cups. Room 6 yielded a whitewashed earthen bench on its southern and western walls. On it and the paved floor were conical cups. Room 8 held a broad staircase (over 2m wide) with nine steps and three landings. Room 8a continues the sloping arrangement of the architecture to the southeast: at the east is a paved corridor. By means of a pair of steps it links the stairs of room 8 to the west with yet another stairway to the south. This stairway, with five steps, is defined by walls on its two sides, much damaged by an earthquake. The fill on the stairs produced traces of fire (carbon and ash) and much pottery (cooking wares, tripod pots, conical and one-handled cups, as well as a Kamares-style piece with white banding). Also present are animal bones, agrimi horns, jaws and teeth, seashells and urchin spines. Plaster is mostly left white, but there is evidence of solid red and brown, as well as some polychromy. Lastly, metal finds include bronze tools (points and fishhooks) and gold foil. Southwest lies room 8b with a similar fill and finds. Room 12 (Fig. 2) is a double narrow corridor, with walls at times 2m high, with the western side covered in lime plaster; finds include a clay rhyton, conical cups and two stone offering tables. It is noted that various openings in this room had been bricked up and plastered over.

Author

Don EVELY

Bibliographic reference(s)

ADelt 55 (2000), Chr, 1032-34