Eleutherna on Crete: A “Homeric” site revealed

Archaeology & Arts, 25-04-2013

Nicholas Stampolidis, Professor of Classical Archaeology and Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art (Athens), will give a lecture on Eleutherna on Crete, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). Ancient Eleutherna is one of the capital cities of ancient Crete with a history of about 5000 years (3000 BC-1300 AD).

Situated on the NW ridges of the highest Cretan mountain, Mount Ida, the city stands out like a huge stoned ship that anchored amid the breathtaking silvery-green of the olive-trees, oaks and vineyards. Thousands of people have lived on this hill in the course of history but the most important period was the Early Iron Age (1000-600 BC), i.e. the period of the Homeric epics (Iliad and Odyssey). The verses of this great poet, Homer, are illustrated by the history and especially the funerary customs unearthed in Eleutherna’s most important necropolis at Orthi Petra (i.e. Standing Stone).

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