Kophinas Revisited. The 1990 Excavation and the cultic activity

Alexandra A. Karetsou Κρητικά Χρονικά 34 (2014), 123-146

From the introduction

The 1950s and 60s can, without exaggeration, be called the “heroic ages of Cretan archaeology”. The then Ephor Nikolaos Platon, with the aid of curator Kostis Davaras, followed by Ephor Stylianos Alexiou, undertook a host of rescue excavations and gathering of surface finds in inaccessible parts of Crete, with limited means but much dedication and self-sacrifice. Many mountain-top sanctuaries were discovered and hundreds of finds were collected, at a time when Crete did not even have a road network. Without this painstaking work, untold numbers of finds would have ended up undocumented in private collections or lost.

The site

Kapetaniana is a mountain village in Monofatsi District, on the southern slopes of the Asterousia range in south-central Crete. Two kilometres east of the village and 200 m. from the chapel of the Panaghia, an open-air sanctuary has been discovered on an accessible saddle (970 m asl) at the site known as Mezzolati, Patella, or Choreutra (“the dancing floor”) according to local tradition.