The Fred Winter Collection

Acrocorinth, view to: New Corinth and Gulf of Corinth (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Terracotta Figurines and Athenian Topography: An Update from the CIG Fellow

The first four months of my term as the Neda and Franz Leipen Fellow at the CIG in Athens have been incredibly productive and rewarding. Immersion in the community of scholars associated with the many foreign archaeological institutes has been tremendously valuable in guiding and enriching my research. This collegial atmosphere consistently facilitates engaging discussions at lectures, shared meals, and darts night at the Red Lion; I am constantly being exposed to innovative new ideas, methodologies, and theoretical approaches that I can apply to my own work. As a classicist whose focus is primarily on textual evidence, I have been especially fortunate to have so many material-culture specialists at my disposal whom I can engage as questions arise with my interdisciplinary research project.

Terracotta figurine depicting a comic actor. Hellenistic period. Karystos Museum.

The research I am conducting here represents an important component of my dissertation. My dissertation presents a discursive commentary on the fragments of the comic playwright Apollodoros of Karystos, who competed in Athens in the first half of the third century BCE. In order to properly contextualize Apollodoros, it is imperative that I consider how the Euboean theatrical tradition shaped his dramatic works. I have therefore set out to reconstruct the traditions of Euboean theatre. Since no texts of Euboean drama survive, my reconstruction is based on the cumulative findings suggested by the relevant theatrical figurines, epigraphic evidence, and performance spaces that inform our understanding of Euboean theatre and speak to its relationship with the Athenian tradition.

Terracotta figurine depicting a comic actor. Early fourth century. Kanellopoulos Museum.

Since arriving in Athens, I have begun work on several facets of this project. I have already assembled a database of comparative Attic type figurines against which the Euboean objects I have isolated for study will be set. For quick reference, the Agora museum has a robust collection of these Attic type figurines and the Kanellopoulos Museum has some of the best preserved of this type. I have also documented several more examples of Euboean dramatic figurines which are now on display at the National Archaeological museum and added them to my growing body of evidence. Finally, I am nearing completion of a comprehensive review of scholarship on coroplastic production in southern Euboea, the theatre of Eretria, and a critical Hellenistic inscription which outlines the organization of dramatic troupes for theatrical performances in several cities of southern Euboea (IG XII 9, 207 and p. 176; IG XII Supplement p. 178; SEG 34.896).

Remains of the Hellenistic skene of the Theatre of Dionysus.

Extended residence in Athens has also greatly enriched my dissertation research in ways I did not anticipate. I often find myself in a position to verify or challenge scholarly claims I read in the morning with my own autopsy of the relevant objects and archaeological sites later that afternoon. I’ve been especially consumed of late with the topography of Apollodoros’ Athenian production context.

A cat sleeps on the base of the eastern parodos gates to the Theatre of Dionysus.

I’ve consequently been spending substantial time in the Theatre of Dionysus to get a more precise sense of Apollodoros’ primary performance venue. When I arrive, I am always greeted by the same guard (see above). Certain facets of performance cannot be ascertained from site plans and inherently deceptive images (e.g., viable lines of sight, degrees of visibility and audibility between the koilon and orchestra/skene) and I’ve found that direct engagement with the performance space helps to reconstruct the performer/spectator experience. Visits to the theatre have also provided me with a sense of scale and spatial relationships that contribute to an understanding of realistic performance scenarios (e.g., chorus sizes/movement possibilities, requisite timing for entrances/exits). Finally, first-hand viewing has been incredibly valuable in helping to distinguish elements of the ‘Lykurgan’ phase from the Hellenistic renovation of the skene.

Mouseion Hill in the distance, viewed from the koilon of the Theatre of Dionysus.

