Gournia

Gournia (Greek Γουρνιά (n. sg. ) ) Is a small ancient port city from the Minoan period on the north - eastern coast of Crete, about 11 km south- east of Agios Nikolaos. The Minoan name of the settlement is unknown, so we used the name Gournia how the local farmers call the place, to refer to the excavation site. Gournia, ie German Basin, the peasants call this bay, adjacent to the north by the Gulf of Mirabello, because it is surrounded on all other sides by hills. [Note 1]

Discovery history

In search of a suitable excavation site from the Bronze Age, the U.S. archaeologist Harriet Boyd Hawes - (1871-1945) with a research group of the University of Pennsylvania followed a hint from George Perakis, a farmer and antique dealer from Vasiliki. On 19 May 1901 she went with her assistant Blanche Emily Wheeler a small hill on the coastal road from Agios Nikolaos to Sitia. Since they immediately found Minoan pottery and walls were visible, they began the next day with test excavations. They put walls and cobbled streets freely and Harriet Boyd Hawes, immediately went to Heraklion to apply for an excavation permit.

In three Campaigning in 1901, 1903 and 1904, they uncovered the visible part of the city today. They gave up a reconstruction of how it has taken about Arthur Evans at Knossos. Harriet Boyd Hawes - 1904 discovered 200 meters north of the ancient city Frühminoische graves on the hill Sphoungaras.

Archaeological Site

The hill Hawes, was in the early minoïan time (FM II A, around 2700 BC) first settled and remained until the Late Minoan period ( LM IB, around 1450 BC) inhabited continuously. The foundation walls are still visible today date from the end of the Mittelminoischen to the Late Minoan period (MM III- LM IB, 1700-1450 BC).

The settlement is grouped around a " mansion ", which is also known as a palace, with a large courtyard. Three stone-paved roads running down stairs from the hill down and a ring road are clearly visible. Separately identifiable district can be identified as living quarters or workshop or as a range of " prince's court ". So far eight quarters have been excavated, which are identified by the letters AH.

Method of construction

The lower floors of the houses were built of stone or of fired bricks on stone foundations. The houses possessed one or more upper floors, which were built of brick. As evidenced plaster residues the walls were provided with a fine white or a coarser gray plaster. In some cases, a second fine light blue gray plaster was applied. There were also stucco residues that were painted darker than Pompeiian. In a storage room, two stucco residues found in the form of a lightning bolt and a swallow.

The discovered door thresholds are made of stone and the door frames were made ​​of clay and wood, and in rare cases of stone. The basements possessed well over windows, but unfortunately could recesses due to the low height of the remaining walls, they get to waist level, only three cases are detected for windows. The floors were made of tamped clay, thin pavers or bricks thick as they were also used for road construction. The discovered remains of wooden beams and plaster casts of Ried suggest that the houses had flat roofs. However, there is a possibility that the bottom of the upper floor was made ​​of it. The houses also possessed even a sewage system.

Coming up the road you walked first forecourt, from where a door led to the ground floor, where shops and workshops were located. Stairs made ​​of wood or stone, in the interior or in the court led to the upper floor to the living quarters. There was also the basement that could be reached by stairs or ladders. At the entrance doors strange vessels that look like mortar, but no pestle were found on the floor. Their function has not yet been satisfactorily clarified.

Tour

Today One enters the excavation site of the Northeast. First, you will encounter a junction where branches from the ring road, a road to the west towards the palace. If you follow the ring road south, so there is left and right quarter B the first quarter C. One reaches the House CF ( left of the road in district C). Here it was found next to a jug and labeled with linear letters A clay disc also a stone crucible suggesting a bronze workshop on the ground floor of this house. In this house there is also a sewer pipe. Next, branches off another road that separates the neighborhood C of D, to the west and to get to the house DD in which the stone bench still be seen, on the Harriet Boyd found a clay wine press. In the hole in front of the Bank of grape juice was collected.

The ring road is now headed to the west and leads up to the hill and plateau first reached a place. Southwest of the square is one of the few buildings located (House He) from the Mycenaean period. For this house bigger and better carved stones were used. North of the square is a three-step stairs, similar to the shop stairs of the Minoan palaces, however, is the Hawes, around the corner. To the left of the stairs is a round stone slab, called kernos who served cultic purposes. It is believed that the place was used both as Agora, for cultural and social events, with the stairs could serve as a seat, as well as acts of worship.

Palace

North of the staircase leads to a corridor that leads first to the west, bends to the north and empties into an open courtyard. To the west and north of the courtyard were elongated storage rooms, was located south of the throne room, which was surrounded on three sides by benches. From the throne room led a narrow corridor with stairs to the first floor. From the open courtyard to the north you can see at first left another flight of stairs to the first floor, behind you arrived at the west entrance of the palace. Substituting the way north away so you get to a small bathroom.

Places of Worship

Returning to the place back then leading along the west side of a road on the outer wall of the palace along. At a junction you come to a vertical one, the one that is holding a sacred stone for a Bätyle. In its vicinity there is still a stone block with a Doppelaxtsymbol. If you follow the cobbled street to the north we arrive at a small place, which was at the west entrance of the palace. To the right are some of the few surviving buildings radicals from the Mittelminoischen time. At the north end of the Palace right path leads to a small sanctuary of about three by three meters. Here they found several clay cult statuettes and other offerings.

North

In the northern part of the ring road was found next to a house a shambles from the Mittelminoischen time. Since all fragments come from the same time it is believed that after being destroyed by attackers, which was disposed of debris there in the suburbs. North of the city was Harriet Boyd 1904 a cemetery, which was studied in more detail in the years 1971 and 1972 by the archaeologist Costis Davaras. The tombs date back mainly to the Frühminoische, Mittelminoische and Mycenaean period. Some of the dead were buried under rock ledges. But there were also grave houses in the middle they found an open-air sanctuary. Since these graves from FM II and MM I were better equipped than simultaneous graves in Sphoungaras, one suspects that the elite of the city was buried.

If you follow the ring road further south, you reach home AC. In the basement, a brick wall and the remains of the plaster is obtained. In room 7, the opening for a window is visible. In the rooms was found next to a potter's wheel, two ritual vessels and a large pithos.

Destruction

Around 1450 BC ( LM IB ) was Gournia as the Minoan palaces, destroyed and abandoned for 50 years. Whether the city a tidal wave caused by the volcanic eruption of Thera / Santorini or an earthquake fell victim is unknown. But there are still small traces of Minoan and Mycenaean subsequent colonization. Around 1200 BC ( LM III ) Gournia was finally destroyed and abandoned.