An international team of archaeologists headed by the director emerita of the ministry of culture Metaxia Tsipopoulou which is digging at Petras, on the eastern edges of the city of Siteia on the Greek island of Crete, has discovered a large number of gold and silver jewellery, numerous bronze implements (many used for grooming) and other objects, the ministry announced on Wednesday.
The team excavating the unlooted cemetery of Petras in NE Crete which dates to the Minoan Prepalatial and Old Palatial periods (approx. 2800 BC to 1800 BC), just finished its 12th season of excavation.
According to the ministry’s statement, “this year (archaeologists) focused mainly on the Early Minoan II and Middle Minoan II funerary groups, which yielded new ivory seals, unique gold jewellery, gold beads and semiprecious stones, as well as stone vessels, and statuettes with multicolored Kamares-style decoration.”
The ministry noted that “Petras is being excavated and studied by an interdisciplinary group of 26 members from 9 countries.”
It stressed that the excavations so far have revealed, among other things, 17 large funerary buildings (max. 125 sq.m. each), a funerary stone outcrop, three pits and two extensive ritual spaces. Most of the found graves are secondary burials, only seven being primary burials.
Of the human remains discovered at the site, “the quantity and (state of) preservation of the skeletal material is unique, as is the variety of funerary offerings, many of which were created from valuable imported raw materials. (…) The quantity of ceramics is also highly significant and includes a great number of decorated vessels, especially ritual vessels,” added the ministry.
About the Petras excavation
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the research activities at Petras, the Minoan urban settlement and palace of Siteia, a special web-site was created, in the summer of 2010.
All excavations, surface surveys and studies, since 1985, are presented there. Furthermore, the public outreach, educational programs, exhibitions and the presentation of the site to the public are described. Since 2006 the Petras site is open to the citizens and the visitors of Siteia.
The visitor of the web-site can access information on the researchers working at Petras and the increasing bibliography; moreover many photographs are available of the excavations, the finds and the people who worked or visited the excavations.
About Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands which flourished from about 2600 to 1100 BC. It preceded the Mycenaean civilization of Ancient Greece. The civilization was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of British archaeologist Arthur Evans. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, with historian Will Durant calling the Minoans “the first link in the European chain”.
The term “Minoan”, which refers to the mythical King Minos, originally described the pottery of the period. Minos was associated in Greek mythology with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, which Evans identified with the site at Knossos (the largest Minoan site). According to Homer, Crete once had 90 cities.
The Minoan period saw trade between Crete and Aegean and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East. Through their traders and artists, the Minoan cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypt’s Old Kingdom, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast, and Anatolia. Some of its best art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, which was destroyed by the Thera eruption.
Although the Minoan language and writing systems (Linear A) remain undecipherable and are subjects of academic dispute, they apparently conveyed a language entirely different from the later Greek. The reason for the end of the Minoan period (around 1400 BC) is unclear; theories include Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and a volcanic eruption of Thera.
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