One of the most striking features of the theatre for my purposes is that as one climbs the koilon, the peak of Mouseion Hill slowly comes into view to southwest. In the third century a fort occupied this space and, depending on the year and its occupants, it represented either a symbol of Athenian security and independence or a grim reminder of subjugation, with a Macedonian garrison literally looming over the city. For the third-century theatregoer, this fort and its symbolism represented a microcosm of Athens’ contemporary circumstances and provided a visual overture for Apollodoros’ productions in the Theatre of Dionysus.

A warship patrols the coast off Cape Sounion.

The theatre’s relationship with the fort on Mouseion Hill has compelled me to consider the broader Athenian context with which Apollodoros’ comedies engaged. The picture of third-century Athens that is painted from fragmentary epigraphic and literary evidence is one of a city that constantly beset by political instability, warfare, and economic hardship, byproducts of the persistent Macedonian conflict that continued to ravage the Attic countryside until 229 BCE. Visits to the locations of the contested deme forts at Sounion and Piraeus reinforce the totality of Athens’ isolation and extent of the Antigonid hegemony during this period.

A view of the Diateichisma.

Further enriching my impression of Apollodoros’ Athens was a walk along the remains of the so-called Diateichisma. This was a defensive wall that ran north-south across the summits of the hills of Musaeus, the Pnyx, and the Nymphs. It effectively sealed off the city from the fortified passage to Piraeus which had formerly been provided by the Themistoclean long walls. It is one of the only Athenian constructions that can be firmly situated in Apollodoros’ period of production, and its construction speaks volumes about the context in which he was working.

Running route to Vyronas Forest.

Research aside, my partner and I have found Athens an extremely pleasant city and the CIG very supportive. When I have the chance, I like to go for long runs in Vyronas Forest. Long runs would normally be frustrating in a city like Athens, where you are met with aggressive traffic at every intersection; however, the CIG is ideally located near the National and Kapdistrian University of Athens, whose campus provides an extended traffic-less path to the outskirts of the city and the foothills of Mount Hymettos. Here, local runners, hikers, bikers, and sightseers can explore the hills and get unique views of Athens.

Gemista ready to go in the oven.

I’ve also taken the opportunity to enjoy Greece’s wonderful comestibles. Every Friday, my partner and I roll our grocery trolley to the local laiki in Ilisia and load up on the fresh and flavorful produce harvested by local farmers. Kalamata olives and Hymettan honey are regular purchases. With this produce, I’ve been trying my hand at some new Greek dishes and am honing my skills with gemista (stuffed vegetables), though I tend not to go more than two days without a breakfast zambonotyropita and lunchtime pita kalamaki from a local eatery.

As this year comes to a close, I look forward to an exciting and productive 2020 as my research takes me to Euboea and I explore everything that Athens has to offer.

Justin S. Dwyer
2019-2020 Neda and Franz Leipen Fellow, CIG

The Fred Winter Collection

Delphi, theatre, view from uphill with temple of Apollo beyond (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Happy Holidays!

The Canadian Institute in Greece will close for the holidays at 1 pm today. We will reopen on Tuesday 7 January 2020 at 9 am.

Best wishes to all!

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Athens, Theatre of Dionysos, and odeion of Perikles area, from the Acropolis (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Encounters With The Past: A Fall Internship

As a recent graduate it is at times overwhelming to feel at a crossroads in terms of what the next step in the future will be. For me, the decisions have oscillated between graduate school, travel and work. In a sense, my time at the CIG has been a crossover of these three elements. I have had time to think about academia, gained work experience and managed to explore a bit of Greece. It is hard to believe that my internship at the CIG is coming to a close. The past few months have been a great experience and I am so glad that I decided to come to Athens. I have met some lovely people and feel like I was able to see quite a bit of the country considering the amount of time I have had here. I will miss being able to visit the museums and sites after a day at the office as well as the beautiful landscape and weather (and perhaps the freddo espressos as well).

