DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0043
THE EXCAVATION.
23
•5 6.—The Other Regions.
In the low regiou lying to southward, between these ' Terraces' and the
FortificatioD Wall, ao thorough excavation was attempted. A Square sbaft
sunk in the south-east corner of H -i in 1899", sufficed to show that under
one metre of supersoil Mycenaean walls begin, and tliat under them again
are remains of the Second and First Citi.es, as elsewhere. The rock is nearly
six metres down at tl»is point. The uppermost strata of remains were also
tested farther west (E 4) in 1898, and two Chambers of the Seoorid City, very
productive of Melian saucers and sinall piain cups (lying one within
another in long roulcaux), were opencd. But these were only test excava-
tions made with a view to determinin»- whether the south of the site might
be expected to be as rieh as the north ; and since experience luis taught us in
other quarters of the city that partial soundings give a very erroneous idea
both of house plans and of strata, nothing inore need be said about the con-
struetions so laid bare.
Everything goes to show that this southern region niay eontidently be
expected to yield as interesting architectural and ceramic remains as the
northern. Indeed, the greater average depth of its supersoil renders the
underlying strata, if anything, the more promisiug. In this region, moreover,
the problems concerning the line and character of the south-eastern fortin -
cations, and the Situation of the ancient harbour, are to be solved. There is,
in short, fully as much reason for digging here as at any other point of
the site, and it is to be hoped that, alter an interval devoted to explora-
tion in Crete, the British School will see its way to resuming work at
Phylakopi.
1t remains only to be recorded that experiments were made in the
cemeteries, mavked by the presence of many gaping and rifled rock graves to
south of the site. On the lower ground near the sea some of these known
graves were cleaued out in 1896 and 1897, without much result. In 1899 I
made a further effort botli there and on the higher hill slope to south-east to find
untouched burials, and opened about fourteeu tombs, which were not obvious
to the casual observer, sounding the rock also at about fifty other spots in the
vicinity. But all these fourteen had been rifled long ago and silted up again
in the course of ages. Only in one, originally a tholos of semicircular shape
(four and a half feet along the cliord of the arc and three feet greatest depth),
a patch of the original deposit, near the point at which the feet of the corpse had
probably lain, had not been thoroughly exainined; and in it I found sixteen
vases, of local rude geoinetric painted wäre of the earliest period of the Second
City, including a perfect kernos (iufra, p. 102) and several cups and bowls, of
which two were hidden inside larger jars. But so complete is the evidence for the
local pottery of this period, obtained from the lower strata of the city, that
this grave can add nothing to our knowledge. The rest of the tombs opened
contained only seattered bones and slierds.
23
•5 6.—The Other Regions.
In the low regiou lying to southward, between these ' Terraces' and the
FortificatioD Wall, ao thorough excavation was attempted. A Square sbaft
sunk in the south-east corner of H -i in 1899", sufficed to show that under
one metre of supersoil Mycenaean walls begin, and tliat under them again
are remains of the Second and First Citi.es, as elsewhere. The rock is nearly
six metres down at tl»is point. The uppermost strata of remains were also
tested farther west (E 4) in 1898, and two Chambers of the Seoorid City, very
productive of Melian saucers and sinall piain cups (lying one within
another in long roulcaux), were opencd. But these were only test excava-
tions made with a view to determinin»- whether the south of the site might
be expected to be as rieh as the north ; and since experience luis taught us in
other quarters of the city that partial soundings give a very erroneous idea
both of house plans and of strata, nothing inore need be said about the con-
struetions so laid bare.
Everything goes to show that this southern region niay eontidently be
expected to yield as interesting architectural and ceramic remains as the
northern. Indeed, the greater average depth of its supersoil renders the
underlying strata, if anything, the more promisiug. In this region, moreover,
the problems concerning the line and character of the south-eastern fortin -
cations, and the Situation of the ancient harbour, are to be solved. There is,
in short, fully as much reason for digging here as at any other point of
the site, and it is to be hoped that, alter an interval devoted to explora-
tion in Crete, the British School will see its way to resuming work at
Phylakopi.
1t remains only to be recorded that experiments were made in the
cemeteries, mavked by the presence of many gaping and rifled rock graves to
south of the site. On the lower ground near the sea some of these known
graves were cleaued out in 1896 and 1897, without much result. In 1899 I
made a further effort botli there and on the higher hill slope to south-east to find
untouched burials, and opened about fourteeu tombs, which were not obvious
to the casual observer, sounding the rock also at about fifty other spots in the
vicinity. But all these fourteen had been rifled long ago and silted up again
in the course of ages. Only in one, originally a tholos of semicircular shape
(four and a half feet along the cliord of the arc and three feet greatest depth),
a patch of the original deposit, near the point at which the feet of the corpse had
probably lain, had not been thoroughly exainined; and in it I found sixteen
vases, of local rude geoinetric painted wäre of the earliest period of the Second
City, including a perfect kernos (iufra, p. 102) and several cups and bowls, of
which two were hidden inside larger jars. But so complete is the evidence for the
local pottery of this period, obtained from the lower strata of the city, that
this grave can add nothing to our knowledge. The rest of the tombs opened
contained only seattered bones and slierds.