Hawes, Charles H.; Hawes, Harriet B.: Crete, the forerunner of Greece (London, 1909)

VIII
THE SITES: PALAIKASTRO AND OTHERS

PALAIKASTRO, in the extreme east end of
the island, is the Minoan site excavated by
the British School at Athens. It was discovered
in the course of a search for the site of the classical
city, Itanos; but subsequent excavations, by re-
vealing a Greek stele inscribed with the hymn to
the Dictean Zeus, which identified adjacent re-
mains with the temple at Heleia mentioned in a
well-known frontier award of classical times, have
proved that Heleia, not Itanos, occupied this posi-
tion. A curving bay, lofty headlands, a solitary
bluff acropolis ending steeply seawards, and a
rich plain of olive groves and corn-land, such is the
picturesque setting of Palaikastro. The prehistoric
town lay almost on the seashore at the foot of the
southern line of hills, and between it and the steep
acropolis, Minoan cemeteries dotted the plain.
It was a larger, busier place than. Gournia, but less
compact, more straggling, and has suffered more,
both at the hands of its ancient destroyers and
from the ravages of modern peasants seeking build-
ing stone. A Venetian survey of the seventeenth
century describes it as uninhabited on account of
the frequent raids of Corsairs, and even to-day the
population retains its migratory character.