Pseira VIII: The Archaeological Survey of Pseira Island, Part 1 (Prehistory Monographs) [Illustrated] 1931534101, 9781931534109

Table of contents :
List of Illustrations in the Text
List of Plates
List of Tables in the Text
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction to the Survey
Part I The Island
1 Introduction
2 Modern Toponyms on Pseira
3 The Bedrock Geology of Pseira
4 Soils and Land Use at Pseira
5 On the Historical Ecology of Pseira
Part II Previous Work
6 Pseira Island after the Byzantine Period and before 1906
7 The Excavations of Richard Seageron Pseira
8 Research at Pseira, 1908–1984
Part III Ethnology Studies
9 Introduction, Ethnology Section
10 Traditional Fishing Practices in the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Area
11 Coastal Trade: the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello in the Early Twentieth Century
12 Traditional Lime Productionin the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Region
13 Marriage and Mobility: Traditions and the Dynamics of the Pottery System in Twentieth Century East Crete
14 The Relation of the Ethnology Studies to the Archaeology of Pseira
References
Index

Citation preview

Pseira VIII The Archaeological Survey of Pseira Island Part 1

Pseira VIII The Archaeological Survey of Pseira Island Part 1

The archaeological excavations at Pseira, Crete, were sponsored by Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Archaeological Institute of Crete, and by the Archaeological Society of Crete.

PREHISTORY MONOGRAPHS 11

Pseira VIII The Archaeological Survey of Pseira Island Part 1 edited by Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, and Richard Hope Simpson with contributions from Philip P. Betancourt, Julie Ann Clark, Peter M. Day, William R. Farrand, Richard Hope Simpson, Teresa Howard, Oliver Rackham, and Carola H. Stearns

Published by INSTAP Academic Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2004

Design and Production INSTAP Academic Press Printing Sun Printing House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Binding Hoster Bindery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pseira VIII : the archaeological survey of Pseira Island, part 1 / edited by Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, and Richard Hope Simpson ; with contributions from Philip P. Betancourt ... [et al.]. p. cm. — (Prehistory monographs ; 11) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-931534-10-1 (alk. paper) 1. Pseira Island (Greece) 2. Mirabello Bay Region (Greece) I. Betancourt, Philip P., 1936- II. Davaras, Kostes. III. Simpson, R. Hope. IV. Series. DF221.C8P747 2004 939’.18—dc22 2004012081

Copyright © 2004 INSTAP Academic Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Contents LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii LIST OF PLATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix LIST OF TABLES IN THE TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY, Philip P. Betancourt and Richard Hope Simpson . . . . . . . . . . . .1 PART I.

THE ISLAND 1. Introduction, Richard Hope Simpson and Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 2. Modern Toponyms on Pseira, Richard Hope Simpson and Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . .9 3. The Bedrock Geology of Pseira, William R. Farrand and Carola H. Stearns . . . . . . . .13 4. Soils and Land Use at Pseira, Julie Ann Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 5. On the Historical Ecology of Pseira, Oliver Rackham and Julie Ann Clark . . . . . . . . . .55

PART II. PREVIOUS WORK 6. Pseira Island after the Byzantine Period and before 1906, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . .63 7. The Excavations of Richard Seager on Pseira, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 8. Research at Pseira, 1908–1984, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 PART III. ETHNOLOGY STUDIES 9. Introduction, Ethnology Section, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 10. Traditional Fishing Practices in the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Area, Teresa Howard . .81 11. Coastal Trade: the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello in the Early Twentieth Century, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 12. Traditional Lime Production in the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Region, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 13. Marriage and Mobility: Traditions and the Dynamics of the Pottery System in Twentieth Century East Crete, Peter M. Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

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14. The Relation of the Ethnology Studies to the Archaeology of Pseira, Philip P. Betancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 PLATES

List of Illustrations in the Text Illustration 1. Modern toponyms on Pseira. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Illustration 2. Geologic map of eastern Crete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Illustration 3. Bedrock series for eastern Crete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Illustration 4. Detail of stratification in the bedrock east of modern Mochlos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Illustration 5. Geologic map of Pseira.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Illustration 6. Locations of soil profile sites on Pseira. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Illustration 7. Pollen sites in Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Illustration 8. Soil map of Pseira. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Illustration 9. Variation of pH with depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Illustration 10. Variation in the percentage of organic carbon with depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Illustration 11. Particle size plotted on a soil textural triangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Illustration 12. Exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K of Profile 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Illustration 13. Exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K of Profile 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Illustration 14. Extent of terracing on Pseira. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Illustration 15. Map showing the journey of Robert Pashley in eastern Crete in 1834. The traveler’s journey is shown in dashed lines. He went to the coast west of Kavousi (i.e., at Mochlos) and then went back inland to Sphaka. . . . . . . . . .94 Illustration 16. Steps in the manufacture of cement made from lime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Illustration 17. Plan and section of the kiln at Makra Opsis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Illustration 18. Schematic diagram of the role played by the emporium at Sfaka in the production and distribution of high-calcium lime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Illustration 19. Map showing the island of Crete with main ceramic production centers. . . . . . . . . . .107 Illustration 20. Diagram illustrating perceived structural oppositions in sedentary and itinerant potters of Crete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 Illustration 21. Map showing East Crete, with kiln locations indicated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

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Illustration 22. Map showing location of villages and kiln sites around the Bay of Mochlos. . . . . . . .117 Illustration 23. Map showing location of kiln sites worked by Zacharias Kornaros. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 Illustration 24. Diagram illustrating the movement of personnel and techniques in and out of Kentri. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124 Illustration 25. Map showing the Aegean and major production centers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

List of Plates Plate 1A. Staff in 1987, at the beginning of the survey project. Plate 1B. Staff in 1990, the final year for the survey. Plate 2A. Aerial photograph of Pseira Island. Plate 2B. The Katsouni Peninsula as seen from the southwest. Plate 3A. Image taken by SPOT 1 Earth Observation Satellite on June 21, 1987; Pseira is at the left of the image. Plate 3B. The harbor at Pseira, as seen from Katsouni Peninsula, looking southwest. Plate 4A. Landscape on Pseira, showing the difference in the degree of vegetation, with phyllitic soil in the foreground and terra rossa over limestone bedrock in the upper left of the photograph. Carola H. Stearns and William R. Farrand are at the right. Plate 4B. Katherine May, Lada Onyshkevych, and William B. Hafford surveying on Pseira Island. Plate 5A. Bedding in the cliffs adjacent to the town, as seen from the Plateia looking north. Plate 5B. Plattenkalk Limestone bedrock on the coast, near the tip of Katsouni Peninsula, showing the white calcite veins in the gray limestone. Plate 6.

Small outcrop of metacarbonate near the beach at the western side of Megali Ammos. An area of phyllite and Brown Mediterranean Lithosols can be observed at the upper right, where the vegetation is present.

Plate 7.

The Byzantine cistern, looking south, showing repairs to the vault made in modern times (at left of photograph).

Plate 8A. West side of the settlement before the modern excavation began. Plate 8B. The west side of Building AD Center before the modern excavation began, looking southeast. Plate 9.

The grass-covered Plateia and the area of Building BS/BV before the modern excavations.

Plate 10A. Small boats owned by local people, drawn up on the small beach at Mochlos. Plate 10B. Stacks of monomena nets on the dock at Herakleion. The fisherman in the boat is pulling the nets off the stack at the right and allowing them to fall at his feet in the boat in an untangled stack. Plate 11A. Removing small fish by shaking them out of the nets at Mochlos, in 1988.

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Plate 11B. Fishing boat with a paragadi in the bow, Herakleion, 1994. Plate 12A. Limekiln at Makra Opsis, in 1993. Plate 12B. Detail of the entrance to the limekiln at Makra Opsis. Plate 13A. Limekiln at Makra Opsis, in 1993. Plate 13B. Limekiln at Hagios Nikolaos, in July of 1987 (kiln demolished in winter of 1987–1988). Plate 14. Lime slaking pit in Herakleion, in August of 1988 (facility closed in the winter of 1988–1989).

List of Tables in the Text Table 1. Particle size fractions determined by ELZONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Table 2. Chemical analyses of soil samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Table 3. Percentages of sand, silt, and clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Table 4. Cation exchange capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Table 5. Clay mineralogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Preface The archaeological survey of Pseira Island was a part of the Pseira Project, an American-Greek collaboration (synergasia) directed jointly by Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras. It is published in two parts. Pseira VIII includes several studies that aid in the interpretation of the entire body of research, and Pseira IX includes the results of the intensive walking survey of the island and the interpretation section. In Pseira VIII, those persons who wrote the individual sections are listed as authors. In much of Pseira IX, the research is combined into a more integrated whole, following the suggestion of Cherry, Davis, and Mantzourani (eds., 1991). Richard Hope Simpson contributed the report on the walking survey, and Philip P. Betancourt contributed the pottery studies. The two authors collaborated on the interpretation, both with informal discussions over a period of many years and with more formal exchanges of manuscripts. Several preliminary reports as well as earlier volumes in the series refer to the survey. Seven volumes have been published (Betancourt and Davaras, eds., 1995; 1998 a; 1998 b; 1999; 2001; 2002; 2003). Preliminary reports on aspects of the survey include a thesis on the soils and land use (Clark 1990) and reports on the Theran pumice (Betancourt et al. 1990), the terraces (Rackham and Moody 1992, 129), the agricultural system (Betancourt and Hope Simpson 1992), the geology (Davaras, Betancourt, and Farrand 1992), the stone quarry (Betancourt 1996; 2001), and computer-assisted mapping (Onyshkevych, Hafford, and May 1996). On the survey in general, the reader may consult Betancourt and Davaras 1990. Portions of the survey that help the interpretation of the Pseira cemetery were included in Pseira VI (Betancourt and Davaras, eds., 2002).

Acknowledgments Many persons and organizations provided help for this project (Pl. 1A, 1B). It was sponsored by Temple University, the Archaeological Institute of Crete, and the Archaeological Society of Crete, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The Archaeological Survey was co-directed by Philip P. Betancourt and Richard Hope Simpson. In addition to financial assistance given by the directors’ home universities, funding for the work published in this volume was given by: the Institute for Aegean Prehistory; the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency; The Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada; the Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage; the Arcadia Foundation; the Mellon Corporation; The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Long Island Society of the Archaeological Institute of America; the late Leon Pomerance; and other donors. Thanks are extended to all those who assisted with the project: the Directors for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Ministry of Culture of Greece, Yannis Tzedakis (1985–1990, 1993–2001), Ios Zervoudaki (1990–1992), and Katerina Romiopoulou (1992–1993); the late Nikos P. Papadakis, Epimeletes and Supervisor for the Ephorate of Eastern Crete (1985–1989, 1995–2002); the Directors of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Stephen G. Miller (1985–1987), the late William D. Coulson (1987–1997), and James D. Muhly (1997–2002). The survey began with preliminary examinations of the island of Pseira in 1984, 1985, and 1986, followed by an intensive walking survey carried out in 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990 (Pl. 1). Selected sites were excavated during the years while the ground survey was being conducted. Partial study of the objects from the survey took place from 1987 to 1990, and the 1991 season was a study season devoted to the survey material. Mapping and surveying was by David D. Day in 1987–1988 using a Topcon DMA2 EDM (Electronic Distance Meter), an electro-optical distance-measuring instrument utilizing an infrared light source. The instrument was generously loaned to the excavation by Don Anderson, of the Anderson Instrument and Supply Company, Canton, Ohio, to whom the project is much indebted. Additional mapping and survey was made in 1995 by Lada Onyshkevych, Katherine May, and William B. Hafford using a Topcon DM-A2 EDM interfaced with a Gateway 2000 laptop computer. Field photographs are by Michael W. Betancourt (1986–1991), Philip P. Betancourt, and Richard Hope Simpson. Profile drawings are by Jacke Phillips

