Hagia Photia 2005 Overview

Metaxia Tsipopoulou
Publication of the excavation of
the Middle Minoan I fortified rectangular building
at Hagia Photia, Siteia

Archaeological research in the Hagia Photia plain, a narrow stretch of flat land at the base of the highlands which separates the northern coast of Crete at Siteia from the southern, was until the early 1980s largely restricted to the excavation conducted by Prof. Costis Davaras in the Early Minoan I-II necropolis (2800-2300 BC). There he uncovered some 300 small chamber tombs of Cycladic type, containing chiefly ceramics either imported from the Cyclades or modeled on that tradition, as well as quantities of large obsidian blades brought from the Cycladic island of Melos, the chief source for this volcanic stone. The presence of this colony appears to have been related to the trade in this raw material. Otherwise the area was virtually unknown. The cemetery at Hagia Photia was recently published. (Davaras and Betancourt 2004)

In 1984-1985 the applicant excavated the site of Kouphota, a low hill (25m.), by the sea, on the northern edge of the Hagia Photia plain overlooking the Siteia Bay. It lies some 350 m. distant from the necropolis. The six months campaign was an emergency intervention in the face of projected building activities connected with the tourist industry. Encroachment on the monument had begun already in earlier years when a quarry was opened in the southern flank of the hill to provide building material for the modern village. From under a shallow soil coverage there emerged a unique Middle Minoan IA (2000-1900 BC) fortified rectangular building of a nature previously undocumented in Minoan Crete. (Tsipopoulou 1988, 1992).

The planned publication will be in the form of a monograph, with chapters by: Metaxia Tsipopoulou (editor), Introduction, conclusions, stratigraphy, and architecture of the settlement; Paolo Belli, the architecture of the tholoi, Carl Knappett, pottery; Heidi Dierckx, the ground stone tools, Cesare d’Annibale obsidian tools, David Reese, faunal remains, Georgia Kotzamani, palaeobotanical remains.