Many old giant pithoi - storage jars are found here.

Sure for oil, olives and grain. They were moved by ropes.

- - -

Viele alte Vorratsbehälter wurden hier gefunden.

Sicher für Öl, Oliven und Getreide. Bewegt wurden sie mit Seilen.

Other cities were founded in the immediate vicinity, such as the Roman colony, and a Hellenistic Greek precedent. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax (modern Heraklion) during the 9th century AD. By the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos "Long Wall", the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century. Today, the name is used only for the archaeological site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion.

 

Otras ciudades fueron fundadas en las inmediaciones, como la colonia romana, y un precedente griego helenístico. La población se trasladó a la nueva ciudad de Chandax (la actual Heraklion) durante el siglo IX d.C. En el siglo XIII, se llamaba Makruteikhos "Muro Largo", los obispos de Gortyn continuaron llamándose Obispos de Knossos hasta el siglo XIX. Hoy, el nombre se usa solo para el sitio arqueológico que ahora se encuentra en los suburbios en expansión de Heraklion.

 

Knossos Palace. Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

El Palacio de Knossos está conectado con leyendas emocionantes, como el mito del Laberinto, el Minotauro y la historia de Daidalos e Ikaros.

 

The Palace of Knossos is connected with thrilling legends, such as the myth of the Labyrinth, with the Minotaur, and the story of Daidalos and Ikaros.

 

Knossos (Heraklion/ Crete/ Greece)

Unlike the stone columns that are characteristic of other Greek architecture, the Minoan column was constructed from the trunk of a cypress tree, common to the Mediterranean. While most Greek columns are smaller at the top and wider at the bottom to create the illusion of greater height, the Minoan columns are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top, a result of inverting the cypress trunk to prevent sprouting once in place. The columns at the Palace of Minos were painted red and mounted on stone bases with round, pillow-like capitals.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

 

Un pithos (pluriel pithoi) est un type de grande céramique grecque antique, une profonde jarre ayant une base plus ou moins étroite. Le pithos est utilisé pour stocker des denrées issues de l'agriculture en Grèce antique comme des céréales et des liquides.

 

Au bout de quarante ans de fouilles continues, on n'a dégagé qu'à peine deux hectares de la ville, qui occupait une surface bien plus grande. Il s'agit largement d'un instantané de la localité au moment de sa destruction, au milieu du IIe millénaire av. J.-C., la datation précise étant encore en discussion. Les couches stratigraphiques plus anciennes n'ont été explorées que ponctuellement, dans des tranchées faites pour extraire les poteaux de soutènement des toits. On y a trouvé des tessons de poterie et d'autres artéfacts depuis le Néolithique en passant par les diverses périodes de la civilisation des Cyclades.

 

Un itinéraire de promenade dans les parties sécurisées de la ville a longtemps permis une visite pendant que les travaux de fouilles se poursuivaient sur les autres secteurs voisins. Très tôt après la découverte, le terrain a été recouvert d'un toit en tôle ondulée sur des poteaux en acier, afin de protéger des intempéries et du soleil les bâtiments et autres éléments mis au jour. Dans les années 2002 à 2005, ce toit, souvent agrandi, a été remplacé par une nouvelle structure, à la demande de l'Union européenne. En 2005, il y eut un accident : une partie de ce nouveau toit s'est effondrée juste avant l'inauguration. Un touriste a été tué et six personnes blessées. Comme il restait des doutes sur la solidité du toit, les fouilles ont été arrêtées, et les visites interdites au public. Pendant l'interruption des fouilles, les archéologues se sont concentrés sur l'analyse des objets déjà extraits, en particulier ceux des couches les plus profondes. Grâce à ce travail, ils ont fait de nouvelles découvertes sur la préhistoire de la ville. Depuis 2009, un nouveau toit a été construit, l'aire des fouilles a rouvert en 2011 pour les archéologues et en 2012 pour le public.

 

D'après diapositive.

 

Knossos war ein antiker Ort auf Kreta, etwa fünf Kilometer südlich von Iraklio. Bekannt ist es vor allem durch den Palast von Knossos, der neben den Palästen von Malia, Phaistos und Kato Zakros der größte minoische Palast auf Kreta ist und von Griechenland mit dem Europäischen Kulturerbe-Siegel ausgezeichnet wurde. Knossos blieb auch nach Zerstörung des Palastes bis in die byzantinische Zeit besiedelt.

Der jüngste Palast von Knossos entstand als Gebäudeensemble von bis zu fünf Stockwerken mit einer umbauten Fläche von 21.000 m² auf einer lichten Fläche von 2,2 ha. 800 Räume sind nachweisbar, doch dürfte der Palast insgesamt bis zu 1300 besessen haben. Der Palast war zu keinem Zeitpunkt befestigt. Er ist, wie alle Palastanlagen der Minoer, um einen rechteckigen Zentralhof von 53 × 28 m errichtet. Aus vier Richtungen kommen verwinkelte, vergleichsweise schmale Gänge, reich dekorierte Korridore, bemalte Säle, aufwendig gestaltete Treppenhäuser und säulenumstandene Galerien auf diesen Hof zu. Die Anlage war Verwaltungszentrum und enthielt zahlreiche Werkstätten.

Diese Räume und Korridore sind in einer verwirrenden Anordnung aneinandergefügt. Es gibt Türen und Durchgänge, Treppen und Rampen. Einige Räume sind durch Polythyra verbunden, Innenwände, die als Reihen deckenhoher, doppelflügeliger Türen zwischen Pfeilern ausgeführt waren. Waren sie geschlossen, waren die Räume abgetrennt, wurde eine Tür geöffnet, ergab sich ein Durchgang, wurden alle Türen geöffnet, waren die Räume verbunden. Es gab auch Werkstätten und Magazine, bis zu 400 teilweise mannshohe Pithoi voll Wein, Olivenöl, Getreide oder Honig mit einem Fassungsvermögen von etwa 78.000 Litern.

Das Herzstück des Palastes ist der sogenannte Thronsaal, der aufgrund eines dort gefundenen Alabasterthrons so genannt wurde. An den Seitenwänden des Vorraums sind steinerne Bänke aufgestellt. Eine kostbare Porphyrschale steht im Zentrum des Vorraums. Sie diente wahrscheinlich rituellen Waschungen. Andere Interpretationen deuten dies als Aquarium.

Am nordwestlichen Rand der Palastanlage befindet sich eine im rechten Winkel aufeinanderstoßende Treppenanlage, wie sie auch in Phaistos zu finden ist. Sie schließt einen von Westen herankommenden Prozessionsweg ab und wird als Theater für etwa 500 Menschen gedeutet.

 

Knossos was an ancient place on Crete, about five kilometres south of Iraklio. It is best known for the palace of Knossos, which is the largest Minoan palace in Crete, along with the palaces of Malia, Phaistos and Kato Zakros, and has been awarded the European Heritage Seal by Greece. Knossos remained inhabited until the Byzantine period, even after the palace was destroyed.

The youngest palace of Knossos was built as a building ensemble of up to five floors with a converted area of 21,000 m² on a clear area of 2.2 hectares. 800 rooms can be proven, but the palace probably had a total of up to 1300 rooms. At no time was the palace fortified. Like all palace complexes of the Minoans, it is built around a rectangular central courtyard measuring 53 × 28 m. This courtyard is accessed from four directions by winding, comparatively narrow corridors, richly decorated corridors, painted halls, elaborately designed staircases and galleries surrounded by columns. The complex was an administrative centre and contained numerous workshops.

These rooms and corridors are joined together in a confusing arrangement. There are doors and passageways, stairways and ramps. Some rooms are connected by polythyra, interior walls that were constructed as rows of floor-to-ceiling double doors between pillars. If they were closed, the rooms were separated, a door was opened, if there was a passage, if all doors were opened, the rooms were connected. There were also workshops and warehouses, up to 400 pithoi, some as tall as a man, full of wine, olive oil, grain or honey, with a capacity of about 78,000 litres.

The heart of the palace is the so-called throne room, which was so called because of an alabaster throne found there. On the side walls of the vestibule there are stone benches. A precious porphyry bowl stands in the centre of the vestibule. It was probably used for ritual ablutions. Other interpretations interpret it as an aquarium.

At the north-western edge of the palace complex there is a staircase which meets at a right angle, as it is also found in Phaistos. It completes a processional route approaching from the west and is interpreted as a theatre for about 500 people.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Minoan Palace of Knossos lays about 5 km south of Heraklion Town. Discovered in the early 20th century by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, the site was found almost intact and covered by ashes. This led scientists believe that the palace was destroyed by a tsunami wave caused by the volcanic eruption of Santorini in 1,550 BC.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again for a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

The Palace of Knossos is connected with thrilling legends, such as the myth of the Labyrinth, with the Minotaur, and the story of Daidalos and Ikaros.

