DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3005#0008
O UNIVERSITY MUSEUM—ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS, VOL. VII
through the terraced fields and the level land along the coast.
A similar storm at Zakro in Crete is graphically described by
Mr. Hogarth in his "Accidents of an Antiquarian's Life."
In the storm of 1913 the hamlet of Pachyammos suffered
severely. The water rose to the height of a metre in the low-
lying houses and only by tearing down a long piece of wall
between the two village inns were the houses saved from
destruction. The mass of water thus released tore its way
to the sea some 150 metres distant leaving a broad channel
twenty metres in width and a metre in depth to mark its
course. When the water finally subsided it was seen that part
of a Minoan cemetery of jar-burials had been brought to light
in this channel. Some twelve jars were standing along the
edge of the eastern bank formed by the torrent while fragments
of others strewing the ground showed that a certain number had
been broken up by the rush of water.
As soon as the weather permitted, excavations were begun
which lasted from April 8 to May 9, 1914. On my return to
Crete work was resumed for a fortnight in January, 1915, in
order to make sure that the limits of the cemetery had been
reached and that no more jars remained in the vicinity.
This burial ground lies in the broad sand beach which
gives Pachyammos (Deep Sand) its name. The space occupied
by the cemetery was roughly a parallelogram, 150 metres long
by 40 metres wide, and lying some 20 metres back from the sea.
The cemetery furnished additional proof to that already
gained at Pseira (Pseira, p. 16) and Mochlos of the subsidence
of this part of the Cretan coast. Fully half the burial jars
were found standing in sea-water and it seems hardly probable
that this was the case at the time of interment. Every one
knows the difficulty of digging a pit in wet sand and it is not
through the terraced fields and the level land along the coast.
A similar storm at Zakro in Crete is graphically described by
Mr. Hogarth in his "Accidents of an Antiquarian's Life."
In the storm of 1913 the hamlet of Pachyammos suffered
severely. The water rose to the height of a metre in the low-
lying houses and only by tearing down a long piece of wall
between the two village inns were the houses saved from
destruction. The mass of water thus released tore its way
to the sea some 150 metres distant leaving a broad channel
twenty metres in width and a metre in depth to mark its
course. When the water finally subsided it was seen that part
of a Minoan cemetery of jar-burials had been brought to light
in this channel. Some twelve jars were standing along the
edge of the eastern bank formed by the torrent while fragments
of others strewing the ground showed that a certain number had
been broken up by the rush of water.
As soon as the weather permitted, excavations were begun
which lasted from April 8 to May 9, 1914. On my return to
Crete work was resumed for a fortnight in January, 1915, in
order to make sure that the limits of the cemetery had been
reached and that no more jars remained in the vicinity.
This burial ground lies in the broad sand beach which
gives Pachyammos (Deep Sand) its name. The space occupied
by the cemetery was roughly a parallelogram, 150 metres long
by 40 metres wide, and lying some 20 metres back from the sea.
The cemetery furnished additional proof to that already
gained at Pseira (Pseira, p. 16) and Mochlos of the subsidence
of this part of the Cretan coast. Fully half the burial jars
were found standing in sea-water and it seems hardly probable
that this was the case at the time of interment. Every one
knows the difficulty of digging a pit in wet sand and it is not