It is a quiet Sunday morning at the end of July in Siteia in eastern
Crete. Where else would the intrepid field archaeologist be at this time
of the year? After four weeks of digging and with two more ahead of us I
would have liked to have slept in, but our cat, Luna, and our son’s
pug, Bella, are now accustomed to rising six days a week much, much
earlier to have their breakfasts. Just two more weeks and a more normal
lifestyle awaits all of us.
This is the eighth year of the Greek systematic excavations at the Pre-
and Protopalatial Minoan house tomb cemetery at Petras Kephala on a hill
overlooking Siteia. They are directed by Dr. Metaxia Tsipopoulou
(Director Emerita, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport) who also
excavated the Minoan settlement and palace at the Petras hill nearby. As
I have summarized in my previous blogs over the years as Director and
guest blogger, the cemetery’s history is long and complex. It was used
for the interment of the elite members of the Petras community for
around 1,000 years, that is, from Early Minoan IB (ca. 2800 BC) to the
end of Middle Minoan IIB (ca 1800 BC). Due to the nature of the
underlying limestone bedrock where the cemetery is located, half of it
is built directly on the relatively flat bedrock. The adjacent part,
however, is in a sloping hollow where successive phases of house tombs
were constructed one on top of the other to a depth of over 2 m! Thus,
in this area it is like digging a stratified settlement site with
multiple floors. The running count at the moment is that there were at
least 34 funerary structures at one time or another where the skeletal
material was deposited, normally in secondary context. For this reason
the digging is complicated and slow. In the ca 4 x 4 m area that I have
focused on now for three field seasons there are the remnants of ten
different walls!
As the skeletal material is particularly plentiful in these house
tombs the uncovering and the complete documentation of it is a slow,
meticulous process carried out by an experienced team of
osteoarchologists from the University of Thessaloniki. The
archaeological field crew is international in scope as always, coming
from the US, Ireland, Australia and Spain, besides Greece. This year I
am the sole Canadian, alas. The visit by Professor Angus Smith
(President, CIG Board of Directors) and two of his graduate students,
Kelsea Dawn and Sydney Bryk, from Brock University provided more
Canadian [Brock!] Content, if briefly. Angus presented me with a
certificate from the Board of Directors that indicated that my name had
been added to the “Honour Roll” plaque at the Institute for my years of
service in furthering its mission. I was very touched by the
recognition!
While the finds so far have not matched last year’s spectacular
series of discoveries, they are nevertheless of great importance. More
evidence has been uncovered that demonstrates Petras’ role in the
exchange networks from Crete to the eastern Mediterranean and beyond.
The number of house tombs is unsurpassed in any other contemporaneous
cemetery on the island. Many of the deposits of skeletal remains have
ceramic vessels as offerings that permit secure dating of the contexts.
And, finally, the excavation of the ceremonial complex that was built
directly on top of the ruins of the house tombs in the Post-Palatial
period continues to reveal how extensive and varied it was.
This year, as last, the weather was a significant member of our crew. In
addition, to the usual heatwaves and then strong winds, an unexpected
torrential rainstorm (with much lightning and thunder) struck one
morning just before we were about to start our commute to the site at
6:45 am. For over 90 minutes the skies pelted the Siteia region with
significant amounts of precipitation. For that day we stayed in and
worked on our trench notebooks, of course. The next morning when we
reached the excavations we found many of the house tombs that we were
excavating had filled with water, ranging from 10 – 70 cm in depth.
Until a pump could be found an impromptu bucket brigade formed to bail
out the “lakes”. For a week or more afterwards our Munsell readings
were of “damp” sediments and not the normal bone “dry”.
As in past years I have posted [“Grubbyminoan”] on Instagram a series
of images with scenes from the excavations and its diggers at work and
at rest, under the hashtag: #petras_excavations_2019. Please check them
out!
The final two weeks of an excavation are usually the most challenging
with many tasks to complete before it is “closing time” for the summer.
A heatwave now would not help. That all awaits us. In the meantime, the
sandy beach at Chiona at Palaikastro and a fishy lunch call. The future
of the past will happen in due time.
Cordially,
David Rupp
Director Emeritus, CIG
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