DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0041
6 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CRETE
that although it is a self-contained unit it was, as we shall see,
by no means cut off from civilization in antiquity, and while
in the earliest days it developed a culture of its own it was
by no means backward or lacking in contact with the outside
world.1 With Lasithi two smaller plains may be taken,
Katharos and Limnarkaros. Both of these lie at a height of
about 4,000 feet and are cultivated but not regularly inhabited.
In the mountains of the Sitia Peninsula are many such small
plains, most of them at a low enough level to allow of permanent
occupation, Zyros, Katalioni, Lamnioni and many others.
The importance of these plains, at any rate in Minoan times,
maybe judged by the fact that all those East of Ida were carefully
guarded by forts.
The main change in the character of Crete since antiquity
is the deforestation of the island. The catastrophe in the
sixth century a.d. has had no effect on the main features, it
has only caused shipping to seek other harbours. But the
wanton destruction of the forests has altered the whole aspect.
As we shall see, there is a strong probability that in Minoan
days at least the whole island West of Ida was a great virgin
forest which precluded the advance of civilization except on
the coast. Even in Pliny's time Crete was the very home of
cypress, and the wood which Thothmes III had received from
the ships of Keftiu was still the material for ships all over the
Mediterranean. But, beginning probably with the first arrival
of man, deforestation has made continual progress, aided not
only by a population thoroughly apathetic under Venetian and
Turkish rule, but also enthusiastically by the goats, which
eat the young shoots, until to-day the cypress is confined to a
few trees in the West and to some new plantations in the
Lasithi and Vianos districts. As a result the winter torrents
have swept away the soil which had been held in position by
the trees. In the Lasithi plain, for instance, there is an
extraordinary depth of soil due entirely to the fact that the
surrounding hills have been denuded. Crete, which was once
one of the most fertile and prosperous islands in the Mediter-
ranean, is now one of the rockiest and most barren.
To this cause also must be attributed the lack of water.
Few rivers in Crete are more than a trickle in the summer, while
1 The suggestion has been made (e.g. B.S.A., VI, 115) that this
plain was until M.M. times a lake, with the Diktaean Cave as a
swallow-hole. This is disproved by the fact that the Neolithic
settlement at Trapeza is on a lower level than the cave.
that although it is a self-contained unit it was, as we shall see,
by no means cut off from civilization in antiquity, and while
in the earliest days it developed a culture of its own it was
by no means backward or lacking in contact with the outside
world.1 With Lasithi two smaller plains may be taken,
Katharos and Limnarkaros. Both of these lie at a height of
about 4,000 feet and are cultivated but not regularly inhabited.
In the mountains of the Sitia Peninsula are many such small
plains, most of them at a low enough level to allow of permanent
occupation, Zyros, Katalioni, Lamnioni and many others.
The importance of these plains, at any rate in Minoan times,
maybe judged by the fact that all those East of Ida were carefully
guarded by forts.
The main change in the character of Crete since antiquity
is the deforestation of the island. The catastrophe in the
sixth century a.d. has had no effect on the main features, it
has only caused shipping to seek other harbours. But the
wanton destruction of the forests has altered the whole aspect.
As we shall see, there is a strong probability that in Minoan
days at least the whole island West of Ida was a great virgin
forest which precluded the advance of civilization except on
the coast. Even in Pliny's time Crete was the very home of
cypress, and the wood which Thothmes III had received from
the ships of Keftiu was still the material for ships all over the
Mediterranean. But, beginning probably with the first arrival
of man, deforestation has made continual progress, aided not
only by a population thoroughly apathetic under Venetian and
Turkish rule, but also enthusiastically by the goats, which
eat the young shoots, until to-day the cypress is confined to a
few trees in the West and to some new plantations in the
Lasithi and Vianos districts. As a result the winter torrents
have swept away the soil which had been held in position by
the trees. In the Lasithi plain, for instance, there is an
extraordinary depth of soil due entirely to the fact that the
surrounding hills have been denuded. Crete, which was once
one of the most fertile and prosperous islands in the Mediter-
ranean, is now one of the rockiest and most barren.
To this cause also must be attributed the lack of water.
Few rivers in Crete are more than a trickle in the summer, while
1 The suggestion has been made (e.g. B.S.A., VI, 115) that this
plain was until M.M. times a lake, with the Diktaean Cave as a
swallow-hole. This is disproved by the fact that the Neolithic
settlement at Trapeza is on a lower level than the cave.