Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more: https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/about-us/news-and-blogs/cambridge-university-press-publishing-update-following-technical-disruption
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
In a rescue excavation in the Demetrokali plot in the Chora of Naxos, part of a building complex, with a paved road, was discovered. Characteristic vases are presented (local imitations, and imports of Minoan types) which date the unit to the LC II period and show that Naxos at that time formed part of the network of communications with Crete and the eastern Aegean.
Acknowledgements: The Demetrokalli plot I excavated at the kind invitation of Prof. V. Lambrinoudakis. This article is due to the warm encouragement of Mr M.R. Popham. I would also like to thank Dr Robin Barber for his comments and Dr E. Scholfield, Dr I.A. Morrison and Mr G. Thomas for all their advice and help. The photographs are by Mr John Patrikianos, Mr George Maravelias and myself. The drawings are by Ms Vassiliki Vathrakokoili and Ms Angela Wardell. Vases 2, 3, and 5 were mended by Petros Petrakis and the remainder by Ms Daphne Lalayianni.
Abbreviations:
Betancourt = Betancourt, P.P., The history of Minoan Pottery, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1985.Google Scholar
Epeteris = Kondoleon, N.M., ‘Mykenaike Naxos’ in Epeteris tes Hetaireias Kykladikon Meleton 1 (1961) 600–8Google Scholar
Fotou = Fotou, V., ‘Les sites de l'epoque neolithique et de 1'age du bronze a Naxos’, in Les Cyclades. Materiaux pour une etude de geographie historique. Table ronde reunie a l'Universite de Dijon, mars 1982. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 1983.Google Scholar
Keos = Cummer, W.W. and Schofield, E., Keos III. Ayia Irini, House A., Mainz 1984.Google Scholar
Phylakopi = Atkinson, T.D.et al., Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos. (Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Supplementary Paper 4). London 1904.Google Scholar
Preston = Preston, L.E., House F: a building of the late Bronze Age at Ayia Irini on Keos. (Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Cincinnati), 1972.Google Scholar
The Cyclades = Barber, R.L.N., The Cyclades in the Bronze Age, London, Duckworth, 1987.Google Scholar
1 Grotta has been systematically excavated by the late Prof. N. Kondoleon and by Prof. V. Lambrinoudakis. For the bibliography of prehistoric Naxos up to 1980, see Fotou 20–57 and tnen PAE and Ergon.
2 An assessment of site location in The Cyclades, 43–46 and n.1. Low promontories or hills by the sea were favoured beyond the Cyclades, e.g. at Kolona in Aegina, or the E. Aegean, and earlier in time, during the LN period. AJA 68 (1964) 395; BSA 79(1984) 243–5.
3 Even to-day shepherds use a footpath from Kalandos to Agiasos for easier access to the Chora, rather than the long and difficult road over the mountain. And when the sea is too rough even for the big boats to travel, the only access to the little islands is by caique through Volakas, in the south.
4 Fotou, 47–8.
5 ibid., 54.
6 ibid., 46–55; PAE 1950 269–709; Ergon 1985 56–60.
7 PAE 1979 251–2. Aerial photography has shown that Palatia was the edge of a promontory, on which a canal had been opened (at an unknown date) uniting the two harbours.
8 Epeteris 603; PAE 1951 222; 1959 180; 1961 193; 1979 251–2. Kondoleon's original assessment has been modified by recent discoveries showing that the settlement of Grotta was abandoned at the end of the Mycenaean period and that the Protogeometric and Geometric structures were funerary. Ergon 1985 59.
9 PAE 1949, 112–22.
10 Fotou, 48–53, 55; Ergon 1984 75–6; 1985 56–62.
11 Fotou, 46; A Minyan sherd inscribed with a Linear A sign was found in the same area Kadmos 4 (1965) 84.
12 PAE 1961, 193; 1963, 152; 1965, 171; 1967 118–9. However, some wails at the west end of this excavation, may be LCII, if associated with ‘red and black’. (PAE 1965 Pl. 218a) and LHIIA/IIB pottery (ibid. Pl. 219, 220).
13 Epeteris 602–4.
14 Fotou, 20, 50. No building remains were found on Palada, but Prof. Gruben's investigation showed that the sherds clearly belonged to habitation deposits.
15 PAE 1985. For a preliminary report on the LN material from Grotta, see Hadjianastasiou, , ‘A Late Neolithic settlement in Grotta, Naxos’, in French, E. and Wardle, K. (eds.) Problems in Greek Prehistory, 1987, 11–19.Google Scholar
16 AA 1968, 386; BSA 76 (1981) 7 n. 70.
17 For the excavation on Kokkinovrachos, PAE 1987 (forth.). Apart from Kondoleon's EC finds, examination of material from the earlier excavations on Palada in the storeroom of Naxos Museum (by the kind permission of Prof. G. Gruben), showed a deposit containing both EC and LN sherds, similar to ours, proving the existence of settlements of both periods on Palatia and Grotta. However, the transition from the LN to the EC may well be documented in the recently excavated Cave of Zas, and we have to await the publication of this important material (Dr C. Zachos, personal communication).
