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Stous Athropolithous: a Minoan Site near Epano Zakro, Sitias

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Ann Brown  and
A. A. D. Peatfield
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Abstract

During his travels in Crete 1894–9, Sir Arthur Evans discovered the site of Athropolithous near Epano Zakro, Sitias; he also recovered clay figurines from the site. Though never excavated, the site has figured prominently in discussions about Minoan cult places. There has arisen some confusion about its exact identification. To clarify the issue Evans's notes and the finds are published here. In addition, the classification of Athropolithous as a cult place is discussed, and is used as an example of a more rigorous approach to the identification of shrine sites.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 82 , November 1987 , pp. 23 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1987

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References

1 The 1894 diary also contains entries for part of 1896 and part of 1899. I have not been able to trace the diaries for 1895, part of 1896, 1898, and part of 1899, although they were used by J. D. S. Pendlebury, Archaeology of Crete (1939), and by Joan Evans, Time and Chance: the Story of Arthur Evans and His Forebears (1943).

2 The human figure, Ashmolean Museum inv. no. AE 108, and the conjoined quadrupeds AE 112 were also shown to Dr Lucio Mariani when he was in Epano Zakro in 1893; see MonAnt vi (1895) 176 fig. 5; 182 fig. 17.

3 Though there are few traces of the walls Evans drew on his plan visible today, it is clear where the individual features were. It can also be deduced that under the general heading of Athropolithous Evans included the site of (Platon's Minoan villa)—see also below re Hogarth's observations.

4 The ‘castle’ from its position on Evans's sketch is certainly the Minoan villa (cf. n. 3).

5 Ashmolean Museum inv. nos. AE 114, 115.

6 A. J. Evans and J. L. Myres, ‘A Mycenaean Road in Crete’, The Academy, 1 June 1895.

7 Letters from Crete, reprinted from the Manchester Guardian of 24, 25 May and 13 June (privately printed, Oxford 1898).

8 Bosanquet, R. C., BSA 9 (1902–1903) 276.Google Scholar

9 Evans, A. J., PM i (1921) 151 n. 1.Google Scholar

10 Hogarth, D., BSA 7 (1900–1901) 147.Google Scholar

11 Praktika (1965) 216–24.

12 Bosanquet, op. cit. 276.

13 Myres, J. L., BSA 9 (1902–3) 356–87.Google Scholar

14 Evans, , PM (1921) 151.Google Scholar

15 Pendlebury, , Archaeology of Crete (1939) 102, 126.Google Scholar

16 Ibid. 266; id., BSA 33 (1932–3) 99.

17 Platon, N., KrChr 5 (1951) 122.Google Scholar

18 Faure, E., BCH 91 (1967) 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Ibid. 138–40.

20 Rutkowski, B., Cult Places in the Aegean World (1972) 197. 324.Google Scholar

21 Id., Cult Places of the Aegean (1986) 115, 116.

22 Cf. the Dr Doolittle books.

23 Kanta, , The Late Minoan III Period in Crete, SIMA lviii (1980) 258.Google Scholar

24 I am grateful to Jennifer Moody for this geological observation.

25 For a discussion of the coexistence of the high collar and MM dark-ground ceramic decoration as dating criteria for figurines, see Peatfield, ‘Palace and Peak’ in The Function of the Mirwan Palace, N. Marinatos and R. Hägg (ed.), 4th Symposium of the Swedish Institute in Athens (1984). A fuller presentation of the material is to be found in Peatfield, ‘The Peak Sanctuaries of Minoan Crete’ (doctoral thesis).

26 Peatfield, , BSA 78 (1983) 273–9.Google Scholar

27 Faure, op. cit. (1967).

28 Rutkowski, , Cult Places in the Aegean World (1972) 39, 187–214Google Scholar; Cult Places of the Aegean (1986) 99–118.

29 Rutkowski, , Cult Places in the Aegean World (1972) 39, 187–214Google Scholar; Cult Places of the Aegean (1986) 99–118.

30 For the present only three sites can be confidently acknowledged as sacred enclosures: Piskokephalo, Kato Syme Viannou, and Anemospilia.

31 Renfrew, , Phylakopi (1985) 11–26.Google Scholar

32 The inaccurate labelling of Piskokephalo as a peak sanctuary has persisted, despite Faure's and Rutkowski's reclassification of it as a sacred enclosure. The resemblance of the figurines from the site to those from peak sanctuaries is superficial; in particular there are no votive limbs (the figurine type that especially characterizes the peak sanctuary assemblage).