Palaikastro 2003 Overview

Statement of Purpose
Minoan religion remains as mysterious to us as it was to Sir Arthur Evans, who proposed the first interpretations of the representational scenes in Aegean art over a century ago. These two buildings at Palaikastro, both directly associated with the unique and undeniably sacred Palaikastro Kouros, have shed a very great deal of light on what the town shrines in Neopalatial Minoan Crete contained and how their assemblages differed from other urban complexes. They have also prompted us to explore this urban shrine's possible relationship to the nearby `peak sanctuary' on Mt. Petsophas. Outside of the palaces, there are no other urban shrines or temple identified as such in Neopalatial Crete.

The undisturbed destruction deposits in Building 5 enable us to study the two phases of the LM IB period, first identified at Palaikastro, for even greater chronological accuracy into this important time period, contemporary with the Egyptian eighteenth dynasty.