Myrtos Pyrgos

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Archaeological site of Myrtos Pyrgos

Myrtos Pyrgos ( Greek Πύργος Μύρτου Pyrgos Myrtou ) is an archaeological excavation site in the southeast of the Greek island of Crete . It is located in the municipality of Ierapetra in the Lasithi regional district immediately northeast of the village of Myrtos (Μύρτος). A Minoan settlement was discovered here, which was inhabited intermittently from the early to the late Minoan period . More recently, a watchtower, in Greek Pyrgos , was built on the approximately 75-meter- high elevation off the coast, from which the foundations can still be seen and after which the excavation site is named.

history

Myrtos Pyrgos is 500 meters from the entrance to Myrtos in the southwest. The distance to the coast in the southeast is 120 meters. Another Minoan settlement, Fournou Koryfi, was discovered 1.7 kilometers east of the archaeological site . The latter arose like Myrtos Pyrgos in the early Minoan period of phase FM II A, but was not inhabited again after both settlements were destroyed by large-scale fires in FM II B. Myrtos Pyrgos, on the other hand, has several phases of settlement, which its excavator, the British archaeologist Gerald Cadogan , divided into the four sections Pyrgos I to IV. The excavations on an area of ​​about 884.5 m² took place from 1970 to 1982 under the auspices of the British School at Athens .

House grave in the tomb complex

According to Cadogan, the Pyrgos I phase ended with the destruction of the settlement in FM II B by fire. He dates the repopulation, the beginning of the Pyrgos II phase, to the late FM II B period. Shortly after the repopulation, the house grave of Myrtos Pyrgos (coordinates: 35 ° 0 ′ 24.6 ″ N, 25 ° 35 ′ 24.5 ″ E ) in FM III / MM IA, the crossing point , was built on the rubble of the FM II destruction from the early to the Middle Minoan period. A pillar in the middle of the approximately 5 × 3 meter building indicates the earlier existence of an upper floor, of this type only known from the temple tomb in Knossos . Connected to the house grave, to which a paved path about 15 meters long and 1 meter wide led, which expanded to a 4 × 3 meter square in front of the grave, were two ossuaries . The remains of 65 dead from the phases of Pyrgos III and IV were found in the grave and the ossuaries. The grave goods included cups, conical mugs, dishes and cookware.

Cistern on the north slope

In the Pyrgos III phase, in the old palace period from MM I B to MM III A, a tower and the cistern were built on the northern slope of the hill (coordinates: 35 ° 0 ′ 25.8 ″ N, 25 ° 35 ′ 26.1 ″ E ) . Another, smaller cistern was on the hill plateau. Cadogan assumes that there was a larger building on the hill that was later built over. Both circular cisterns have vertical walls and a round bottom. The walls and floors had a one to two centimeter thick coating of white lime plaster . The two structures on the plateau and on the northern slope of the hill of Myrtos Pyrgos are considered to be the oldest cisterns found in Minoan Crete. Gerald Cadogan described it as an unusual attribute of a Minoan settlement, especially since the river Myrtos potamos (Μύρτος ποταμός) flows into the sea in the west at the foot of the hill .

Access to the "Minoan Villa" with light shaft and stairs

In the late Minoan section SM I of the New Palace period , the Pyrgos IV phase, a building with an open space in front was built on the hilltop, which Cadogan called a "country house" (coordinates: 35 ° 0 ′ 24.8 ″ N, 25 ° 35 ′ 26, 5 ″ O ). Today this type of building is generally described with the generic term "Minoan Villa". A central aisle running from north to south divided the building into a western, representative area and a warehouse or magazine wing, which, among other things, a. Pithoi included. In front of the villa entrance on the south facade was an approximately 8 × 2 meter large stoa , over which there was possibly a balcony. To the right and left of the central pillar of the stoa there are still two lavender-colored limestone bases on which wooden pillars probably stood. To the north-west of the stoa, a staircase in the interior of the building led in front of a light shaft to an upper floor that is no longer available today. Some objects found give evidence of a shrine that was upstairs.

