Minoan Tombs Research Articles

A GROUP OF MIDDLE AND LATE MINOAN TOMBS SOUTH OF THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS

This publication presents the results of the excavation in 1960 of a group of Minoan tombs on the lower slopes of Ailias, on the east side of the River Kairatos, in an area almost opposite the Temple Tomb at Knossos. One or two of these tombs were built in Middle Minoan times. Tomb I was used again for four burials in Late Minoan II–IIIA, the period when the other three tombs (II–IV) appear to have been exclusively used. The publication presents the excavation's ceramic and other small finds and offers a detailed study of the skeletal remains. Of special interest are the following aspects: (1) the excavation's careful documentation – particularly by the standards of the time – with considerable attention paid to stratigraphy and the production of section drawings; (2) the tombs’ architecture; (3) the use of wooden coffins; (4) the lack – to a large extent – of finds in association with the bodies buried in these tombs; and (5) the funerary sequence in one of the few locations in the Knossos valley where both Neopalatial as well as Final Palatial use is attested. The proximity to and (re)use of Neopalatial tombs during the Late Minoan II–IIIA period and the need of some members of the local society to associate themselves with pre-existing burial structures are discussed. This publication contributes to ongoing discussions on bone and object manipulation, plus the numbers of burials per tomb, while revisiting the ‘richness’ levels of the Knossian tombs. It also places emphasis on taphonomy, the transition from Late Minoan I to II, and the funeral experience. It is argued that burying the dead in a purposefully formed space (i.e., in a rock-cut tomb) may have constituted an action of particular social and/or religious importance even in burials lacking any significant quantities and/or a diverse range of objects. The most important ramifications stemming from this study are assessed at the end of the paper.

Contextualizing the Late Minoan Tombs of the Western Siteia Mountains

ABSTRACTScholars have long been aware of tombs in the western Siteia foothills of Crete, dating to the end of the Bronze Age and yielding an array of notable finds. While detailed analyses of these finds have been invaluable, the settlements to which the tombs were tied have proven elusive. Using topographic and GIS studies, this article analyzes the broader archaeology of these foothills to link the burials to their settlements. We now know that the tombs were part of a bustling landscape, one that adapted the preexisting settlement hierarchy of the region during a period of both continuity and change. This has important implications for current narratives of collapse and shows that life, though undoubtedly altered, did not end abruptly with the Bronze Age.

The Early Minoan Tombs of Lebena, Southern Crete. By Stylianos Alexiou and Peter Warren.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Early Minoan Tombs of Lebena, Southern Crete. By Stylianos Alexiou and Peter Warren.Joanne M. A. MurphyJoanne M. A. Murphy Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 112, Number 2April 2008 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 7Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/AJS20627461 Views: 7Total views on this site Copyright © 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A Late Minoan Tomb on Lower Gypsadhes

At the request of the Ephorate, a suspected tomb on Gypsadhes was investigated in September 1979 by the author. Deep ploughing had broken through what appeared to be the roof of a chamber tomb. While other cemeteries are known on Gypsadhes hill, no tomb had so far been recorded in this particular location.The field in question is located immediately south of Knossos village: a slight depression, or gully, on the north slope, it lies some 150m west of the dirt track which gives access to the hill, Fig. 1. In the higher, NE corner of this field, cross-hatched on the sketch plan at Fig. 2, the kouskouras had been cut into by the plough, and it was here that the LM III tomb (for such it turned out to be) was located.

Sellopoulo Tomb 4: Some Analyses

Five Late Minoan tombs have been excavated at Sellopoulo, near Knossos. Much the richest of these, excavated in 1967 by M. R. Popham, was the unpillaged Tomb 4, whose three burials were accompanied by a rich array of gold and other jewellery, bronze vessels and weapons, and pottery. This pottery established the date of the burials within the Late Minoan II-early IIIA phase. Furthermore, the tomb contained a scarab of Amenophis III, whose reign extended from c 1420 to 1385 B.C., according to the high Egyptian chronology, c 1405–1375/70 B.C. according to the low chronology.