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(1986), Teresa Howard (1986–1991), Chrysostomos Theodorou (1989), Sharon Rathke (1989), Senta German (1989), Jenny Hope Simpson (1989, 1991), Krista Gustafson Brown (1990–1991), Marie T. Naples (1990–1991), Jeanne Pond (1990), Eleni Velona (1990), and Philip P. Betancourt. Assistance with editing was provided by Joan Beaudoin, Hilary Brown, and Katherine May. Thanks are expressed to Ioannis A. Nikoloudakis for permission to draw the limekiln at Makra Opsis, and for substantial information on the history of lime production in the region. The kiln was drawn in 1993 when the following personnel were on the staff, many of whom assisted with the project: Jenny Albani, Eleni Banou, Joan Beaudoin, Mary Betancourt, Kristen Borré, Barbara Botting, Hilary Brown, Cheryl Floyd, Teresa Howard, Katherine May, George Mitrakis, Merav Nesvisky, Natalia Poulou-Papadimitriou, and Fotini Zervaki. Several staff members participated in the walking survey: Diane Dunn (1989–1990), Tom Fleming (1987, 1989), George Harrison (1990), David Marko (1988), George Mitrakis (1987–1990), Meryn Scott (1988–1990), and Catherine Wolfitt (1988). Other participants in the survey included: Jenny Albani, Byzantine studies (1986–1992) Mary A. Betancourt, catalog entries for artifacts (1985–1994) Julie Ann Clark, soils study (1987) Heidi M.C. Dierckx, stone tools study William Farrand and Carola Stearns, geomorphology (1987) Senta German, cove of Megali Ammos (1990) George Harrison, Byzantine agriculture (1990) Catherine McEnroe, catalog entries for artifacts (1985–1986) Natalia Poulou-Papadimitriou, Byzantine pottery (1986–1992) Oliver Rackham, modern flora (1990) David Reese, faunal material (1986–1994) Laurie Schmitt, assistance with catalog entries for artifacts (1993–1994) Vasso Zographaki, trench supervisor Other acknowledgments are listed in the individual chapters. This volume has profited from comments on early versions of the manuscript made by Jack L. Davis, Mark Rose, and L. Vance Watrous.

Introduction to the Survey Philip P. Betancourt and Richard Hope Simpson

Pseira Island is located at the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello in Northeast Crete (Pls. 2, 3). It is a rocky island with little soil cover, oriented NE to SW. The longest dimension is ca. 2.5 km, and it is just over 1 km wide at its widest point. The total land area is 1.75 square kilometers. Pseira has a rich history. The Pseira Survey records 315 specific locations with architecture, pottery, or other human remains on this tiny island, an unprecedented number of recorded locations with ancient activity for such a small area. The survey constitutes the closest view of an ancient Aegean landscape that has been heretofore possible, resulting in many new insights into ancient land use, particularly for the Minoan period, but also for the little-known Early Byzantine period in this part of Crete. The small island offered both advantages and disadvantages for survey, and the research plan had to take both the positive and negative characteristics into account. Among the advantages, the most important factors were the location’s isolation and clearly definable limits. An island is a topographic feature whose limits affect all periods of its history. In the case of Pseira, the relative isolation and the limited nature of human activity there in recent centuries contributed to the preservation of traces of

more ancient habitation. In addition, the barren landscape offered good ground visibility and an opportunity to observe features more clearly than in more lush regions with deeper soil and more vegetation. An additional advantage was the legal situation: Pseira is owned by the government of Greece, and the entire island is regarded as an archaeological site, so that selective excavation could take place if features were discovered that merited a closer scrutiny. Pseira’s total land mass was very small in comparison with most regions chosen for archaeological survey, and the methodology would have to take this factor into consideration both in the actual survey and in the subsequent interpretation. The site’s disadvantages also had to be considered. Pseira was an arid island with little vegetation (it is in the “arid zone” of Barbero and Quezel 1980). Logistics would be difficult at a barren location with no buildings or other facilities, and travel to and from Pseira would be limited by the weather. In addition, there was no certainty (before the survey) that Pseira Island even constituted a hinterland for the settlement there. The limiting factors of the island’s coast may have meant less to ancient people than to modern ones, and Pseira would have to be considered in relation to the part of the Cretan landscape opposite the small island.

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Goals and Unanswered Questions The archaeological survey of Pseira Island had two general goals. First, it was planned to provide data to help place the settlement on the island within its environmental and historical context. Second, it was intended as a systematic investigation of the landscape of the island itself. The interaction between the human settlement on Pseira and the landscape of Pseira Island was considered important for a proper understanding of the history of the small islet and how its history developed with reference to the regional development of this part of Crete. In order to understand the broad historical framework, all periods were investigated, from the earliest human presence on the island until modern times. Although the main focus of the excavation was the Minoan town, due attention was also given in the survey to all other periods. In spite of the excavation of Pseira in 1906 and 1907 and its frequent citation in the archaeological literature, many questions remained unanswered. Several hypotheses about the site that needed to be tested were suitable for investigation by archaeological survey. Because of the islet’s small area and barren topography, some writers had supposed that the Minoan town had no hinterland on Pseira Island at all (Pendlebury 1939, 61). As R.W. Hutchinson put it, “Pseira, however, is a barren island which can never have afforded sustenance for its population, which must have depended largely on trade and imported their food, other than fish, from the mainland” (1962, 155). Survey could contribute crucial data to test these views. The natural resources of Pseira Island needed to be examined in detail. Unanswered questions included the contribution (if any) the island made to architectural building stones, raw materials for craftwork, or other building or manufacturing activities. Suggestions had been made that the island might be a source of raw materials for stone vase

making (for breccia, see Seager 1910, 37; for chlorite, see Warren 1969, 129). These suggestions could be confirmed or denied by a careful geological survey. The potential of the island for agriculture and animal husbandry was also regarded as an important factor in the capability of the islet to support a human population. The ways in which it was used for these activities in different periods (if it was used at all) had never been examined in detail. Were there differences in the type of land use in the Minoan and later periods? If so, what information did they contribute to help explain the history of the island? A general history of the periods of habitation on Pseira Island was needed so that the site’s history could contribute to the larger pattern of cultural development in eastern Crete. Because of the poor publication of the data excavated in 1906–1907, little was known of Pseira aside from a few objects, some buildings from MM and LM I, and a small number of general conclusions. Suggestions on the history of Pseira in periods aside from MM–LM I, including that the settlement was founded in EM II (Warren 1972, 272; 1983, 255) and that it was completely deserted after LM IB (Pendlebury 1939, 237) needed to be examined in the light of new data. Very little was known of the post-Minoan history of Pseira before the modern project began. Sanders once suggested that, after the Minoan period, Pseira and nearby Mochlos had similar histories (1982, 141). Archaeological survey would be used to test this hypothesis. It would also address the nature of previously recognized sites on the island, such as the “Roman military camps” proposed by Seager and others (Seager 1910, 6–7; Sanders 1982, 141). Hopefully, additional sites would also be located, and data on their character and dates of use would be gathered and coordinated with the history of the island’s town.

The Research Plan A research strategy was devised to fit the specific situation of Pseira Island (on this concept, see also additional comments by Hope Simpson 1965,

1–4; 1984; 1985; Banning 2002, 22–25). Many factors influenced the nature of the strategy, including climate, topography, previous work on the island,

INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY

and the information that was needed about the nature of the human use of the landscape. The directors formulated a research design that incorporated a strategy for the investigation with the methods to be used for collecting and recording of data, the analysis of that data, and the eventual publication of the results. The plan consisted of six items in the collecting and recording stages: 1. Analysis of earlier scholarly work on Pseira 2. Studies of the natural landscape 3. Intensive archaeological survey of the island 4. Excavation of selected sites found by the survey 5. Laboratory analysis of soils and other materials 6. Interpretation and coordination with nearby regions ANALYSIS OF EARLIER SCHOLARLY WORK ON PSEIRA Richard Seager excavated the Minoan town on Pseira in 1906 and 1907 (Seager 1910; Becker and Betancourt 1997, Chapter 6). His excavations uncovered portions of over 40 buildings in the settlement and 33 tombs in a nearby cemetery. He also walked over the island in detail, and he made many observations about the landscape and its ancient remains. Sinclair Hood, John Leatham, and other investigators undertook additional work on the island in later years. The new project built on the results of the work of these other scholars, and an evaluation of their many contributions was regarded as crucial to the new interpretations and conclusions. A summary of the scholarly work on Pseira before 1985 is included in this volume. STUDIES OF THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE An understanding of the geomorphology, geology, topography, soils, modern flora, and other aspects of the natural landscape was essential for a proper interpretation of the archaeological record. Several closely coordinated studies were used in the interpretation of the data derived from survey and excavation. Toponymical study, an aspect of research that has received increasing interest in recent years (Wagner 1967; Borée 1968; Rainey 1978), was included in this part of the research plan.

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The studies of the natural landscape needed to be coordinated with other aspects of the project as a whole. An understanding of the geology, geomorphology, and soils was considered essential in the formulation of priorities for other types of investigation (such as the program of analysis), and these studies were done early in the process of survey. Ethnographical investigations were also useful for the understanding of the archaeological record, and the studies that were undertaken often involved work that had not been done previously for this part of the Aegean. These studies are presented in this volume. ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY An intensive archaeological ground survey was planned to contribute several types of information. Its goals included a better understanding of the history of human activity on the island and its interaction with the environment from the first record of human presence on Pseira until the twentieth century as well as the relation between the habitation centers and the island as a whole. A descriptive report was planned for each location with evidence for human activity. All pottery and other artifacts observed on the surface would be collected, producing an archive for later study. A decision was made not to walk transects or other samples of the landscape, but instead to survey all the landscape. The methodology and the results of the archaeological survey are presented in Pseira IX. An important and obvious consideration in the planning of the research plan for the survey was the plan for excavation of the Minoan town and its associated cemetery. The survey and the excavation were conducted simultaneously, an ideal situation for close coordination. Several of the personnel had duties and obligations for both projects. Because it was such a specialized location, the Pseira Cemetery was surveyed as a special case. It was surveyed by instrument, marked in 5 meter grid squares with string, and walked systematically, collecting all artifacts visible on the surface (Pl. 4). The results of the Pseira Cemetery Survey have been published in Pseira VI. EXCAVATION OF SELECTED SITES Selective excavation was carried out at several survey sites. After the survey was under way, the

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specific sites for additional work were chosen based on their character. The additional investigations varied depending on individual goals and objectives, on the nature of the archaeological locations, and on the resources available for study in greater detail. Additional work varied from the simple collection of a soil sample to a detailed (but small scale) archaeological excavation. Excavated archaeological locations on Pseira Island included the following: Site G 2, an agricultural terrace on limestone bedrock Site H 2, Building EA, a house at Megali Ammos Site H 3, Building ED, a Byzantine well at Megali Ammos Site H 4, Building EB, a house (?) at Megali Ammos Site H 15, Building EC, a house (?) at Megali Ammos Site M 1, the Minoan settlement and Byzantine monastery Site M 9, Minoan dam Site M 29, Minoan dam Site Q 1, Minoan cemetery Site Q 21, an agricultural terrace on phyllite bedrock Site Q 22, Byzantine threshing floor Thirteen sites for soil samples (listed in the report by Julie A. Clark) Some of these excavations have already been reported in print. Final publications of the excavation in Site M 1, the Minoan town, are in previous volumes in the Pseira series (Betancourt and Davaras, eds., 1995; 1998 a; 1998 b; 1999; 2001). The results of the excavations and survey in the cemetery have also been published previously (Betancourt and Davaras, eds., 2002; 2003). The other excavations are to be published in Pseira IX. LABORATORY ANALYSIS A program of analysis undertaken for materials found in the excavation of the settlement on Pseira also investigated a number of materials found in the survey. Individuals and their institutions participating in the analysis of materials from the survey included the following:

Julie A. Clark, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (soils studies) William R. Farrand, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (geological studies) Paul Goldberg, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (micromorphology) George H. Myer, Temple University (petrography) The results of the analyses are integrated within the publication sections. INTERPRETATION AND COORDINATION WITH NEARBY AREAS Study of pottery and other materials from the survey proceeded concurrently with fieldwork until 1989, and the 1990 season was organized with study and interpretation as the chief priority. Some of the sites were re-visited that season, excavations of some survey sites were completed, and artifacts were studied. In 1990 and in subsequent years, coordination was made with nearby areas that were excavated and/or surveyed by other projects, especially the substantial amount of recent work in the region: the Kavousi excavations and survey (Gesell, Day, and Coulson 1983; 1985; 1988; 1991; 1995; Haggis 1992; 1993 a; 1993 b; 1995; 1996 a; 1996 b; 2000; 2002; Haggis and Mook 1993), the Vrokastro survey (Hayden, Moody, and Rackham 1992; Hayden 1995; 2003), the Gournia survey (Watrous 2000), the Mochlos excavation (Soles 1988; 1992; Soles and Davaras 1992; 1994; 1996; 2000), the Chalasmenos and Katalimata excavations (Coulson and Tsipopoulou 1994; Haggis and Nowicki 1993; Coulson and Tsipopoulou 1994– 1996; Tsipopoulou and Coulson 2000; Nowicki 2002), the Kalo Choria excavations (Haggis 1996 c), the Chrysokamino excavations (Betancourt et al. 1999); and new analytical work conducted on material from sites in the Isthmus of Ierapetra (Whitelaw et al. 1997; Day, Wilson, and Kiriatzi 1997; Ferrence, Swann, and Betancourt 2001). The coordination with these other regional projects provided a better understanding of the situation on Pseira Island. Close collaboration continued until the time of publication. The results of this final stage of the research plan are integrated into the appropriate sections in this publication.

Part I The Island

1

Introduction Philip P. Betancourt and Richard Hope Simpson

Pseira and Mochlos are both small offshore islands. They were settled at about the same time, in the Final Neolithic period, and they both had Minoan towns during the Bronze Age. Both towns suffered destructions in LM IB. The island of Pseira is 2.5 km long and a little over 1 km wide. Its relation to the coast of Crete can be seen in the image shown in Plate 2A. This image was taken with the French SPOT 1 Earth Observation Satellite launched on February 28, 1986. It was taken on June 21, 1987, at a time with no cloud cover. The resolution is 20 m (reflecting the size of the smallest basic unit on the image). Pseira is at the left, and its relative size in reference to Mochlos Island (at the center of the image, near the coast) can be easily seen from this aerial view. Because both Pseira and Mochlos are small islands at the eastern side of the Gulf of Mirabello, it has occasionally been suggested that their histories were similar in some periods (i.e., Sandars 1982, 141). In fact, the two islands are actually very different. Tiny Mochlos Island was joined to Crete during the Bronze Age, so that it was a peninsula rather than an island. The resulting topographic situation created the finest harbor in this part of Crete, protected on the north, west, and south sides, with an easy passage into the small cove from the east.

Pseira, on the other hand, has always been an isolated land mass. Its harbor, on the southeastern side of the island, is protected from northern and northwestern storms, but it could never have provided the same shelter as Mochlos, with its protection on three sides of the harbor. Mochlos was also directly joined to the greater landmass of Crete, so that it could act as a staging area for inland traffic. As a result, Mochlos was a much more advantageous location, and it was a much wealthier town in the early periods. Both islands had maritime activity, but the very rich tombs of Early Minoan Mochlos (Seager 1912) have no parallels from nearby Pseira. This larger island has enough space for some agriculture, and it has hills where animals could be pastured. Its soils were once fertile enough for farming. These factors helped isolate the town on Pseira more than the one on Mochlos, even though the larger islet was clearly related to nearby parts of Crete. Because of these circumstances, one should not necessarily presume a similar history with nearby Mochlos or with any of the other towns on the northern coast of this part of Crete. The conclusions presented in this volume apply to Pseira, and independent data would be necessary to decide how much of the information should also be used for the interpretation of nearby sites.

2

Modern Toponyms on Pseira Richard Hope Simpson and Philip P. Betancourt

The derivation of the name Pseira is not completely certain. In modern Greek the word pseira (not psyra) is used to denote something very small and unimportant. As an alternative, the name may be associated with the island’s resemblance to an insect when seen from Crete; this resemblance is certainly regarded as the origin of the name by many of the residents of the region today. Pseira’s profile resembles the pseira (spelled both Yeivra and Yuvra), a name used in Crete for several small, wingless insects with flat bodies in the orders Anoplura and Mallophaga, including the human body louse Pediculus humanus. The association with the insect, either by derivation or from false analogy with an earlier name, is suggested by the pairing of Pseira with the nearby circular islet called Konida. Both islands are visible from the heights overlooking the Gulf of Mirabello, and they have often been regarded as a set (as, for example, the 1417 description by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, “Deinde Psiram, Conidamque insulas deuenimus [sic],” Spitael 1981, 161). Konida, the smaller island, resembles a konida (kovnida), the egg of a louse. That the pairing is derived from a Cretan viewpoint suggests the names developed at a time when the islands were not inhabited, in other words either before or after the Byzantine occupation of Pseira.

Pseira has been spelled in several ways. The earliest portolans followed by Medieval mariners pay little attention to minor sites like Pseira, preferring to give directions only to the main ports of call in northeastern Crete, Mirabello (now Hagios Nikolaos) and Siteia (see Kretschmer 1909, 663). The various surviving manuscripts of the writings of Cristoforo Buondelmonti, who was in Crete from 1415 to 1418, spell the island’s name both Psira and Spira (Spitael 1981, 161). The 1755 edition of Buondelmonti’s Creta Sacra uses Pysira and Spira (see the discussion of Platakis 1974, 13). The incorrect spelling Spira (an obvious and not uncommon mistaken transposition of the sounds in the letter psi) was recorded several times by the early mapmakers. It was used by Jacopo Gastaldi on a map drawn before 1522 (Sphyroeras, Avramea, and As drahas 1985, fig. 19), and the name was copied by the highly influential Gerardus Mercator in 1590 (Sphyroeras, Avramea, and Asdrahas 1985, fig. 66B), but by the end of the seventeenth century the more proper Psira was gaining in popularity (see, for example, the 1696 map by V.M. Coronelli, published by Sphyroeras, Avramea, and Asdrahas 1985, fig. 122). Nineteenth and twentieth century writers have used various spellings:

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Psyra (Yuvra; see Spratt 1865, map; Raulin 1869: I, 314, 392, 404, and 405; Alexiou 1964, 33, 45; Marinatos 1976, 16) Psyrra (Yuvrra; see Alexiou 1954, 410; 1958, 230) Pseira (Yeivra; for Yei'ra, see Platakis 1950, 471). Richard Seager was not consistent. He spelled the name Pseira in his archaeological publication (Seager 1910), but in his letters he occasionally used the version Psyra (for example, Seager 1907 a; 1907 b; 1907 c). Most archaeologists writing in English have followed Seager’s published version. Scholars who have studied the name in the past have reached more than one conclusion. The word has been discussed in detail by Platakis (1974, 13– 14). By analogy with similar toponyms in Crete (Yeirev", Yeivrh", Yeirivda", and others), he concludes that Pseira is the correct spelling. A different opinion has been expressed by Zois (1973, 98). He notes that the name in antiquity should have been either the plural ta Psyra (ta; Yuvra) or the singular e Psyra (hJ Yuvra), following the ancient name of a tiny island near Chios, which Homer expresses as Psyrie nesos (nhvsou e[pi Yurivh"; see Odyssey 3, 171, toward the island Psyria). Zois is surely correct, and the proper Greek spelling is Psyra (Yuvra). The word psyra is not recorded as an IndoEuropean word (Pokorny 1959), but it does occur rarely in the Classical period. In the fifth century B.C. the comic playwright Cratinus used the word psyra to signify something dry, barren, or of little value in the expressions “bringing Dionysos psyra” (yuvra to;n Diovnuson a[gonte"), referring to people

who abstain from wine (Cratinus 352), and “you bring Sparta psyra” (yuvra te th;n Spavrthn a[gei", Cratinus 112; on Cratinus, see Kock 1880–1888). In these expressions, psyra (yuvra) must be neuter plural, because if it were feminine, it would be in the accusative (psyran, yuvran). Thus, the expressions mean “bringing Dionysos trifles” and “you bring Sparta trifles.” Cratinus uses the vivid “double accusative,” leaving out the preposition, so the expression is not “bringing trifles to Dionysos” but the compressed form “bringing Dionysos trifles” (with less emphasis in the English version because the Greek version puts the key word psyra first). A second Classical use of the word is in the lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, who probably lived in the fifth century A.D. He listed “impure Psyra, from the island of Psyra” (yuvrio" ajkavqarto" ajpo; yuv(rwn) th'" nhvsou) and “barren land of Psyra, dry and barren” (yuri;" gh; luprav cevrso"; see Schmidt 1858–1863). The sources of Hesychius do not survive in the manuscripts that we have, but he based his lexicon on earlier works. This evidence shows that the name Psyra already had a meaning in Classical Greece, and that the meaning accords well with the geography of the Cretan island at the time when it was abandoned and presumably dry and barren. This information may mean that the association with a small insect is a false etymology, and that the change in spelling from Psyra to Pseira is a Medieval or Modern event. In any case, the spelling Pseira was firmly established in the archaeological literature by Richard Seager as the English version of the name, and it should not be changed.

The Pseiran Toponyms A number of landforms and other features on Pseira have local names (Ill. 1). Most of them are descriptions of topographic formations that are visible from the sea, and a smaller number are inland sites derived from the days when Pseira was used as pasture for sheep and goats (a practice halted in 1978). The toponyms of the present day are derived

from both Greek and Turkish. They are used by fishermen as landmarks in referring to places on the island and by hunters who visit Pseira to shoot hares or birds. Some of the words are of obscure derivation, but none of them can be positively associated with any ancient name.

MODERN TOPONYMS ON PSEIRA

11

Illustration 1. Modern toponyms on Pseira.

AKROTERI TSOUNGRIA (Akrwthvri Tsouggriav; “ROCKY HEADLAND”) A group of small rocky points jutting out into the sea at the northeast end of the island is called Akroteri Tsoungria. Akroteri means point, tip, or headland. Tsoungria is probably derived from tsoungari, a rock or rocky piece of land. CHONDROS KAVOS (Condrov" Kavbo"; “WIDE CAPE”) A wide cape, visible from the sea, is called Chondros Kavos.

KASELLA (Kasevlla, “CHEST”) From the sea, the rock at Kasella looks like a large rectangular chest or trunk (kasella in Greek). KATSOUNI (Katsouvni, “LONG THIN KNIFE OR PENINSULA”) The main site of the Minoan town is named Katsouni, a local word for a long, narrow peninsula, probably derived from the katsouni (katsouvni), a knife with a curved blade (see Kondylakis 1990, 107). One may compare katsouna (katsouvna), a shepherd’s stick with a curved upper end, a Cretan word recorded by Pankalos (1959, 443– 444) and by Kondylakis (1990, 107).