In front of the stoa there is a walkway made of white stone slabs, which is slightly raised towards the adjacent square. The almost square, including an integrated Kouloura 45 m² area in front of the “villa” is laid out with paving stones made of reddish sandstone, purple limestone and gray Sideropetra (crystalline limestone) according to an overarching concept. The Kouloura from the Pyrgos III phase , a round room with a diameter of 3.50 meters and a depth of 2.50 meters (estimated capacity about 23 tons), probably a silo for storing grain, was built with river pebbles in the transition to the new palace period filled up. The paving from the Pyrgos IV phase, however, followed its outline so that it remained visible to the users of the square. A large rectangular building formed the eastern end of the square. Most of its walls were torn down in antiquity. It can still be seen that the anteroom had a central column.

The "Minoan Villa" of Myrtos Pyrgos was destroyed by fire in section SM I B. The houses surrounding the settlement were apparently not affected. The finds from the late Minoan period included Linear A tablets , clay seals, an offering stand, two “Noduli” with Linear A inscription, a sea-style jug , a red faience shell, fragments of an Egyptian stone vase and other small items. Gerald Cadogan saw in the various finds from religion, administration and economy in Myrtos Pyrgos indications of a regional center on the south coast of Crete, which was closely connected to the palaces of the late Minoan Neupalastzeit.

  • Excavation site

  • South side of the “villa” with two pillars

  • Light shaft in the center of the "villa"

  • South-east corner of the "villa" made of stone masonry

  • Remains of the building east of the square in front of the "villa"

literature

  • Gerald Cadogan: Pyrgos, Crete, 1970-7 . In: Archaeological Reports . tape 24 , 1977, pp. 70-84 , JSTOR : 581059 (English).
  • Costas Davaras: Guide to the Antiquities of Crete . Eptalofos, Athens 2003, ISBN 960-8360-02-1 , p. 238-239 ( online ).
  • Gerald Cadogan: Myrtos: From Phournou Koryphi to Pyrgos . In: Kevin T Glowacki, Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan (Ed.): Stega. The archeology of houses and households in ancient Crete (=  Hesperia Supplements . Volume 44 ). American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Athens 2011, p. 39-49 , JSTOR : 41363138 (English).
  • Colin F. Macdonald, Eleni Hatzaki, Stelios Andreou (Eds.): The Great Islands: Studies of Crete and Cyprus presented to Gerald Cadogan . Kapon Editions, Athens 2015, ISBN 978-960-6878-91-6 (English, abstract ).
  • Emilia Oddo: From Pottery to Politics? Analysis of the Neopalatial Ceramic Assemblage from Cistern 2 at Myrtos-Pyrgos, Crete . University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 2016 (English, abstract ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Myrtos-Pyrgos. Minoan Crete, May 20, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  2. ^ Nancy H. Demand: The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History . Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2011, ISBN 978-1-4051-5551-9 , pp. 120 (English, digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Konstantinos Christakis: Minoan pithoi and their significance for the household subsistance economy of neopalatial Crete. Dissertation, University of Bristol 1999, p. 180 ( PDF; 21,511.32 kB ).
  4. ↑ Emilia Oddo: From Pottery to Politics? Analysis of the Neopalatial Ceramic Assemblage from Cistern 2 at Myrtos-Pyrgos, Crete . University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati 2016 (English, abstract ).
  5. ↑ a b Yasemin Leylek: Public rooms in the Minoan culture. Dissertation, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 2012, pp. 211–213 ( PDF; 13749.72 kB ).
  6. ↑ Pyrgos cisterns. Itia, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Gerald Cadogan: Water management in Minoan Crete, Greece: the two cisterns of one Middle Bronze Age settlement . In: Water Supply . tape 7 , no. 1 , 2007, p. 103-112 (English, abstract ).
  8. ↑ 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; 1625.47 kB ).
  9. ↑ a b c Yasemin Leylek: Public spaces in the Minoan culture. Dissertation, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 2012, pp. 320–325 ( PDF; 13749.72 kB ).
  10. ^ John G. Younger: The Myrtos - Pyrgos and Gournia Roundels Inscribed in Linear A: Suffixes, Prefixes, and a Journey to Syme . In: Colin F. Macdonald, Eleni Hatzaki, Stelios Andreou (eds.): The Great Islands: Studies of Crete and Cyprus presented to Gerald Cadogan . Kapon Editions, Athens 2015, ISBN 978-960-6878-91-6 , pp. 67–70 (English, PDF; 130.42 kB ).

Web links

Commons : Pyrgos Archaeological Dig Site  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 35 ° 0 ′ 24.9 ″  N , 25 ° 35 ′ 25.9 ″  E