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Gournia

Coordinates: 35°06′20″N 25°47′20″E / 35.10556°N 25.78889°E / 35.10556; 25.78889
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Gournia
Map of Minoan Crete
LocationLasithi, Crete, Greece
Coordinates35°06′20″N 25°47′20″E / 35.10556°N 25.78889°E / 35.10556; 25.78889
TypeMinoan town and "palace"
History
CulturesMinoan
Site notes
Excavation dates1901, 1903, 1904, 1971-1972, 1976, 1992-1994, 2010–2014
ArchaeologistsHarriet Boyd Hawes, Jeffrey Soles, Costis Davaras, Vance Watrous
Public accessYes

Gournia (Greek: Γουρνιά) is the site of a Minoan palace complex in the Lasithi regional unit on the island of Crete, Greece. Its modern name originated from the many stone troughs that are at the site and its original name for the site is unknown.[1] It was first permanently inhabited during the Early Minoan II periods (approximately between 2650-2100 B.C.E) and was occupied until the Late Minoan I period (approximately between 1700-1470 B.C.E.).[2] Gournia is in a 6 mile cluster of with other Minoan archeological sites which includes Pachyammos, Vasiliki, Monasteraki, Vraika and Kavusi. The site of Pseira is close but slightly outside the cluster.[3]

Archaeology[edit]

Late Minoan IB (1925-1875 B.C.E.) Rhyton found at Gournia. The ovoid Rhyton is abstract and geometrically styled.
View of the ruins of Gournia from the Northeast.

Harriet Boyd-Hawes first excavated the Minoan village for three field seasons in 1901, 1903 and 1904. Boyd and her team were able to expose nearly the entire town, uncovering sixty houses, the cemetery, a road system connecting everything and a central building which she called "the palace".[4] Similar "palatial" complexes have been found throughout Crete and while recent scholarship have contested this original interpretation, the term 'palatial complex' remains the scholarly term for them despite being a misnomer.[4] They also excavated at the site of Vasiliki which lies one mile further in on the isthmus.[5] In 1971, 1972, and 1976 Jeffrey Soles and Costis Davaras conducted supplementary modest excavations at the site.[6][7] In 1973 a lost notebook of Hawes was recovered which contained detailed descriptions and findspots of the recoveries.[8] From 1992 until 1994 Vance Watrous conducted a survey of the site and its surrounding area.[9] After cleaning seasons in 2008 and 2009, from 2010 until 2014 Vance Watrous excavated at the site.[1][10]

Many of the archaeological finds from Gournia are held at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and a few at the Penn Museum.[11][12]

Layout[edit]

The main town of Gorunia is located 150 to 200 meters South of a coastal ridge which is itself located 100 meters South of the Northern Cretan coast.[2] On this coastal ridge sits the Sphoungaras cemetery.[2] The town itself is centered around the palatial complex which is located on the central-West side of the town.[2] The South side of the town contains a public court while the North side contains a trench dividing the town from the Northern cemetery which lay 80 meters North of the trench between the town and the coastal ridge.[1][2][7] Scholars D. Matthey Buell and John C. McEnroe also label other sections of the town with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, H and I.[2] Section E, F and I of the town lay on the North side of town but South of the North Trench.[2] Section A, B, C and D lay on the East side of the town while Section H lays on the Southwest side.[2]

History[edit]

White Bull's head rhyton

Occupation at the site began early in the Early Minoan I/II periods (3100-2200 B.C.E.) and by Early Minoan II (2650-2200 B.C.E.) it had become a sizable town.[2] In the Early Minoan II/III periods, burials began in rock shelters on the Sphoungaras ridge (with direct inhumations at Deposits A and B nearby) and on the north ridge (rock shelters V and VI and one built tomb, House Tomb III, which continued in use until the Middle Minoan IA period). In the Middle Minoan IA period (2100-1925 B.C.E.) five additional House Tombs were built (I, II, IV, VII, and VIII).[2]

During the Middle Minoan IB period (1925-1875 B.C.E.) substantial construction began which was later destroyed in the Middle Minoan II period (1875-1700 B.C.E.).[2] Rebuilding occurred in the Middle Minoan III period, which included the palace complex.[2] The site reached it's largest extent sometime between the Middle Minoan III and Late Minoan II periods (between 1750 and 1470 B.C.E.).[2] It site covered an area of about 1.68 hectares and included about 64 houses, the palace complex and a 500 square meter town square. It had a cobblestone street system of over one half kilometer in length.[2] This occupation was destroyed in the Late Minoan period IB (1625-1470 B.C.E). Other Minoan sites including Zakros to the east and Hagia Triada to the west followed the same sequence of building and destruction.[13] While the causes of this destruction at Gournia are unknown, at Hagia Tradia they are known to be the result of major seismic events.[13]

The settlement was later reoccupied in the Late Minoan III period (1420-1075 B.C.E.)/Mycenae period by Mycenaeans which included the construction of a megaron.[2][14]

Cemetery at Sphoungaras and North Cemetery[edit]

Octopus Stirrup Jar found at Gournia, now in the Heraklion museum.

