Re-entering Tholos B at Koumasa: the double entrance reconsidered
Sebastian Traunmüller Aegean Archaeology 11 (2011-2012) [2015]: 61-71
More than 100 years after the first excavation by Stephanos Xanthoudides, the resumption of the archaeological fieldwork at Koumasa created the rare opportunity to re-study one of the most important tholos cemeteries in the Mesara. The brilliant publication of the site, by Xanthoudides in 1924, remains until today one of the primary sources on Minoan tholoi. However, the preliminary results of the first two campaigns of the new project “Koumasa 2012-2016. A Geoarchaeological Approach to the History of a Minoan Regional Centre,” under the auspices of the Archaeological Society at Athens and the Institut für Klassische Archaologie of the Heidelberg University, raised several questions concerning the accuracy of the original publication. One of these questions refers to an architectonic detail of Tholos B, namely its peculiar double entrance as reported by Xanthoudides. The present article tries to re-investigate this unique feature, which has been reduced to a single opening during restoration works in the 1970s, and to offer an alternative interpretation of the archaeological record.