Agia Triada (Crete)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archaeological site of Agia Triada

Agia Triada ( Greek Αγία Τριάδα , also Hagia Triada, Ajia Triada or Ayia Triada ) refers to an archaeological excavation site with the remains of a palace complex in the south of the Greek island of Crete . It is located in the west of the Messara plain in the municipality of Festos in the regional district of Heraklion , about two kilometers northwest of the ruins of Phaistos , a Minoan palace complex.

Agia Triada is the second largest settlement of the Minoan culture in the western Messara after Phaistos. The ancient name of the villa-like palace complex has not been passed down. In some cases, the place was equated with the pa-i-to (Phaistos) named on the linear B tablets , since Agia Triada was the main place of the Messara in the New and Post-Palaces . Other scientists suspect equating the Mycenaean toponym da-where with Agia Triada, which is also preserved in Linear B.

The palace complex was named after the two-aisled church of the " Holy Trinity " from the 14th century, on a hill southwest of the former palace complex, which also gave its name to the devastated medieval settlement of Agia Triada . The Minoan settlement arose on the northern slope of a range of hills that stretch as far as Phaistos. To the north below the archaeological site, the Geropotamos (Γεροπόταμος) water the fertile Messara plain. The river flows into the Libyan Sea about 3.5 kilometers west of Agia Triada . The closest larger town is Tymbaki northeast of the mouth of the Geropotamos with a little over 5300 inhabitants. Agia Triada was connected to Phaistos by a paved path.

history

The Messara Plain has been around since the Neolithic Age , around 6500 BC. Settled .

Bronze age

In the Minoan culture originated here from about 2000 to 1450 BC. Cities with extensive palace complexes. The most important places in the Messara were Phaistos (Φαιστός) and later Gortyn (Γορτύν). In addition to agriculture, trade was an important industry.

North-eastern part of the archaeological site

At Agia Triada there was already at the beginning of the pre-palace period the end of the 4th millennium BC. Chr. A sprawling settlement. From the early pre-palace period, a waste pit was found in the west of the excavation area. Two excavated houses with rectangular rooms, an apse and pillars in the middle of the rooms on the northern edge of the site date from the middle pre-palace period. Two Tholos tombs east of the fenced-in excavation site are also dated to the pre-palace period . The larger one with a diameter of 9 meters with a wall thickness of 1.8 to 2.0 meters had an entrance in the east and contained about 150 deceased. Grave goods from the pre and old palace period were found here . The half-destroyed second Tholos tomb was also used in the post-palace period. Due to the landing process of the Timbaki Basin at the mouth of the Geropotamos , Agia Triada lost around 1900 BC. The direct access to the sea that existed in early Minoan times.

Staircase on the east side of the palace

Parts of houses in lower layers near the “ sanctuary ” in the southeast, pits with ceramics at various points of the excavation site and part of a street and a paved courtyard with an “ altar ” in the northeast come from the old palace period . In the era of the New Palaces, between 1600 and 1550 BC. A small palace complex was built on the hill of Agia Triada, which is also known as the "great Minoan villa". The buildings are younger than the palace of Phaistos, which was rebuilt from 1600 BC onwards. Was not completed. The settlement at Agia Triada was east of the palace, which is considered the political and sacred administrative seat. The largest archive with linear A tablets and seals in Crete comes from Agia Triada . The wall paintings show the same style as the neo-Palatial wall paintings of Knossos .

Agora and Mycenaean settlement

The small palace of Agia Triada, like the new palace of Knossos, was built around 1450 BC. Chr. Destroyed. After that, around 1400 BC. A Mycenaean megaron was built on its ruins . In the post-palace period, a development of apartments and shops (also known as magazines ), which were grouped around an approximately 50-meter-long agora , was located north below the complex . It is the only known example of a "Minoan market village". It is believed that craftsmen and merchants who had intensive trade relations with North Africa settled here. On the Gulf of Messara on the south coast of Crete, the Minoan port settlement Kommos was just six kilometers to the southwest . Agia Triada was in Mycenaean times, as it was after 1600 BC. BC, the political and economic center of the region with connection to the dynasty in Knossos.

