NEWS

Lost city found in northeast corner of Crete; archaeologists say it will add to Greek history

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Through painstaking excavations in sweltering heat this summer, researchers led by Dr. Donald C. Haggis, a classical archaeology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have discovered a lost city near the northeast coast of Crete that dates back to the 6th century B.C.

Crete is the largest Greek island and one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Digging took place on scrubby, rocky land about a half mile southeast of the modern village of Kavousi.

The long-abandoned settlement, which might be one the ancient geographer Strabo called Larisa, should prove invaluable in helping scholars uncover details about a relatively unknown period of Greek and Cretan history -- just before and during the emergence of classical Greek cities, Haggis said. The National Geographic Society funded part of the project.

"This undisturbed area, which we call Azoria, was near the sites of other settlements that had been previously excavated," he said. "We chose to examine it because surface surveys we conducted and remains of pottery we found led us to suspect that it might be later than some early Iron Age settlements nearby. The remains are very exciting since they are in nearly pristine condition for archaeology."

Artifacts recovered so far include terracotta loom weights and spindle whorls, glass and gold beads, bronze pins, bronze nails, lead weights, bronze and iron tools, ceremonial stands, pithos jars and other decorated pottery. Also found were grains -- probably wheat and barley -- legumes, olive pits and grape seeds.

One especially notable find was a fragment of a bronze helmet crest decorated with lotus flowers and chain and wave patterns, the scientist said. It is unusual because it is one of only two surviving examples of that type of Archaic Greek helmet, which was worn by the aristocracy and military elite. The other example is in a Hamburg, Germany museum.

"Fire seems to have destroyed the city catastrophically sometime around the end of the 6th century B.C., and then it was reoccupied afterwards on a smaller scale with a number of buildings abandoned," Haggis said. "An earthquake appears to have finished off the city after the final Archaic-period abandonment in the early 5^th century B.C."

Evidence so far uncovered shows centralized storage and industrial areas, domestic food processing and storage and part of an elite dining area, possibly a shrine, he said. Walls excavated were sophisticated architecturally, consisting in parts of concentric "spine" sections that served as retaining walls to help support houses and other structures.

"Everything went remarkably smoothly," Haggis said. "Our day began at 6 a.m. when we all gathered in Kavousi village, having transported students from the nearby village of Pacheia Ammos. Typically, some 34 people participated -- 16 workmen, six graduate student trench masters, eight undergraduate assistants, a biological anthropologist, the science director, the field director and me."

The group boarded three pickup trucks and Haggis’ 1972 Volkswagen van and drove a half mile into the mountains where they began climbing to the summit of Azoria, he said. They dug until 10:30 a.m., took a half-hour lunch break and then continued digging until 2 p.m. At 2:30, the group transported the finds to the Institute of Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete, where they were washed, sorted and studied.

"Students stopped around 5:30," Haggis said. "Directors and conservators usually continued working until evening when various staff members gathered along beachfront taverns in Pacheia Ammos or in various cafes in Kavousi village for their evening meals."

The team excavated more than 1,300 square meters, he said, but far more remains undisturbed. Overall, the site is believed to be about 15 hectares, or 150,000 square meters. They also sifted through some 64 tons of soil to recover fish and animal bones and shells.

"What’s so exciting about this is that it offers us an opportunity to look at an early city just at the point of its becoming a city and during a time historians have called a period of silence," Haggis said. "Because it was abandoned, we won’t be burdened with much later remains from the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods like archaeologists have been in Athens and other sites.

Whether it turns out to be Larissa or some other small independent city-state, the site presents a valuable archaeological window for other reasons as well, he said. Among them are that it will shed new light on early trade and agriculture around the eastern Mediterranean. Azoria Project excavations, which will continue for at least another four years, were conducted

with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and with permission from the Greek Ministry of Culture under the auspices of the Archaeological Service of Eastern Crete. Haggis, associate professor of classical archaeology at UNC, is excavation director. Drs. Margaret S. Mook, associate professor of classical studies at Iowa State University, and Lynn Snyder, research associate in anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution, are field director and science director, respectively. Fifty-three people participated in the project.

Other sponsors providing funds include the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, classics department and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete and the Azoria Project Fund.

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Note: Haggis can be reached at (919) 962-7640 or dchaggis@email.unc.edu

Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596