Listed 8 sub titles with search on: Archaeological sites for wider area of: "TYMBAKI Small town PYRGIOTISSA" .
KAMILARI (Village) TYMBAKI
This large tomb was used communally for several centuries and although
it was robbed in antiquity, excavations revealed important Minoan burial customs.
The tomb consisted of five small rooms and a paved patio outside the circular
tomb. The tomb is thought to have had a wooden roof supported by a cement structure.
The walls of the tomb are very thick and still stand two metres high. The important
finds from this tomb are displayed in the Iraklion Archaeology Museum (Room 6)
and indicate the funeral rites of this time. Two of these Late Minoan Period pieces
show food being offered or eaten in a ceremonial fashion and a third object shows
dancing in a circle, similar to today's Cretan dancing.
This text is cited Dec 2002 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
KOMMOS (Beach) HERAKLIO
This is the site of on-going archaeological excavations of a Minoan
settlement on a very beautiful sandy beach east of Matala. Kommos was a Minoan
harbour from the early time of Minoan civilization. It was probably the major
port of entry in the Mesara Plain, and monumental buildings near the shore and
paved roads towards Mesara suggest a customs house. Remains from the Greek era
have also been found in Kommos. A temple built here in the tenth century B.C.
is one of the oldest known in Greece. Remainders of later temples dating from
the fourth to the first century B.C. are now visible.
This text is cited Feb 2003 from the Crete TOURnet URL below, which contains images.
AGIA TRIADA (Archaeological site) TYMBAKI
The Royal Villa was built in the 16th century B.C. (New Palace period). After the destruction of the palaces in 1450 B.C., only a small "megaron" of the "Mycenaean" type was built in their place. There is evidence that in the Geometric period (8th century B.C.) the site had religious function.
In the Hellenistic period (4th-3rd centuries B.C.) the sanctuary of Zeus Velchanos was founded and much later, during the Venetian occupation, the area of the courtyard was occupied by the church of St. George Galatas (14th century A.D.).
The Italian Archaeological School at Athens located and excavated the site of Aghia Triada in the years 1902, 1903, 1904-1905 and 1910-1914.
The Villa at Aghia Triada consists of two wings which form an L-shaped structure enclosing a court. Although it does not have the dimensions of the palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, it presents all the typical features of Minoan palatial architecture. It has halls with polythyra (pier-and-door partitions), light-wells, shrines, storerooms, repositories, workshops, staircases, porticoes, courtyards, terraces and balconies, streets and courtyards paved with flagstones. Numerous finds were uncovered in the villa during the excavations.
This text is cited Feb 2003 from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture URL below, which also contains image.
KOMMOS (Beach) HERAKLIO
Professor, Aegean and Greek Art and Archaeology; Homer and Archaeology, Univercity of Toronto.
Recent Publications:
Numerous articles on Aegean fresco painting and Aegean-Egyptian interconnections; Co-editor (with J.W. Shaw) and author in a series of volumes on the Excavations of Kommos, Crete.
Topics of currrent research:
Votive sculpture from the Greek Sanctuary at Kommos; Study of textile patterns in Minoan wall paintings for a special exhibition (entitled Crete and Egypt) in the Archeological Museum in Herakleion, Crete; Ongoing research on the Minoan Civic Centre at Kommos, Crete; Book on Minoan Wall Painting.
Awards:
Fellowships and Awards for research in the field of Aegean wall painting and, indirectly, in the study of the archeological remains at Kommos; Honorary citizen of Pitsidia, Crete, with J.W. Shaw.
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
Tel: +30 28920 42315
Phaistos was one of the most important palatial centres of Minoan civilization,
and the most wealthy and powerful city in southern Crete. It was inhabited from the Neolithic period until the foundation and development of the Minoan palaces. The Minoan city covered a considerable area around the palace. After the destruction of the palace in the 15th century, the city continued to be inhabited in the Mycenaean and Geometric periods, that is, until the 8th century BC.
Later, the temple of Rea was built to the south of the old palace. The Hellenistic city was extremely prosperous; houses of the period are to be seen in the west court (upper terrace) of the palace. In the middle of the 2nd century BC it was destroyed and dominated by the neighbouring city of Gortyn.
THE PALACE
The Palace of Phaistos
with its superb architectural composition and its almost perfect construction, is considered to be the finest and most typical of all Minoan palaces. The ruins of the old and new palace are preserved today, the former having been protected under a shed. The nucleus of the new palace is a
central peristyle court around which the rooms are arranged:
the storerooms and
shrines on the west side,
the royal quarters on the north and the workshops on the east.
To the west of the storerooms is the "theatral area"
with the "processional ways" and, in the lower strata, the granaries of the Old Palace period (first palace).
The West Propylon,
the monumental entrance to the palace, is the most impressive known structure of its kind,
while large staircases
facilitate access to the successive terraces.
Like at Knossos,
the first (old) palace was built at the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC (MM I period) and remained in use for about three centuries (2000-1700 BC). It was destroyed by fire in ca. 1700 BC. On its ruins a new palace was erected but was also destroyed in the mid-15th century BC (LM IB) along with the other Minoan palatial centres. The palace was abandoned thereafter and only some of its parts were occupied in the late Post-palatial period. In the Archaic period the temple of the Great Mother or Rea was built in the southern part of the old palace.
The archaeological investigation of the palace started in 1884 by the Italians F. Halbherr and A. Taramelli. After the declaration of the independent Cretan State in 1898,
excavations
were carried out by F. Halbherr and L. Pernier in 1900-1904 and later, in 1950-1971, by Doro Levi, under the auspices of the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. Along with the excavations, consolidation work was carried out by the Italian Archaeological School. Some of the monuments, mainly the old palace and the royal quarters of the new palace, were protected under plastic sheds, while others, like the storerooms of the new palace, were covered with a concrete roofing.
AGIA TRIADA (Archaeological site) TYMBAKI
Tel: +30 28920 91564
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