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KAVOS SYKIAS CHALAVRO (Kavbo" Sukiav" Cavlauro, “CAPE OF THE FIG TREE ROCKSLIDE”) Although no fig tree exists at this location now, presumably one grew here at some time in the past. A rockslide (chalavros) is visible from the sea. O KOLOS TES PSEIRAS (O Kovlo" th" Yeivra", “THE RUMP OF PSEIRA”) From Crete, the island of Pseira looks like a louse (pseira). If the northeast tip called Akroteri is visualized as the tiny insect’s head, the southwest part, where a cave is located, is the rump. KOUTSOUMBAS (Koutsoumpav", “THE STUMP-LIKE ROCK”) From the sea, a rock formation at this point looks like a stump. One may compare koutsouro (kouvtsouro), a stump or log. MANDRA (Mavndra, “SHEEPFOLD”) When sheep and goats were kept on the island, this was the only place from which they could be loaded onto boats. The animals were herded toward the shore until they had no place to go except into the sea or into the boats. Although the word mandra means pen or sheepfold, no physical pen seems to have actually existed on the spot in modern times. It is possible that a wall existed there at some time in the past, but no trace survives today. MEGALI AMMOS (Megavlh Ammo", “GREAT SAND” OR “LARGE AMOUNT OF SAND”) A small sandy beach is still used occasionally as a source of sand for making concrete. The name, literally “big sand,” is used in the sense that a large quantity of sand is present, in contrast with the nearby Mikri Ammos.

MIKRI AMMOS (Mikrhv Ammo", “SMALL SAND”) A tiny patch of sand is located at this point. The name, meaning “small sand,” is clearly contrasted with the nearby Megali Ammos. PEZOULES (Pezouvle", “STEPS” OR “SUPERIMPOSED TERRACES”) The name Pezoules, meaning a series of stone steps or superimposed terraces, is derived from a natural step-like formation in the exposed bedrock, a prominent landmark when the coast is viewed from the sea. PLAKES (Plavke", “SLABS”) The natural stone looks flat at this point on the island, resembling a series of paving slabs (plakes). SARNITSI (Sarnivtsi, “CISTERN”) Sarnitsi is the local name for the Byzantine or Turkish cement-lined cistern in the southern farm (compare Turkish Sarnis, cistern).

SELLI (Selliv, “SADDLE”) The saddle between the hills northeast and southwest of the small Pseira isthmus is called Selli, a word used in Crete for riding saddles and for land features resembling them (see Kondylakis 1990, 231, where the Cretan word is recorded as Seli, Seliv). STERNA (Stevrna, “CISTERN”) A modern cistern in a streambed is called Sterna, the modern Greek word for reservoir or cistern. The name distinguishes it from the other clearly visible cistern on the island, called Sarnitsi.

Acknowledgments Thanks are expressed to all the residents of eastern Crete who provided the writers with the local names, especially Michalis Hairetakis, Ioannis

Kouroupakis, Michalis Zervakis, and Manolis Mastorakis. Helpful comments were made by Costis Davaras and Spyros Iakovidis.

3

The Bedrock Geology of Pseira William R. Farrand and Carola H. Stearns

The island of Pseira is situated in the northeastern sector of the Gulf of Mirabello about 2.5 km west of the limestone headland near Mochlos village. It is separated from the Cretan mainland by waters at least 300 m deep. The islet is essentially an asymmetric block of limestone about 2.4 km long northeast-southwest, having a very steep northwest face and a more gentle southeastern slope. The outline of the island is roughly that of a figureeight, with the northern end considerably smaller than the southern one. The highest point of the islet is 204.1 m above sea level (a.s.l.). The writers investigated the geology of the islet from July 6 through 16, 1987, while excavations were going on at the archaeological site. Our observations were compiled directly on topographic maps at a scale of 1:5,000 with a contour interval of 4 m. After a helpful orientation tour guided by R. Hope Simpson, we walked the entire islet, covering most areas at least twice. Only the steep cliffs on the extreme south end and the rugged topography of the entire northwest coast were not covered on foot. However, we did circumnavigate the entire islet, and we were able to view the outcrops in the steep cliffs at fairly close range. We also spent parts of three days in reconnaissance

survey on the “mainland” near Mochlos village, examining especially the outcrops of the coastal terrace that extends eastward from Mochlos as well as the uplands south and west of the village where large quarry operations for gypsum are going on. Representative rock samples were collected from Pseira, and thin sections were prepared and studied by Alison Barry at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The goals of our investigations included the following: 1. To provide a basic geologic description of Pseira in the form of a geologic map of both the underlying bedrock foundation and the surficial sedimentary cover (alluvium, colluvium, deep soils, dunes, or former shorelines, etc.) 2. To evaluate any changes in the configuration of the islet during or since ancient occupations 3. To utilize this geologic information to evaluate possible resources available to former inhabitants of Pseira, such as stone for building or decorative purposes, chert for lithic tools, ores, precious minerals, deep soils for agriculture,

Illustration 2. Geologic map of eastern Crete.

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THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA

and specifically to identify the sources, whether from local or exotic, of raw materials used at archaeological sites on the islet

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4. To relate habitation and land-use patterns of former island dwellers to factors of landscape and rock type

Regional Geology INTRODUCTION The geology of eastern Crete is complex in detail but relatively simple in its broad outlines (Ill. 2). For our purposes, the broad outlines will suffice for an understanding of the regional relations of the major bedrock units of Pseira. The following summary is based on a spate of field work, mostly in the 1970’s, dealing with the tectonic setting of Crete and of the Aegean region as a whole, e.g., Wachendorf et al. (1974), Baumann et al. (1976), Baumann, Best, and Wachendorf (1977), Creutzburg et al. (1977), and Seidel et al. (1981). On the broadest scale, Crete constitutes the central part of the Hellenic Arc, a major tectonic feature that curves from the Peloponnese through Crete to the Taurus Mountains of southwestern Turkey. The Hellenic Arc marks the collisional junction of the African and European lithospheric plates where portions of the Earth’s crust formerly situated in what is now the central Aegean have been thrust (shoved) southward to override a thick section of marine platform limestones that constitute the bulk of the “basement” rocks of Crete. The overriding rocks, in the form of relatively thin sheets called “nappes,” arrived in successive waves (Ill. 3; see also Baumann, Best, and Wachendorf 1977, fig. 8 for a diagramatic explanation of the emplacement of these nappes). BEDROCK OF EASTERN CRETE The following comments apply most specifically to the part of Crete east of the Ierapetra-Gulf of Mirabello lowland, shown in Illustration 2. The first overthrust sheet is the “Phyllite-Quartzite” nappe that directly overlies the autochthonous, relatively thinly bedded, cherty limestones known as “Plattenkalk.” The rocks of the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe exhibit low-grade metamorphism, which is most intense in its lower part and fades out upward through the nappe.

Illustration 3. Bedrock series for eastern Crete.

Next above the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe is another limestone series, the Tripolitza nappe, consisting of massively bedded and reefal carbonates. Rocks of the Tripolitza nappe are widespread in eastern Crete, especially south and east of Siteia. Still higher in the pile are the Pindos and Subpelagonian nappes, which are less widely distributed in eastern Crete. Rocks of the Subpelagonian nappe are important, however, at the head of the Gulf of Mirabello near Kalo Chorio where one finds a chaotic mixture of igneous and metamorphic rocks (lavas, diorite, marble, etc.). Both the igneous activity witnessed by Subpelagonian rocks and the metamorphism in the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe originated well before those rocks were thrust into their present position. These rocks have been detached from their deep-seated magmatic (high-temperature) sources, which are to be found well to the north of Crete where some of them have been uplifted and are now exposed in islands of the central Aegean. Thus, eastern Crete is characterized by a foundation of Plattenkalk limestone overlain by a succession of nappes that represent displaced terranes of central Aegean origin. During the southward

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15. Phacoid Series, marble phacoids in a marly matrix; compact carbonate layers at the base, which break up into phacoids upwards. 14. Clastics, brownish gray, of variable grain sizes (with volcanic and milky quartz components). 13. Phyllite, olive colored to gray; intercalated with chlorite schist (metavolcanic) at the base and with marble at the top. 12. Chlorite and mica schist with individual cm- to dm- thick marble lenses; at the base marble phacoids in the dm-size range. 11. Basic volcanite, marbled with feldspar, decomposed; towards the east interfoliated with chlorite- and mica schist, as well as large marble phacoids. 10. Marble, laminated. 9. Chlorite schist (metavolcanite), grayish green, with amygdaloid concretions and phyllitic interlayers. 8. Mica schist and phyllite, garnets up to 5 mm diameter; the rock is strongly decomposed. 7. Basic volcanic, dark olive green, decomposed. 6. Marble phacoids, thin-bedded calcphyllite in phyllites. 5. Limestone, dark gray, laminated; thin-bedded at top. 4. Phyllite, red and green, in part with dark gray mica schist; at the top, red phyllite with dmthick marble beds. 3. Marble, structureless, lens-shaped, resembling phacoids. 2. Marly schist, gray with flaser structure as well as individual Plattenkalk beds. 1. Plattenkalk (slabby limestone), coarsely crystalline, with intercalations of marly red and green limestones.

Illustration 4. Detail of stratification in the bedrock east of modern Mochlos (after Wachendorf et al. 1974).

transport of these nappes, the rocks within them were deformed and sheared to various degrees, depending on the physical characteristics of the included rocks. Such shearing is particularly evident in the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe owing to the inherent

weakness of these thin-bedded, foliated rocks. A conspicuous character of the phyllite series is the occurrence of phacoids: isolated, lenticular blocks of more competent rock types (e.g., limestone) that have resulted from the fracturing and shearing of

THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA

original sedimentary beds or lenses. Durkin and Lister provide a useful description of the origin of phacoids (1983, figs. 9–10). These phacoids range in size from a few centimeters to hundreds of meters, but they can commonly be seen as blocks a few meters long in many outcrops on Pseira. Since the Phyllite-Quartzite is an important element on Pseira and in the hills around Mochlos, it may be worthwhile to describe its rocks in some detail. Illustration 4 shows a typical section through this nappe, specifically based on a north-south traverse some 10 km east of Mochlos as described by Wachendorf et al. (1974). Actually, only the lowermost six units described in Illustration 4 were seen on Pseira, that is, from the upper part of the Plattenkalk into the lowermost units of the PhylliteQuartzite series (Pl. 5A). These rocks will be described in more detail below. Relatively thick units of volcanic rocks are in the middle of the section (especially unit 11, Ill. 4). They are shown as “Magmatites” in Illustration 2, and they are described as intrusive diabase on the Geologic Map of Greece (1983). These volcanics are slightly metamorphosed (to chlorite grade) and incorporate lenses of phyllite, mica schists, and large phacoids of marble. The latter probably include the “Rods of Digenes” marbles (Durkin and Lister 1983). Elsewhere in the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe, but not shown in the section (Ill. 4), are masses of gypsum, notably in the hills southwest of the village of Mochlos where it is being quarried. The geologic ages of the rocks in eastern Crete are not known with great precision because wellpreserved fossils are rare. This, of course, leads to some differences of opinion in published ages. According to Baumann et al. (1976) and the Geologic Map of Greece (1983), the autochthonous Plattenkalk is probably of Jurassic to Paleogene (Early Tertiary) age, the Phyllite-Quartzite series of Permian to Triassic age, and the Tripolitza limestones and the Pindos series both of Jurassic (?) to Eocene age; the igneous complex of the Subpelagonian nappe has been dated radiometrically to 88 to 90 million years (Late Cretaceous). Seidel et al. (1981) determined somewhat younger ages, ca. 75 million years (still Cretaceous), for the diorites and granites of the Kalo Chorio area. Following the compressional tectonics that thrust the succession of nappes onto the

17

Plattenkalk basement of Crete, a period of relaxation led to extensional tectonics. This led to new structures bounded by high-angle normal faults, oriented roughly east-west and north-south, that have broken the island of Crete into a number of compartments. Of particular importance for Pseira is the Ierapetra graben, a complex downdropped block including the Gulf of Mirabello and its extension through the lowland that cuts across mainland Crete to Ierapetra on the south shore. Here multiple NE-SW trending faults have lowered the floor of the Gulf of Mirabello in a number of steps or splinters, clearly seen in the present topography as one proceeds westward from the Mochlos vicinity. Pseira and the headland south of Pseira, which is part of a ridge leading southwestward toward Gournia (Ill. 2), are horsts, that is, elevated blocks between downfaulted areas. According to the local boatmen, this faulted topography is expressed in the sea floor on the west side of Pseira where the steep cliffs of Pseira, presumably a fault line, plunge downward some 300 m to a submerged bench about 300 m wide, which in turn is terminated by another abrupt dropoff, presumably another fault. NEOTECTONICS Differential vertical movements related to the tectonic activity described above have continued into Quaternary times, and undoubtedly are still going on. Former shorelines of late Tertiary and Quaternary times have been mapped at various places on Crete (Peters, Troelstra, and Harten 1985; Pirazzoli et al. 1982). These studies show that eastern Crete stood relatively high above sea level at the end of the Miocene Epoch, then was submerged at least 450 m early in the Pliocene Epoch, only to emerge again progressively throughout the Quaternary Epoch, during which time oscillating glacial and interglacial sea level changes were superimposed on tectonic uplift. Relative sea level changes affecting young archaeological sites document tectonic adjustments even within the last 2000 years. A synthesis of these sea level changes shows that Crete is not reacting as a single block (Flemming, Czartoryska, and Hunter 1973). Westernmost Crete is rising rather rapidly, at rates of about 4 m per 1000 years, while central Crete has undergone relatively little change. In eastern Crete the northeastern corner is

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being submerged, while the southeast is rising. These authors suggest that the Mochlos-Pseira area has subsided at a rate of 0.1 to 0.5 m per 1000

years averaged over the past two to four millennia. The implications for sites on Pseira will be discussed further below.