In the north of the agora, the remains of two larger buildings have been preserved, one megaron-like and one with a corridor, dating from 1350 to 1250 BC. To be dated. A painted sarcophagus on display in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion also dates from this period . A cult of the dead is depicted on it, with a bull sacrifice, offerings to the dead, libations , flute players and gods on chariots. In the course of the decline of the Minoan / Mycenaean culture on Crete, the palace of Agia Triada was built around 1250 BC. Chr. Destroyed. After that, the place was only used as a cult site. Statuettes were set up in the open air in a hypäthral temple . The cult continued into the protogeometric period of the 11th and 10th centuries BC. And continued in the 7th century BC. Resumed. Nothing is known about the settlement of Agia Triada from the intervening period of the dark centuries .

Hellenism

In the Hellenistic period (336–30 BC) a small sanctuary was built over the foundations of the old temple and a temple of Zeus Welchanos (Δία Bελχανό) in the adjacent north courtyard. The remains of this temple were completely removed after the excavation in order to excavate older Minoan layers. The donor inscription of Arkesilas and the name of Zeus Velchanos have been preserved on the roof tiles.

middle Ages

The settlement of Agia Triada, or Santa Trinita in Venetian , was established in the Middle Ages . It was to the west of the excavation site and was named after the Church of the Holy Trinity. The chapel of Agios Georgios Galatas , which now stands above the excavation, dates from 1302 according to an inscription.

Research history

Archaeological excavations in the Messara plain began in 1900 by the Missione Archeologica Italiana di Creta under Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier and were continued from 1909 by the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene . From 1902 the hill of Agia Triada was examined. The excavations began in 1903 under the direction of Roberto Paribeni and were continued in the following years by Federico Halbherr and Enrico Stefani . The securing and restoration of the found building remains began in 1910, the publication of the studies on the excavations ended in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War . In 1976 Vincenzo La Rosa resumed excavation work in Agia Triada. To the northeast, a small necropolis with the two Tholos graves and a shaft grave were uncovered. Most of the finds from the various excavation periods are now in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion , including an extensive collection of tablets in linear A.

Building findings

South-east wing with a sanctuary

Remnants of the southeast wing

From the entrance to the excavation site, a staircase on the left leads to a former two-storey building, of which only the foundations and a few remains of the wall have been preserved. Since this building on the southeastern edge of the built-up area is separated from the actual palace building adjoining to the west by a paved path that ends in a staircase leading downwards, the building is regarded as an outbuilding of the palace, which may have housed dignitaries' apartments. There were magazines to the west of the building, light shafts and porticos to the east. Adjacent to the south was a small sanctuary from the Mycenaean period with an anteroom and two doors to the cella , the interior of the temple. On the floor an octopus is depicted between dolphins in colored plaster. There is a high stone bench on the back wall of the cella.

Südhof

The south courtyard, also known as the “place of the sanctuaries” or “courtyard of the altars”, adjoins the main building of the neo-Palatial period to the south and is thus roughly in the middle of the south-western excavation area of ​​Agia Triada. The courtyard was a little lower in the new palace period and was raised in the Mycenaean period by paving and expanded to the north via the ruins of the palace, where it was bordered by the new megaron building . To the west of the south courtyard, in a small “theater room” with five steps, the conical rhyton with depictions of a fist fight and bull jumpers was found, which can be seen in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion. Next to it is a small square with a stoa made up of two columns. A paved path begins in the east of the courtyard, possibly leading to Phaistos.

Palace construction of the new palace period

Northeast side of the palace ruins

The neo-Palatial palace building, which was built over in Mycenaean times, was an irregular, L-shaped structure with many rooms for various uses, which was connected to the west of the connecting stairs between the south courtyard and the lower north courtyard. From the north courtyard a paved path ran to the west, then bent to the south, around the building. The structure adapted to the sloping terrain to the north and west.