There have been several memorable moments over the past few months. Having access to such excellent artistic spaces in the city has been a real luxury. I particularly liked the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Acropolis Museum (I also enjoyed the Museum of Islamic Art, the Benaki Museum and the National Archaeological Museum). Being free from the academic institution for this internship, I have  allowed myself time to think about the role of art in society, the problems that arise when dealing with historical works in the present and the potential of art to bring about social change. Within the city I also visited the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) several times to see a Sun Ra concert as well as a performance of Beethoven’s 6th and 7th symphonies. The SNFCC is an amazing space because it strives to make art accessible to the public. Renzo Piano’s design is especially interesting because of the interaction of exterior and interior spaces (the gardens on the sloped roof are one of my favourite places to walk around)

Outside of Athens, I was able to visit Mycenae, Epidaurus, Delphi, Hydra, Sounion and Nafplio. Seeing the archaeological sites in person is a special experience which overruns any attempt at grasping a place from a textbook or lecture.  It is always a bit disorienting to return to Athens after spending time at an ancient site; there is definitely a period of readjustment to the ebbs and flows of the contemporary city. Henry Miller said something interesting about visiting ancient ruins, where he reversed the historical narrative of the ruin being crumbling and dilapidated, and instead saw it as a whole and viewed our cultural epoch as the fragment. The West’s trinity of scientism, secularism and capitalism are challenged by sites such as Mycenae, where you are confronted with a worldview that is so different from ours today that it is a very liberating site to experience. Visiting archaeological sites in Greece has confirmed my view that engaging with the past is integral to our ability to re-imagine the present.

Within the institute, I have been working on updating the library catalogues and helping with social media and other research based tasks. I have learned a lot and am thankful for being given the opportunity to work at the CIG. My time in Greece has instilled a sense of curiosity with looking at the past and I look forward to figuring out what my next steps will be after the internship.

Hilary Jay
McGill University intern, autumn 2019

The Fred Winter Collection

Athens, views SE from Acropolis, to  Hadrian's Arch and Olympieion (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Fred Winter Collection

Lepreon, temple of Demeter, general view (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Dreams, Ghosts, and Gods

The Institute’s final event of 2019 will take place on Wednesday 4 December, starting at 7.30 pm in the in the library of the Institute (Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, ground floor, Ilisia. Metro: Megaro Moussikis). Independent scholar Emma Hilliard will give a lecture entitled, “Dreams, Ghosts, and Gods: The Apparition Topos in Roman Epic”.

"In the world of epic poetry, supernatural apparitions loom large. Traditionally these episodes are sorted into three major literary topoi: the dream topos, the ghost topos, and the divine messenger topos. Such categorization, however, denies the complex and highly syncretistic model of ancient thought on supernatural beings. I propose a new “apparition topos” as a more flexible means of interpretation, one which allows space for different types of manifestation more clearly to inform one another. The utility of this topos is demonstrated in a discussion on the Neronian poet Lucan and his complicated relationship with Virgil, Latin literature’s most important epicist. My findings show the merits of applying a new, holistic way of looking at epic apparitions that situates ghosts, dreams, and gods as related phenomena worthy of close comparison."

Since this is our final event of 2019, we will be serving seasonal refreshments after the lecture. So please join us next Wednesday evening for what promises to be a most interesting presentation.

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Bassai, Iktinos temple, view from slope of Mt. Kotylion (including ridge to S where earliest temples stood) (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Acropolis to the Left of me, Lycabettus to the Right, Here I Am: "Stuck" In the Middle of Athens

If someone told me at the beginning of 2019 that this would be how I spend the last few months of the year, I would never have believed them. I still find it hard to comprehend all the sites and museums I have been to and all the people I have befriended. What an amazing few months this has been. Walking into this internship I was also entering my third year of my undergraduate studies at Brock University. Looking back a few months, I can honestly say that this was the best way to confirm my passion for the Classics program. I have a lot of ideas for the future of my education, but I think spending these few months in Athens, a city so rich in ancient history and art, I have corroborated those ideas.

