Monastiraki IIA: The Archive Building and Associated Finds

Athanasia Kanta (with contributions by Anastasia Tzigounaki, Louis Godart, Germana Pecoraro, Demetra Mylona & Alexia Speliotopoulou)

City: Heraklion

Year: 2012

Publisher: the author

Description: Paperback, 224 p., b/w and coloured illustrations, drawings, charts in text, 28,2x24,5 cm

From the introduction

In 1982 a short joint survey of the Amari valley took place as a co-operation between the University of Naples-Federico II and the Greek Archaeological Service. The team was led by Dr. Yiannis Tzedhakis, then Director of Classical and Prehistoric Antiquities at the Greek Ministry of Culture and Professor Luis Godart of the University of Naples. The survey did not conduct an exhaustive investigation of the countryside, but rather concentrated on visiting the sites where the local people had encountered ancient remains and had provided the relevant information to members of the Survey team. The area where this investigation was based ranged from the villages of Gerakari and Helenes to Monastiraki. The ultimate aim of this project was to identify a location suitable for excavation and eventually the settlement site of Apodhoulou, a little further to the South from the area in question, was chosen. In the course of this investigation it was deemed advisable to sink a trench at the site of Monastiraki, which had started being excavated by Dr. Athanasia Kanta and the University of Crete, in order to verify the stratigraphy and pottery sequence of the area. This work was carried out during three seasons in 1982, 1983 and 1984 and produced, amongst others, two spectacular and important finds; a model of a Protopalatial shrine and part of an archive of sealings.

After the Greek-Italian Survey team started working on the old excavation of Spyridon Marinatos at Apodhoulou, it was decided to publish the material excavated by the Survey at Monastiraki as a joint effort between Dr. Kanta, the present excavator of Monastiraki, and Professor Godart and Anastasia Tzigounaki, on behalf of the Amari Survey. However during the course of the Monastiraki excavations by the Greek team, it soon became apparent that the structures excavated by the Greek-Italian team were part of a large building, which had been demolished and restructured during the course of the existence of the Protopalatial Centre. Some limited clearing work was carried out by the Creek team, in order to define the stratigraphy of the wider area in view of few imminent publication of the Greek-Italian Survey team’s work, but the full excavation of the larger building complex remains for the future. 

Contents

Acknowledgements [9]

Α. Κanta, L. Godart & A. Tzigounaki, ‘Introduction’ [11]

Chapter I: A. Kanta & A. Tzigounaki, ‘The sites visited by the survey team and related pottery’ [13-24]

Chapter II: A. Kanta & A. Tzigounaki, ‘The exterior of the building of the archive. The ramp, the “street” and the “garden” terraces. The Greek-Italian and Greek excavations at the site of Charakas’ [25-104]

Chapter III. A. Kanta & A. Tzigounaki, ‘The building of the archive of sealings. The archive room’ [105-168]

Chapter IV. A. Kanta, ‘Pottery typology and chronology’ [169-193]

Chapter V. Germana Pecoraro, ‘Wall and floor materials. A study of plaster and mortar in the area of the Archive Building’ [195-198]

Chapter VI. Demetra Mylona, ‘The animal bones from the Archive Building area’ [199-206]

Chapter VII. A. Speliotopoulou & A. Kanta, ‘The area of the Archive Building. Statistical analysis of the pottery’ [207–219]

Bibliography [221]