A Late Minoan Tomb at Ayios Ioannis near Knossos

In January 1959, when a trench was being dug in order to lay a water pipe in connection with the building of an orphanage (Κέντρον βρεφῶν “Ἤ Μητέρα”) on the south edge of Ayios Ioannis between Knossos and Herakleion a sinking of the ground suggested the presence of a collapsed tomb chamber. As the site lay within the Knossos area, Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, kindly invited the School to make trials there during the course of their excavations at Knossos in the summer of 1959.The tomb which these trials revealed proved to be Minoan, and assignable to the L.M. II period, to judge from the remains of a couple of clay vases, a stemmed goblet (A.1) and an alabastron (A.2), which had evidently belonged with the original burial or burials. The deep-cut dromos, narrow with distinctly inward leaning sides, was of a type which it is often suggested may be of Mycenaean origin. But this is disputable, and the tomb at Ayios Ioannis appears to be as early as, if not earlier than, any of the tombs with this type of dromos on the Greek mainland. At Mycenae itself tombs with dromoi like this are not attested before L.H. III. On the other hand both at Mycenae and at Knossos there are tombs with shorter dromoi whose sides lean inwards, and some of these tombs may be earlier in date. Tomb 529 at Mycenae, with a short dromos whose sides lean markedly inwards, is assignable to L.H. I–II.

The cemetery

The existence of Late Minoan tombs somewhere in this area was noted by Evans, and several of those found during our excavations had been partly destroyed or plundered. Nineteen tombs were discovered in all. One of them (XVIII) was a Middle Minoan tomb (see p. 220). The rest (with the possible exception of tomb VIII which was found empty, and which from its shape and character may be Middle Minoan) all belonged to the Late Minoan III period, from the time of the destruction of the Late Minoan II Palace about 1400 B.C. (tombs I, II, XV), till the end of Late Minoan times (tomb VII), when iron had begun to come into use (c. ?1150 B.C.), a range of some 250 years or more. It is possible that tomb I, with its finely decorated clay vases and interesting bronze knives and razors, may go back within the limits of the early part of Late Minoan IIIA (Furumark's IIIA 1) before the destruction of the Palace.

Shrines in Sepulchres? A Re-Examination of Three Middle to Late Minoan Tombs

The three tombs with which this paper is primarily concerned are the tholos tomb at Apesokari in the Messara, the Temple Tomb at Knossos, and Tomb 5 at Ayia Triadha. These tombs have several features in common which do not occur in ordinary Middle Minoan tombs: the multiplicity of rooms in addition to the sepulchral chamber, the presence of pillar rooms, and the inclusion of a room which appears to be a shrine. Two of the three are built entirely above ground; the third was constructed in a huge cut made in the hill slope, possibly because in this way it could be oriented East-West. Two of the three are situated near

A Hellenic Fortification Tower on the Kefala Ridge at Knossos

In the course of a search for tombs in the Knossos area during the spring of 1951 I noticed some large blocks of limestone masonry with curved edges that had just been removed from a newly planted vineyard, the property of Georgios Kargatzes, near the top of the hill forming the southern end of the long ridge on the northern tip of which stands the Isopata Royal Tomb. The site is about 250 metres north-west of the Zafer Papoura cemetery of Late Minoan tombs dug by Evans in 1904, and at the bottom of the slope to the west is a high bank with important Geometric tombs (Knossos Survey 15), explored by Hogarth during the first year of the excavations at Knossos in 1900.The curving blocks, together with the situation on the top of a hill less than half a kilometre south of the Kefala tholos tomb (Knossos Survey 8), excavated by Mr. R. W. Hutchinson in 1939, immediately raised hopes that another tholos tomb might await discovery here; and the fragments of Minoan pottery everywhere on and below the surface encouraged this belief. Dr. N. Platon, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, visited the site and granted permission for the School to make trials to discover from what the blocks came. The Director of the School, Mr. J. M. Cook, gave his sanction for the work and asked me to undertake it. The plans were drawn by Mr. Piet de Jong, then the School's Curator at Knossos; the drawings of the vases are by Miss Susan Wood.