The Sphoungaras cemetery's natural rock shelters, openings in the rock, provided the Minoans for a suitable space to bury their dead without the need for physical labor to create or build tombs.[2] The cemetery was in continuous use for the continuous settlement of the site by the Minoans.[2] Inhumation was the preferred mode of body disposal from early Bronze Age until the pithos burial, where the bodies were placed inside a large storage container.[7] This method was introduced and became the norm around 1900-1800 BC. These burials were first excavated by Harriet Boyd and later revisited by Richard Seager in 1910 and by Soles and Davaras in 1970.[1][7] Some of the artifacts found were various types of complete vases, jewelry, and seals made out of ivory.[7]

The North cemetery was first discovered by Boyd and her team in 1901, she discovered what she described as “intramural burials,” later coining the term “house tombs” to refer to them.[7][15] Unlike the cemetery in Sphoungaras, people were buried in built structures here.[7] The remains were deposited in no particular order in a charnel house manner.[7]

Tomb I[edit]

The house tomb is a square building measuring approximately 4 meters on all its sides.[15] It is located on the east slope of the North cemetery. It was first excavated by Boyd and revisited in 1971 by a different team of archaeologists, yielding numerous artifacts presumed to be funerary offerings. Among the findings were two small vases, a miniature jug, a mug with no handles from the Middle Minoan IA period (2100-1875 B.C.E.) found in situ; as well as a silver kantharos, two bird's nest bowls, a pair of bronze tweezers, stone vases, seals, jewelry and fragmentary sarcophagi with remains of 8 skulls and other unidentified bones.[15]

Tomb II[edit]

Together with Tomb I, the second house tomb are the best preserved funerary structures in Gournia. Unlike Tomb I, this house tomb is rectangular and consists of two rooms; it is the only tomb that has an altar.[15] Altars are commonly found outside of tholoi, round structures where the dead were commonly deposited, in other sites from the South of Crete.[15] Nonetheless, both Tomb I and II would have appeared like normal houses to outsiders without the presence of the shrine due to the use of the same construction techniques and architectural style applied to build the town's structures.[15]

Some of the artifacts found in this house tomb were stone seals, fruitstands, three bronze tweezers, terracotta vases, cups, jugs, pithoi, and larnakes.[15] Among these were fragmentary bones with only one salvageable skull. The accumulation and pattern of deposition of the human remains suggest that these were moved to the side once fully skeletonized to make space for more bodies.[15]

Gallery[edit]

  • Walkway at Gournia
    Walkway at Gournia
  • Stairs at Gournia
    Stairs at Gournia
  • Building foundation at Gournia
    Building foundation at Gournia
  • Stone Blocks at Gournia
    Stone Blocks at Gournia
  • Gournia Layout
    Gournia Layout
  • Terraced structure at Gournia
    Terraced structure at Gournia

