Psira
| Psira | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Mediterranean Sea | |
| Geographical location | 35 ° 11 '25 " N , 25 ° 51' 42" E | |
|
||
| length | 2.38 km | |
| width | 1.08 km | |
| surface | 1.518 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 204 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Psira ( Greek Ψείρα ( f. Sg. ) = Louse ) is a small and nowadays uninhabited Greek island north of Crete . The island is located off the east Cretan coast in the Gulf of Mirabello and belongs to the municipality of Sitia . It is located about 3 km west of the coastal town of Mochlos and 10 km east of the city of Agios Nikolaos . The 204 meter high and only sparsely vegetated island has a length of about 2300 m, a maximum width of 900 m and has an area of 1.4 km².
The ruins of a Minoan port city can be found on Psira . It was south-east on a sheltered bay. The remains of the port facilities and the lower parts of the city are now below sea level; the higher lying ruins are on today's coastline or extend on the lower slope and can be visited as part of excursions. The remains of a Byzantine monastery can also be found on the island.
exploration
In 1903 a Turkish seaman told the American hobby archaeologist Richard Berry Seager about the walls and broken glass on the island of Psira. Seager visited the island and quickly found that it was a similar settlement to Gournia . In 1906 he and 20 workers undertook a trial excavation for three days and then decided to continue digging here in 1907. From May 13 to July 20, 1907, he and 80 workers undertook excavations on Psira. His uncle Benjamin H. Berry supported him and made the drawings and plans. Seager uncovered a Minoan port city with more than 60 houses and was able to prove some Roman buildings. He also found Minoan terraces for agriculture and a Minoan cemetery.
From 1985 to 1995 Philip H. Betancourt and Costis Davaras explored the archaeological site. Among other things, they examined the effects of the Minoan eruption on the settlement and the further development afterwards.
Excavation site
The Minoan city lay on a headland north of the bay used as a port. The first settlement remains come from the early Minoan period (FM I and FM II). The houses at that time were built directly on the rock. In later times the rubble from this time was used to level out the uneven ground and thus survived the time. The obsidian hoard that Seager found also dates from this time . The oldest preserved walls date to the late early period (FM III). At that time, small stones made of gray limestone quarried on the island were used to build houses. Bricks were never used. In the following period (MM I) the houses continued to be used, but received a new floor. At that time the settlement was destroyed for the first time.
The city was rebuilt and reached its greatest expansion at MM III and SM IA. The houses were built from larger, partly roughly hewn stones. They often had at least two floors, and Seager could even prove four floors in one building. Since the houses were built on the slope, they often had an entrance on each floor. In one house, Seager found the remains of a plaster relief depicting a queen or goddess. This is now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum . In another building there were a large number of stones that he interpreted as projectiles. The higher part of the city was reached from the harbor via stairs that ran between the houses.
At the time of SM IA, the Minoan eruption took place, as Betancourt was able to prove. The second destruction did not occur until SM IB and was therefore not directly related to the volcanic eruption. The stone vessels and high-quality ceramics found, some in the palace style , show that Psira was a prosperous city. The main source of income was probably long-distance trade across the seas. After the destruction, the city was abandoned. It was repopulated at SM III, only to be abandoned shortly afterwards. Seager found a few Greek red-figure vase fragments that suggest a small settlement on the island. In Roman times there was a beacon on the highest point of the island and a small harbor town of 20 to 30 m².
literature
- Richard Berry Seager, Excavations on the island of Pseira, Crete , Philadelphia, 1910.
- Philip P. Betancourt, Pseira: A Bronze Age Seaport in Minoan Crete
- Philip P. Betancourt, Pseira I: The Minoan Buildings on the West Side of Area A
- Philip P. Betancourt: The Stone Vessels of Pseira . In: Expedition Magazine . tape 32 , no. 3 . Penn Museum , 1990, ISSN 0014-4738 , p. 15–21 (English, online [accessed December 17, 2018]).
- Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Pseira II: Building AC (the “Shrine”) and Other Buildings in Area A , 1997
- Cheryl R. Floyd, Pseira III: The Plateia Building , 1998
- Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Pseira IV: Minoan Buildings in Areas B, C, D, and F , 1999
- John C. McEnroe, Pseira V: Architecture of Pseira
- Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Pseira VI: The Pseira Cemetery I: The Surface Survey, Topography and methodology , 2003
- Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Pseira VII: The Pseira Cemetery II: Excavation of the Tombs , 2003
- Philip Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Richard Hope Simpson, Pseira VIII: The Pseira Island Survey, Part 1
- Philip Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Richard Hope Simpson, Pseira IX: The Pseira Island Survey, Part 2: The Intensive Surface Survey
- Esther Widmann: The Archeology of the Household in the Cretan New Palace period . Master thesis. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg 2007, Pseira, p. 72–88 ( digitized version [PDF; 23.6 MB ; accessed on February 7, 2018]).
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Berry Seager, Excavations on the island of Pseira, Crete , p. 5
- ↑ Richard Berry Seager, Excavations on the island of Pseira, Crete , pp. 5-38