Local Geology of Pseira PHYSIOGRAPHY Pseira is a tilted fault block (horst) of Plattenkalk limestone thinly and discontinuously veneered with phyllites of the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe (Ill. 5). Its long axis trends NE-SW, parallel to the main faults of the Ierapetra graben, and its precipitous northwest-facing cliffs suggest that the islet is, in fact, bounded by a fault on that side. The topographic crest of the islet lies essentially just at the top of those steep cliffs, with a maximum altitude of 204 m in the southern part of the islet and of 125 m in the northern part. Thus, the transverse topographic profile of the island is distinctly asymmetrical, with slopes averaging 45 degrees toward the northwest, but only about 15 degrees or less in the southeast. The lowest general slope is found on the limestone surface of the northern part of the island where the surface drops only about 120 m in some 700 m horizontally, or about 9 degrees, in a northeasterly direction. This NW-SE asymmetry can also be seen in the dips of the underlying bedrock structure. In the higher areas close to the northwestern side of the islet, the limestone dips commonly 35 to 42 degrees easterly, whereas towards the southeast the dips flatten out to values usually between 24 and 16 degrees. Rocky cliffs bound about three-quarters of the periphery of Pseira, as shown on the topographic map. Some of these cliffs are formidable, especially those on the entire northwestern coast, on the southeastern corner of the islet, and in the cove on the north side of the archaeological site peninsula. Even where there are no cliffs, the bedrock plunges rather abruptly into the sea. The only beaches on the islet are quite small pocket beaches at the mouths of the several creeks that debouch along the southeastern sector of the shoreline. For purposes of identification, informal names will be used in the following discussion for locations that do not already have names. Well-defined

stream channels are limited to the southeastern slope of the islet. Three of these are located within 250 m south of the town site: Katsouni Creek, which enters Katsouni Cove on the south side of the site peninsula, Dune Creek, which enters a small cove marked by fossil dune sands (aeolianite) 250 m south of the site, and Middle Creek, which enters the sea between Katsouni and Dune Creeks. Another group of three small streams debouches into Mikri Ammos ca. 400–500 m north of the site. The northernmost of the three, Cabin Creek, is named from the small (plastic) fisherman’s cabin or shelter situated at its mouth. The other two will not be named for the time being. One other stream, South Creek, occurs on the south end of the islet where it flows down a steep slope on phyllite to enter the sea about 250 m east of the southwestern promontory. Another landmark is the saddle (or col) marking the constriction that separates the northern and southern portions of the figure-eight islet; this saddle is named Selli. These streams are intermittent, flowing only after heavy rainfalls. (No water was seen in any of them in July 1988.) The longest streams are only some 500–600 m, and all the channels are very youthful in the geologic sense, with irregular rocky floors interrupted by rock steps that would be the sites of small waterfalls or cascades when the stream is flowing. In some cases the stream courses seem to be controlled by bedrock features. This is particularly obvious in the case of Dune Creek, the channel of which closely follows the phyllite/metacarbonate contact, and in the case of the headwaters of Katsouni Creek, where its two tributaries from a Y-junction at about 60 m a.s.l. (in the center of the southern part of the islet) with limestone on the inside and phyllite on the outside of the branches of the Y. These channels, and a few other stream segments that could be cited, appear to

Illustration 5. Geologic map of Pseira.

W.R. Farrand and C.H. Stearns July 1987

THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA 19

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PSEIRA VIII

have developed along these contacts where stream erosion preferentially attacks the relatively weak

phyllite; thus, the streams tend to migrate in the direction of the softer rock.

Stratigraphy PLATTENKALK LIMESTONE The geological succession on Pseira includes three bedrock units and a scattering of surficial and pedogenic formations, shown in Illustration 5. The islet is essentially a fault block of Plattenkalk limestone, the vertical dimension of which extends from some 200 m above sea level to an undoubtedly even greater depth below sea level. As mentioned above, the Plattenkalk constitutes an asymmetrical mass with its bedding planes dipping eastward roughly parallel to the topographic slope of the eastern two-thirds of the islet. Thus, the steep northwest-facing cliffs, being an anti-dip slope, expose excellent outcrops of the entire section of the Plattenkalk on Pseira. Here one has a good view of the essential nature of the Plattenkalk: relatively thin-bedded, hard limestone, generally medium gray in color, crisscrossed with veins and veinlets of secondary calcite and quartz, and containing lenses and tabular bodies of chert (Pl. 5B). The beds are commonly a few decimeters to a few meters thick and laterally quite extensive, earning this formation its “Plattenkalk” or “platy limestone” appellation. In places the color varies to somewhat greenish or even dark reddish gray. Very typical Plattenkalk is also very well exposed all around Katsouni Cove, although here one is looking at shallow dip slopes (bedding plane surfaces). Here and elsewhere small-scale features, such as en echelon shear fractures, now filled with secondary minerals (calcite and quartz), are obvious. In thin section, the Plattenkalk appears as follows (2 samples). Sample PS-5. Gray limestone with laminar brown partings parallel to bedding, from the second headland south of the site; gray (5Y 5/1, Munsell) in color. This sample is a finegrained siliceous carbonate with brown ironoxide staining marking its distinctive foliation. Foliation is discontinuous, being characterized by high concentrations of clay minerals, iron

oxide, and manganese-titanium oxides. The carbonate matrix contains approximately five per cent sodium plagioclase and minor quartz. Apatite is a common accessory mineral. In hand samples, this rock has a massive brownish gray appearance, although it may break along planes of foliation. Sample PS-19. Compact microcrystalline limestone from the first headland south of the site (middle of Katsouni Cove); medium gray (5 N, Munsell) in color. This sample is a finegrained massive carbonate marked by fractures filled with secondary, recrystallized calcite. A minor clay component (ca. 2%) as well as occasional quartz and potassium feldspar grains occur randomly in the matrix. Iron oxide is concentrated, along with clay minerals, along a few horizons within the carbonate, but there is no true foliation. Authigenic pyrite was identified within the massive carbonate. In hand sample, this rock is massive and dark gray; two sets of secondary calcite-filled fractures occur at approximately right angles to each other. Structurally, the Plattenkalk is not highly deformed, although it is thoroughly recrystallized and shows foliation where clay minerals are abundant, as described for the thin sections above. As already mentioned and as shown on the geologic map (Ill. 5), the Plattenkalk generally dips southeastward, parallel to the short axis of the island. However, in the northern part of the islet, the Plattenkalk bedding bends over so that the dips are more easterly or even northeasterly, thus defining a very broad and gentle anticlinal fold with an axis approximately N 80° E. Otherwise, there are numerous small kink folds within the mass of the Plattenkalk, nicely displayed in the northwestern cliffs, but no faults or other major deformation was observed.

THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA

METACARBONATE ROCKS Stratigraphically between the Plattenkalk and the overlying phyllites is a rock unit that appeared to us at first to be of a character transitional between those formations (Pl. 6). However, upon further examination, it appears that this “transitional” unit is really the upper part of the Plattenkalk, a conclusion that is consistent with the regional interpretation. Wachendorf et al. (1974) describe the top of the Plattenkalk as gray marly schists with some limestone interbeds (see unit 2 in our Ill. 4). In the following description of a thin section of one of these rocks, both the carbonate mineralogy and the metamorphic foliation are the dominant features, and thus we have chosen to call these rocks “metacarbonates”. Sample PS-3: Metacarbonate from the coast south of Dune Creek, mottled (greenish) gray (5Y 6/7 and 7/1, Munsell) in color. This sample is a siliceous carbonate rock with a distinct foliation defined by chlorite-biotite intergrowths. Approximately 80% of this rock is composed of blocky calcite. Patchy areas of quartz, associated with minor plagioclase and occasional potassium feldspar, occur throughout the calcite matrix. Apatite is a common accessory mineral. Manganese oxide also occurs as anhedral granular patches within the carbonate, usually adjacent to a foliation plane of sheet silicates. This rock is medium-grained and fissile. In hand sample, it has a coarsegrained, greenish appearance. Field relations are consistent with the interpretation that the metacarbonates are closely related to the underlying mass of Plattenkalk. First and most obviously, the metacarbonates occur at the top of the Plattenkalk sequence, just below the phyllites. Secondly, the strikes and dips of the metacarbonates are essentially concordant with those of adjacent Plattenkalk, but discordant with nearby phyllites, as can be seen clearly in the vicinity of Dune Creek on our map (Ill. 5). The metacarbonates are well exposed along the shore both north and south of Dune Creek, as well as along the northeast flank of the archaeological site peninsula and in Megali Ammos where a Minoan quarry exists (Betancourt 1996; 2001). Generally, they have a greenish to greenish gray hue,

21

although they are reddish in places; they have a softer, more rounded appearance in outcrop than the subjacent Plattenkalk (Pl. 4). A suggestion of foliation is present, but it is much less clearly developed than in the overlying phyllite. Thus, in some places, the metacarbonates resemble the Plattenkalk more closely; elsewhere, they show similarities with the phyllite, leading to an impression of transition. Genetically, however, the metacarbonates are part of the Plattenkalk formation, whereas their metamorphic fabric was developed later through shear deformation by the overriding Phyllite-Quartzite nappe. PHYLLITES The phyllites on Pseira cover approximately 40 per cent of the surface of the islet (Ill. 5). As a first approximation, one can usually distinguish phyllite areas from the areas of limestone bedrock from a distance or on aerial photographs by the nature of the vegetation cover. Limestone outcrop areas tend to be light-colored because they are sparsely vegetated, while the phyllites support a substantially thicker shrubby growth, and appear darker. The phyllite cover is now discontinuous and relatively thin, but in the geologic past it must have been continuous and thick. In fact, not only the PhylliteQuartzite nappe, but also the succeeding Tripolitza, Pindos, and Subpelagonian nappes must have overridden the area because rocks of those northern nappes are found well south of Pseira. Since the emplacement of the nappes in middle Tertiary time, the rocks of the upper nappes have been eroded from Pseira, leaving only the basal part of the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe. Although the total thickness of the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe is about 600 m (Baumann et al. 1976), the maximum thickness on Pseira probably does not exceed 200 m and is generally a veneer only a few meters thick. On Pseira, phyllites are generally light gray to greenish white in color, although some darker gray and reddish hues occur in places. They are finegrained rocks overall, just coarse enough that individual grains can be seen, but not identified in hand specimens, giving rise to a characteristic lustrous sheen. In a few outcrops the grain size is a bit coarser so that the rock type may qualify as a schist, rather than phyllite. (This was particularly the case on the “mainland” east of Mochlos village.)

