iron Age Crete

A group of arrowheads found in tomb A1K1 of the necropolis of Orthi Petra in Eleutherna, certify the presence of warriors who could be identified as archers. However, the presence of arrows alone is not merely enough to identify a dead warrior as an archer, as arrows can be used in other activities as well, such as hunting. However, the special features of these arrows are those that provide important information both for the status of the warrior and the use of the object itself.
The large size and construction material, in this case iron, indicate not only their military use but also the fact that they may have been made with such characteristics that they could strike an enemy with strong defensive protection. The Assyrians are known for the military innovations and dynamics of their army. Could these arrowheads have been constructed to be used against them? Is the dating of the urn in which they were found, in the years of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, enough to confirm such a thing? Questions that are difficult to answer, but which give reason to examine aspects of the life and warfare of Cretans in the Early Iron Age.

In 1975 two burials were accidentally discovered at Orthi Petra, to the southeast edge of the urban area of the ancient Arkades on the Prophitis Ilias hill of Aphrati. These were a Late Orientalising cinerary urn, in the form of a plain “straight-sided pithos”, and a 6th century BC clay sarcophagus containing a few bones, an oinochoe, an amphoriskos and a very badly preserved blade of a short sword of the same type that was part of the hoplites’ weaponry. The sarcophagus is a unique example in Archaic Crete, it stands out against the desolate landscape of the contemporary Cretan burials and could express the social status of the deceased. As evidenced by a few other monuments, this diversity is probably due to the purpose of giving a special visibility to the defenders of the polis in the period of its emergence.

ABSTRACT – The data presented here were acquired during a small-scale archaeological survey
conducted in response to the threat of earthworks from the widening of the main road linking
Crete’s northern and southern coasts. The data shed new light on a previously unknown
region in an important area of the island and invite consideration on ancient communication
lines. These field investigations add some new areas of Minoan pottery scatters and a new
burial site to the previously known sites. A large Minoan settlement was also discovered on
a wide rocky plateau (Aghiosthomiani Patela) opposite the well-known Iron Age polis situated
on a similar plateau (the Priniani Patela). In the first area, archaeological evidence dating both
to the First and to the Second Palace periods fills the gap between Knossos and Phaistos with
regard to large Minoan settlements. Furthermore, some areas with Early Iron Age evidence
bear witness to the stretch of an ancient route linking the Mesara area and the anonymous
city on the Priniani Patela with Mount Ida.

The Necropolis of Aphrati-Arkades after the Late Orientalizing Phase

The tomb furnishings of the known Knossian cemeteries provide the reference frame for the ceramic sequence in central Crete until ca. 630 BC, when all of them were suddenly abandoned. After this year, which is the final term for the Knossian Late Orientalizing, finds are very rare. In addition, the evidence of the period at the turn of the 7th and the 6th centuries is scarce elsewhere in Crete. The Iron Age necropolis on the steep western slope of the Prophitis Ilias ridge in central Crete (nearby the modern village of Aphrati Pediadas) is an exception. The cemetery consists of a sort of “urn field”, with more than 160 individual secondary cremation burials in the open field, and of six built tombs containing both inhumations and cremation urns. Inverted clay basins covered some of the cremation urns buried in the open field. The presence of Corinthian imports, and of local vases under Corinthian influence related to the individual burials, is the circumstance that provides a reliable chronological base for dating the grave goods of the latest individual tombs in a period between 630/615 and 550 BC. On this basis, we can throw some light on this “Last” Orientalizing phase by sketching out the features of the ceramic production in a central Crete site and partially fill the chronological gap between the end of the 7th and the 6th centuries BC.
The use of inverted clay basins to cover some of the individual burials is the most outstanding feature at Aphrati-Arkades and is particularly in vogue during the last phase of the necropolis. This custom has implied historical speculation, since has been attributed to Oriental refugees buried at Aphrati. A re-examination of the problem suggests directions for further research.

The necropolis of Siderospilia of Prinias and those of the Knossos area are the greatest Early Iron Age ones excavated in central Crete. A preliminary examination of the grave goods found in the first of these allowed us to identify the tombs used in Protogeometric times and to give a first "physiognomy" to the contemporary ceramic style, previously known, in this area, by sporadic findings only.
The ceramics of Siderospilia continue, in parallel with the Knossos’ ones, the legacy of the TM IIIC and, at the same time, independently from the Knossos area, re-elaborate decorative motives and suggestions coming from the outside, especially from Cyprus. Among the imports, the showiest one is a rare Attic Late Protogeometric krater (1000-900 BC), which is the only one so far found in in a necropolis of Crete and the southernmost exported specimen in the Aegean Sea. The recipients of this and of other, valuable, imported metal products had to be the members of wealthy local aristocracies. Finally, it seems that the anonymous site on the Patela hill, thanks also to its privileged position on the route connecting the northern and the southern coasts of the island, attracted goods and ideas from various parts of the Mediterranean basin and that its role as mediator of stimuli coming from the outside was not secondary.

Nel 1990, in vista della costruzione della superstrada tra Iraklion e Aghia Varvara, la Missione Archeologica di Priniàs attuò una serie di ricognizioni di superficie mirate ad individuare l’eventuale presenza di siti d’interesse archeologico.  Ne furono scoperti vari di età minoica, geometrica, ellenistica ed imperiale.
Il lavoro, pur non essendo il risultato di una ricerca sistematica, dà tuttavia idea delle dinamiche di popolamento di un’area collinare posta lungo la via che collega la costa settentrionale di Creta a quella meridionale.