I have realized over the last few months that there is a lot more to be learned by looking at a site/monument/artifact in person than in a classroom. There is so much more than just art and architecture, which I have found cannot be understood unless I am standing under the Temple of Hephaestus in the Athenian Agora or entering the Acropolis through the Propylaea. Each site/monument/artifact is meant to make us feel something, which doesn’t always happen through a picture. Visiting sites like these have definitely been a huge part in my learning these past few months. It is amazing getting to see all the ancient buildings and then being able to go to the CIG and read a book, or five, about them.

Working at the CIG has not only taught me about all the work that goes into Cultural Organizations but also some skills I will definitely require in my future. During my few months interning I have learned how to archive, catalogue a library following the Library of Congress system, and practice using social media from a promotional point of view. I am most proud of my work on the archives as it definitely took up most of my time. I found it very rewarding to scan the final documents and sort them into their appropriate folders. I had no idea that through working on the archives I would learn so much about the history of the CIG as well; in a way, it was kind of like visiting a museum. A big Thank you is definitely much deserved to all the people involved keeping the Institute running all these years. Thanks to them I have been able to experience Athens in a very unique way.

Excursions were a large part of my down time in Athens. Being here for a long period of time, I was able to visit both Archaeological sites and museums, as well as islands and Northern cities in Greece. In October I paid a visit to the Northern city of Kastoria for a mini hiking trip, and a couple weeks later I took a ferry to Hydra for relaxed weekend of swimming. I really loved the balance I was able to establish between absorbing information and relaxing in the Greek sun. However, regardless of where I ventured off to, I always had the same feeling of awe when taking in my surroundings; whether it be the natural beauty of Greece or the man-made architecture. A few of my favourite Archaeological sites were Delphi, Epidaurus, Athenian Agora, the Acropolis (of course), and the Hill of the Muses. If given the chance I could visit each of these sites every single day.

But of course, the friendships I have made over the course of this internship are definitely what I have enjoyed the most. From my hostel-mates to members of other institutes, the people have all been so friendly and welcoming. I think it is easy to visit any country and enjoy oneself, but it is rare that you make connections with so many people on one short visit. The CIG has been a dream of an experience, so don’t worry Jonathan I will be back to visit soon!

Emily Jackson
Brock University intern, autumn 2019

The Fred Winter Collection

Alipheira, footings of the temple of Athena (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Fred Winter Collection

Alipheira, façade of burial chambers of large tomb (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

C.R.A.Z.Y.

On Wednesday November 13 we will be screening the Canadian Movie “C.R.A.Z.Y.” (2005; 2 hours 7 minutes; French with English subtitles.)

“C.R.A.Z.Y.” is a 2005 Quebecois coming-of-age drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and co-written by Vallée and François Boulay. It tells the story of Zac, a young gay man dealing with homophobia while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in Quebec during the 1960s and 1970s. The film employs an extensive soundtrack, featuring artists such as Pink Floyd, Patsy Cline, Charles Aznavour, and The Rolling Stones.

“C.R.A.Z.Y.” was one of the highest-grossing films of the year in Quebec and won numerous honours, among them 11 Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. In 2015, Toronto International Film Festival critics ranked it among the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time.

Please join us on Wednesday November 13, at 7.30 pm, in the library of the Canadian Institute (Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, ground floor, Ilisia. Metro: Megaro Moussikis) for what promises to be a most enjoyable evening.

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Alipheira, inscribed lintels of large well-preserved tomb beside road along foot of hill (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Fred Winter Collection

Argos, Aspis Hill, detail view of the excavations of Apollo (?) sanctuary area (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Fred Winter Collection

Acrocorinth, South Bastion looking down over Middle Gate, view from N (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

Surrealism in Canada

The Institute’s first lecture of the 2019-2020 academic year will take place on Wednesday 23 October, starting at 7.30 pm in the library of the Institute (Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, ground floor, Ilisia. Metro: Megaro Mousikis). In collaboration with the Embassy of Canada we welcome Canadian poet Beatriz Hausner, who will give a talk entitled, “Surrealism in Canada”, followed by readings from her own work.