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Thin-section descriptions of two samples of phyllite are as follows: Sample PS-2: from the north coast of Pseira; grayish green (5G 5/1, Munsell) in hand specimen. This sample contains a very finegrained mixture of chlorite, clay minerals, and microcrystalline, possibly detrital biotite. There are occasional quartz-rich areas, which may have originally been detrital clasts but now are composed of a concentration of tiny sherd-like quartz fragments in a matrix of clay minerals. Rounded hematite grains are common in the chlorite-clay mixture. A horizon within this rock is characterized by coarsegrained calcite and quartz lenses, surrounded by chlorite and clay. The texture of this rock suggests deformation and shearing; the orientation of the clay minerals, chlorite, and biotite is locally distinct, but random on the scale of the thin section. In hand sample, this rock displays a rough, discontinuous foliation, parallel to the elongation of the calcite-quartz lenses. However, it is poorly cemented, and it resembles fine-grained, distorted shale more than phyllite. Sample PS-7: from the central Plateia of the site (Area BR), pale greenish gray (5GY 6–7/1, Munsell) in color. This sample is a carbonate-rich phyllite. The matrix is composed of fine-grained clay minerals and slightly coarser sericite (fine-grained white mica) that define a marked foliation. Augens (micro-phacoids or lenses) of calcite, accompanied by fine-grained quartz, occur in the phyllosilicate matrix and are elongate parallel to foliation. The calcite appears to be recrystallized, and it is partially replaced by the quartz around the margins of the lenses. Phyllosilicates bend around the calcitequartz augens. The tails of the lenses are composed of granulated quartz and calcite fragments, implying considerable shearing. In hand sample, this rock appears apple green with pale pink calcite augens. It is somewhat fissile. In a number of outcrops, trace fossils were noted on the bedding (or foliation) planes of the phyllite.

These fossils appear as lath-shaped, darker gray features up to a centimeter wide and five to ten centimeters long, apparently randomly oriented within the lighter gray phyllite matrix. They appear to be remnants of worm burrows or some other such biological structures (sometimes called chondritic fossils), and their preservation is indicative of the low-grade metamorphism that this rock has undergone. Another indicator of the minor degree of metamorphism is the preservation of original bedding of the sedimentary predecessor of the phyllite. A number of features suggest that the present planes of foliation are relict bedding planes, and the strongest confirmation is the occurrence of cross-bedding within fine-grained, sandy layers. Such crossbedding was noted in several places, but it can readily be seen in the west-facing outcrops on the north side of the saddle at Selli. On a larger scale, phacoids of limestone are quite common throughout the phyllites. These lensshaped or rhomboidal rock bodies are commonly a meter or two thick and five to ten meters long, the long dimension being parallel to the foliation of the phyllites. As mentioned above, such phacoids are characteristic inclusions within the PhylliteQuartzite nappe, and their lensoid shape is indicative of the shearing that has occurred during deformation of the phyllite series. Structurally, the phyllites on Pseira, owing to their foliated nature, are much more deformed than the underlying Plattenkalk. This characteristic is particularly obvious in the cliffs immediately above the town site where a large overturned anticline can be seen (Pl. 5A). The attitude of this fold is consistent with the north-to-south thrusting that emplaced all the overlying nappes in this part of Crete. Smaller scale folds occur throughout the extent of the phyllites. Note that the trend of the fold axes and the strike of the foliation of the phyllites is approximately east-west or ESE-WSW, so that the dip directions of the phyllites tend to be generally northward or southward, that is, nearly at right angles to that of the underlying Plattenkalk, as can be seen along the ridge just west of the town site. However, in specific cases, the dip of the foliation of the phyllites can be in almost any direction, as one can see by scanning the dip symbols on our map. This variability resulted from the structural

THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA

weakness of these highly foliated strata, and perhaps to some extent from irregular topography on the original Plattenkalk surface over which the Phyllite-Quartzite nappe was riding. It should be emphasized that the interpretation of overthrusting of the phyllites over the Plattenkalk on Pseira stems largely from the regional relations of these formations, as outlined under Regional Geology (above). Local relations on Pseira are ambivalent on this question. In most places where we

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could observe the contact between the phyllites, metacarbonates, and Plattenkalk, that contact could be interpreted as normal, conformable, and gradational. No obvious thrust plane was seen. However, this state of affairs should not be expected, given the pervasive nature of shearing during the overthrusting process that has deformed the phyllites and induced foliation within the autochthonous metacarbonates and even in the Plattenkalk (see the description of thin sections, above).

Quarternary Rocks and Soils The remaining two rock units on Pseira are quite superficial and of limited areal extent. Calcareous sandstone occurs in a small outcrop near the mouth of Dune Creek, and a thin, calcareous pedogenic crust covers the older bedrock units discontinuously in interfluve areas on higher parts of the islet. Both of these units appear to have formed on a topography very similar to the present, and thus they are undoubtedly much younger than the underlying phyllite-metacarbonate-Plattenkalk series. Although there is no way of dating them directly, the sandstone and crust are most likely of Quaternary age, that is, younger than about 2 million years. CALCAREOUS AMMOUDIA SANDSTONE The calcareous sandstone closely resembles cemented dune sands (aeolianites) that occur widely around the Mediterranean basin. Probably they were formed as sand dunes in the upper part of the shore zone (the supralittoral zone). Here, onshore winds would blow dry sand and broken shell fragments from the beach inland to the point where the sand encounters some vegetation, or other obstruction, which would slow the wind and cause the sand to be deposited. The growing sand dune itself would constitute an increasing topographic barrier, which would help to decrease the wind velocity at that point, encouraging even more sand accumulation. After formation of the sand dune, rainfall will dissolve some of the carbonate shell fragments and, under a semi-arid climate with warm, dry summers, that carbonate will be precipitated in the voids

between the grains to cement the dune into a solid, although rather porous rock. This cementation may be quite irregular so that, upon exposure and weathering, the sandstone surface is characterized by numerous cavities and protuberances, even, in some cases, a honeycomb appearance. Moreover, lowangle cross-stratification indicative of wind deposition is preserved in the outcrops at Dune Creek. This kind of calcareous sandstone goes by a number of local names in different languages. On Crete it is called ammoudia or ammoudiapetra (Soles 1983; Pike and Soles 1998; J.A. Gifford, personal communication). It is a rock sought after for architectural purposes because it is easily cut into ashlar blocks. Several such blocks have been used in Building BC and other buildings at the Pseira town site, and many others are found at Gournia, Mochlos, and other Minoan sites (Pareyn, Chap. II, in van Effenterre and van Effenterre et al. 1963). The ammoudia blocks in Building BC, however, probably did not come from the outcrop at Dune Creek where the sandstone is too friable for good ashlars. An ancient quarry at the east edge of the modern village of Mochlos (Soles 1983; Pike and Soles 1998) is the most likely source for the sandstone in Building BC and elsewhere in the Minoan town (see Betancourt, Farrand, and Myer 1999; McEnroe 2001, 30–31). The outcrop in the Mochlos quarry will be discussed further, below. At Dune Creek, the ammoudia sandstone forms a thin deposit, up to one meter thick, sloping from the cemetery area down the south valley wall toward the creek bottom. It is absent on the north

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PSEIRA VIII

valley wall where Plattenkalk limestone crops out. The ammoudia is conspicuous in the landscape by its pale pinkish white color (7.5YR 8/2–3) and irregular surface aspect. It directly overlies a dark reddish brown loamy deposit that contains scattered, irregular nodules or concretions, presumably of calcium carbonate leached downward from the overlying carbonate-rich ammoudia. This loamy deposit extends over an area somewhat larger than that covered by the ammoudia and lies directly on Plattenkalk, but it is not well enough exposed for us to be certain of its origin. It would appear to be either the remnant of a paleosol formed on the Plattenkalk or colluvium (reworked soil and slope debris eroded from higher slopes) deposited here prior to the accumulation of the ammoudia dune. A few other small, scattered deposits of similar alluvium or colluvium were seen here and there along the mid-course of other streams, but they were not large enough to map. SOILS AND PEDOGENIC CRUSTS (CALCRETE) The last rock unit to be discussed is the pedogenic crust (pedo-crust) that is preserved in many places on ridge tops and higher slopes of the islet. The pedo-crust is a form of calcrete, that is, a secondary deposit of calcium carbonate that has the aspect of a natural concrete, having a coarse skeleton of sand, soil and rock fragments bound together in a grayish white to white carbonate matrix. The calcrete matrix can vary from soft and powdery to very hard. Calcretes as a class of secondary deposits can form in a number of ways; however, the calcrete mapped on Pseira (Ill. 5) appears quite clearly to be pedogenic in origin, that is, it formed as part of a mature soil that formerly must have covered most of the islet. In soil profiles in semi-arid climates, calcium carbonate is leached or dissolved by rainwater from the upper soil horizons and is translocated to the lower horizons where, owing to the limited amount of soil water available, it is reprecipitated in the pore spaces and cracks. As the process continues, the secondary carbonate matrix gradually comes to dominate the primary soil materials. Such a whitish, more or less consolidated zone is referred to as a K horizon in pedological terminology (or a Cca horizon in former classifications).

The structure of a K horizon calcrete is typically very firm to hard and smooth or finely laminated at the top, grading downward into a softer, powdery matrix and still lower into discontinuous white nodules and specks of carbonate (Birkeland 1984, 138–146 and Table 4-A). While it is actively forming, the K horizon is covered by the upper (A and B) soil horizons, but the latter are soft and loose and subject to erosion. Around the Mediterranean basin, erosion subsequent to deforestation has stripped formerly extensive soils from most of the steeper slopes, redepositing the soil material in low-lying basins and alluvial plains (Pope and van Andel 1984). Pseira is no exception. Evidence of a former soil cover on Pseira is found in the form of small pockets of reddish brown loam or clayey loam (terra rossa) in crevices and solution cavities on the limestone surface, in larger residual patches of soil either naturally preserved in ravines or trapped behind retaining walls built by former inhabitants (see Chapter 4 by Julie A. Clark) or most extensively, in the form of resistant pedo-crust. One area of well-preserved, relatively thick terra rossa soils is found along the axis of Middle Creek, about 200–300 m WSW of the town site. This locality was conspicuous in July of 1988, because, as one approached Pseira by boat in the morning, a roughly rectangular area of yellowish grassy vegetation could be seen to contrast with the darker shrubby growth that appears typical on the phyllite bedrock. Traversing that rectangular area on foot, we noted a continuous soil cover, with a minimum thickness of some 30–50 cm, revealed in scour pits that must have resulted from torrential runoff the preceding winter. The yellowish vegetation appeared to be some kind of cereal grass, perhaps resulting from natural reseeding of a cereal crop planted in this area at some time in the past. Not all areas of pedo-crust are shown on the map (calcrete on Ill. 5). Some are too small or discontinuous to map at this scale; for example, a fair amount of pedo-crust was observed along the slopes above Cabin Creek toward Selli. As can be inferred from the map, the larger areas of pedo-crust tend to be preserved on ridge crests at the top of the islet or on divides between stream courses; these areas are less susceptible to erosion than the steeper mid-slopes and valley bottoms. It is interesting to note that the

THE GEOLOGY OF PSEIRA

large area of calcrete at the highest point on Pseira was previously mapped as Miocene bedrock (Papastamatiou et al. 1959), presumably because of its light color and weathering aspect. However, not only does it have all characteristics of a pedo-crust,

25

it also contains no stratification or fossils and is quite dissimilar to typical Miocene bedrock (which can be examined in the rock shelter just upslope from Mochlos).