Knossos (Heraklion/ Crete/ Greece)

The image of the Prince of the Lilies is one of those that remains etched in the memory due to its colourfulness, stylization and its power of association with a place (Crete) and a specific culture (the Minoan), although To be honest, it is an image that has been so restored and reconstructed based on such fanciful criteria that it hardly has much to do with the original image.

 

La imagen del Príncipe de los Lirios es una de esas que se quedan grabadas en la memoria por lo que tiene de colorida, estilizada y por su poder de asociación a un lugar (Creta) y una cultura concreta (la minoica), aunque a fuerza de ser sinceros se trata de una imagen tan restaurada y reconstruida sobre criterios tan fantasiosos que difícilmente tenga mucho que ver con la imagen original.

 

Knossos Palace. Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

Archaeologist Arthur Evans excavated the Palace at Knossos from 1900-1905 and named the Minoan civilization of Crete after king Minos from Greek mythology. Homer's epic poems of the Iliad and Odyssey are the first Greek literature to mention Minos as a king of Knossos, Crete. Minos was son of Zeus and Europa.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

Within the storerooms were large clay containers (pithoi) that held oil, grains, dried fish, beans, and olives. Many of the items were processed at the palace, which had grain mills, oil presses, and wine presses. Beneath the pithoi were stone holes that were used to store more valuable objects, such as gold.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

The restoration of the palace to its present form was carried out by Arthur Evans. Conservation and consolidation works are carried out by the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture, imposed by the need to preserve and protect the monuments uncovered.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

 

The bull was sacred to the Minoans and celebrated throughout Knossos where both men and women, due to gender equality, performed bull leaping.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again for a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

Pithoi in Cavern

En Crète au Palais de Phaistos on peut voir à demi cachés sous une dalle de ciment, deux pithois (jarres) à “panse globulaire”, appartenant aux magasins du premier palais qui permettait de stocker de l'huile ou du vin.

D'après photographie argentique.

 

Tall Pithoi

The palace at Knossos consisted of perhaps 1,300 rooms spread over three acres of land. Since its discovery, many have speculated that this complex structure, with its ever-present bull symbolism, was the distant inspiration behind the labyrinth in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The Roman historian Pliny, in his Natural History, also mentions a Cretan Labyrinth as one of the four famous labyrinths of the ancient world, along with the Egyptian labyrinth, a Lemnian labyrinth and an Italian labyrinth.

Heraklion (Crete/ Greece)

Palais minoens Knossos Crète Grèce

 

Le palais de Knossos, situé dans le centre-nord de la Crète sur la colline de Kephala est souvent présenté comme un modèle du palais minoen.

 

Un premier palais est édifié au IIe millénaire avant J.-C. Vers 1700 avant J.-C., un tremblement de terre l’ayant détruit, on en reconstruit un plus vaste et plus luxueux. Il sera remanié à plusieurs reprises au cours des trois siècles suivants. Il abrite des sanctuaires et des salles de culte, des parties privées, des résidences périphériques, des maisons plus modestes ou encore des ateliers et des magasins de stockage.

 

Une juxtaposition de pièces autour d’une cour centrale

Le palais était protégé par un haut mur percé de plusieurs portes. Il est organisé autour d’une vaste cour centrale autour de laquelle se développent les principaux quartiers éclairés par des cours secondaires et par des puits de lumière. Ainsi, les différentes pièces reliées entre elles par des couloirs à la manière du labyrinthe de la tradition hellénistique paraissent juxtaposées sans ordre apparent. On a dénombré environ 800 pièces, mais l’on pense qu’il y en avait peut-être 1300, parfois sur cinq étages. Il est possible que dans la cour centrale se soient déroulées des cérémonies tauromachiques.

big ceramic container jars

One of the several Minoan pithoi dotted around the Malia Palace archaeological site on Crete.

Akrotiri, a Minoan Bronze Age settlement, was destroyed in the 16th century BC by a massive volcanic eruption and buried in volcanic ash. This room was found full of large storage jars (pithoi).

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again for a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

This house is built on two levels against the city walls on the seashore, suggesting the walls were no longer in use and in ruins. On the upper level is a courtyard with a peristyle paved with a pebble mosaic which is the only example of its type in Sicily. It resembles a panelled carpet with a complex geometric border and with the panels containing depictions of hunting wild animals (a lion attacking a bull, a bird of prey, a deer). Its format dates it from similar ones in mainland Greece and its colonies to the 3rd century BC. The peristyle has residential rooms around it.

 

On the lower level in the southwestern part of the house are 6 service rooms with three large pithoi (food storage vessels).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motya#House_of_mosaics

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again for a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again for a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

Agia Triada is an archaeological site with the remains of a palace complex in the west of the Messara Plain, about two kilometers northwest of the ruins of Phaistos, a Minoan palace complex. There was already an extensive settlement at the beginning of the Pre-Palace period at the end of the 4th millennium BC. Tholos tombs, east of the fenced excavation area, are dated to the Pre-Palace period. Due to the sedimentation of the Timbaki basin at the mouth of the Geropotamos, Agia Triada lost its landfill around 1900 BC. the direct access to the sea that existed in the early Minoan period. During the New Palace period, between 1600 and 1550 BC, a small palace complex was built known as the "great Minoan villa." The settlement at Agia Triada lay east of the palace, which is considered the political and sacred administrative center. The wall paintings are in the same style as the paintings at Knossos.

 

The palace of Agia Triada was destroyed around 1450 BC. Afterwards, around 1400 BC, a Mycenaean megaron was built on its ruins. To the north, below the complex, in the post-palatial period, a development of dwellings and warehouses was built. It represents a "Minoan market village." It is assumed that artisans and merchants who maintained intensive trade relations with North Africa settled here.

 

To the north the remains of two large buildings have been preserved, one of them megaron-like, which are dated to 1350 to 1250 BC. During the decline of the Minoan/Mycenaean culture, the palace of Agia Triada was destroyed around 1250 BC. After that, the site was used as a place of worship. Statuettes were placed in the open air. The cult continued until the the 11th and 10th centuries BC and resumed in the 7th century BC.

 

Pithoi are large storage containers

   

A handle which cries out to be handled.

We bought this pot in a craft shop, Pots & Pithoi, which specialises in pottery from Crete. Most people have the base drilled to use as a flower pot but we didn't as we wanted to use it as a waste paper bin.

Jarres paléopalatiales avec décor en relief du palais minoen de Phaistos

magasins du palais

Crète, Grèce

 

Les pithoi sont de grandes jarres de terre cuite, fabriquées par les Minoens pour la conservation de denrées agricoles (huile d'olive, vin, miel..)

 

Le palais de Phaistos s'étend sur presque 8 300 m2, il est le deuxième plus grand de l'île après celui de Cnossos. C'est l'un des sites les plus importants de la civilisation minoenne...

Les archéologues italiens ont commencé les fouilles de Phaistos en 1900, sensiblement à la même époque que les fouilles d'Arthur Evans à Cnossos Extrait de Wikipedia

Phaistos sur Wikipedia

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos

 

La Culture minoenne sur Wikipedia

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilisation_minoenne

 

Site de l'auteur (2001)

perso.numericable.fr/dalbera5/crete_web/messara/index.htm

As many of you might know, I am born on the Greek, very green , island of Corfu, opposite of Naples-Italy.

 

But the other Greek island “of my heart” is Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Santorini for me has a very original, “mystical” energy… I felt it especially strongly some 30 years ago, when I had arrived there with my husband by plane in 05:00 in the morning, in the Springtime, during a rosy , adorable dawn… Listening to my steps, in total dawn silence…Lovely , happy cats were following me up close …I was feeling like in a very spiritual cathedral/temple of the physical world…

 

I was found there again a few hours, alone with my camera, this last October. It was not sunny!! Very moody actually, and it was about to rain cats and dogs a few hours later…Lots of tourists around as always.. But, in my photos no blue sea, no clear blue sky…Sorry…

 

***On Santorini , you know, there is a small “Pompeii” , the Italian ancient city near the volcano of Vesuvius!! The Santorinian Pompeii is called “archaeological site of Akrotiri”, a Minoan site, thriving during the Bronze Age, between 2000and 1630 BC!!!!! The Santorini island is a product of a really huge eruption: Wikipedia : “The devastating volcanic eruption of Thera has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. It may have been one of the largest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years, with an estimated VEI (volcanic explosivity index) of 6 according to the last studies published in 2006, confirming the prior values. The violent eruption was centred on a small island just north of the existing island of Nea Kameni in the centre of the caldera; the caldera itself was formed several hundred thousand years ago by the collapse of the centre of a circular island, caused by the emptying of the magma chamber during an eruption.”