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gournia.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d [1]Watrous, L. Vance, et al., "Excavations at gournia, 2010–2012", Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 84.3, pp. 397-465, 2015
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Buell, D. Matthew, and John C. McEnroe, "Community building/building community at Gournia", Minoan Architecture and Urbanism: New Perspectives on an Ancient Built Environment, pp. 204-227, 2017
  3. ^ [2]Richard Seager, "The Cemetery of Pachyammos. Crete", University museum, Anthropological publications, University of Pennsylvania, 1916
  4. ^ a b McEnroe, John C. (2010). Architecture of Minoan Crete: constructing identity in the Aegean Bronze Age. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72193-7. OCLC 467361357.
  5. ^ Boyd Hawes, H., B.E. Wiliams, R.B. Seager, and E.H. Hall, "Gournia, Vasiliki, and Other Prehistoric Sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete", Philadelphi, 1908
  6. ^ Davaras, C., "Γουρνιά", ArchDelt, B, 28, pp. 588–589, 1973
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Soles, Jeffrey (1992). The Prepalatial cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the house tombs of Bronze Age Crete. ISBN 0-87661-524-8.
  8. ^ [3]Silverman, Jean, "A Lost Notebook from the Excavations at Gournia, Crete", Expedition 17.1, pp. 11, 1974
  9. ^ Watrous, L.V. D. Haggis, K. Nowicki, N. Vogeikoff-Brogan, and M. Schultz, "An Archaeological Survey of the Gournia Landscape: A Regional History of the Mirabello Bay, Crete, in Antiquity", Prehistory Monographs 37, Philadelphia, PA: INSTAP Academic Press, 2012 ISBN 9781931534673
  10. ^ Gallimore, S., and K.T. Glowacki, "Stratigraphic Excavations within the Gournia Palace 2011-2014", Abstract, Archaeological Institute of America 119th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, vol. 41, Boston: Archaeological Institute of America, pp. 345, 2017
  11. ^ "Home - Heraklion Archaeological Museum". 2022-05-05. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  12. ^ "Home". www.penn.museum. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  13. ^ a b Monaco, Carmelo, and Luigi Tortorici, "Effects of Earthquakes on the Minoan 'Royal Villa' at Haghia Triada (Crete)", Creta antica 4, pp. 403-417, 2003
  14. ^ [4]Younger, John G., "The Gournia Megaron", RA-PI-NE-U. Studies on the Mycenaean world offered to Robert Laffineur for his 70th Birthday, hrsg. v. Jan Driessen, pp. 391-398, 2016
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Soles, Jeffrey S., "The Early Gournia Town", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 83, no. 2, pp. 149–67, 1979

Further reading[edit]

  • Betancourt, P., T.S. Wheeler, R. Maddin, & J.D. Muhly, "Metallurgy at Gournia", MASCAJ 1, pp. 7-8, 1978
  • Cadogan, G., "Gournia", in The Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete, J.W. Myers, E.E. Myers, and G. Cadogan, eds., Berkley, Los Angeles, pp. 104–111, 1992
  • V. Fotou, "New light on Gournia. Unknown Documents of the Excavation at Gournia and Other Sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra by Harriet Ann Boyd", Aegaeum 9, Liege & Austin, 1993
  • [5]Hall, E.H., "Early Painted Pottery from Gournia, Crete", in Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, Free Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania I.3, Philadelphia, pp. 191–206, 1905
  • Jansen, M., Hauptmann, A. and Klein, S., "Copper and lead isotope characterization of Late Bronze Age copper ingots in the Eastern Mediterranean: results from Gelidonya, Gournia, Enkomi and Mathiati", Bronze Age Metallurgy on Mediterranean Islands. In Honor of Robert Maddin and Vassos Karageorgis, hrsg. v. A. Giumlia-Mair, F. Lo Schiavo (Monographies Instrumentum 56), pp. 552-577, 2018
  • Smith, R. Angus K., "Foundation Feasts in the Minoan Palace at Gournia, Crete", Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance. Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles, hrsg. v. Joanne M. A. Murphy, Jerolyn E. Morrison (Prehistory Monographs 61), pp. 137-148, 2022
  • Soles, Jeffrey S., "The Gournia Palace", American Journal of Archaeology 95.1, pp. 17-78, 1991
  • Vavouranakis, Georgios, "Burials and the landscapes of Gournia, Crete, in the Bronze Age", Robertson, EC, Siebert, JD, Fernandez, DC & Zender, MU (edd.), Space and Spatial Analysis, pp. 233-242, 2006
  • Watrous, L. Vance, "A Peak Sanctuary for Gournia", Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance.Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles, hrsg. v. Joanne M. A. Murphy, Jerolyn E. Morrison (Prehistory Monographs 61), pp. 211-216, 2022
  • Watrous, L.V., "The Harbor Complex at Gournia of the Minoan Town at Gournia. Includes Online Image Gallery", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 116, pp. 521–542, 2012
  • Watrous, L.V., and A. Heimroth, "Household Industries of Late Minoan IB Gournia and the Socioeconomic Status of the Town", in ΣΤΕΓΑ: The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete (Hesperia Suppl. 44), edited by K. Glowacki and N. Vogeikoff-Brogan, Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, pp. 199–212, 2011 ISBN 9780876615447
  • J.G. Younger, "Seals and Sealings from the Boyd-Hall Excavations at Gournia, Crete", Archaeological Institute of America, 115th Annual Meeting, 5-9 January 2014, Chicago IL, Abstracts, pp. 141-142, 2014

External links[edit]

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