Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "DRIROS Ancient city NEAPOLI".
A small hilltop city on one of the S spurs of Mt. Kadiston, NW of
Ag. Nikolaos and just NE of modern Neapolis, Mirabello District, N Crete. The
twin hill, known as Ag. Antonios, dominates the inland plain of Mirabello to the
S; to the E lie Olous and Lato.
Dreros is barely mentioned in literary sources. There is no trace
of Minoan occupation; the earliest remains found are Sub-Minoan. Plentiful remains
of the Geometric and archaic periods attest the city's prosperity in the 8th-6th
c., and a group of archaic inscriptions includes the earliest complete constitutional
law yet found in Greece. In the 3d c. B.C. Dreros was an ally of Knossos and on
hostile terms with Lyttos and Milatos: this is vividly expressed in the famous
oath of the Drerian epheboi (late 3d c.), which also indicates dissensions within
the city. In the 2d c. B.C. Dreros seems to have ceased to exist as an independent
city; it became a dependency of Knossos, or possibly Lyttos. The chief deities
of Dreros were Apollo Delphinios and Athena Poliouchos; the few surviving (Hellenistic)
coins of the city depict the latter and the caduceus of Hermes.
The center of the city lies on the N side of the saddle between the
two hilltops, overlooking the small valley of Fourni. It has the same features
of an archaic Cretan town as Lato: stepped agora, nearby temple and probably prytaneion,
going back to the 8th c. These remains, with those of private houses particularly
on the N slope of the twin hill, illustrate well a small provincial Greek city
of the Geometric period.
The agora is a large, almost rectangnlar area (ca. 40 m N-S x over
20 m E-W) on the N side of the saddle. At its N end, where the ground falls away,
it is bounded by a polygonal retaining wall, and at the S end by a set of stone
steps, probably used as seats; at the SW corner seven rows of seats still survived
when excavated. Like the agora at Lato, it bears a striking resemblance to the
theatral areas by Minoan palaces, and was probably used as a meeting place for
the popular assembly and for religious spectacles. The floor was of beaten earth.
The steps on the S side were rebuilt in the Hellenistic period, probably when
the cistern to the S was constructed; the reused blocks included one with primitive
incised designs.
Above the SW corner of the agora, and approached from it by a set
of steps, lie the remains of the Geometric Temple of Dreros, one of the earliest
known temples of the Greek Iron Age. It is probably the Delphinion, Temple of
Apollo Delphinios, or possibly that of Apollo Pythios. Its excavation followed
the discovery on the site of three curious statues of hammered bronze plating,
originally covering wood: a nude male and two smaller clothed female figures,
probably representing Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, and dating from ca. 650-640.
The building dates probably from the second quarter of the 8th c.
The cella (ca. 10.90 x 7.20 m externally) has walls, built of small dressed stones,
standing up to 2.50 m high at the SW corner. The entrance was on the N, where
the wall is thicker and the facade of better masonry; between the facade and the
steps leading up from the agora is a shallow pronaos of uncertain plan. There
may have been another entrance on the E. Within the cella was a central rectangular
hearth, sunken and lined with stones, and one or two axial columns to support
the roof; a round stone column-base was found in situ between hearth and entrance.
In the SW corner is a stone bench for offerings, on which were found an early
6th c. bronze Gorgoneion, vases, and terracotta figurines. Later a small stone
box was built beside it against the S wall--a keraton or altar of horns; the box,
formed of vertical slabs (probably covered by a low wooden table), contained goats'
horns, more of which were found in front along with a stone offering-table. The
three bronze figures, like the altar a later addition, probably originally stood
on this altar. Most of the pottery from the area is of mid 8th to early 7th c.
date, and several stones incised with goat-hunting scenes have been found.
On the W side of the temple is a terrace at a higher level, probably
roofed as a portico, and on the S a group of rooms which may be the prytaneion
of the city: three rooms, one containing a hearth, all entered from a common vestibule.
The first divinity invoked in the Drerian Oath is "Hestia in the Prytaneion."
Finds here include a stone cult vase in the Minoan tradition. The building remained
in use, with alterations, into the Hellenistic period.
Below the temple to the E, and S of the Agora, an enormous rectangular
cistern (13.50 x 5.50 m and nearly 8 m deep) was constructed in the late 3d century
B.C. An inscription recording the work and mentioning the protection of Apollo
Delphinios was found in the cistern; it is contemporary with the Drerian Oath.
Two walls were built and two rock-cut; all four were plastered. The cistern was
probably open to the sky, and assured the water supply of the acropolis. In the
upper levels of its fill on the W were found a number of blocks, probably fallen
from the E wall of the Geometric temple, with archaic inscriptions of the late
7th or 6th c., including a constitutional law, a Greek-Eteocretan bilingual text
(suggesting a surviving pre-Greek element in the population) and six fragmentary
religious and public texts. In the lower levels on the E side were found incised
blocks, clearly not from the temple, including one with graffiti similar to Minoan
script and one with hammered designs curiously similar to scenes on the Ag. Triada
sarcophagus.
The E hilltop seems to have been surrounded by a wall with a gate
on the W side. However, the earliest remains found here are Roman; later ones
are Byzantine and Venetian. Traces of a fortification wall of various periods
have also been found on the W side of the W hill, on top of which a building (24
x 10.7 m) has been excavated which, though it was originally interpreted as a
temple, may rather be an andreion or meeting place for hetaireiai; it has a deep
vestibule with a side room, and a main room with a hearth and 2 (4?) columns.
The stele bearing the Drerian Oath was found on this hill in 1854, identifying
the site.
At the foot of the N slope of the E hill part of the cemetery has
been excavated: 25 graves with low stone walls and an enclosure wall on the lower
side. One grave contained inhumations and Sub-Minoan pottery; the rest are of
Geometric date and contain mainly cremation burials, some of them in pithoi or
urns, with scanty grave goods.
D. J. Blackman, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Driros is the site of an ancient city, 2km up a dirt track on the
hill of Agios Antonios northeast of Neapolis. The area of Driros has remains of
the ancient Greek city of Driros and the temple of Apollo Delfinos dating from
the eight century B.C.
The city of Driros was important during the early Greek years, about the eighth
century B.C., but declined later after the second century B.C. The retaining walls
of the city, the public buildings and the agora remain, but they are not well-preserved.
An inscription in Doric dialect was found in which the young men from Driros swore
to the gods to be forever the enemies of Lyktians and Milatians, then in another
later inscription, the people of Driros declared friendship with the Lyktians
and Milatians.
In Driros archaeologists discovered a temple to Apollo Delfinos, one of the
oldest Greek period temples in Greece, dating from the seventh century B.C.
A column in the centre, a central hearth (Estia) and an offering table make
it resemble a Minoan building. The temple has a stone house protecting it. Three
copper statuettes, found there, among the earliest of their kind, are displayed
now in the Iraklion Museum. Some important inscriptions revealed interesting
aspects of the ancient society.
This extract is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
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