(About the archaeological site of Akrotiri: )

“…….Many of the houses in Akrotiri are major structures, some of them three stories high. Its streets, squares, and walls were preserved in the layers of ejecta, sometimes as tall as eight metres, indicating this was a major town. In many houses stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. Noted archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original colour well, as they were preserved under many metres of volcanic ash. The town also had a highly developed drainage system and, judging from the fine artwork, its citizens were clearly sophisticated and relatively wealthy people.

Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest such utilities discovered.[citation needed] The pipes run in twin systems, indicating that Therans used both hot and cold water supplies; the origin of the hot water probably was geothermic, given the volcano's proximity. The dual pipe system, the advanced architecture, and the apparent layout of the Akrotiri find resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis, further indicating the Minoans as the culture which primarily inspired the Atlantis legend.[6]

Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent religious or mythological content familiar in Classical Greek décor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess. Crocus has been discovered to have many medicinal values including the relief of menstrual pain. This has led many[who?] archaeologists to believe that the fresco of the saffron/crocus gatherers is a coming of age fresco dealing with female pubescence. In another house are two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing, decorative, calligraphic line, the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills, and the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies, among other frescoes.

The well preserved ruins of the ancient town are often compared to the spectacular ruins at Pompeii in Italy. The canopy covering the ruins collapsed in an accident in September 2005, killing one tourist and injuring seven more. The site was closed for almost seven years while a new canopy was built. The site was re-opened in April 2012.

The oldest signs of human settlement are Late Neolithic (4th millennium BC or earlier), but c. 2000–1650 BC Akrotiri developed into one of the Aegean's major Bronze Age ports, with recovered objects that came not just from Crete, but also from Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, as well as from the Dodecanese and the Greek mainland.”

   

Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.

 

Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The palace of Knossos eventually became the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, c. 1,380–1,100 BC.

 

In the First Palace Period (around 2,000 BC), the urban area reached a size of as many as 18,000 people. At its peak shortly after 1,700 BC, the palace and surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people.

 

Arthur Evans, who unearthed the palace of Knossos in modern times, estimated that c. 8,000 BC a Neolithic people arrived at the hill, probably from overseas by boat, and placed the first of a succession of wattle and daub villages (modern radiocarbon dates have raised the estimate to c. 7,000–6,500 BC.

 

Large numbers of clay and stone incised spools and whorls attest to local cloth-making. There are fine ground axe and mace heads of colored stone: greenstone, serpentine, diorite and jadeite, as well as obsidian knives and arrowheads along with the cores from which they were flaked. Most significant among the other small items were a large number of animal and human figurines, including nude sitting or standing females with exaggerated breasts and buttocks. Evans attributed them to the worship of the Neolithic mother goddess and figurines in general to religion.

 

The palace of Knossos covered three acres with its main building alone and five acres when separate out-buildings are considered. It had a monumental staircase leading to state rooms on an upper floor. A ritual cult center was on the ground floor. The palace stores occupied sixteen rooms, the main feature in these being the pithoi that were large storage jars up to five feet tall. They were mainly used for storage of oil, wool, wine, and grain. Smaller and more valuable objects were stored in lead-lined cists. The palace had bathrooms, toilets, and a drainage system. A theatre was found at Knossos that would have held 400 spectators.

 

The prosperity of Knossos was based on development of native Cretan resources such as oil, wine, and wool. Another factor was the expansion of trade. Herodotus wrote that Minos, the legendary king of Knossos, established a thalassocracy (sea empire). Thucydides accepted the tradition and added that Minos cleared the sea of pirates, increased the flow of trade and colonized many Aegean islands. Archaeological evidence supports the tradition because Minoan pottery is widespread, having been found in Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Rhodes, the Cyclades, Sicily, and mainland Greece.

 

The site of Knossos was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos. The excavations in Knossos began in 1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941) and his team, and continued for 35 years. Its size far exceeded his original expectations.

 

The features of the palace depend on the time period. Currently visible is an accumulation of features over several centuries, the latest most dominant. Thus, the palace was never exactly as depicted today. In addition, it has been reconstituted in modern materials. The custom began in an effort to preserve the site from decay and torrential winter rain. After 1922, the chief proprietor, Arthur Evans, intended to recreate a facsimile based on archaeological evidence. The palace is not exactly as it ever was, perhaps in places, not even close, and yet in general, judging from the work put in and the care taken, as well as parallels with other palaces, it probably is a good general facsimile. Opinions range, however, from most skeptical, viewing the palace as pure fantasy based on 1920s architecture and art deco, to most unquestioning, accepting the final judgements of Arthur Evans as most accurate. The mainstream of opinion falls between.

  

These are three of the 150 giant pithoi (storage jars) found in the West Magazines (storage rooms) of the Palace of Knossos. The jars once held oil and wine and dry materials such as grain. The capacity of the storerooms was about 80,000 litres and it is believed that they held about 400 pithoi.

 

The area actually has a very long history of human habitation, from the first Neolithic settlement around 7000 BC, until 1500 BC, when the surrounding city had a population of 100,000. The palace suffered through an earthquake but then was reconstructed. It’s believed that the palace was abandoned around 1380 to 1100 B.C. for largely unknown reasons.

 

The excavation and exploration of the site have provided historians with a wealth of knowledge and insight into the Minoan Civilization. Tools like clay and stone incised spools and whorls point to a cloth-making industry and curvaceous female figurines indicate the worshipping of mother goddesses.

 

The palace structure we see today is not exactly as it looked in its original time, due to reconstruction and renovation throughout the years, and it is considered by some archaeologists as a facsimile. The palace complex is not believed to have just been the residence of the monarch but also as the civic, religious, and economic center of Knossos."

  

From Wikipedia:

The prehistory of the Iberian peninsula begins with the arrival of the first hominins 1.2 million years ago and ends with the Punic Wars, when the territory enters the domains of written history. In this long period, some of its most significant landmarks were to host the last stand of the Neanderthal people, to develop some of the most impressive Paleolithic art, alongside with southern France, to be the seat of the earliest civilizations of Western Europe and finally to become a most desired colonial objective due to its strategic position and its many mineral riches.

 

english

 

Hominin inhabitation of the Iberian Peninsula dates from the Paleolithic. Early hominin remains have been discovered at a number of sites on the peninsula. Significant evidence of an extended occupation of Iberia by Neanderthal man has also been discovered. Homo sapiens first entered Iberia towards the end of the Paleolithic. For a time Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted until the former were finally driven to extinction. Modern man continued to inhabit the peninsula through the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

 

Iberia has a wealth of prehistoric sites. Many of the best preserved prehistoric remains are in the Atapuerca region, rich with limestone caves that have preserved a million years of human evolution. Among these sites is the cave of Gran Dolina, where six hominin skeletons, dated between 780,000 and 1.2 million years ago, were found in 1994. Experts have debated whether these skeletons belong to the species Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or a new species called Homo antecessor. In the Gran Dolina, investigators have found evidence of tool use to butcher animals and other hominins, the first evidence of cannibalism in a hominin species. Evidence of fire has also been found at the site, suggesting they cooked their meat.

 

Also in Atapuerca, is the site at Sima de los Huesos, or "Pit of Bones". Excavators have found the remains of 30 hominins dated to about 400,000 years ago. The remains have been tentatively classified as Homo heidelbergensis and may be ancestors of the Neanderthals. No evidence of habitation has been found at the site except for one stone hand-ax, and all of the remains at the site are of young adults or teenagers. The age similarity suggests the remains were not the result of accidents. The seemingly deliberate placement of remains and lack of habitation may mean that the bodies were deliberately interred in the pit as a place of burial, which would make the site the first evidence of hominin burial.

 

Around 200,000 BC, during the Lower Paleolithic period, Neanderthals first entered the Iberian Peninsula. Around 70,000 BC, during the Middle Paleolithic period the last ice age began and the Neanderthal Mousterian culture was established. Around 35,000 BC, during the Upper Paleolithic, the Neanderthal Châtelperronian cultural period began. Emanating from Southern France this culture extended into Northern Iberia. This culture continued to exist until around 28,000 BC when Neanderthal man faced extinction, their final refuge being present-day Portugal.

 

Neanderthal remains have been found at a number of sites on the Iberian Peninsula. A Neanderthal skull was found in Forbes' Quarry in Gibraltar in 1848 making it the second territory after Belgium where remains of Neanderthals were found. Neanderthals were not recognized as a separate species until the discovery of remains in Neandertal, Germany in 1856, though their classification as a separate species has recently been called into question. Subsequent Neanderthal discoveries in Gibraltar have also been made including the skull of a four-year-old child and preserved excrement on top of baked mussel shells.