“Historically there are basically three poles of surrealist activity in Canada. The first and most influential of these occurred in Quebec with the emergence and cultural dominance, through much of the 1940s and 1950s, of a radical artistic movement, the Automatistes de Montréal. The second emerges in Vancouver during the 1960s, and the third in Toronto begins in the 1970s. The talk will provide a historical overview of the three geographies, outlining the principal activities that characterized the surrealist movement in Canada at the time, including exhibitions and publications. The audience will then be taken into the present and provided with an overview of the exciting current resurgence of the surrealist movement in Canada. At every turn the audience will be provided with examples of surrealist literature by Canadians and pictorial examples will be provided to illustrate surrealism’s trajectory in Canada.”

Beatriz Hausner’s poetry books include: Enter the Raccoon, Sew Him Up, The Wardrobe Mistress, and many chapbooks, including Mornings With My Double, The Stitched Heart, The Metaphysics of Water, to name but three. Her new poetry collection, Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, is forthcoming in the spring of 2020. Her books have been translated into several languages, including Spanish (her mother tongue), French, Dutch and most recently Greek. She is a respected literary editor, and was one of the founding publishers of Quattro Books, and has worked tirelessly as an advocate for writers in Canada. She has translated many works of literature, primarily from Spanish into English, concentrating on Latin American surrealism. Hausner was Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission, and is current President of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.

You are all most welcome to join us next Wednesday for what promises to be a most interesting evening.

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Athens, Agora, views of line of Herulian Wall from S (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Fred Winter Collection

Athens, Agora, Block A256, profile (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)

The Khavania Topographical and Architectural Mapping Project, 2019

1. The crew (left to right: Matt Buell, Rod Fitzsimons, and Rafal Bieńkowski). N.B. We are not related (Photo credit: Kapua Iao).

The Khavania Topographical and Architectural Mapping Project (KTAMP, if one is looking for an acronym) took place over two sweltering weeks at the end of July and beginning of August, 2019. Rod and I were assisted in the field by Rafal Bieńkowski (Polish Academy of Sciences) and our Epoptria, Konstantina Kokolaki (Fig. 1). Our project was supported by the Canadian Institute in Greece (CIG), the Ephoria of East Crete, and the INSTAP Study Center, East Crete. Generous financial assistance was provided by the Bagnani Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and Trent University. Chrysa Sophianou, Tom Brogan, Eleanor Huffman, Jonathan Tomlinson, Brendan Burke, Miriam Clinton, Agnieszka Kaliszewska, and Kapua Iao provided invaluable advice, aid, and logistical support in the months leading up to and during the project.

Khavania occupies a small peninsula on the western side of the Mirabello Bay in East Crete (Fig. 2). The peninsula is located on the hotel-lined, coastal road leading north from the region’s largest city, Ayios Nikolaus, to Elounda. It is of moderate height (ca. 15.5 masl) with sheer cliffs on its northern and eastern seaward sides. Two well-protected, shallow bays are located immediately to the north and south of the site. Standing at the summit of the peninsula one is provided with unobstructed views of the eastern side of the Mirabello Bay and further east to the Faneromeni Peninsula.

2. The Khavania peninsula from the northwest (Photo credit: Buell & Fitzsimons).

The southern and eastern sides of the Mirabello Bay have been the focus of intensive archaeological work, including three major archaeological surveys (i.e. the Vrokastro, Gournia, and Kavousi surveys), for well over 100 years. Notable archaeological sites in these areas include Priniatikos Pyrgos, Gournia, Vronda, Kastro, Azoria, Pseira, and Mochlos, among many others. This archaeological work has produced an almost incomparable body of evidence for cultural development on the northern and eastern sides of the Mirabello Bay from the Bronze Age through later periods. This situation, however, stands in stark contrast to the western shores of the Mirabello Bay. Here, periodic rescue excavations undertaken throughout and around the modern city of Ayios Nikolaos over the past half century, together with numerous chance finds recovered over the same period, have provided scholars with a solid, if patchwork, understanding of the city’s Hellenistic and Roman eras. The pre-Classical, and particularly Bronze Age remains, however, have continued to elude detection for the most part.

