DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9189#0007
EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE
SPHOUNGARAS
INTRODUCTION.
Between the town of Gournia (Tovpvid) and the sea-coast
to the north, stretches a valley which is flanked on the east by
a limestone ridge called Elatso Mouri ('EXarcro Movpi). At a
distance of some 200 metres from the town the west face of this
ridge is broken by a line of cliffs (PI. X) below which the hill
slopes sharply away to the valley. It was along the upper
margin of this slope, which goes by the name of Sphoungaras
(£<j>°vyyapd<;), that Mrs. C. H. Hawes in 19041 found three
Early Minoan rock-shelter burials. The general appearance of
this slope—a steep and rocky slope facing southwest—corre-
sponds so closely to that of the hills on Pseira and Mochlos
where cemeteries were found, that since his excavations on these
islands, Mr. R. B. Seager has regarded this hillside as a probable
site not only for occasional Early Minoan interments like those
found by Mrs. Hawes but also for the extensive burial-place of
the town of Gournia.
Accordingly the Sphoungaras slope was selected for excava-
tion, and on March 31, 1910, eight men were set to digging trial
trenches near the center of the hill. Within an hour the small
gold ring of Fig. 24 came to light together with fragments of Early
Minoan pottery and a few bones. The same day a burial in an in-
verted pithos was discovered and near it many fragments of cups
of a type associated both with Middle Minoan III and with Late
Minoan I remains. It being thus apparent that we had to do with
an extensive cemetery which was in use both in the Early Minoan
1 See Transactions of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania,
Vol. I, Part III (iqo$), pp. 179-182 and Gournia, p. 56.
43
SPHOUNGARAS
INTRODUCTION.
Between the town of Gournia (Tovpvid) and the sea-coast
to the north, stretches a valley which is flanked on the east by
a limestone ridge called Elatso Mouri ('EXarcro Movpi). At a
distance of some 200 metres from the town the west face of this
ridge is broken by a line of cliffs (PI. X) below which the hill
slopes sharply away to the valley. It was along the upper
margin of this slope, which goes by the name of Sphoungaras
(£<j>°vyyapd<;), that Mrs. C. H. Hawes in 19041 found three
Early Minoan rock-shelter burials. The general appearance of
this slope—a steep and rocky slope facing southwest—corre-
sponds so closely to that of the hills on Pseira and Mochlos
where cemeteries were found, that since his excavations on these
islands, Mr. R. B. Seager has regarded this hillside as a probable
site not only for occasional Early Minoan interments like those
found by Mrs. Hawes but also for the extensive burial-place of
the town of Gournia.
Accordingly the Sphoungaras slope was selected for excava-
tion, and on March 31, 1910, eight men were set to digging trial
trenches near the center of the hill. Within an hour the small
gold ring of Fig. 24 came to light together with fragments of Early
Minoan pottery and a few bones. The same day a burial in an in-
verted pithos was discovered and near it many fragments of cups
of a type associated both with Middle Minoan III and with Late
Minoan I remains. It being thus apparent that we had to do with
an extensive cemetery which was in use both in the Early Minoan
1 See Transactions of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania,
Vol. I, Part III (iqo$), pp. 179-182 and Gournia, p. 56.
43