 

In Zafarraya a Neanderthal mandible and Mousterian tools, associated with the Neanderthal culture, were found in 1995. The mandible was dated to about 28,000 BC and the tools to about 25,000 BC. These dates make the Zafarraya remains the youngest evidence of Neanderthals and have expanded the timeline of Neanderthal existence. The more recent dating of the remains also provides the first evidence for prolonged co-existence between Neanderthals and modern man. L'Arbreda Cave in Catalonia contains Aurignacian cave paintings, as well as earlier remains from Neanderthals. Some have also suggested that the newer remains in Iberia suggest Neanderthals were driven out of Central Europe by modern man to the Iberian peninsula where they sought refuge.

 

Upper Paleolithic

 

Early Upper Paleolithic

 

The Chatelperronian culture (typically associated with Neanderthal man) is found in the Cantabrian region and in Catalonia.

 

The Aurignacian culture (work of Homo sapiens) succeeds it and has the following periodization:

Archaic Aurignacian: found in Cantabria (Morín and El Pendo caves), where it alternates with Chatelperronian, and in Catalonia. The carbon-14 (14C) dates for Morín cave are relatively late in the European context: c. 28,500 BP, but the occupation dates for El Pendo (where it's older than Chatelperronian layers) must be of earlier date.

Typical Aurignacian: it is found in Cantabria (Morín, El Pendo, Castillo), the Basque Country (Santimamiñe) and Catalonia. The radicarbon datations give the following dates: 32,425 and 29,515 BP.

Evolved Aurignacian: it is found in Cantabria (Morin, El Pendo, El Otero, Hornos de la Peña), Asturias (El Cierro, El Conde) and Catalonia.

Final Aurignacian: in Cantabria (El Pendo), after the Gravettian interlude.

 

In the Mediterranean area (south of the Ebro), Aurignacian remains have been found sparsely distributed in the Lands of Valencia (Les Mallaetes) and Murcia (Las Pereneras) and Andalusia (Higuerón), as far west as Gibraltar (Gorham's Cave). The 14C dates available are: 29,100 BP (Les Mallaetes), 28,700 and 27,860 BP (Gorham's Cave).

 

Middle Upper Paleolithic

 

Gravettian

 

The Gravettian culture followed the steps of the Aurignacian expansion but its remains are not very abundant in the Cantabrian area (north), while in the southern region they are more common.

 

In the Cantabrian area all Gravettian remains belong to late evolved phases and are found always mixed with Aurignacian technology. The main sites are found in the Basque Country (Lezetxiki, Bolinkoba), Cantabria (Morín, El Pendo, El Castillo) and Asturias (Cueto de la Mina). It is archeologically divide in two phases characterized by the amount of Gravettian elements: the phase A has a 14C date of c.20,710 BP and the phase B is of later date.

 

The Cantabrian Gravettian has been paralleled to the Perigordian V-VII of the French sequence. It eventually vanishes from the archaeological sequence and is replaced by an "Aurignacian renaissance", at least in El Pendo cave. It is considered "intrusive", in contrast with the Mediterranean area, where it probably means a real colonization.

 

In the Mediterranean region, the Gravettian culture also had a late arrival. Nevertheless, the south-east has an important number of sites of this culture, especially in the Land of Valencia (Les Mallaetes, Parpaló, Barranc Blanc, Meravelles, Coba del Sol, Ratlla del Musol, Beneito). It is also found in the Land of Murcia (Palomas, Palomarico, Morote) and Andalusia (Los Borceguillos, Zájara II, Serrón, Gorham's Cave).

 

The first indications of modern human colonization of the interior and the west of the peninsula are found only in this cultural phase, with a few late Gravettian elements found in the Manzanares valley (Madrid) and Salemas cave (Alentejo, Portugal).

 

Solutrean

 

The Solutrean culture shows its earliest appearances in Laugerie Haute (Dordogne, France) and Les Mallaetes (Land of Valencia), with radiocarbon dates of 21,710 and 20,890 BP respectively.[2] In the Iberian peninsula it shows three different facies:

 

The Iberian (or Mediterranean) facies is defined by the sites of Parpalló and Les Mallaetes in the province of Valencia. They are found immersed in important Gravettian perdurations that would eventually redefine the facies as "Gravettizing Solutrean."[2] The archetypical sequence, that of Parpalló and Les Mallaetes caves, is:

Initial Solutrean.

Full or Middle Solutrean, dated in its lower layers to 20,180 BP.

An sterile layer with signs of intense cold that is related to the Last Glacial Maximum.

Upper or Evolved Solutrean, including bone tools and also needles of this material.

 

These two caves are surrounded by many other sites (Barranc Blanc, Meravelles, Rates Penaes, etc.) that show only a limited impact of Solutrean and instead have many Gravettian perdurations, showing a convergence that has been named as "Gravetto-Solutrean".

 

Solutrean is also found in the Land of Murcia, Mediterranean Andalusia and the lower Tagus (Portugal). In the Portuguese case there are no signs of Gravettization.

 

The Cantabrian facies shows two markedly different tendencies in Asturias and the Vasco-Cantabrian area. The oldest findings are all in Asturias and lack of the initial phases, beginning with the full Solutrean in Las Caldas (Asturias) and other nearby sites, followed by evolved Solutrean, with many unique regional elements. Radiocarbon dates oscillate between 20,970 and 19,000 BP.

 

In the Vasco-Cantabrian area instead the Gravettian influences seem persistent and the typical Solutrean foliaceous elements are minority. Some transitional elements that prelude the Magdalenian, like the monobiselated bone spear point, are already present. Most important sites are Altamira, Morín, Chufín, Salitre, Ermittia, Atxura, Lezetxiki, and Santimamiñe.

 

In northern Catalonia there is an early local Solutrean, followed by scarce middle elements but with a well-developed final Solutrean. It is related to the French Pyrenean sequences. Main sites are Cau le Goges, Reclau Viver and L'Arbreda.

 

In the region of Madrid there were some findings attributed to Solutrean that are today missing.

 

Late Upper Paleolithic

 

This phase is defined by the Magdalenian culture, even if in the Mediterranean area the Gravettian influence is still persistent.

 

In the Cantabrian area, the early Magdalenian phases show two different facies: the "Castillo facies" evolves locally over final Solutrean layers, while the "Rascaño facies" appears in most cases directly over the natural soil (no earlier occupations of these sites).

 

In the second phase, the lower evolved Magdalenian, there are also two facies but now with a geographical divide: the "El Juyo facies" is found in Asturias and Cantabria, while the "Basque Country facies" is only found in this region.

 

The dates for this early Magdalenian period oscillate between 16,433 BP for Rascaño cave (Rascaño facies), 15,988 and 15,179 BP for the same cave (El Juyo facies) and 15,000 BP for Altamira (Castillo facies). For the Basque Country facies the cave of abauntz has given 15,800 BP.[2]

 

The middle Magdalenian shows less abundance of findings.

 

The upper Magdalenian is closely related to that of southern France (Magdalenian V and VI), being characterized by the presence of harpoons. Again there are two facies (called A and B) that appear geographically interwined, though the facies A (dates: 15,400–13,870 BP) is absent in the Basque Country and the facies B (dates 12,869–12,282 BP) is rare in Asturias.

 

In Portugal there have been some findings of the upper Magdalenian north of Lisbon (Casa da Moura, Lapa do Suão). A possible intermediate site is La Dehesa (Salamanca, Spain), that is clearly associated with that of the Cantabrian area.

 

In the Mediterranean area, Catalonia again is directly connected with the French sequence, at least in the late phases. Instead the rest of the region shows a unique local evolution known as Parpallense.

 

The sometimes called Parpalló "Magdalenian" (extended by all the south-east) is actually a continuity of the local Gravetto-Solutrean. Only the late upper Magdlenian actually includes true elements of this culture, like proto-harpoons. Radicarbon dates for this phase are of c. 11,470 BP (Borran Gran). Other sites give later dates that actually approach the Epi-Paleolithic

 

Paleolithic art

 

Together with France, the Iberian peninsula is one of the prime areas of Paleolithic cave paintings. This artistic manifestation is found most importantly in the northern Cantabrian area, where the earliest manifestations (Castillo, El Conde) are as old as Aurignacian times, even if rare.

 

The practice of this mural art increases in frequency in the Solutrean period, when the first animals are drawn, but it is not until the Magdalenian cultural phase when it becomes truly widespread, being found in almost every cave.

 

Most of the representations are of animals (bison, horse, deer, bull, reindeer, goat, bear, mammoth, moose) and are painted in ochre and black colors but there are exceptions and human-like forms as well as abstract drawings also appear in some sites.

 

In the Mediterranean and interior areas, the presence of mural art is not so abundant but exists as well since the Solutrean.

 

Also, several examples of open-air art exist, such as the monumental Côa Valley (Portugal), Chimachias, Los Casares or La Pasiega, or, in general, the caves principally in Cantabria (in Spain).