In 2016, at the request of landowners, the Ephoria of East Crete excavated five trenches at Khavania, revealing architectural remains with a broadly Minoan date. Moreover, stretches of walls, sections of pavements and streets, and thresholds are readily observed across the peninsula. Indeed, a large section of wall, preserved to some five or six courses, can be seen eroding out of the peninsula’s northern side. In light of this information and working in consultation with our colleagues in the Ephoria, we began to develop a program of study for the Khavania peninsula in 2018 in order to provide historical context to a Prehistoric settlement in a little-investigated area of East Crete and to study urban development and change over time at a site that has hitherto been unexplored. Moreover, Khavania’s situation along both land and sea communication routes and its two harbours suggests to us that during the Bronze Age it was a commercial node, perhaps interacting with other such settlements in the broader Mirabello region. As a result, we believe that Khavania offers the opportunity to study both local East Cretan, and broader, island-wide, sociopolitical, economic, and ideological relationships. And finally, we feel that documentation of Khavania’s remains will contribute to the historical preservation of the site, since it is threatened by both environmental and anthropogenic factors, including erosion and development along the busy coastal zone between Ayios Nikoloas and Elounda.

In order to establish the groundwork for subsequent, intensive research at the site, we developed and implemented a two-week program of study for the 2019 field season. Our overall goal was to document all natural and anthropogenic features at Khavania, including those found within the Ephoria trenches and those visible on the surface elsewhere across the peninsula (Fig. 3). As part of our plan of documentation, we also decided to create a series of orthophotos and photogrammetric models of the site using UAV’s, as well as high-resolution photogrammetric models of the architectural remains within the Ephoria’s trenches. It is our hope that this information will serve as the basis for future work at the site. Finally, we decided to collect limited portable finds in order to create a crude chronological profile of the site.

3. Matt Buell rocks the Total Station in the obligatory action shot (photo credit: Konstantina Kokolaki).

The first step in creating our plan of the site was to establish a series of control points across the site, using a differential GPS (DGPS). Miriam Clinton (Rhodes College) generously offered her time and assistance to help us achieve this goal. Once we established our control points, we used a Total Station, provided to us by the INSTAP Study Center, East Crete, to capture spatial data at 5 m intervals across the site in accordance with the natural topography (i.e. flatland, breaking slope, and summit). We also took points along the perimeter of all natural and anthropogenic features in order to incorporate them into our overall plan. Post-processing was done in the afternoons using GIS software. In order to create stone-by-stone plans of extant (ancient) architectural features, we shot a series of points around the prominent stones within a feature, printed these out, and returned the next day to draw them on site. These plans were then digitised and placed on our topographic plan. All extant walls were also photographed, and pertinent information, including dimensions, relationship(s) to other architectural features, and building materials and technologies, was recorded on standardised field forms. As part of this documentation, we shot a series of overlapping, high-resolution photos of the excavated trenches in order to create photogrammetric models.  Flying a drone at an altitude of 30 m, we took a series of photographs of the peninsula in order to produce orthophotos of the site, as well as photogrammetric models. These images were orthorectified using the spatial data from our ground control points. The orthophotos and photogrammetric models will serve as valuable resources for purposes of documentation, study, and public education and engagement. And finally, towards the end of our project, we divided the site into a series of units, based on topography, to collect artefacts on the surface of the earth in order to develop a crude chronological profile of the site. Fieldwalkers were each assigned a unit wherein they collected all diagnostic ceramics and other, diagnostic, portable remains.

