Pendlebury, John D.: Aegyptiaca: a catalogue of Egyptian objects in the Aegean area (Cambridge, 1930)

VII. KAVOUSI

The village of Kavousi lies on a spur of Mt Aphendi Kavousi, which cuts right across
the island to the east of the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It is about an hour's walk from
Pakhyammos, the nearest port of call for ships. Here in 1900 Miss Boyd discovered
a settlement and several tholos and chamber-tombs, dating both from Minoan and
Geometric times. It is curious that this settlement alone of those which lie across the
Isthmus of Hierapetra, Vasiliki, Pakhyammos and Gournia, should provide us with
anything Egyptian. As the French found during the Cretan revolution, the isthmus
provided a much cheaper, safer, and quicker way of transport than the sea route
round the east coast. Hierapetra is almost the best port from the point of view of
the Egyptian trade, and it is probably only because no thorough excavation has been
attempted there that no evidence has come to light, but even that does not account
for its absence in such thoroughly dug sites as the other three mentioned.

18