 

Archaeogenetics

 

Around 40,000 BC, the first large settlement of Europe by modern humans, nomadic hunter-gathereres. When the last ice age reached its maximum extent, these modern humans took refuge in Southern Europe, namely in Iberia, and on the steppe of southern Ukraine and Russia.

 

From around 32,000 to 21,000 BC, the modern human Aurignacian culture dominated Europe. Around 30,000 BC, a new wave of modern humans made their way from Southern France into the Iberian peninsula. Around 28,000 BC, the Gravettian culture began to succeed the Aurignacian.

 

The R1b Haplogroup, dominant in modern Portuguese and Spanish populations, is estimated to have developed less than 18,500 years BP in southwest Asia.

 

Epipaleolithic

 

Around 10,000 BC, an interstadial deglaciation called the Allerød Oscillation occurred, weakening the rigorous conditions of the last ice age. This climatic change also represents the end of the Upper Palaeolithic period, beginning the Epipaleolithic.

 

As the climate became warmer, the late Magdalenian peoples of Iberia modified their technology and culture. The main techno-cultural change is the process of microlithization: the reduction of size of stone and bone tools, also found in other parts of the World. Also the cave sanctuaries seem to be abandoned and art becomes rarer and mostly done on portable objects, such as peebles or tools.

 

It also implies changes in diet, as the megafauna virtually disappears when the steppe becomes woodlands. In this period, hunted animals are of smaller size, typically deer or wild goats, and seafood becomes an important part of the diet where available.

 

Azilian

 

The first Epipaleolithic culture is the Azilian, also known as microlaminar microlithism in the Mediterranean. This culture is the local evolution of Magdalenian, parallel to other regional derivatives found in Central and Northern Europe. Original from the Franco-Cantabrian region, it eventually expands to Mediterranean Iberia as well.

 

An archetypical Azilian site in the Iberian peninsula is Zatoya (Navarre), where it is difficult to discern the early Azilian elements from those of late Magdalenian (this transition dated to 11,760 BP). Full Azilian in the same site is dated to 8,150 BP, followed by appearance of geometric elements at a later date, that continue until the arrival of pottery (subneolithic stage).

 

In the Mediterranean area, virtually this same material culture is often named microlaminar microlithism because it lacks of the bone industry typical of Franco-Cantabrian Azilian. It is found in parts of Catalonia, Lands of Valencia and Murcia and Mediterranean Andalusia. It has been dated in Les Mallaetes at 10,370 BP

 

Geometrical microlithism

 

In the late phases of the Epipaleolithic a new trend arrives from the north: the geometrical microlithism, directly related to Sauveterrian and Tardenoisian cultures of the Rhin-Danube region.

 

While in the Franco-Cantabrian region it has a minor impact, not altering the Azilian culture substantially, in Mediterranean Iberia and Portugal its arrival is more noticeable. The Mediterranean geometrical microlithism has two facies:

The Filador facies is directly related to French Sauveterrian and is found in Catalonia, north of the Ebro river.

The Cocina facies is more widespread and, in many sites (Málaga, Spain), shows a strong dependence of fishing and seafood gathering. The Portuguese sites (south of the Tagus, Muge group) have given dates of c.7350

 

Asturian

 

A rather mysterious exception to generalized microlithism is the so-called Asturian culture, actually identified by a single artifact: the Asturian pick-axe, and found only in coastal locations, especially in Eastern Asturias and Western Cantabria. It is believed that the Asturian tool was used for seafood gathering.

 

Neolithic

 

In the 6th millennium BC, Andalusia experiences the arrival of the first agriculturalists. Their origin is uncertain (though North Africa is a serious candidate) but they arrive with already developed crops (cereals and legumes). The presence of domestic animals instead is unlikely, as only pig and rabbit remains have been found and these could belong to wild animals. They also consumed large amounts of olives but it's uncertain too whether this tree was cultivated or merely harvested in its wild form. Their typical artifact is the La Almagra style pottery, quite variegated.

 

The Andalusian Neolithic also influenced other areas, notably Southern Portugal, where, soon after the arrival of agriculture, the first dolmen tombs begin to be built c. 4800 BC, being possibly the oldest of their kind anywhere.

 

C. 4700 BC Cardium Pottery Neolithic culture (also known as Mediterranean Neolithic) arrives to Eastern Iberia. While some remains of this culture have been found as far west as Portugal, its distribution is basically Mediterranean (Catalonia, Valencian region, Ebro valley, Balearic islands).

The interior and the northern coastal areas remain largely marginal in this process of spread of agriculture. In most cases it would only arrive in a very late phase or even already in the Chalcolithic age, together with Megalithism.

 

Chalcolithic

 

The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the earliest phase of metallurgy. Copper, silver and gold started to be worked then, though these soft metals could hardly replace stone tools for most purposes. The Chalcolithic is also a period of increased social complexity and stratification and, in the case of Iberia, that of the rise of the first civilizations and of extense exchange networks that would reach to the Baltic and Africa.

 

The conventional date for the beginning of Chalcolithic in Iberia is c. 3000 BC. In the following centuries, especially in the south of the peninsula, metal goods, often decorative or ritual, become increasingly common. Additionally there is an increased evidence of exchanges with areas far away: amber from the Baltic and ivory and ostrich-egg products from Northern Africa.

 

It is also the period of the great expansion of Megalithism, with its associated collective burial practices. In the early Chalcolithic period this cultural phenomenon, maybe of religious undertones, expands along the Atlantic regions and also through the south of the peninsula (additionally it's also found in virtually all European Atlantic regions). In contrast, most of the interior and the Mediterranean regions remain refractary to this phenomenon.

 

Another phenomenon found in the early chalcolithic is the development of new types of funerary monuments: tholoi and artificial caves. These are only found in the more developed areas: southern Iberia, from the Tagus estuary to Almería, and SE France.

 

Eventually, c. 2600 BC, urban communities began to appear, again especially in the south. The most important ones are Los Millares in SE Spain and Zambujal (belonging to Vila Nova de São Pedro culture) in Portuguese Estremadura, that can well be called civilizations, even if they lack of the literary component.

 

It is very unclear if any cultural influence originated in the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus?) could have sparked these civilizations. On one side the tholos does have a precedent in that area (even if not used yet as tomb) but on the other there is no material evidence of any exchange between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, in contrast with the abundance of goods imported from Northern Europe and Africa.[2]

 

Since c. 2150 BC, the Bell Beaker culture intrudes in Chalcolithic Iberia. After the early Corded style beaker, of quite clear Central European origin, the peninsula begins producing its own types of Bell Beaker pottery. Most important is the Maritime or International style that, associated especially with Megalithism, is for some centuries abundant in all the peninsula and southern France.

 

Since c. 1900, the Bell Beaker phenomenon in Iberia shows a regionalization, with different styles being produced in the various regions: Palmela type in Portugal, Continental type in the plateau and Almerian type in Los Millares, among others.

Like in other parts of Europe, the Bell Beaker phenomenon (speculated to be of trading or maybe religious nature) does not significantly alter the cultures it inserts itself in. Instead the cultural contexts that existed previously continue basically unchanged by its presence.

 

Bronze Age

 

Early Bronze

 

The center of Bronze Age technology is in the southeast since c. 1800 BC. There the civilization of Los Millares was followed by that of El Argar, initially with no other discontinuity than the displacement of the main urban center some kilometers to the north, the gradual appearance of true bronze and arsenical bronze tools and some greater geographical extension. The Argarian people lived in rather large fortified towns or cities.

 

From this center, bronze technology spread to other areas. Most notable are:

Bronze of Levante: in the Land of Valencia. Their towns were smaller and show intense interaction with their neighbours of El Argar.

South-Western Iberian Bronze: in southern Portugal and SW Spain. These poorly defined archaeological horizons show the presence of bronze daggers and an expansive trend in northwards direction.

Cogotas I culture (Cogotas II is Iron Age Celtic): the pastoralist peoples of the plateau become for the first time culturally unified. Their typical artifact is a rough troncoconic pottery.

Some areas like the civilization of Vila Nova seem to have remained apart from the spread of bronze metallurgy remaining technically in the Chalcolithic period for centuries.

 

Middle Bronze

 

This period is basically a continuation of the previous one. The most noticeable change happens in the El Argar civilization, which adopts the Aegean custom of burial in pithoi. This phase is known as El Argar B, beginning c. 1500 BC.

 

The North-West (Galicia and northern Portugal), a region that held some of the largest reserves of tin (needed to make true bronze) in Western Eurasia, became a focus for mining, incorporating then the bronze technology. Their typical artifacts are bronze axes (Group of Montelavar).

The semi-desert region of La Mancha shows its first signs of colonization with the fortified scheme of the Motillas (hill forts). This group is clearly related to the Bronze of Levante, showing the same material culture.