'Prince's Cup'

The rooms in the south-west with windows facing east onto an elongated atrium were not connected to one another. They had solid earth floors. Possibly they served the palace servants. The funnel-shaped 'parade' or 'prince's cup' made of serpentine , exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, was found in one of the rooms . To the north was a room with two pillars in the middle. The adjoining rooms on the north-west corner of the palace have paved floors with red stucco joints. They are interpreted as a living area. The rooms, which still show traces of fire from the destruction of the palace, differ from one another in size and furnishings. A staircase led from them to the no longer existing upper floor.

In a room in the living area, equipped with wall cladding made of alabaster and columns for vertical wooden beams, the ' reaper vase ' was found with the representation of a procession of farm workers. In another room, northwest of the one with the wall coverings, a number of clay seal impressions from the time of the New Palace were discovered in a kind of box. To the east of this was a room decorated with wall frescos. The frescoes, now also in the museum, show a woman sitting in a garden and a wild cat hunting a pheasant. Behind the room to the east was an elongated magazine, the location of 19 copper bars, easily transportable plates made of forged copper for further processing.

  • Palace of Agia Triada
  • Staircase to the palace upper floor
  • Minoan-Mycenaean drainage channels
  • Room with alabaster panels and benches
  • Pithoi in a room in the northern magazines

The east wing of the neo-Palatial palace had several magazines in the lower part behind the north paved and stepped path, which were lower than the foundation of the later Mycenaean Megaron building. The magazines, one accessible via a small staircase, contained pithoi and vases of various sizes. On the same level, further living rooms were connected up to the eastern stairway. Above the magazines to the south are the remains of the Mycenaean Magaron, built on the bottom of the destroyed and filled-in Minoan palace. The entire eastern area of ​​the former palace building including the Mycenaean megarons were roofed over to protect against environmental influences.

North courtyard

North courtyard with a stoa of five pillars

To the northeast of the palace area is the north courtyard, which was bordered in the north by an elongated rectangular building, the function of which is unclear. The courtyard is open to the west, while five pillar foundations of a stoa have been preserved in the east. In Hellenistic times, the temple of Zeus Velchanos stood above it, which was cleared to uncover the Minoan buildings. The north courtyard is accessible via the stairs on the east side of the palace, which lead down to it centrally.

Settlement and market place

The Minoan buildings extended beyond the rectangular building of unknown function to the north, where individual remains of buildings are named "House of Life ", "House of Weaving Weights" and "House of Mill" according to relevant finds . A clay bathtub, many linear A tablets, large vessels and pithoi were also discovered north of the courtyard. The Minoan buildings were built over when the Mycenaean settlement was later built. The settlement was arranged to the west below a market square, an agora . With its eight rectangular rooms, probably shops, standing in a row on the east side, it formed the center of the Mycenaean town. At the southern end of the agora, a staircase led to the upper floor of the rectangular building that separated the market square from the north courtyard of the palace and the Mycenaean megaron. Outside the fenced area east of the agora, the necropolis with the two Tholos tombs has recently been uncovered. Statuettes of a female deity, the stone head of a hammer and portable altars were found here.

  • Remains of buildings around the Mycenaean agora
  • Agora of the Mycenaean settlement
  • Staircase and pillar of the agora
  • Buildings of the Mycenaean settlement
  • Agora with a view towards the north courtyard

