Itanos ( el, Ίτανος) is a municipal unit (demotike enoteta) of the municipality (demos}

Siteia Sitia ( el, Σητεία) is a port town and a municipality in Lasithi, Crete, Greece. The town has 9,912 inhabitants (2011) and the municipality has 18,318 (2011). It lies east of Agios Nikolaos and northeast of Ierapetra. Sitia port is on the ...

in the

Lasithi Lasithi ( el, Λασίθι) is the easternmost regional unit on the island of Crete, to the east of Heraklion. Its capital is Agios Nikolaos, the other major towns being Ierapetra and Sitia. The mountains include the Dikti in the west and the Thr ...

regional unit, eastern

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. A former municipality itself, it was included in Siteia as part of the 2011 local government reform. The municipal unit has an area of . The population was 2,164 in 2011, the time of the reorganization. The seat of the municipality was in

Palaikastro Palaikastro or Palekastro ( el, Παλαίκαστρο, officially el, Παλαίκαστρον), with the Godart and Olivier abbreviation PK, is a thriving town, geographic heir to a long line of settlements extending back into prehistoric ti ...

, but now all municipal units are administered from the municipal seat, Siteia. Until 2017 Itanos comprised four local communities (topika koinoteta):

, Karydi,

Zakros Zakros ( el, Ζάκρος; Linear B: zakoro) is a site on the eastern coast of the island of Crete, Greece, containing ruins from the Minoan civilization. The site is often known to archaeologists as Zakro or Kato Zakro. It is believed to have be ...

, and Mitato (Μητάτο). Subsequently by Presidential Decree No. 70/207, on recommendation of the Minister of the Interior, and approval by Sitia and Palaikastro, Mitato was abolished, due to its seriously declining population (being a few mountain communities) and its settlements were turned over to Palaikastro.

Etymological speculations

Unlike most Greek demes (municipalities) Itanos did not have a modern city or town to serve as a namesake to the deme. There was a promontory named Itanos, the base of

Cape Sidero Cape Sideros or Cape Sidero ( el, Άκρα Σίδερος, Akra Sideros) is a cape at the eastern end of the island of Crete, Greece. Anciently it was known as Samonium or Samonion ( grc, Σαμώνιον), Sammonium or Sammonion ( grc, Σαμμ ...

, and Itanos Beach on its east side. There had been in fact an ancient city named

Itanos Itanos ( el, Ίτανος) is a municipal unit (demotike enoteta) of the municipality (demos} Siteia in the Lasithi regional unit, eastern Crete, Greece. A former municipality itself, it was included in Siteia as part of the 2011 local governm ...

. A

Doric Greek Doric or Dorian ( grc, Δωρισμός, Dōrismós), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, that included ...

-speaking city, at least in the classical period, the time of its inscriptions, it was founded in the 7th or 8th century BC and lasted until its abandonment in the 7th or 8th century, well before modern times. At its height its territory was approximately equal to Itanos municipal unit. Whether the promontory was named after the city or the city after the promontory is not known for certain. It is generally agreed, however, that Itanos is not a Greek word, whatever it should turn out to be; consequently it is more likely that the peninsula already had the name. Although no Minoan city has been found under Itanos, the entire area was discovered in the Itanos Archaeological Survey to have supported Minoan sites. The nearest large Minoan center was in Palaikastro, where a Minoan city has been discovered and excavated. There is no evidence of its name. (Palaikastro is a later name.) The major speculation is that it was named Itanos, and the Greeks who settled later adopted the pre-existing name of its territory. The modern name of the Minoan city is

Roussolakkos Roussolakkos is the site of a Minoan city, located near Palekastro, Crete. The Bronze Age town was occupied from Early Minoan IIA to Late Minoan IIIB, and its remains are relatively well preserved. A later Greek temple to Diktaian Zeus was buil ...

, "red pit," named after a preceding quarry of red clay, and the ancient Greek city

is now Erimoupolis. The

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

settlement may have been called Utana (cf.

Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...

U-ta-ni-yo

N E 749 N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...

, but there are no Linear B tablets from the area and there is no evidence that this Linear B name extended as far east as Lasithi. J. Bennet ruled out the possibility that any Linear B tablets found at Knossos referred directly to classical Itanos. A beach north of Itanos Beach was named Erimoupolis as though there had been a polis. The name, however, means "deserted city.This translation is that of

Federico Halbherr Federico Halbherr (Rovereto, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 15 February 1857 – Rome, 17 July 1930) was an Italian archaeologist and epigrapher, known for his excavations of Crete. A contemporary, good friend, and trusted advisor of Arth ...

, early excavator of

Itanus Itanus or Itanos ( grc, Ἴτανος) was a Greek city and port on the northeast coast of ancient Crete, on the promontory which the Romans called Itanum, the neuter form of Itanus, Latin for Greek Itanos. The base of the tripartite northeast ...

: Archaeological investigation discovered a rather large ancient city sprawling over the hills next to the beaches. Scientific studies showed that Itanos Beach was a sedimented harbor. There was no longer a question of the location of Itanos.

Etymological speculations

Geography

Notes

Citations

Reference bibliography

External links