Anavlochos, Crete. Results of the excavations of the French School at Athens during the summer 2017

As part of a new 5-year programme, a team from the French School at Athens under the direction of Florence Gaignerot-Driessen carried out excavations this summer on the Anavlochos massif (Vrachasi, Lasithi, Crete). Two areas on the western part of the summit, located by the team during the 2015-2016 survey of the massif, have yielded a large amount of votive material. In the first one, 350 figurines, figures, and plaques have been recovered, representing female figures mostly dating to the Archaic and Classical periods (fig. 1). The second deposit, located 200 m to the east, contained zoomorphic figures and figurines associated with Late Minoan IIIC pottery (fig. 2).

Anavlachos, Crete, zoomorphic figures of the Late Minoan IIIC period

In the cemetery area, located at the foot of the massif, several groups of graves have been recognized. The excavation of one of them yielded circular burial enclosures with platforms, from on top of which large Late Geometric vases have been recovered. Finally, on the so-called “Kako Plaï” slope, which overlooks the cemetery, a bench building containing Protogeometric to Archaic votive material has been excavated. It is located above trenches opened by Pierre Demargne in 1929, where Geometric to Classical votive material was found and which were reidentified during the 2015-2016 survey.