literature

  • Vincenzo La Rosa: La "Villa Royale" de Haghia Triada . In: Robin Hägg (Ed.): The function of the "Minoan Villa". (Athens, June 6-8, 1992) . Åström, Stockholm 1997, ISBN 91-7916-034-4 , ( Svenska Institutet i Athen, Skrifte Series in 4 ° 46, ISSN  0586-0539 ), ( Proceedings of the international symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens 8, 1992).
  • Lambert Schneider : Crete . DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2002, ( DuMont Art Travel Guide ), online (HTML, 27 kB) .
  • Jeffrey S. Soles: The Agia Triada Cemetery . In: Jeffrey S. Soles: The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of Bronze Age Crete . American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton NJ 1992, ISBN 978-0-87661-524-9 , ( Hesperia Supplement 24, ISSN  1064-1173 ), pp. 116-127, online (HTML, 41 kB) .
  • Haghia Triada .
    • Vol. 1: Pietro Militello: Gli Affreschi. Bottega d'Erasmo, Padua 1998.
    • Vol. 2: Anna Lucia D'Agata: Statuine minoiche e post-minoiche dai vecchi scavi di Haghia Triada (Creta). Bottega d'Erasmo, Padua 1999.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 83 (Greek).
  2. ↑ a b c Costis Davaras: Phaistos, Hagia Triada, Gortyn . Short educated archaeological guide. Hannibal Publishing House, Athens 1990, p. 23 (Greek).
  3. ↑ Information from the Greek statistical office. (PDF 1012.51 kB) www.statistics.gr, 2001, p. 121 , accessed on February 14, 2011 (Greek).
  4. ^ Kommos Excavations, Crete - Introduction: Kommos and the Mesara. (No longer available online.) Www.fineart.utoronto.ca, archived from the original on June 12, 2010 ; accessed on September 4, 2019 .
  5. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 85 (Greek).
  6. ↑ Thomas Guttandin, Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Hermann Pflug, Gerhard Plath: The ports of Minos . In search of the foundations of Minoan maritime power. In: Ancient World . Journal of Archeology and Cultural History. No. 2/2014 . Philipp von Zabern , Darmstadt 2014, Die Hafenstätte Kommos, p. 19-21 .
  7. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 86 (Greek).
  8. ↑ a b c Lambert Schneider: Crete . 5000 years of art and culture: Minoan palaces, Byzantine chapels and Venetian city complexes. 4th edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7701-3801-2 , p. 172 ( online access = 2011-02-16).
  9. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 87 (Greek).
  10. ^ Eberhard Fohrer: Kreta , Michael Müller Verlag, Erlangen 2006, page 335
  11. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 88 (Greek).
  12. ↑ a b c Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 89 (Greek).
  13. ↑ K. Pneymatikos: Η Υστερομινωική Έπαυλη της Αγίας Τριάδας, 2003-2004 ( Memento from November 3, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ a b Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Kreta , Verlag I. Mathioulakis & Co.
  15. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 90/91 (Greek).
  16. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 92 (Greek).
  17. ↑ a b Costis Davaras: Phaistos, Agia Triada, Gortyn . Short illustrated archaeological guide. Hannibal Publishing House, Athens 1990, p. 24/25 (Greek).
  18. ↑ Stella Kalogeraki: Festos, Agia Triada . Mediterraneo Editions, Athens 2004, ISBN 978-960-8227-39-2 , p. 41 (Greek).
  19. ^ Costis Davaras: Phaistos, Agia Triada, Gortyn . Short illustrated archaeological guide. Hannibal Publishing House, Athens 1990, p. 25/28 (Greek).
  20. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 99 (Greek).
  21. ^ Costis Davaras: Phaistos, Agia Triada, Gortyn . Short illustrated archaeological guide. Hannibal Publishing House, Athens 1990, p. 29 (Greek).
  22. ^ Andonis Sp. Vasilakis: Agia Triada, Phaistos, Kommos - Matala . Verlag Mystis, Iraklio 2009, ISBN 978-960-6655-58-6 , p. 100 (Greek).

Web links

Commons : Agia Triada  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Agia Triada 2 - FES 2. Archaeological Atlas of Crete: Archaeological Sites. Forth: Institute for Mediterranean Studies, accessed October 10, 2016 .
  • Ayia Triada (English)

Coordinates: 35 ° 3 ′ 33 ″  N , 24 ° 47 ′ 34 ″  E