Omphalion 2005 Overview

OMPHALION PEDION: A Golden Region in Central Crete
Marina Panagiotaki

This grant application is for the publication of the final report with the title Omphalion Pedion: a golden region in Central Crete. It is based on a multidisciplinary study of the region conducted from 1983 to 1989 by the archaeologist N. Panagiotakis, supported by a large team of experts in various fields.

The Omphalion Pedion region is situated in central Crete, between the Lassithi mountains and Juktas. Its name comes from the myth about the birth and nursing of the greatest god of the Greek Pantheon, Zeus; when he was being transferred as a baby from the cave of Psychro to the Idaean cave to hide from his father Cronos, he lost his umbilical cord - omphalion loro in Greek.

The Omphalion Pedion consists of a strip of lowland along the north coast and a plateau to its south: a mix of level terrain - the actual Omphalion Pedion - and undulating hills. It is the region that nourished and sustained three Bronze Age Palaces and five city states in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods. Though the hinterland of Knossos and Malia in the Bronze Age, and giving access to important areas to the south, west and east, it was little known archaeologically before the Project started.

More than one thousand new archaeological sites have come to light through the Project. The highest peaks of occupation are the Old Palace Period, the New Palace Period (both Bronze Age), the Archaic and the Roman. Most importantly a new Bronze Age palatial site was identified through our Project - that of Galatas: now under excavation by the Archaeological Service. The most significant discovery, however, was that of the earliest large-scale communication system in the Aegean world, functioning by beacons: a series of man-made features in the shape of rounded pyramids with a flat top. The flat top was originally covered with a red soil that is baked hard from the fires lit on it and is now scattered all over the structures. Although such a system was known from written sources in the Near East (for instance the Mari archives in Syria) as well as the Classical Greek writers, none had ever been identified on the ground, until now. It is significant that beside the 40 beacons identified in the Omphalion Pedion region, there are now more reported in the rest of the island, showing thus that the system was a pan-Cretan phenomenon.

The Publication will be centred on the archaeological topography of the region, from the Neolithic Period to the Present. It places the settlement patterns identified for each chronological period in their natural environment (geomorphology, geology, climate, vegetation, land use), as well as publishing the material finds on which all is based. The dynamics of the Omphalion Pedion are thus explored. The results prove the diachronic importance of the region and illustrate the way people interacted with their environment in the various periods of the history of the region.

The results of the project will be published in English, in three volumes, covering about 1000 pages; supported by 1500 photographs and 1000 drawings of architectural remains, as well as line drawings of the finds. A draft has been prepared of about 800 pages by the applicant and 15 participants. The draft manuscript needs to be revised by each participant, the applicant and the editor. A concluding synthetic chapter needs to be written and a few more sections by two participants. Thematic maps are now in preparation. All photographs need to be made camera-ready. The whole will be ready for the publisher two years from the date the grant begins.

The grant itself will be spent on the preparation of the digital maps, the setting up of the plates and of the volumes as a whole. It will be published by the INSTAP ACADEMIC PRESS.