Kavousi
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Local community Kavousi Τοπική Κοινότητα Καβουσίου (Καβούσι) |
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| Basic data | |||
| Country |
 Greece
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| region | Crete | ||
| Regional district | Lasithi | ||
| local community | Ierapetra | ||
| Parish | Ierapetra | ||
| Geographic coordinates | 35 ° 7 ' N , 25 ° 51' E | ||
| Height above d. M. |
159 m (average) |
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| surface | 38.314 | ||
| Residents | 563 (2011) | ||
| LAU-1 code no. | 72020105 | ||
| Local division | 5 | ||
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Kavousi ( Greek Καβούσι ( n. Sg. )), Obsolete Kavousion ( Καβούσιον ) is a village in the East Cretan municipality of Ierapetra . The local community of the same name Kavousi includes the mountain villages Drakalevri, Panagia and Tsamantis as well as Melisses . Of the 563 inhabitants (2011) of the local community, 559 were in the main town.
location
The place is located 25 km east of Agios Nikolaos and about 45 km west of Sitia and 20 km north of Ierapetra directly on the road. It lies at 140 m at the foot of the Afentis mountain.
The neighboring towns are Pachia Ammos in the west and Lastros in the east. The only access to the sea is the beach of Tholos, about three kilometers from the town center . The sea cannot be reached elsewhere due to the mountains and cliffs in front of it. There is a hardly explored stalactite cave (Theriospilio) here.
Worth seeing
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- In the Byzantine churches near the village square, which are dedicated to Saint George (Agios Georgios) and the 12 apostles (Dódeka Apostóli), there are images of saints from the 16th century that are worth seeing, as well as some valuable frescoes and depictions of Hell.
- Remains of late Minoan settlements have been found in the hills and mountains to the north and east of the town . From here you can also get to the offshore island of Psira .
- Kavousi has a very large area of supporting olive trees . In the vicinity of the village, the Olympic wreaths for the games in Athens were cut from one of the oldest olive trees in the world. The tree on the road in the direction of Avgo - Thriptí (approx. 800 m south of the center of Kavousi) has an estimated age of approx. 3250 years, at a height of 80 cm still has a diameter of 4.20 to 4.90 m and a circumference of 14, 20 m.
- The Mesonas Gorge begins at the eastern end of the village and leads, among other things, to the settlement Thripti (Gde. Kato Chorio ).
Excavations
Vronta
The 330 meter high hill Vronta ( Βρόντα 'thunder' ) is located south of Kavousi. During excavations in 1900 , the archaeologist Harriet Boyd found eight Tholos graves and a storage room in which she found three large pithoi and iron tools. In the graves, which had a diameter of two meters and a height of two meters, there were clay pots, bronze jewelry and weapons. On the basis of these objects, all graves and the remains of buildings can be dated to the Sub-Mycenaean period (around 1030–1000 BC).
Azoria
The hill of Azoria ( Μουρί τ` Άζορια ) is located one kilometer southeast of Kavousi. The Eparch of Ierapetra explained to Harriet Boyd that the name means Anagyris hill and that Anagyris are shrubs that often grow in the mountains of Crete. On the hill, which is also about 330 meters high, the archaeologist found wall remains from three successive epochs, whereby she was able to date the oldest walls to the early Geometric period . A wall ring with a diameter of about ten meters was found in the following time. Among the most recent building remains, which may well come from the Roman or Byzantine era, there were two concentric wall rings, one with a diameter of 2.35 m, the other 5.35 m. Harriet Boyd suspected that these could be the foundations of a windmill.
At the site of Chondrovolakes ( Χονδροβολάκες 'large boulders' ) between Vronta and Azoria, shaft graves were uncovered during the same excavation campaign . They had a length of about 2.60 m and a width of 0.70 m and contained cremations as well as geometric and Proto-Corinthian ceramics .
Kastro
The plateau, which the locals call Kastro ( Κάστρο 'fortress' ), is located about one and a half kilometers southeast of Kavousi at an altitude of 670 meters. One can also find the term Kachó in German literature. In 1895 the farmer Theodosios Mitsakis found a Tholos tomb with geometric ceramics on a terrace below the plateau. When Arthur Evans visited Kavousi in 1899 , Mitsakis showed him the grave and gave him the pottery.
In 1900 Harriet Boyd undertook excavations here together with Jane Boit Patten and discovered the foundation walls of 13 rooms on the plateau. The walls were made of local slate and clay. The exact function of the rooms could not be clarified. The finds, loom weights, soapstone knife sharpeners , funnels and simple ceramics, suggest poor residents. The only notable find was a slate board. South below on a terrace she found walls, scorch marks and terracotta animal figures depicting a deer, a dog and bulls. This place including the find could indicate a sanctuary at this point. The excavation team also heard about a cave below a house. This was located about 750 meters southeast of the Kastros in the place Skouriazmenos ( Σκουριαζμένος = rusted or outdated ). It turned out that a farmer discovered a Tholos tomb in 1860 and built his house over it. He looted it and secretly sold the high quality ceramics. There remained a few finds that have now been recovered by the excavation team.
In 1901, the archaeologist Blanche Emily Wheeler carried out excavations on a platform below, which the locals call Aloni ( Greek Αλώνι , threshing floor ) and discovered four other small Tholos tombs. A peculiarity in the cult of the dead was that the skulls of the dead were placed in bronze bowls after the bodies had disintegrated. Wheeler found a terracotta coffin shaped like a bathtub in a grave.
Tholos Beach
The approximately 300 meter wide beach is located in a sheltered bay. Psira Island is three kilometers north of Tholos Beach . At the western end of the beach is the Afentis Christos church. A shaft grave was found three meters from the northeast corner of this church - presumably from Roman or Byzantine times. About 100 meters south of the church are the remains of a 57 meter long (north-south orientation) and 9.3 meter wide building. This is a Roman warehouse, on the east side of which originally 10 columns were distributed over the entire length. The beach of Tholos certainly owes its name to this building (Gr. Θςλος = vault ). Other Roman artifacts were found in the wider area.
About one and a half kilometers to the south-west, a Cyclopean wall has been discovered near the Church of St. Anthony . During excavations, Bronze Age shards were found, which suggest a Bronze Age settlement in the nearby plain.
literature
- Donald Haggis: Kavousi I, The Archaeological Survey of the Kavousi Region , 2006, ISBN 9781931534185
- K. Nowicki: South of Kavousi, East of Mochlos : The West Siteia Mountains at the End of the Bronze Age in LP Day, MS Mook, and JD Muhly (eds.), Crete Beyond the Palaces: Proceedings of the Crete 2000 Conference ( Philadelphia 2004)
- HA Boyd: Excavations at Kavousi, Crete, in 1900 , AJA 5 (1901) ( online )
- GC Gesell: The Late Minoan IIIC Period at Kavousi (Ierapetras). Pepragmena tou E 'Diethnous Kretologikou Synedriou A (Heraklion 1986)
Web links
- Hike from Kavoúsi to a late Minoan mountain settlement Kachó
- Azoria archaeological site, Kavoussi, East Crete
Individual evidence
- ↑ Results of the 2011 census at the National Statistical Service of Greece (ΕΛ.ΣΤΑΤ) (Excel document, 2.6 MB)
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated September 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Greece info ( memento of the original from March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Photo of the tree
- ↑ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Anagyris_foetida
- ↑ Transactions of the Department of archeology, Free museum of science and art , University of Pennsylvania, pp. 16-17. ( Online )
