Sphoungaras

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
View from Gournia to the Sphoungaras

Sphoungaras ( Greek Σφουγγαράς = sponge fisherman or sponge seller ) is the name of a hill on the north coast of eastern Crete . It is located about 350 meters north of the Gournia archaeological site . Minoan tombs have been discovered on the south-western slope .

Minoan tombs

The main cemetery of Gournia was about 200 meters north of the ancient city. The graves found cover the entire settlement period of Gournia, while the so-called north cemetery , which was directly connected to the north of the city, was only used up to the Middle Minoan Period I (MM I; around 1800 BC). The oldest relics were found under a rock overhang and show that the place was inhabited in the Neolithic Age before it was later used as a cemetery. During the Early Minoan Period IIa (FM II A), the dead were buried in stone box graves made of roughly hewn stones in a 9 × 9 meter area . Black-spotted ceramics in the Vasiliki style were found as grave goods . In a further area 13 meters long, graves from the Early Minoan Period II - III were found. As gifts there were stone vessels, two gold chains with heart-shaped pendants, two ivory seals and bronze tweezers . The number of graves suggests a considerable extent of Gournia in the early Minoan period.

From the Middle Minoan Period I, the dead were buried in Pithoi . Here the corpse was brought into a crouching position with legs drawn up, as Herodotus testified for the Libyans , and a pith was placed over it. This type of burial was also retained during the Middle Minoan Period III and the Late Minoan Period I. Sometimes , however, Larnaken were also used to hold the corpse. With the end of the settlement of Gournia, the use of the cemetery also ended.

exploration

In 1904 the archaeologist Harriet Boyd-Hawes discovered graves from the early Minoan period under a rock overhang. Richard Berry Seager suspected that this was not just a single burial site, but the Gournia cemetery and began digging on March 31, 1910 with eight workers. After just a day of work, he found more graves. The next day he started an excavation campaign with 40 workers and after three weeks he found 150 burial jars. Most of the finds were brought to the Candia Museum . Individual items were given to the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The results were published by Edith Hayward Hall in 1912 . Further excavations were carried out by Costis Davaras in 1971 and 1972.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeffrey S. Soles, The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of bronze age Crete. P. 3.
  2. ↑ Jeffrey S. Soles, The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of bronze age Crete. P. 2.
  3. ^ Herodotus, Historien , 4, 190.
  4. ^ Edith Hayward Hall, Excavations in eastern Crete Sphoungaras in University of Pennsylvania, The Museum Anthropological Publications, Vol. III, No. 2, 1912, pp. 56-71 ( online )
  5. ↑ Jeffrey S. Soles, The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of bronze age Crete. Pp. 1-2.

literature

  • Jeffrey S. Soles, The prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of bronze age Crete. , Princeton, New Jersey, 1992, ISBN 0876615248

Coordinates: 35 ° 6 ′ 45.8 ″  N , 25 ° 47 ′ 40.1 ″  E