A Tholos Tomb on the Kephala

The ridge known as the Kephala is the middle part of the long ridge that extends from Zafer Papoura on the south to Isopata on the north. The numerous Late Minoan and Protogeometric tombs uncovered on the west slopes of this ridge suggest that there was here in all probability a Minoan Appian Way connecting Knossos both with the harbour town at the mouth of the Kairatos and with the naval station at Amnisos. Years ago Professor Marinatos pointed out to me what appears to be a clear section of the same Minoan way where the modern road from the aerodrome dips to cut through into the Karteros valley.In December 1938 the Ephor Dr. Platon informed me of the possible existence of a Minoan tomb on this ridge, and permission was granted for me to excavate it on behalf of the British School at Athens. I was assisted by two students of the school, Mr. Vincent Desborough and Miss Vronwy Fisher (now Mrs. Hankey). Miss Fisher kept the catalogue of small finds and is responsible for the published account of them. Mr. Desborough was responsible for the planning and surveying of the tomb, and also for most of the photographs taken during the excavations. Mr. Gerald Young, then Director of the School, kindly came over and took some photographs of the tomb and the inscription (Plate 10b). The foreman was my old friend the late Emmanuel Akoumianos.

A Late Minoan Tomb at Knossos

During the course of agricultural operations on the vineyard of one Kosti Psilakis, south of the Temple Tomb and on the opposite side of the Herakleion-Arkhanes road, three vases in stone and two in pottery were uncovered by the cultivator and were appropriated by the Herakleion Museum.On 24 April 1940 Miss Vronwy Fisher (now Mrs. Hankey) and I excavated the site on behalf of the British School at Athens and uncovered a very small chamber tomb, of which most of the chamber walls and all of the dromos walls had been cut away. One or possibly two L.M. III burials had suffered severely, but the earliest burial on the inmost or western side of the chamber seems to have remained undisturbed until 1940, when Psilakis began to lay out a vineyard here.

Archaeology in Greece, 1951

This year, like the last, has been an exceptional one. The Archaeological Society and the Foreign Schools have been engaged in widespread excavation. Among the spectacular discoveries of the season are richly furnished Late Minoan tombs at and near. Knossos, and a new shaft grave—somewhat earlier than those inside the Lion Gate—alongside the Tomb of Clytaemnestra at Mycenae; attention will be focused on Pylos in the coming spring now that the arrangements for the resumption of work there are completed. The German Institute has been re-established with Dr. Kunze as its new director. The reconstitution of the museums is proceeding at a measured pace: but the most manifest achievement this year has been the restoration of monuments in the field, which has been carried out on an unprecedented scale under the direction of Prof. Orlandos with the help of an exceptionally large allocation—unfortunately not to be repeated—from Marshall Aid. The Tomb of Clytaemnestra has been restored, and great improvements have been made at the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina and among the houses of Delos. At Knossos and Phaistos, despite the delay in the transmission to Crete of the sums made available, Mr. de Jong and Dr. Levi, in conjunction with the Ephor, Dr. Platon, have made great progress with the conservation of the two great palaces.

British Museum : Sir John Forsdyke, K.C.B

PERMISSION has beeh granted by H.M. the King to Sir John. Forsdyke to resign his appointment as director and principal librarian of the British Muesum as from March 31, 1950. He entered the Departmet of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the 1907, and was appointed keeper in 1932, ved in the Royal Artillery in the First Woild War. Ho took an active part in the preparation of the first volume of the Catalogue of "Greek and Etrurean Vases", and in 1909 published a paper in the Journal of Hellenic Studies which went far to determine the significance of the 'Minyan' fabric of pottery from prehistoric sites in central Greece. Under the leadership of Sir Arthur Evans, he excavated Minoan tombs near Knossos ; and he gave to the British Academy a valuable lecture on Minoan art.

I.—The ‘Tomb of the Double Axes’ and Associated Group, and the Pillar Rooms and Ritual Vessels of the ‘Little Palace’ at Knossos

The discovery of the ‘Royal Tomb’ on the upland plateau of described by me in Archaeologia in 1906, has had an important sequel. a quarter of a mile farther north of the same headland, on the edge of the that here overlooks the site of the ancient harbour-town of Knossos, a Minoan tombs has since been unearthed, some of which throw a wholly on the sepulchral cult in vogue during the earlier part of the Late Minoan One tomb indeed, that of ‘the Double Axes’, to be described below, points of structural and religious interest to a degree altogether among the early sepultures of the Aegean lands.