Minoan villa of Achladia

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Archaeological site of the Minoan villa

The Minoan villa of Achladia ( Greek Μινωική έπαυλη Αχλαδίων Minoiki epavli Achladion ) refers to an archaeological excavation site in the east of the Greek island of Crete . It is located in the municipality of Sitia in the Lasithi regional district , about 1.5 kilometers northeast of the town of Achladia ( Αχλάδια ). The generic term "Minoan villa" describes a type of building that is largely limited to the new palace period of the Minoan culture .

Location and history

The "Minoan Villa" of Achladia is located at a height of about 225 meters on the small elevation Riza ( Ρίζα 'mountain foot') on the northern slope of the 301 meter high Kefala Platyskinou ( Κεφάλα Πλατύσκινου ). The road from Achladia to Piskokefalo ( Πισκοκέφαλο ) runs about 210 meters north . Further to the west and north of the archaeological site is the valley of Velira potamos ( Βεληρά ποταμός ), a stream that flows over the Pedelis potamos ( Πεντέλης ποταμός ) near Sitia into the bay of Sitia . The bay on the north coast of Crete on the Aegean Sea is about 5.2 kilometers as the crow flies from the "Minoan Villa" .

Northern outer wall

The building remains on the Riza were discovered by Nikolaos Platon in 1939 and examined in the same year, as well as in 1952 and 1959. There were two buildings separated by a narrow corridor, the completely excavated house A in the north and the only partially excavated house B in the south. The public access to the over 270 m² excavation area is in the northwest. The remains of the buildings are now in disrepair due to earthquakes, tree roots and agricultural activity in the past. The construction of the “villa” was dated by the excavator Nikolaos Platon in the Middle Minoan phase MM III , the destruction in the late Minoan period SM I A. Lefteris Plato , however, includes architectural features such as the existence of double doors and light shafts on a possible construction time SM IA and a safe destruction in SM I B.

East entrance to house A.

The outer walls of the buildings were built from large blocks of limestone. The rectangular, approximately 10 × 18 meter house A had 12 rooms on one level. There is no evidence for an upper floor, but speculation has been made about two staircase locations that could have led to an upper floor. The main entrance was in the middle of the east side of the house and led into room Alpha (Α), a corridor with a partially paved floor. Another entrance was on the northwest corner of the building to room Iota (Ι). The corridor behind the main entrance was probably covered. From it a door to the right of the entrance led to the northern room My (Μ) and a double door on the south side to the Beta room (Β). Lefteris Platon assumes another double door to room My (Μ), which the excavator Nikolaos Platon did not recognize because it was possibly built in later or walled up.

Spaces Beta (Β) and Gamma (Γ)

The roughly square rooms My (Μ) and Beta (Β) on the east side of House A contained large pithoi , storage and cooking vessels, and stone tools. In the middle of the room Beta (Β) three bases for pillars or columns are set into the ground in a north-south orientation and the west wall had a polythyron to the neighboring elongated room Gamma (Γ). The latter had an L-shaped bench at its south end, of which only the part on the south wall remained. A light shaft is suspected to be on the north side of the room . The western area of ​​house A was occupied by five lined up rooms, namely from north to south the rooms Iota (Ι), Theta (Θ), Eta (Η), Epsilon (Ε) and Delta (Δ). The last two connected to the west of room Gamma (Γ) and were probably kitchens or storage rooms. Room Delta (Δ) contained vases and room Epsilon (Ε) about 100 vessels for domestic use. The northern three of the western rooms are too poorly preserved to be able to make any statements about their function.

House B in the south is connected to the completely excavated house A by a wall. Since it is smaller, it is considered an annex to House A. Similar to the “villa” of Agios Georgios located 4.9 kilometers to the south, that of Achladia was not an isolated building. Nikolaos Platon partially uncovered two other buildings in the immediate vicinity. The Minoan villa of Achladia seems to have been the dominant building in the area on the elevation of the Riza with a view over the bay of Sitia. The Tholos grave of Platyskinos , located 900 meters to the south, dates from the later epoch SM III, when the "villa" of Achladia had already been destroyed by SM I B at the latest.

  • Excavation site

  • Room Beta (Β) of house A

  • Spaces Delta (Δ) and Epsilon (Ε)

  • Corridor between house A and house B.

  • North-east side of house B

literature

  • Nikolaos Plato : Άνασκαφαί περιοχής Σητείας: ΜΜ Ι Οικία Ριζάς Αχλαδιών. In: Η εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία (Ed.): Πρακτικά της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας. Volume 107, 1952, pp. 646-648 ( PDF file ).
  • Nikolaos Plato: Ανασκαφή Αχλαδιών Σητείας. In: Η εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία (Ed.): Πρακτικά της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας. Volume 114, 1959, pp. 210-217 ( PDF file ).
  • Georges Daux : Chronique des fouilles . In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique . tape 84 , no. 2 , 1960, Crète, p. 822–826 (French, digitized [accessed February 17, 2017]).
  • Metaxia Tsipopoulou, Lucia Vagnetti: Achladia. Scavi e ricerche della Missione Greco-Italiana in Creta Orientale (1991-1993) . Gruppo Editoriale Internationale, Rome 1995, ISBN 978-88-8011-071-2 (Italian, digitized [PDF; 12.6 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2018]).
  • Eleni Mantzourani, Giorgos Vavouranakis: Megalithic versus Status: The Architectural Design and Masonry of Exceptional Late Bronze Age I Buildings in East Crete. In: Mediterranean Archeology and Archaeometry. Volume 5, No. 2. MAA, 2005, Achladia, pp. 39–41 (English, digital version [PDF; 2.0 MB]).
  • Maud Devolder: Labor Costs and Neopalatial Architecture: A Study of the Buildings at Klimataria-Manares and Achladia and the Palace at Gournia . In: Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Ute Günkel-Maschek (Ed.): Minoan Realities (=  Aegis . No. 5 ). Presses universitaires de Louvain, Leuven 2012, ISBN 978-2-87558-100-6 , p. 165–179 (English, digitized version [accessed January 15, 2018]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sabine Westerburg-Eberl: "Minoan Villas" in the New Palace period on Crete . In: Harald Siebenmorgen (Ed.): In the Labyrinth of Minos: Crete - the first European high culture [Exhibition of the Badisches Landesmuseum, 27.1. until April 29, 2001, Karlsruhe, Schloss] . Biering & Brinkmann, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-930609-26-6 , pp. 87 ( PDF; 1.6 MB ).
  2. ↑ a b J. Wilson Myers, Eleanor Emlen Myers, Gerald Cadogan (eds.): The areal atlas of ancient Crete . University of California Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0-520-07382-1 , I Achladia, pp. 50 (English, digitized version [accessed February 17, 2017]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Achladia. Minoan Crete, July 12, 2015, accessed February 17, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Κρήτη - Μινωικές τοποθεσίες . Τοποθεσία Αχλάδια Σητείας . Ελλήνων Δίκτυο , 2009, accessed February 17, 2017 (Greek).

Web links

Commons : Minoan Villa of Achladia  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
  • Riza. In: Digital Crete: Archaeological Atlas of Crete. Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Institute for Mediterranean Studies(English).;
  • Achladia. Minoan Crete, July 12, 2015, accessed February 17, 2017 .

Coordinates: 35 ° 10 ′ 9.2 ″  N , 26 ° 4 ′ 18.8 ″  E