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Knossos: Early Greek occupation under the Roman Villa Dionysos1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

J. N. Coldstream  and
Eleni M. Hatzaki
J. N. Coldstream
Affiliation:
University College London
Eleni M. Hatzaki
Affiliation:
British School at Athens
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Abstract

Under the central courtyard of the Villa Dionysos laid out in the second century AD as a Roman garden (Viridarium), a sounding in summer 2000 revealed two layers of PG domestic occupation, with no architectural remains from the intervening periods. This article publishes the two stratified PG deposits and the later fill above them. A forthcoming article will discuss the bioarchaeological evidence and also the LM deposit below, down to the bedrock.

The discovery of a PG house, so far to the north of the previously known PG settlement, invites some discussion. A Supplement will set forth other evidence for Early Greek presence in the area of the Roman villa.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 98 , November 2003 , pp. 279 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2003

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Footnotes

1

Acknowledgements. The excavation was conducted under the auspices of the British School at Athens; permission to excavate was granted by the director of the 23rd EPCA, A, Karetsou, whom we thank. The project was funded by the BSA, additional support for conservation and photographic assistance was provided by the INSTAP publication team (E. Attali, photography; M. Rogenbucke, conservation). E. M. Hatzaki, Knossos Curator, directed the excavation; N. Daskalakis was foreman. The Greek and Roman pottery was studied by J. N. Coldstream, assisted by E. Nikolakopoulou; pottery drawings were made by Nicola Coldstream. Site plans were inked by N. Dolia. Site photographs were made by E. M. Hatzaki and pottery photographs by J. N. Coldstream. Hatzaki would like to thank D. E. Wilson for reading early versions of the stratigraphic account. Coldstream is grateful to Sara Paton for much guidance concerning earlier architectural remains under the Roman villa, and also to P. Callaghan and G. Forster for advice on Hellenistic and Roman pottery.

Abbreviations, other than those in general use:

F = Fortetsa: Early Greek Tombs near Knossos (Cambridge, 1957). References are given only to the catalogue numbers, which follow in sequence throughout.

Hayes = J. W. Hayes, ‘The Villa Dionysus excavations, Knossos: the pottery’, BSA 78 (1983), 97–179.

KNC = J. N. Coldstream and H. W. Catling (eds), Knossos North Cemetery: Early Greek Tombs (BSA supp. vol. 28; London, 1996).

KPH II = J. N. Coldstream, L. J. Eiring and G. Forster, Knossos Pottery Handbook, Greek and Roman (BSA Studies 7; London, 2001).

KS2 = M. S. F. Hood and D. Smyth, Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area (2nd edn., BSA supp. vol. 14; London, 1981).

Paton 1998 = Sara Paton, ‘The Villa Dionysus and its predecessors’, in W. G. Cavanagh and M. Curtis (eds), Post-Minoan Crete, Proceedings of the First Colloquium (BSA Studies 2; London, 1998), 123–8.

PGP = V. R. d'A. Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery (Oxford, 1952).

UM II = L. H. Sackett (ed.), Knossos, from Greek City to Roman Colony: Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion at Knossos (BSA supp. 21; London 1992).

References

2 Paton 1998 with references.

3 All the excavated material is stored in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos, under the excavation code VDoo (= Villa Dionysos 2000). All the pottery has been kept and washed in fresh water apart from the amphora C1, which after desalination was washed in acid diluted water. The Greek and Roman pottery is stored in three separate groups, according to the method in which the material was processed by Coldstream: (a) catalogued and published pottery stored according to Deposits B–F, (b) selected diagnostic sherds stored according to Deposit/‘zembil’ sequence, (c) all the remaining pottery kept according to Deposit/‘zembil’ sequence.

4 The use of arabic numerals has been employed, as distinct from the later VD periods in roman numerals as published in Paton 1998, 125, fig. 15.1. Phases 1–3 predat Paton's Phase I, whereas Phase 4 = Paton's Period IV.

5 Nomenclature: in the excavation notebook and pottery labels the Minoan fill was recorded as Pit 1.

6 Paton 1998, 123–4.

7 Wall 2 is 0.55 m wide and was traced for 1.20 m to the W; part of the wall's N face was completely robbed. Wall 3 is 0.53 m wide and was traced for 1.55 m; it is constructed out of slightly smaller stones in comparison to Wall 2.

8 The top preserved course of Wall 2 was exposed with level 8 zembil 17 which produced MG pottery.

9 See Paton's Phase III, Paton 1998, 125 fig. 15. 1.

10 Paton 1998, 125 fig. 15.1 and 126.

11 Paton 1998, Period III.

12 KS 2 nos. 185–6; BSA 95 (2000), 261, fig. 1Google Scholar.

13 BSA 95 (2000), 296–8Google Scholar.

14 AR 40 (1994), 75 Google Scholar.

15 Most recently, BSA 95 (2000), 299 Google Scholar.

16 Hayes 138–40 nos. 231–2, 240–1.

17 The Hellenistic pottery, especially plentiful in Hole V of January 2000, will be treated elsewhere.

18 Recently summarized by Paton 1998, 123–4.

19 Unpublished, in typed MS. I thank Sara Paton for a copy of this document.

20 On the Subgeometric element in Knossian Orientalizing pottery see KPH II, 70.

21 A more detailed stone-by-stone plan will be published by Sara Paton in her forthcoming definitive report on the Villa Dionysus, incorporating the results of her excavations in 1999–2000, and subsequent tests under the mosaic floors, This plan will show many additional pre-Roman walls not appearing in Paton 1998, fig. 15. 1, on which our FIG. 1 is based.

22 Almost all from Hole C of 1999 in the S walk of the peristyle, and from the SE trenches of 1971 (Hayes 99, fig. 1).

23 See n. 3 above.

24 BSA 94 (1999), 289–307 Google Scholar.

25 Hayes 100–2, 163–8.