While our goals were relatively modest and our time limited, we generated a tremendous amount of information. Using our spatial data, we produced accurate plans of the site, as well as DEM and SLOPE maps, and a three-dimensional terrain model (Fig. 4). From the photos we took terrestrially, we made photogrammetric models of the architecture excavated by the Ephoria in 2016. In addition, we generated a series of high-resolution orthophotos and a three-dimensional photogrammetric model of the site using the information we captured from our drone flights. Over the course of our survey, we documented and drew 34 individual architectural features at the site, exclusive of those excavated by the Ephoria in 2016. While most of the architectural features we identified constituted walls, we did document several sections of pavement, as well as part of a street, and a series of risers, ascending the peninsula.

4. Plan of Khavania (Buell & Fitzsimons).

In general, walls at Khavania were constructed from local building materials, quarried at the site itself. Most consisted of a mix of large and small boulders, packed with smaller stones and pebbles. Some walls, however, were monumental in scale, both possessing widths greater than 1.5 m, and having been constructed from massive boulders, which had a dimension of over a half-metre in any one direction. Indeed, in some instances, these walls were even set on elegant projecting plinth courses. Wall faces were carefully constructed with their flat edges projecting outward, creating a unified outer façade. Roughly-worked, monolithic thresholds, marking the presences of doors, were documented in several instances. Generally, the walls were oriented in accordance with the site’s natural topography, though in some cases differing orientations were observed, which may be indicative of different building dates.

The architectural remains identified by the survey and from the Ephoria excavations testify to the presence of several monumental buildings, perhaps official buildings, which advertised the power and authority of prominent members of the community. Additionally, the dimensions and orientation of some walls suggest that they also served as retaining walls. Their existence may be indicative of substantial efforts to modify the local landscape. As observed at other sites within the broader Mirabello region (e.g. Gournia and Azoria), their presence may be taken to be indicative of some degree of urban planning, a situation to which the presence of streets also testifies. That such a settlement should be founded at Khavania is of no surprise, given its position on natural communication routes and its provision of two excellent harbours.

Our limited collection of portable remains included pottery sherds, ceramic building materials, obsidian artefacts, worked pumice, and a talismanic sealstone. With respect to the collected pottery, all vessel types (e.g. cups, bowls, jugs, plates, and pithoi) and wares (i.e. fine, coarse, cook, and storage) were identified in our survey. The assemblage provided a broad range of dates, from the Early Bronze Age through Medieval periods. Proportionally, Middle and Late Bronze Age pottery dominated the assemblage, though a significant amount of Roman pottery was found at the base of the peninsula on its westernmost side, an unsurprising occurrence, given that excavations undertaken in 2004 further to the east revealed parts of a Roman building (ΑΔ 56-59 (2001–2004), fig. 5). Preliminary macroscopic fabric analysis of the Prehistoric sherds reveals that many possessed grano-diorite within their matrix. Since this is a notable feature of ceramics from Minoan sites on the Mirabello between Priniatikos Pyrgos and Gournia, we may assume that the residents of Khavania were interacting with contemporary settlements within the broader Mirabello region during the Bronze Age. Based on its type, motif, and material, our sealstone dates to the Late Minoan IA period. Its stylized octopus motif seems to have close parallels from several sites within the Mirabello.

In terms of future work, we plan on returning to Khavania during the summer 2020 season in order to systematically survey the settlement and to study in detail the material remains we collected in last summer. We believe that in so doing, we will be better able to refine our chronology of the site and to come to some sort of understanding as to the type of site it was and what sorts of relationships it had with other local sites, as well as those further away. Ultimately, our goal is to conduct excavations at the site and to conserve recovered remains, as remains at the site are in danger of being destroyed.

D. Matthew Buell
Concordia University; co-director of KTAMP

The Fred Winter Collection

Gortys, panorama of Room H, C and parts adjoining from W by S (Professor Fred Winter, 1986)