 

Late Bronze

 

C. 1300 BC several major changes happen in Iberia, among them:

The Chalcolithic culture of Vila Nova vanishes, possibly in direct relation to the silting of the canal connecting the main city Zambujal with the sea.[4] It is replaced by a non-urban culture, whose main artifiact is an externally burnished pottery.

El Argar also disappears as such, what had been a very homogeneous culture, a centralized state for some, becomes an array of many post-Argaric fortified cities.

The Motillas are abandoned.

The proto-Celtic Urnfield culture appears in the North-East, conquering all Catalonia and some neighbouring areas.

The Lower Guadalquivir valley shows its first clearly differentiated culture, defined by internally burnished pottery. This group might have some relation with the semi-historical, yet-to-be-found, Tartessos.

Western Iberian Bronze cultures show some degree of interaction, not just among them but also with other Atlantic cultures in Britain, France and elsewhere. This has been called the Atlantic Bronze complex.

 

Iron Age

 

The Iron Age in the Iberian peninsula has two focus: the Hallstatt-related Iron Age Urnfields of the North-East and the Phoenician colonies of the South.

 

Celtic expansion

 

Since the late 8th century BC, the Urnfield culture of North-East Iberia began to develop Iron metallurgy and, eventually, elements of the Hallstatt culture. The earliest elements of this culture were found along the lower Ebro river, then gradually expanded upstream to La Rioja and in a hybrid local form to Alava. There was also expansion southwards into Castelló, with less marked influences reaching further south. Additionally, some offshots have been detected along the Iberian Mountains, possibly a prelude to the formation of the Celtiberi.

 

During this period, the social differentiation became more visible with evidence of local chiefdoms and a horse-riding elite. It is possible that these transformations represent the arrival of new waves from Central Europe.

From these outposts in the Upper Ebro and the Iberian mountains, the Celtic culture expanded into the plateau and the Atlantic coast. Several groups can be described:

The Bernorio-Miraveche group (northern Burgos and Palencia provinces), that would influence the peoples of the northern fringe.

The Duero group, probable precursor of the Vaccei.

The Cogotas II culture, likely precursor of the Vettones, of marked cattle-herder nature, that would gradually expand southwards into Extremadura.

The Lusitanian Castros group, in Central Portugal, precursor of the Lusitani.

The North-West Castros culture, in Northern Portugal and Galicia, related to the previous one but with strong peculiarities due to the clear persistence of the Atlantic Bronze substrate.

 

All these Indo-European groups have some common elements, like combed pottery since the 6th century and uniform weaponry.

 

After c. 600 BC, the Urnfields of the North-East were replaced by the Iberian culture, in a process that wasn't completed until the 4th century BC. This physical separation from their continental relatives would mean that the Celts of the Iberian peninsula never received the cultural influences of La Tène culture, including Druidism.

 

Phoenician colonies and influence

 

The Phoenicians of Asia, Greeks of Europe, and Carthaginians of Africa all colonized parts of Iberia to facilitate trade. During the 10th century BC, the first contacts between Phoenicians and Iberia (along the Mediterranean coast) were made. This century also saw the emergence of towns and cities in the southern littoral areas of eastern Iberia.

 

The Phoenicians founded colony of Gadir (modern Cádiz) near Tartessos. The foundation of Cádiz, the oldest continuously-inhabited city in western Europe, is traditionally dated to 1104 BC, although, as of 2004, no archaeological discoveries date back further than the 9th century BC. The Phoenicians continued to use Cádiz as a trading post for several centuries leaving a variety of artifacts, most notably a pair of sarcophaguses from around the 4th or 3rd century BC. Contrary to myth, there is no record of Phoenician colonies west of the Algarve (namely Tavira), even though there might have been some voyages of discovery. Phoenician influence in what is now Portuguese territory was essentially through cultural and commercial exchange with Tartessos.

 

During the 9th century BC, the Phoenicians (from the city-state of Tyre founded the colony of Carthage (in North Africa). During this century, Phoenicians also had great influence on Iberia with the introduction the use of Iron, of the Potter's wheel, the production of Olive oil and Wine. They were also responsible for the first forms of Iberian writing, had great religious influence and accelerated urban development. However, there is little evidence to support the myth of a Phoenician foundation of the city of Lisbon as far back as 1300 BC, under the name Alis Ubbo ("Safe Harbour"), even if in this period there are organized settlements in Olissipona (modern Lisbon, in Portuguese Estremadura) with clear Mediterranean influences.

 

There was strong Phoenician influence and settlement in the city of Balsa (modern Tavira in the Algarve) in the 8th century BC. Phoenician influenced Tavira was destroyed by violence in the 6th century BC. With the decadence of Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean coast of Iberia in the 6th century BC many of the colonies are deserted. The 6th century BC also saw the rise of the colonial might of Carthage, which slowly replaced the Phoenicians in their former areas of dominion.

 

Greek colonies

 

The Greek colony at what now is Marseilles began trading with the Iberians on the eastern coast around the 8th century BC. The Greeks finally founded their own colony at Ampurias, in the eastern Mediterranean shore (modern Catalonia), during the 6th century BC beginning their settlement in the Iberian peninsula. There are no Greek colonies west of the Strait of Gibraltar, only voyages of discovery. There is no evidence to support the myth of an ancient Greek founding of Olissipo (modern Lisbon) by Odysseus.

 

The Tartessian-Orientalizing culture

 

The name Tartessian, when applied in archaeology and linguistics does not necessarily correlate with the semi-mythical city of Tartessos but only roughly with the area where it is typically assumed it should have been located.

 

The Tartessian-Orientalizing culture of southern Iberia actually is the local culture as modified by the increasing influence of Eastern elements, especially Phoenician. Its core area is Western Andalusia, but soon extends to Eastern Andalusia, Extremadura and the Lands of Murcia and Valencia, where a Proto-Orientalizing Tartessian complex, rooted in the local Bronze cultures, can already be defined in the last stages of the Bronze Age (ninth-8th centuries BC), before Phoenician influences can be determined clearly.

 

The full Tartessian-Orientalizing culture, beginning c.720 BC, also extends to Southern Portugal, where is eventually replaced by Lusitanian culture. One of the most significant elements of this culture is the introduction of the potter's wheel, that, along with other related technical developments, causes a major improvement in the quality of the pottery produced. There are other major advances in craftsmanship, affecting jewelry, weaving and architecture.[2] This latter aspects is especially important, as the traditional circular huts were then gradually replaced by well finished rectangular buildings. It also allowed for the construction of the tower-like burial monuments that are so typical of this culture.

 

Agriculture also seems to have experienced major advances with the introduction of steel tools and, presumably, of the yoke and animal traction for the plough. In this period it's noticeable the increase of cattle accompanied by some decrease of sheep and goat types.

 

Another noticeable element is the major increase in economical specialization and social stratification. This is very noticeable in burials, with some showing off great wealth (chariots, gold, ivory), while the vast majority are much more modest. There is much diversity in burial rituals in this period but the elites seem to converge in one single style: a chambered mound. Some of the most affluent burials are generally attributed to local monarchs.

 

One of the developments of this period is writing, a skill which was probably acquired through contact woth the Phoenicians. In recent years, John T. Koch has claimed to have deciphered the extant Tartessian inscriptions and has tentatively identified the language as an earlier form of the Celtic languages now spoken in the British Isles and Brittany. The linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence for this claim is explained in the book 'Celtic from the West' edited with Barry Cunliffe published by Oxbow Books in 2010. However, the linguistic mainstream continues to treat Tartessian as an unclassified (Pre-Indo-European?) language, and Koch's view of the evolution of Celtic is not generally accepted.

 

The Iberian culture

 

In the Iberian culture people were organized in chiefdoms and states. Three phases can be identified: the Ancient, the Middle and the Late Iberian period.

 

With the arrival of Greek influences, not limited to their few colonies, the Tartessian-Orientalizing culture begins to transform itself, especially in the South East. This late period is known as the Iberian culture, that in Western Andalusia and the non-Celtic areas of Extremadura is called Ibero-Turdetanian because of its stronger links with the Tartessian substrate.

 

The Hellenic influence is visible in the gradual change of the style of their monuments that approach more and more the models arrived from the Greek world.[2] Thus the obelisk-like funerary monuments of the previous period now adopt a column like form, totally in line with Greek architecture.

 

By the middle of the 5th century, aristocratic power was increased and resulted in the abandonment and transformation of the orientalizing model. The oppidum appeared and became the socio-economic model of the aristocratic class. The commerce was also one of the principal sources of aristocratic control and power. In the south east, between the end of the 5th and the end of the 4th century BC, appeared a highly hierarchical aristocratic society. There were different forms of political control. The power and control seemed to be in the hand of kings or reguli.

