An Archaeological Survey of the Lower Catchment of the Ayiofarango Valley

Abstract

PLATES I-IOT H I S report describes and discusses the archaeological sites explored by the writers in an intensive survey of the lower catchment of the river valley which reaches from just south-west of Pigaidakhia to the mouth of the Ayiofarango just west of Kaloi Limenes (FIG. I ). This area was chosen because it was known to be of considerable archaeological importance, yet in recent years it had been subjected more to the depredations of tomb-robbers than to the exploration of archaeologists. 2 In addition, there was the possibility that a road would be cut through the valley from the Mesara to Kaloi Limenes. A survey in advance of such work would enable sites of archaeological importance to be recorded and either investigated or safeguarded before any construction work took place.The survey was spread over four weeks in the summer of 1971, when four archaeologists were involved, and over three weeks in 1972 when a geologist, a physical geographer, and a human geographer were concerned with the survey. In addition, archaeological staff working at that time on the excavation of a tholos tomb at A. Kyriaki were able to supplement their work of the preceding year. It was intended from the first that the survey should cover the entire human occupation of the lower catchment from earliest times to the present day, and that the natural environment of this occupation should be as fully established as possible. Furthermore, the survey was undertaken intensively, and not selectively. In so far as it was possible, the survey team covered the total area of the lower catchment from the river bed to the watershed, in order that the total pattern of human settlement in the area might be recorded.Brief mention must be made of some of the problems of interpretation which we have faced in compiling this report. In many cases settlement sites produced only small quantities of sherds, and these were mainly weathered coarse wares. Recognizable sherds on these sites tended to belong mainly to the latest period of occupation, and earlier occupation was barely represented amongst surface finds. At E5 and E6, for example, only two identifiable Minoan sherds were found on the surface, although the river-cut section revealed two levels containing Minoan pottery. This section, at E6, proved to be of great importance in that it allowed us to identify some coarse ware fabrics as Early Minoan, Hellenistic, or late Hellenistic/early Roman, which in turn allowed us to ascribe dates to settlement sites where distinctive pottery of one of these periods was found in only very small quantities.

The Hidden Landscape of Prehistoric Greece

“…The Argolid survey, begun 'unofficially' by Michael Jameson with a more traditional, topographic approach during the 1950s, but transformed into a fieldby-field, intensive survey by the early 1970s (Jameso'n et al 1994) had in fact already inaugurated an approach to the Greek landscape that did not privilege any one phase, but focused instead on the patterns of 'sequent occupance', right down to the present day. The same can be said of the Ayiofarango Survey in Crete, from the mid-1970s (Blackman and Branigan 1977).…”

Staging the manipulation of the dead in Pre- and Protopalatial Crete, Greece (3rd–early 2nd mill. BCE): From body wholes to fragmented body parts

“…The tholos tombs at Moni Odigitria are located between the Mesara plain and the south coast of south-central Crete in the broader area of Phaistos (Vasilakis and Branigan, 2010). The zone of the tholos tombs comprises the northern limit of a systematic survey conducted in the early 1970s in the lower catchment settlement area of the Hagiopharango valley in the Asterousia mountains of south-central Crete (Blackman and Branigan, 1977). This was complemented further with a systematic survey in the environs of the two tholoi (Vasilakis and Branigan, 2010: 3-27 (Levi, 1961-62;Girella, 2012Girella, , 2013 in press a,b; for absolute chronology see Manning, 2010: Table 2.2).…”

Socializing geoarchaeology: Insights from Bourdieu's theory of practice applied to Neolithic and Bronze Age Crete

“…Although a comprehensive summary of Neolithic research on Crete lies beyond the scope of this article (see Tomkins, 2000, andcontributions in Isaakidou &Tomkins, 2008a, for further references), two postwar achievements deserve special mention. The multiplication of intensive surveys, particularly in mountainous regions, contributed significantly to the comprehension of the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age population dynamics beyond the coastal plains (e.g., Hood, Warren, & Cadogan, 1964;Blackman & Branigan, 1975, 1977Watrous, 1982;Watrous et al, 1993;Branigan, 1998). At Knossos, new excavations were carried out by Hood and subsequently by John Evans (1964Evans ( , 1968.…”