18 Phylakopi Pl. XXV 3; Keos Pl. 69, no. 1053.
19 BSA 69 (1974) 35, fig. 7, 52; Phylakopi pl. XXVII, 12.
20 ASAtene 50–1 (1972–3) 308, fig. 289g.
21 Preston, 62 Pl. XIXc; PAE 1976, 328, fig. 49.
22 Betancourt 112, fig. 86.
23 Keos. Pl. 70, nos. 1100, 1101.
24 BSA 17 (1911) 11, Pl. IX; 69 (1974) 37, 39.
25 Doumas, Chr., Thera: Pompeii of the ancient Aegean, London 1983, fig. 16Google Scholar, second row left.
26 Phylakopi Pl. XXX 3.
27 Furumark, A., The Mycenaean pottery. I. Analysis and classification, Stockholm 1941, 371.Google Scholar
28 Preston 58, Pl. XV 10.
29 Naxian clays are now being analysed by the Fitch Laboratory. The fabric of this jar I considered local because of its similarity to later, LCIII, fine fabrics from the Grotta area. However, Mr M.R. Popham, on the basis of a photograph, expressed the opinion that it might be Cretan. Similar problems of identification as regards the finer fabrics occurred in Kea, see Keos, 46.
30 PAE 1976, 321 fig. 19, Pl. 202g, d; 1975, 203b; Phylakopi Pl. XXV, 1, 2, 3. BSA 17 (1911) Pl. II, III, VII, VIII.
31 BSA 62 (1967) Pl. 80b.
32 Hawes, H. Boydet al. Gournia, Vasiliki and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete. Philadelphia 1908, Pl. IX 11Google Scholar; Popham, M., The Minoan Unexplored Mansion at Knossos (BSA Supplementary Volume 17) London 1984, Pl. 163, 14 (LMI and earlier).Google Scholar
33 Marinatos, S., Excavations at Thera V, Athens 1972, Pl. 90.Google Scholar
34 Op. Arch. 6 (1950) 154, 198.
35 Phylakopi Pl. XI, 9.
36 Keos Pl. 48, 180; 75, 1164.
37 ibid. Pl. 73, 1138; 78, 1226.
38 BSA 25 (1923) Pl. XLVIIj; XLVIIIe; AM 34 (1909) 308, fig. 15; AA 40 (1925) 321–6, figs 5:b, 7 (imitating a LHIIA shape).
39 Hesperia 41 (1972) Pl. 91, F18; BSA 69 (1974) 40, fig. 7.
40 BSA 72 (1977). 191 Pl. 28 a, b; MacGillivray, J.A., ‘Cycladic jars from Middle Minoan III contexts at Knossos’ in Hägg, R., and Marinatos, N., (eds.) The Minoan thalassocracy: myth and reality (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athen), Stockholm 1984, 156.Google Scholar
41 Hesperia 52 (1983) 361–6. Dr E. Schofield believes there is a close similarity between the Naxian vase and those from Kea (personal communication). For LCIII contacts between Naxos and the Dodekanese, see below n. 51. 52.
42 BSA 62 (1967) 341–3, fig. 2, 8, Pl. 97 a–b; Hesperia 41 (1972) Pl. 95, H8.
43 As no building remains were associated with the LHIII rhyton found in an adjacent plot (AA 1968 389), Prof. Doumas observed that ‘it would be arbitrary to suggest any special building on the site’, such as palace or sanctuary. Yet the location where it was found should be important, since such vessels were not of household use. The rhyton was found with both LHIII and LHII pottery. ibid. 386.
44 For the sequence established in Kea, see Keos, 140–6; Schofield, E., ‘Destruction deposits of the earlier Late Bronze Age from Ayia Irini, Kea’, in MacGillivray, J.A. and Barber, R.L.N. (eds.) The Prehistoric Cyclades. Contributions to a workshop on Cycladic chronology, Edinburgh 1984, 179–83.Google Scholar For other reported finds of the earlier LBA from Grotta, local and imported, see n. 12 and PAE 1950, Pl. 12; BSA 51 (1956) 27, 30.
45 Furumark's observations about the Mainland tendency to ‘isolate the elements of the composition, to treat them as separate patterns and to give them standardised form’ seem relevant here. Op. Arch. 6 (1950), 160.
46 BSA 62 (1967) 339.
47 PAE 1976, 328. Also, certain red and black jars found on Kea may have come from Naxos (Dr E. Schofield, personal communication).
48 A background allowing for variations born from local traditions. BSA 69 (1974) 52 and AA 1987 359–79.
49 Milburn, E., Aegean Pottery from Late Bronze Age Houses at Ayia Irini, Keos (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cincinnati 1965), 7.Google Scholar
50 See n. 11; Fotou 46–7; A report on the Vigla finds, this volume.
51 AA 1968, 389. See also PAE 1967 113.
52 Kardara, C., Aplomata Naxou: Kineta esremata taphon A kai B Athens 1977, 92–3.Google Scholar
53 PPS 1965, 52; The Cyclades, 196–7.
54 BSA 65 (1970) Pl. 54a; Hesperia 53 (1984) Pl. 53a, 54a; 1984. 257, Pl. 53f.
55 BSA 62 (1967) 342; Betancourt 140.
56 The Cyclades 136, 256, n. 9. The presence of obsidian from Nisyros in Naxos and Saliagos, may stretch these complexities much further back. Hesperia 52 (1983) 365.
57 BSA 51 (1956) 27; 76 (1981) 7; Fotou, 47.
58 Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (1982) 19.
59 The sherds on pl. 40d belong to a stirrup jar similar to one from Ayia Irini. Keos, pl. 74, 1145; Mountjoy, P.A., Mycenaean decorated pottery: a guide to identification, SIMA, Goteborg 1986, 30.Google Scholar
60 Hesperia 52 (1983), 366.