 

Iberian funerary customs are dominated by cremation necropolis, that are partly due to the persistent influences of Urnfield culture, but they also include burial customs imported from the Greek cultural area (mudbrick rectangular mound).[2]

 

Urbanism was important in the Iberian cultural area, especially in the south, where Roman accounts mention hundreds of oppida (fortified towns). In these towns (some quite large, some mere fortified villages) the houses were typically arranged in contiguous blocks, in what seems to be another Urnfield cultural influx.

 

The Iberian script evolves from the Tartessian one with Greek influences that are noticeable in the transformation of some characters. In a few cases a variant of Greek alphabet (Ibero-Ionian script) was used to write Iberian as well.

 

The transformation from Tartessian to Iberian culture was not sudden but gradual and was more marked in the East, where it begins in the 6th century BC, than in the South-West, where it is only noticeable since the 5th century BC and much more tenuous. A special case is the North-East where the Urnfield culture was Iberized but keeping some elements from the Indo-European substrate.

 

Post-Tartessos Iron Age

 

Also during the 6th century BC there was a cultural shift in south-western Iberia (what is now southern Portugal and nearby areas of Andalusia) after the fall of Tartessos, with a strong Mediterranean character that prolonged and modified Tartessian culture. This occurred mainly in Low Alentejo and the Algarve, but had littoral extensions up to the Tagus mouth (namely the important city of Bevipo, modern Alcácer do Sal). The first form of writing in western Iberia (south of Portugal), the Southwest script (still to be translated), dated to the 6th century BC, denotes strong Tartessian influence in its use of a modified Phoenician alphabet. In these writings the word Conii (similar to Cunetes or Cynetes, the people of the Algarve) appears frequently.

 

The poem Ora Maritima, written by Avienus in the 4th century and based on the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC, states that all of western Iberia was once called for the name of its people, the Oestriminis, which were replaced by an invasion of the Saephe or Ophis (meaning Serpent). From then on western Iberia would have been known as Ophiussa (Land of the Serpents). The poem probably translates the impact of the Second wave of Indo-European migrations (Celtic) in the 7th century BC. The poem also describes the various ethnic groups the present at that time:

The Saephe or Ophis, today seen as probably Hallstatt culture Celts, in all of western Iberia (modern Portugal) between the Douro and the Sado rivers.

The Cempsi, probably Hallstatt culture Celts, in the Tagus mouth and the south up to the Algarve.

The Cynetes in the extreme south and some cities along the Atlantic coast (such as Olissipo, modern Lisbon), probably not Indo-European[citation needed], but autochthonous Iberian[citation needed] of Tartessian background (even if strongly or totally celticized over the next centuries).

The Dragani, Celt or Proto-Celt of the first Indo-European wave, in the mountainous areas of Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Cantabria.

The Lusis, probably a first reference to the Lusitanians, similar to the Dragani (Celt or Proto-Celt of the first Indo-European wave).

 

The 5th century BC saw the urban bloom of Tartessian influenced Tavira, further development of strong Central European (Celtic) influences and migrations in western Iberia north of the Tagus river and the development of a second Castro Village culture in Galicia and northern Portugal. Minting of coins and use of money in the Iberian peninsula dates back to the 5th century BC. During this century discovery voyages to the Atlantic are made by the Carthaginians. The Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus cites the word Iberia to designate what is now the Iberian peninsula, according to ancient Greek custom.

 

In the 4th century BC, the Celtici, a new wave of Celtic migration, enter Iberia going as far as modern-day Portuguese territory and settle in the Alentejo also penetrating in the Algarve. The Turduli and Turdetani, probably descendants of the Tartessians, although celticized, became established in the area of the Guadiana river, in the south of modern Portugal. A series of cities in the Algarve, such as Balsa (Tavira), Baesuris (Castro Marim), Ossonoba(Faro) and Cilpes (Silves), became inhabited by the Cynetes progressively mingled with Celtic populations. The Lusitanians (most probably proto-Celt) began to inhabit the area between the Douro and the Tagus rivers (and progressively penetrate the High Alentejo). They are neighbored to the east by the Vettones (also probably proto-Celt). The Celtic Calaicians or Gallaeci inhabit all the region above the Douro river (modern Galicia and northern Portugal).

 

Arrival of Romans and Punic Wars

 

During the 4th century BC, Rome began to rise as a Mediterranean power rival to Africa-based Carthage. After their defeat to Rome in the First Punic War (264–241 BC), the Carthaginians began to extend their conquest of Iberia to expand their empire further into Europe. In the Second Punic War (218–202 BC), Hannibal marched his armies, which included Iberians, from Africa through Iberia to cross the Alps and attack the Romans in Italy. Carthage was again defeated and lost Iberia. Rome began its conquest and occupation of the peninsula, thus beginning the era of Hispania.

 

I sat down next to these when my hip was killing me and I needed a rest. I just turned to my left and there it was, this lovely grouping of beautifully curvacious objects (no smut please!) I loved the slightly strange angle that was created, so I just decided to go for it from there.

These are four of the 150 giant pithoi (storage jars) found in the West Magazines (storage rooms) of the Palace of Knossos. The jars once held oil and wine and dry materials such as grain. The capacity of the storerooms was about 80,000 litres and it is believed that they held about 400 pithoi.

 

The area actually has a very long history of human habitation, from the first Neolithic settlement around 7000 BC, until 1500 BC, when the surrounding city had a population of 100,000. The palace suffered through an earthquake but then was reconstructed. It’s believed that the palace was abandoned around 1380 to 1100 B.C. for largely unknown reasons.

 

The excavation and exploration of the site have provided historians with a wealth of knowledge and insight into the Minoan Civilization. Tools like clay and stone incised spools and whorls point to a cloth-making industry and curvaceous female figurines indicate the worshipping of mother goddesses.

 

The palace structure we see today is not exactly as it looked in its original time, due to reconstruction and renovation throughout the years, and it is considered by some archaeologists as a facsimile. The palace complex is not believed to have just been the residence of the monarch but also as the civic, religious, and economic center of Knossos."

  

Phaistos, also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age. Knossos along with other Minoan sites was destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Phaistos was first excavated by Italian archaeologists Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier. Further excavations in 1950-1971 were conducted by Doro Levi. The Old Palace was built in the Protopalatial Period, then rebuilt twice due to extensive earthquake damage. When the palace was destroyed by earthquake, the re-builders constructed a New Palace atop the old. Several artifacts with Linear A inscriptions were excavated at this site. The name of the site also appears in partially deciphered Linear A texts, and is probably similar to Mycenaean 'PA-I-TO' as written in Linear B. Several kouloura structures (subsurface pits) have been found at Phaistos. Pottery has been recovered at Phaistos from in the Middle and Late Minoan periods, including polychrome items and embossing in imitation of metal work. Bronze Age works from Phaistos include bridge spouted bowls, eggshell cups, tall jars and large pithoi. In 1908, Pernier found the Phaistos disc there. This artifact is a clay disk, dated to between 1950 BC and 1400 BC and impressed with a unique sophisticated hieroglyphic script.

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Dawna ceramika wśród ruin Fajstos na Krecie :)

 

Fajstos - starozytne miasto na krecie. Było zamieszkane od III tysiąclecia p.n.e. Pierwszy pałac, wzniesiony w Fajstos między 2000 a 1900 p.n.e., został zniszczony około 1700 p.n.e. Następny, zawierający pewne elementy poprzedniego, był znacznie większy. Na terenie Fajstos zachowały się ślady późniejszego osadnictwa datowane na koniec epoki brązu. Dorowie założyli w Fajstos miasto-państwo (prawdopodobnie w VIII w. p.n.e.), które rywalizowało z Gortyną i w II w. p.n.e. zostało pobite przez sąsiada. Wykopaliska prowadzone w latach 1901-1909 oraz po 1945 odsłoniły ruiny pałacu kultury minojskiej. Zabudowania zajmowały obszar około 8,3 tys. m². Z uwagi na ukształtowanie terenu, otaczały go tylko z trzech stron. Wejście umieszczone było po zachodniej stronie, z boku elewacji. Prowadziło przez monumentalne schody i podwójny portyk na dziedziniec. Ściany sal reprezentacyjnych zdobiły freski. Resztki zachowanych schodów świadczą o istnieniu wyższych kondygnacji. W starożytności Fajstos było ośrodkiem handlowym i rzemieślniczym. Prowadzono tam wytop miedzi, produkowano brąz oraz handlowano nim. W pobliskiej alei handlowej w ruinach kramów znajdują się tablice ze znakami pisma różnego od pisma linearnego A i pisma linearnego B. Wśród ruin znaleziono wiele zabytków m.in. ceramikę w stylu Kamares oraz słynny dysk z Fajstos.

 

Malia is located 37 km east of Heraklion. The sandy beaches of the Sea of Crete to the north, the mountain of Dikti to the south, and a little valley lying between them - this is the peaceful scene observed on reaching Malia, 37 km east of Heraklion or 25 Km west of Agios Nikolaos.

