HERAKLEION - 2001

Herakleion Archaeological Museum. M. Andrianakis, A. Dimopoulos and P. Epitropakis (28η ΕΒΑ/Directorate of Byzantine and post-Byzantine Antiquities) report on excavations in the north and east of the museum courtyard.

In the north, a section of the Arab-Byzantine and the Venetian city wall was uncovered. In the east, a substantial portion of the central church of the monastery of Agios Phragiskos was found, together with a large part of the sacristy to its south and an adjacent building to the southeast. A 14th-century lead medal depicting Peter and Paul with an inscription of Gregory XI century was found at the foundation of the apse. At the north of the apse was a well. Under the transept, a burial crypt contained two-storeyed, domed tombs. Although disturbed, these yielded stone coats-of-arms, jewellery and elaborate cloth. A group of Venetian cist graves contained in their disturbed fills dedicatory strips, candlestick bases, part of a monastic rope-belt, pieces of marble plaques and limestone stars from balustrades.

Outside the church, near the Arab-Byzantine wall, was a group of Ottoman cist tombs with domed roofs and three- or four-stepped bases. The discovery of metal items from uniforms led to the identification of the deceased buried in them as military officers. A fourth group of burials in the south and east part of the area has been interpreted as the graves of soldiers who died during the Turkish siege in the 17th century.