Recent Sea-Level Changes in the Pseira-Mochlos Area As mentioned in our introductory remarks on Regional Geology (above), Crete is a tectonically active area, and different sectors of the island are undergoing either uplift or subsidence at various rates (Flemming, Czartoryska, and Hunter 1973; Lambeck 1996). The Pseira horst is situated within the Ierapetra graben, which has been subsiding at a considerable rate throughout Tertiary and Quaternary time. Fortuin (1978) gives details of this structural history. Therefore, it is not surprising that we have found no evidence on Pseira of ancient shorelines higher than the present strand. Although the ammoudia aeolianite at Dune Creek is presumed to have originated above a former beach, the beach in question must now be somewhat below present sea level. Moreover, the fact that port or docking facilities at the town site of Pseira have not yet been located strongly suggests that at least the eastern shore of the islet has subsided since the town was occupied, and that the former port is now buried under marine sand. The amount of post-Bronze Age subsidence of Pseira cannot yet be determined. Flemming, Czartoryska, and Hunter (1973, Table 1) give a value of 0.75 m subsidence in the last 1900 years for Pseira, but the basis for this figure is not given in

their article. The same authors list values of 0.25 m and 1.75 m subsidence since 1900 and 3600 years ago, respectively, for archaeological features at Mochlos. The evidence for these numbers presumably comes from the interpretation of the presently submerged isthmus between Mochlos village on the Cretan shore and Mochlos Island, of a submerged street on Mochlos Island, and drowned fish tanks (piscinae) of presumed Roman age at Mochlos village (Leatham and Hood 1958–1959; Soles 1978). It is likely that Pseira has undergone a greater amount of subsidence than Mochlos because Mochlos is situated very close to the eastern boundary fault of the Ierapetra graben while Pseira is well out toward the center of the graben. The figures cited above (Flemming, Czartoryska, and Hunter 1973) seem to confirm this conclusion. In addition, field evidence of uplifted Quaternary shorelines along the south Cretan shore, just east of Ierapetra, shows a very strong increase in subsidence from east to west across the same eastern boundary fault that passes through the Mochlos area (Angelier et al. 1976, fig. 5). Therefore, one might suggest that Pseira has subsided perhaps two or three times as much as Mochlos has, or some 3.5 to 5 m since Minoan times.

4

Soils and Land Use at Pseira Julie Ann Clark

An archaeologically based soil survey was carried out on Pseira during July 1987 and July 1988 to examine the present landscape and to determine the changes that have taken place in soil morphology. Soil samples were taken at twelve soil profiles (Ill. 6), and other geographical studies were conducted on the island as a whole with the intent of determining the ancient soil conditions.

The goals of the soil survey were as follows: 1. To provide detailed descriptions of the present soils and their distribution and prepare a soil map of the island. 2. To assess the potential for agricultural production through the analyses of the physical, mineralogical, and chemical properties of the soils and to suggest land-use patterns during ancient times, particularly the Minoan and Early Byzantine periods.

The Physical Environment CLIMATE The present climate of Crete is strongly Mediterranean and belongs to the mesothermal, Csa type, in Koppen’s classification (Strahler and Strahler 1983). It is characterized by moderately wet winter months and a long, dry summer period. Most of the precipitation occurs between September and May; rainfall is an exception from May to August, and because of extreme evaporation, it has little or no effect on the vegetation (Zohary and Orshan 1965).

Frost is rare, but the higher mountain peaks often have snow even in the summer. Wind is an important factor in the climate of Crete. The prevailing winds come from the north in the summer. Occasional hot, dry “sirocco” winds from North Africa bring extremely dry air, which occasionally promotes evaporation even on the north coast of Crete. The rain-bearing winter winds move east across the island. Northwest Crete tends to be more humid than the south and east. Along the

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PSEIRA VIII

Illustration 6. Locations of soil profile sites on Pseira.

north coast the annual rainfall in the west is about 600 mm, decreasing to about 350 mm in the east. In the west, precipitation increases with altitude at a rate of about 100 mm per 100 m. The White Mountains in western Crete receive about 1300 mm of precipitation annually. In the east, however, the increase is only about 50–60 mm per 100 m, giving the Siteian Mountains an annual precipitation of 550 mm (Zohary and Orshan 1965). The mean

annual temperature for NW Crete for January is 11.3° C, and for August it is 25.7° C. In NE Crete the average temperature is 12° C in January and 26.0° C in August. South Crete has a more arid climate and also higher mean annual temperatures. Average temperatures for SE Crete are 13.2° C in January and 27.2° C in August (Zohary and Orshan 1965).

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

VEGETATION OF CRETE The vegetation of Crete, as for most of southern Greece, is made up of a mosaic of maquis, garigue, and steppe with some deciduous woodland, coniferous forest, and much bare rock. Maquis, a vegetation type, is generally defined as evergreen between 1.5–5.0 m in height. This category includes shrubs that consist primarily of tree species reduced to a shrubby state by a combination of burning, browsing, and woodcutting. Shrubs make up most of the maquis category. Since maquis is primarily evergreen woodland reduced to low stature by anthropogenic activities, places that have managed to escape browsing by goats and sheep or cutting by man for a sufficient period of time will usually grow into woodland (Rackham 1983). The majority of these shrubs survive the summer drought by preventing water loss through their leaves. Most of their leaves are sclerophyllous, small, thick and leathery with waxy surfaces and very few pores, which allows low rates of transpiration (i.e., prickly oak, lentisk, and “wild” olive). Also, many have a gray or silvery color that helps to deflect the sun. Most maquis shrubs have an extensive underground root system, which is able to draw moisture from a large volume of soil. In this way they can survive during the arid summer months capturing precipitation that is stored deep in the ground. Some examples of maquis found on Crete include prickly oak (Quercus coccifer), “wild” olive (Olea europea var. sylvestris), carob (Certonia siliqua), bay-laurel (Laurus nobilis), and ramnus (Rhamnus lycioides sp. oleoides). The garigue plant community consists primarily of woody, gray-green, often aromatic undershrubs. These undershrubs are not miniature trees but are naturally of low stature (Rackham 1983). The way garigue plants deal with summer drought is varied. Some are summer deciduous while others have mats of hair protecting the surface and impeding air circulation over the leaves, thereby reducing the amount of water vapor lost. An example is Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa). Others produce oils in their leaves, which slowly vaporize in the heat, giving off characteristic fragrances: thyme (Coridothymus capitatus), sage (Satvia triloba), oregano (Origanum heracleoticum), and rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis). This property assists in reducing water loss because oil evaporates much less

29

readily than water, and the oils also coat the leaves with a thin protective film (Attenborough 1987; Rackham 1983). Garigue covers much of southern Greece today because it is unpalatable to livestock. The few plants that are tasty are often covered with thorns or prickles, making their leaves and flowers less accessible, for example spiny broom (Calicotome villosa) and thorny burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum). Steppe consists of herbaceous plants including grasses and bulbous or tuberous perennials and annuals. Of all the plant communities presently in Greece, steppe requires the least amount of yearround moisture. In the struggle for survival, maquis plants often rob moisture from other plants. As a result, garigue plants are often replaced with less water-demanding species such as steppe grasses and herbs (Rackham 1983). Some steppe plants avoid the ravages of summer and the problem of excessive evaporation by becoming dormant during the summer months. Steppe plants on Crete are numerous. Some common examples are asphodel (Asphodelus microcarpus), sea squill (Urginea maritima), camomile (Anthemis chia), and saffron (from Crocus cartwrightianus). Deciduous trees and shrubs require more moisture than broadleaved trees to survive the present Mediterranean climate. Most Cretan deciduous trees are confined to cliffs, deep, water-retentive soils, or to areas that receive excessive rain. Deeper soils and rain-excess areas enable trees to grow faster, thereby protecting themselves from browsing animals and anthropogenic effects. It seems likely, therefore, that the present distribution of deciduous trees on Crete is a reflection of man-related pressures and browsing and not the trees’ natural ecology (Moody 1987). Today, deciduous woodland is increasing, which indicates that some of the pressures that confined these trees to cliffs and other remote places have been removed, namely intensive browsing and clearing land for agriculture. Some examples of deciduous trees on Crete are the maple (Acer orientalis), oak (Quercus brachyphylla), and plane (Planus orientalis). The most common coniferous tree found on Crete is cypress (Cypressus sempervirens). It is most abundant in the White Mountains. Pine (Pinus brutia) is also found on Crete but is restricted primarily to the east, especially around Ierapetra, and

30

PSEIRA VIII

to central Crete. Animals prefer not to browse conifers, and even if young pines are browsed, they quickly grow into adult trees and do not remain in a shrubby state. Cypress trees seem to be the least palatable of Cretan trees (Moody 1987). Junipers and Cypresses are very hard to destroy, and both sprout from their stumps when cut at the base and regrow into trees. Pines, however, are destroyed by woodcutting, but because they easily grow from seed, areas of pine recover quickly. VEGETATION OF PSEIRA The vegetation on the island of Pseira is a mosaic of garigue and steppe with some maquis (see also Chap. 5). The island also has an abundance of exposed rock. Vegetation is sparse and consists largely of aromatic and spiny shrubs. Vegetation cover, which is controlled by bedrock type, is easily discernible from a distance. Overlying the porous limestone is a sparse plant cover, while the more water-retentive phyllites have a much denser vegetation cover. Plants grow wherever there is soil. Steppe grasses, thyme (Coridothymus capitatus), and euphorbia (Euphorbia acanthamnos) are commonly seen sprouting out of crevices in the limestone bedrock. Pistachio and thyme bushes tend to grow around old walls where soil has accumulated through slope erosion. Large garigue plants are found behind ancient terrace walls where the depth of soil is at a maximum, and a variety of plants are found in the ravine bottoms, including spiny asparagus (Asparagus stipularis), spiny burnet (Poterium spinosum), and maquis species in the stunted shrub state as well as the more common garigue and steppe plants. In the southwestern part of the island, the slopes are steep with little vegetation present. On these slopes the phyllite rock is breaking down, giving rise to a homogeneous yellow powdery soil. This soil is found only on the phyllite bedrock where the slopes are greater than 35 degrees. The vegetation on these slopes is sparse, consisting of steppe with some garigue. A very small wind-torn olive clings to the barren surface by Site P 8. Northeastern Pseira has a gently sloping landscape and shallow soil. The strong north winds blow across the land making it unsuitable for habitation or cultivation. Vegetation cover is sparse, consisting mainly of thyme, pistachio (Pistachio

lentiscus), and steppe grasses. A medium-sized multi-trunked olive tree with fruit is by Profile 3, at Site D 4. Garigue plants seem to prefer to sprout around existing walls, extending their roots deep into the trapped soil. From a distance, vegetation patterns or crop marks provide obvious outlines of former houses, terrace walls, and other features. The crown of the island is mostly rock with pockets of soil nestled in crevices and solution hollows in the bedrock. Where the soil depth is 10 cm or more, thyme, pistachio and some maquis plants are able to grow. In and around the Byzantine complex at Site L 1, the vegetation growth is quite dense and flourishing. Thyme and pistachio bushes mark the former walls of the complex. A small plateau is SW of the complex where Profile 11 was taken. The vegetation is dense at this location, and it has a concentration of maquis plants: “wild” olive (Olea europea var. sylvestris), and ramnus (Rhamnus lycioides ssp. oleoides). Many of the maquis plants on the island are starting to grow from a stunted stature into a tree form. Ramnus, “wild” olive, and possibly other maquis plants were so heavily browsed that they were forced to a shrubby state. Grazing has not been carried out on Pseira since 1978, and it is clearly evident that without continuous browsing the maquis plants will eventually develop into trees. West of the Byzantine complex at Site L 1, the limestone bedrock dominates the landscape, but thyme, euphorbia, and steppe grasses manage to sprout from between the limestone blocks. In general, the vegetation overlying the limestone is less dense than in the phyllite areas. Because of the pervious nature of limestone, garigue plants tend to be more widely spaced, giving each plant a larger gathering-ground for soil moisture. Thyme, pistachio, asphodel (Asphodelus microcarpus), sea squill (Urginea maritima), Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa), and various wild oats and xerophytic grasses make up the remaining plant cover. One area of interest is by Profile 2 (Site M 6). From a distance a roughly oval area is observed. Its yellowish/green hue is in marked contrast to the surrounding vegetation. The dominant vegetation in this confined area consist of graminae, which could well be the remainder of some type of grain cultivated in the past on the terraces in this area. The vegetation overlying the phyllite is dense. It is dominated by pistachio and heather (Erica

