Vrokastro was an ancient
Minoan civilization
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 1450BC ...
settlement 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 of 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 ...
. It overlooks the
Gulf of Mirabello.
The site was a mountain citadel located on a hill 1,5 km east of
Priniatikos Pyrgos
Priniatikos Pyrgos is an archaeological site near Istron River, in the eastern Cretan regional unit of Lasithi, (Greece). The nearest big town is Agios Nikolaos, Crete. The site is on a coastal promontory. It appears to have been first settled i ...
, another very early archaeological site. Nearby, there's a small resort town of
Kalo Chorio, Lasithi
Kalo Chorio ( el, Καλό Χωρίο, "good village") is a village in the municipality of Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Agios Nikolaos, Lasithi, Crete, Greece. Kalo Chorio village has a population of around 900, nestled attractively in the midst of a ve ...
.
Yet another important archaeological site in the area is
Vasiliki, Lasithi
Vasiliki is the name of a village in the municipality of Ierapetra, in the prefecture of Lasithi, on Crete, and the name of the nearby Minoan archeological site. The site took its name from the village.
Geography
Vasiliki lies on a small hill in t ...
. There's an Archaeological Museum in nearby
Agios Nikolaos, Crete
Agios Nikolaos, Hagios Nikolaos or Aghios Nikolaos ( el, Άγιος Νικόλαος ) is a coastal town on the Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island's capital Heraklion, north of the town of Ierapetra and west of the town of Sitia.
In t ...
.
History
Vrokastro bridges the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the early Iron Age. It was first inhabited during the Middle Minoan period (ca. 2100 to 1700), then reoccupied at the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 1250 B.C.), and continuously inhabited until the seventh century B.C.
Archaeology
In 1910-1912, American archaeologist
Edith Hall Dohan
Edith Hayward Hall Dohan (1877–1943) was an American archaeologist who earned Bryn Mawr College's first classical archaeology Ph.D. Hall was part of an excavation team with Harriet Boyd in her early career that most notably brought the first My ...
, of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
excavated here the ruins of a Minoan period settlement. She uncovered a Middle Minoan and Early Iron Age settlement on the peak and north slope, elevation 300 m. Hall excavated burials from 1200 B.C. to 700/650 BC.
This site may have been inhabited until the
Geometric Period
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of th ...
(11th-8th centuries BC) and a little later.
Scholars believe that the latest burials from the corbel-vaulted tombs at Vrokastro probably are concurrent with the central Cretan
Protogeometric Style
The Protogeometric style (or "Proto-Geometric") is a style of Ancient Greek pottery led by Athens produced between roughly 1030 and 900 BCE, in the first period of the Greek Dark Ages. After the collapse of the Mycenaean-Minoan Palace culture ...
.
[Barbara Hayden]
''A Regional Survey and Analyses of the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, Volume 1: Catalogue of Pottery from the Bronze and Early Iron Age''.
Volume 113 of Museum monographs. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, Pa.). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
New work is being done at the site by archaeologists recently. A new Vrokastro Survey Project was initiated by Dr. Barbara J. Hayden (Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum).
Notes
Bibliography
* HALL, E. 1914. Excavations in Eastern Crete: Vrokastro, University of Pennsylvania, The University Museum Anthropological Publications III, iii, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.
* Hayden, B.J. 1983. "New Plans of the Early Iron Age Settlement of Vrokastro," Hesperia 52, 367-387.
* HAYDEN, B.J., and MOODY, J.A. 1990. The Vrokastro Survey Project, Providing a Context for an Early Iron Age Site. Expedition 32: 42-53.
* HAYDEN, B.J., MOODY, J.A. and RACKHAM, O. 1992. The Vrokastro Survey Project, 1986-1989: Research Design and Preliminary Results. Hesperia 61: 293-353.
* B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 1: Catalogue of Pottery from the Bronze and Early Iron Age Settlement of Vrokastro in the Collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Archaeological Museum, Herakleion, Crete
niversity Museum Monograph 113(Philadelphia 2003).
* B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 2: The Settlement History of the Vrokastro Area and Related Studies
niversity Museum Monograph 119(Philadelphia 2004).
* B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 3: The Vrokastro Regional Survey Project, Sites and Pottery
niversity Museum Monograph 123(Philadelphia 2005).
{{Authority control
Lasithi
Minoan sites in Crete
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Crete
Populated places in ancient Greece
Former populated places in Greece
Port settlements in ancient Crete