To the east of the modern resort is the Minoan Palace of Malia. This is the third-largest Minoan palace in Crete, built in a wonderful setting near the sea, on the road linking eastern and central Crete.

This palace - the seat, according to myth, of Minos’ brother Sarpedon - was first constructed circa 1900 BC. The already large settlement, some parts of which are preserved around the palace, thus became a palace-city. This first palace was destroyed circa 1700 BC and rebuilt circa 1650 BC, on the same site and with the same layout. Finally the new palace was destroyed circa 1450 BC and not reoccupied. During the Mycenean period a small building, probably a sanctuary, was constructed in the ruins.

Phaistos, also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze Age, was destroyed by an earthquake during the Late Bronze Age. Knossos along with other Minoan sites was destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. Phaistos was first excavated by Italian archaeologists Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier. Further excavations in 1950-1971 were conducted by Doro Levi.

The Old Palace was built in the Protopalatial Period, then rebuilt twice due to extensive earthquake damage. When the palace was destroyed by earthquake, the re-builders constructed a New Palace atop the old. Several artifacts with Linear A inscriptions were excavated at this site. The name of the site also appears in partially deciphered Linear A texts, and is probably similar to Mycenaean 'PA-I-TO' as written in Linear B. Several kouloura structures (subsurface pits) have been found at Phaistos. Pottery has been recovered at Phaistos from in the Middle and Late Minoan periods, including polychrome items and embossing in imitation of metal work. Bronze Age works from Phaistos include bridge spouted bowls, eggshell cups, tall jars and large pithoi.

In 1908, Pernier found the Phaistos disc there. This artifact is a clay disk, dated to between 1950 BC and 1400 BC and impressed with a unique sophisticated hieroglyphic script.

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Ruiny Fajstos na Krecie :)

 

Fajstos - starozytne miasto na krecie. Było zamieszkane od III tysiąclecia p.n.e. Pierwszy pałac, wzniesiony w Fajstos między 2000 a 1900 p.n.e., został zniszczony około 1700 p.n.e. Następny, zawierający pewne elementy poprzedniego, był znacznie większy. Na terenie Fajstos zachowały się ślady późniejszego osadnictwa datowane na koniec epoki brązu. Dorowie założyli w Fajstos miasto-państwo (prawdopodobnie w VIII w. p.n.e.), które rywalizowało z Gortyną i w II w. p.n.e. zostało pobite przez sąsiada. Wykopaliska prowadzone w latach 1901-1909 oraz po 1945 odsłoniły ruiny pałacu kultury minojskiej. Zabudowania zajmowały obszar około 8,3 tys. m². Z uwagi na ukształtowanie terenu, otaczały go tylko z trzech stron. Wejście umieszczone było po zachodniej stronie, z boku elewacji. Prowadziło przez monumentalne schody i podwójny portyk na dziedziniec. Ściany sal reprezentacyjnych zdobiły freski. Resztki zachowanych schodów świadczą o istnieniu wyższych kondygnacji. W starożytności Fajstos było ośrodkiem handlowym i rzemieślniczym. Prowadzono tam wytop miedzi, produkowano brąz oraz handlowano nim. W pobliskiej alei handlowej w ruinach kramów znajdują się tablice ze znakami pisma różnego od pisma linearnego A i pisma linearnego B. Wśród ruin znaleziono wiele zabytków m.in. ceramikę w stylu Kamares oraz słynny dysk z Fajstos.

 

2024-04-26 Phaistos, Crete

Knossos or Cnossos (/ˈnɒsɒs/; also Knossus or Cnossus /ˈnɒsəs/; Greek: Κνωσός or Κνωσσός, pronounced [knoˈsos]), is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered Europe's oldest city.[4]

 

The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos.[5] The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, and politically including, Kephala. The Romans believed they had colonized Knossos.[6] After excavation, the discovery of the Linear B tablets, and the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris, the identification was confirmed by the reference to an administrative center, ko-no-so, Mycenaean Greek Knosos in Linear B, undoubtedly the palace complex. The palace was built over a Neolithic town. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built. (source: Wikipedia)

With bulls in relief.

6th century BC.

From Phaistos.

 

Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

Objeto: Yacimiento arqueológico de El Cerro del Bu

Contexto cultural: Edad de Bronce y Islámico

Ubicación: In situ.

Estado de visibilidad actual: Visible

Dimensiones: 517 m. de altura

Referencias:

En la fotografía (a) recinto inferior islámico, (b) bastión del recinto inferior islámico, (c) bancal o muralla de la Edad de Bronce, (d) estructura defensiva del recinto superior islámico.

El Cerro del Bu se encuentra situado en la orilla izquierda del río Tajo en su confluencia con el arroyo de la Degollada, frente al lado sur de la ciudad de Toledo. Fue declarado Monumento Nacional en 1981 y Bien de Interés Cultural en 1992.

Se ha documentado la ocupación del yacimiento en dos épocas:

•Durante la Edad del Bronce, desde finales del tercer milenio hasta principios del primer milenio a.C., en que los habitantes del cerro del Bu se trasladarían al lugar que hoy ocupa la ciudad de Toledo. Posteriormente a esta ocupación permaneció el cerro del Bu abandonado durante un largo periodo de 2000 años.

•Durante un corto espacio de tiempo en el siglo X, en relación con el asedio a la ciudad de Toledo por parte de Abd al-Rahman III, cuyas tropas estaban agrupadas en Madinat alfath en el cerro de Chalencas. Al rendirse la ciudad el Cerro del Bu perdió importancia estratégica y se abandonó.

Actuaciones arqueológicas en el Cerro del Bu:

•1905: Castaños Montijano plantea intervenir en los dos recintos de piedra visibles en la época, abre dos trincheras en el recinto inferior y excava todo el recinto superior.

•Años 80 del siglo XX: Enrique de Alvaro y Juan Pereira plantean una actuación integral en el cerro. En la campaña 1980-1982 documentan una muralla de piedra en el recinto superior, de dos metros de ancho y que conserva un alzado de cuatro hiladas, y otra en el inferior de un metro ochenta de ancho con un bastión adosado de planta rectangular. En la campaña 1983-1988 se documenta un bancal o muralla que aprovecha un afloramiento rocoso y que podría ser un sistema de aterrazamiento de la Edad de Bronce y se documenta la secuencia estratigráfica del yacimiento. En 1986 y 1987 se documenta la estructura defensiva que rodea toda la parte superior del cerro con, al menos tres habitaciones en su interior. Esta estructura está flanqueada por bastiones rectangulares.

En el Museo de Santa Cruz se encuentran expuestos diversos objetos arqueológicos procedentes del yacimiento (hachas prehistóricas, piedras labradas, una maza de pizarra, huesos fosilizados de cuadrúpedos y aves cuencos, punzones de bronce, dientes de hoz en sílex, piedras de molino, una gran olla o «pithoi», etc.)

 

ALVARO REGUERA, E. de. y PEREIRA SIESO, J.; “El Cerro del Bú (Toledo)”; Actas del primer Congreso de Arqueologia de la provincia de Toledo, 1990, ISBN 84-87100-04-X , págs. 199-214

 

CASTAÑOS Y MONTIJANO, M., “El Cerro del Bú y la Comisión de Monumentos de “, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, Tomo 46 (1905), pp.445-449

www.cervantesvirtual.com/descargaPdf/el-cerro-del-b-y-la-...

FERNÁNDEZ DEL CERRO, J., “Objetos metálicos del Cerro del Bu (Toledo)”. Cuadernos de prehistoria y arqueología, ISSN 0211-1608, Nº 27, 2001, págs. 7-22

dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=820985&or...

FERNÁNDEZ DEL CERRO, J., “Aproximación al conocimiento de la Edad del Bronce en la cuenca media del Tajo. El Cerro del Bú”, Editorial Audema (Auditores de Energía y Medio Ambiente, S.A.), 2014, ISBN: 978-84-942592-2-7

www.academia.edu/7294772/APROXIMACION_AL_CONOCIMIENTO_DE_...

 

Resolución de 24 de noviembre de 1980, de la Dirección General de Bellas Artes, Archivos y Bibliotecas, por la que se acuerda tener por incoado, por el trámite de urgencia, el expediente de declaración de monumento histórico-artístico y arqueológico, de carácter nacional, a favor de los que se citan.

www.boe.es/boe/dias/1981/01/26/pdfs/A01827-01828.pdf

 

Decreto 70/1992, de 28/04/1992, , POR EL QUE SE DECLARA BIEN DE INTERES CULTURAL, CON LA CATEGORIA DE ZONA ARQUEOLOGICA, A FAVOR DEL YACIMIENTO ARQUEOLOGICO DEL CERRO DEL BU EN TOLEDO

docm.jccm.es/portaldocm/verDisposicionAntigua.do?ruta=199...