The training excavation of the University of Crete at Katalymata on Gavdos is exploring a spaciou... more The training excavation of the University of Crete at Katalymata on Gavdos is exploring a spacious building complex that has yielded rich finds of the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC, principally of the Neopalatial period in Crete. This is a brief preliminary presentation of the pottery, which is abundant, usually of good quality and often decorated, and several other clay items – the first stratified and systematically studied such assemblages known from the island. They include: a few fine ware vessels for drinking and eating; plenty of medium-coarse and coarse ware vessels for pouring and transporting liquids, food preparation, cooking, and storage; and a number of clay utensils for domestic and home-based industrial work, involving fire and water management and other activities. Most of these artefacts are made of local clays and have easily recognizable native fabrics, but there are some imports from south-central Crete and maybe elsewhere too. While they follow contemporary Minoan, and wider Aegean, fashions, they also show long lasting and distinctive Gavdiot traits in their manufacture, forms and decoration. They provide, thus, a good example of technological and aesthetic choices that shaped interesting regional identities within the framework of a complex, widely eclectic “minoanisation”, which began in this case in the immediate micro-insular periphery of Crete – and its southernmost point.
At the site called Katalymata, on the island of Gavdos off the south western Cretan shores, the U... more At the site called Katalymata, on the island of Gavdos off the south western Cretan shores, the University of Crete is excavating a spacious building complex dating back to the Bronze Age (3rd and mainly 2nd millennia BC). In this paper, we discuss a theatrical performance inspired by this discovery and investigation, which was first presented in situ on the field in 2012. The play was created by young members of the research team, who are themselves both archaeologists and actors. It is based on the accounts in the excavation notebooks of the prehistoric activities revealed in the building's stratigraphy and enlivened by the memories of the modern islanders of their happenings at home. It also draws upon wider cognitive pieces of relevant knowledge-philosophical, literary and other. This combination was moulded to produce a structured narrative of domestic life on the island through time, and illustrate some specific aspects and overall meanings, material and symbolic, of 'dwelling' down the ages. Since its Gavdiot premiere, the work has been adapted for different media to travel in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, as a performative guided tour played in historic houses, as a lecture performance for conferences and art venues, and as an audiovisual installation in museums of contemporary art.
The training excavation of the University of Crete at Katalymata on Gavdos is exploring a spaciou... more The training excavation of the University of Crete at Katalymata on Gavdos is exploring a spacious building complex that has yielded rich finds of the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC, principally of the Neopalatial period in Crete. This is a brief preliminary presentation of the pottery, which is abundant, usually of good quality and often decorated, and several other clay items – the first stratified and systematically studied such assemblages known from the island. They include: a few fine ware vessels for drinking and eating; plenty of medium-coarse and coarse ware vessels for pouring and transporting liquids, food preparation, cooking, and storage; and a number of clay utensils for domestic and home-based industrial work, involving fire and water management and other activities. Most of these artefacts are made of local clays and have easily recognizable native fabrics, but there are some imports from south-central Crete and maybe elsewhere too. While they follow contemporary Minoan, and wider Aegean, fashions, they also show long lasting and distinctive Gavdiot traits in their manufacture, forms and decoration. They provide, thus, a good example of technological and aesthetic choices that shaped interesting regional identities within the framework of a complex, widely eclectic “minoanisation”, which began in this case in the immediate micro-insular periphery of Crete – and its southernmost point.
At the site called Katalymata, on the island of Gavdos off the south western Cretan shores, the U... more At the site called Katalymata, on the island of Gavdos off the south western Cretan shores, the University of Crete is excavating a spacious building complex dating back to the Bronze Age (3rd and mainly 2nd millennia BC). In this paper, we discuss a theatrical performance inspired by this discovery and investigation, which was first presented in situ on the field in 2012. The play was created by young members of the research team, who are themselves both archaeologists and actors. It is based on the accounts in the excavation notebooks of the prehistoric activities revealed in the building's stratigraphy and enlivened by the memories of the modern islanders of their happenings at home. It also draws upon wider cognitive pieces of relevant knowledge-philosophical, literary and other. This combination was moulded to produce a structured narrative of domestic life on the island through time, and illustrate some specific aspects and overall meanings, material and symbolic, of 'dwelling' down the ages. Since its Gavdiot premiere, the work has been adapted for different media to travel in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, as a performative guided tour played in historic houses, as a lecture performance for conferences and art venues, and as an audiovisual installation in museums of contemporary art.
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