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

manipuliflora), two dark green shrubs, which contrast starkly with the surrounding limestone. Heather does not grow on the limestone areas. Thyme, euphorbia, and steppe plants are also common. On the slopes of Hill 39, the vegetation is considerably denser and larger than anywhere else on the island. Pistachio bushes grow to 1.60 m in height. Many plants are found along these slopes including sage, spiny asparagus, thorny burnet, euphorbia, and Jerusalem sage. Only one medium-sized and a few very small trees grow on Pseira, and five of them are on the slopes of this particular ravine: four “wild” olive trees and one ramnus tree. The dense vegetation continues down the ravine slopes until the bedrock becomes limestone farther south, where the plant cover diminishes rapidly and consists of the more xerophytic plants. Atriplex halimus, a member of the garigue plant community, grows in only a few locations. This plant is found sprawling out from around the tomb area and a modern stone hut. In two other locations it sprouts from extensive outcrops of calcrete. It could be that this garigue plant prefers a chalky, alkaline environment or responds to human interference. The main promontory has been extensively cleared for the excavation of the archaeological remains. Patches of thyme and grasses are growing on the colluvium washed down from up slope. Two small cypress trees (Cypressus sempervirens) were planted just north of the site before the modern archaeological project started, but they did not survive long. CHANGES IN VEGETATION AND CLIMATE Pollen analysis is used for the reconstruction of past environments. In much of Greece, however, the modern Mediterranean climate does not provide suitable environments for the preservation of fossil pollens. Pollen grains are produced in large quantities by flowering plants and are scattered by the wind or by insects. The pollen that falls on the ground is usually destroyed within a few years unless it falls on a constantly dry or wet site, in which case it may be preserved for thousands of years. These localities are rare in southern Greece as a result of the Mediterranean climate and the relatively porous rocks. However, a few sediment

31

cores preserving fossil pollen have been taken in the southern Aegean, and they provide a palynological record from the early Neolithic to the Venetian period (Ill. 7). Not all plants produce the same amount of pollen, and the dispersal of pollen also varies. In general, wind-pollinated plants produce more pollen and disperse it more widely than insect-pollinated plants (Rackham 1983). When interpreting a pollen diagram, greater weight must be given to poor pollen producers. Even small quantities of well-dispersed types might indicate vegetation farther away or even not on Crete. In order to reconstruct the past vegetation on the basis of pollen analysis, it is important to consider the modern “pollen rain” of an area where the present vegetation can be examined at the same time (Wright et al. 1967). Pollen cores have been published from both Crete and the mainland of Greece. Cores relevant to the climate and vegetation of Crete include the following: 1. Northwest Crete: Tersana and Limnes near Akrotiri (Moody 1987) 2. South Central Crete: Hagia Galini (Bottema 1980) 3. Southwest Peloponnese: Osmanaga Lagoon no. 30, no. 15 (Wright et al. 1972) and Navarino no. 3 (Kraft et al. 1980) 4. Southeast Peloponnese: Limni Thermisia (Sheehan 1979) 5. Central Greece: Lake Copais (Greig and Turner 1974; Turner and Greig 1975) The general trends of the pollen records are summarized with implications for vegetation and climatic changes. NORTHWEST CRETE: AKROTIRI (AT TERSANA AND LIMNES) POLLEN CORES The pollen records from Akrotiri (NW Crete) seem to imply that the semi-natural vegetation would have been a mosaic of woodland and nonwoodland, with garigue covering roughly half of the local area (Moody 1987). Olive pollen appeared at ca. 4700 B.C. (Middle Neolithic) and increased by ca. 3500 B.C. (Late Neolithic). An increase in steppe grasses (i.e., asphodel) suggests land clearing for cereals and grains. The marked

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PSEIRA VIII

Illustration 7. Pollen sites in Greece.

decline in tree pollen other than olive suggests that human alteration of the local environment was pronounced in the Late Neolithic. Linden (Tilia) and hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) pollen were present during the Neolithic. This is interesting because these deciduous trees require a cooler and wetter climate than the present. Linden is also a poor producer and disperser of pollen, so the presence in the spectra is quite significant. Pollen from linden and hornbeam also reappears in the pollen diagram during the Early Bronze Age, which indicates that these plants did not disappear from the landscape completely. Their absence is most probably a result of human activities and not a change in climate. If there had been a change in climate, the trees and pollen would have disappeared altogether.

The evidence of human impact on the environment is quite clear during the Early Minoan period. Olive trees increase, and pines, cypress, and woodland decrease. The presence of olive (Olea europea) indicates that the winters were more moderate, because cultivated olives, though drought resistant, do not tolerate long, hard frosts. In order for their fruits to ripen, they require a warm, dry season and a fairly cool winter to flower and bear fruit (Moody 1987). The presence of linden during this period suggests that the climate was fairly wet. In conclusion, it seems that the climate appears to have been wetter but just as warm as today. The trend toward a climate similar to the present began on Crete in the Early Bronze Age and continued through to the Late Bronze Age. The palynological

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

evidence for the Akrotiri region indicates that at no time was there a continuous forest cover. SOUTH CENTRAL CRETE: HAGIA GALINI POLLEN CORE The present climate in south central Crete is considerably more arid than along the north shore. The reconstruction of the earliest known vegetation from Hagia Galini points to a natural pattern of deciduous oak with steppe but a complete absence of garigue (Bottema 1980). In the Early Bronze Age noticeable amounts of garigue species pollen indicate vegetation changes caused by either manrelated disturbance (Rackham 1983) or a change in climate, shifting to a more arid environment or the rainy season being concentrated into fewer months. The presence of deciduous oak suggests a milder climate than the present. The evidence suggests a change to more xerophytic vegetation near the end of the Early Bronze Age, agreeing with the findings from northwest Crete (Moody 1987). POLLEN CORES FROM THE PELOPONNESE AND CENTRAL GREECE Pollen cores from the Peloponnese agree with the picture suggested for Crete. A pollen record for Navarino in the southwest of Greece covers a period from ca. 7300 B.C. to the Neolithic (Kraft et al. 1980). Cores from the Osmanaga Lagoon (contiguous to the east) cover the period from ca. 2400 B.C. to modern times (Wright 1972). Olive cultivation seems to have already existed in the Neolithic period, and a gradual change from a wetter to a more Mediterranean climate is documented during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. A core from Limni Thermisia in the Argolid suggests a similar conclusion (Sheehan 1979; Moody 1987). The information extracted from the pollen core taken from the drained Lake Copais is in harmony with the cores from Crete and the Peloponnese. SOILS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN Soil types in Greece vary according to altitude and bedrock types. Typical soils found in the Mediterranean region are Red Mediterranean soils, widely known as “terra rossas.” They occur on hard limestones and other calcareous rocks. Terra rossas have been identified as a common element of the Mediterranean landscape, but their nature

33

and genesis remain a controversial issue among researchers. For many years they were considered to have formed from the insoluble residue remaining from dissolution of limestone (Nevros and Zvorykin 1936; Anastassiades 1949; Khan 1960; Danin, Gerson, and Garty. 1983). It has also been suggested that these soils are derived from aeolian materials (MacLeod 1980; Yaalon and Ganor 1973), and others believe that they may have originated from volcanic eruptive material (Kubiena 1970). The properties of specific soil parent materials are responsible for the physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics of the terra rossa, and these properties are the result of the weathering processes that take place in a Mediterranean environment. The characteristic profile of a Red Mediterranean soil is ABC: an ochric A horizon overlying a reddish-brown textural B horizon with marked coatings of illuviated clay (Bt), overlying a C horizon or parent material (FAO-Unesco 1966; Limbrey 1975; MacLeod 1980). The presence of a Bt horizon is considered diagnostic, although Verheye and Stoops (1973) report that micromorphological evidence of clay movement is weak or absent in some terra rossa soils studied from Lebanon. This situation could be a result of disruption of the clays during extensive desiccation of the soil. During the winter when the soil is wet, weathering of the parent material releases iron (Fe) into the soil environment. Subsequent dehydration of these ions during the dry summer period facilitates their transformation and crystallization into stable hematite, which gives the red coloration to these soils (Duchaufour 1982). Although the Mediterranean climate is particularly favorable for rubification, these types of soils are also found elsewhere in the world. Time is another important factor. Ageing alone can cause reddening of some soils. Brown Mediterranean soils are similar to the Red Mediterranean soils except that the color of the B horizon is brown and not reddish-brown. Kubiena (1970) states that the Red Mediterranean soils (terra rossas) were developed in the warm, humid periods of the Tertiary and of the Pleistocene and that the present climate is too dry for the relic soils to remain in equilibrium with their environment. It is surmised that the soil became loosened by deflocculation, which caused a disruption of the fabric. Climate change also resulted in

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PSEIRA VIII

secondary calcium carbonate (CaCO3) enrichment, causing the soil to be impregnated with recrystallized calcite. Erosion may have accelerated as a result of a lack of dense vegetation cover and man’s activities. Usually only part of the older soil cover remains, but in some places it has been completely stripped. The transformed soils contain a large amount of the allochthonous minerals primarily in the silt and the fine sand fraction (Kubiena 1970). The soils that are regarded as typically Mediterranean are relic (Davidson 1980; Limbrey 1975; Kubiena 1970) and are typically shallow and intermixed with lithosols. The age of these soils is difficult to determine because they have been strongly affected by Pleistocene climatic changes and reworking of surficial sediments, which form the polygenetic terra rossa. The soil forming factors of climate, vegetation, parent material, topography, and time all play important roles in the formation of soil (Jenny 1941). The greatest transformations of the soils in Greece are due to the influence of sheet and gully erosion on the relatively steep topography (Nevros and Zvorykin 1936). Periodic winter floods, uneven distribution of rainy seasons, and the steep topography destroy the soil and transport it elsewhere. After the long summer drought, the dry, friable soil is easily washed down the slope and deposited into the sea rather that on the land. Soil is eventually completely stripped from the underlying rock, and surfaces become exposed. On Crete the dryness and extreme evaporation influence the nature of the soil-forming processes. Soils of semi-arid and arid regions are subject to the same soil forming factors as soil in more humid areas but, because of the limited supply of water, the intensities of these factors are different, giving rise to processes characteristic of the more arid regions. The low availability of organic matter and its rapid decomposition result in little incorporation in the solum. Organic matter is low because of the paucity of plant residues and the predominance of oxidizing decomposition precesses due to the high temperatures and the restricted formation of humic acids (Buol 1965). Distinct horizons of eluviation and illuviation are not usually present because the downward movement of the water is slow and interrupted, and the upward movement by evaporation overcomes the downward movement. The

combined influence of the high content of calcium ions in the parent material and inadequate leaching often results in calcareous horizons and, in extreme cases, calcrete. Calcrete, which is equivalent to caliche (United States), kouskouras (Crete), kunkar (India and East Africa), croute calcaire (France), nari (Israel), and havara and kafkalla (Cyprus), is a superficial accumulation found in present semi-arid areas (Goudie 1972). There are several theories on the development of calcrete, which forms as a result of pedogenic processes. A cemented Ck or Cca horizon develops at a depth down the profile by an in situ weathering of carbonate-rich parent material and decarbonation of soil materials (Gile, Peterson, and Grossman 1965). An alternate process is a Cca development from decarbonation of the upper soil solum and subsequent carbonate accumulation due to limited leaching leading to the formation of calcrete layers (Buol 1965). Chemical analyses carried out on calcrete samples from around the world indicate that calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is its major constituent (80%). The second most important constituent is silica. It tends to accumulate in the drier areas where it readily combines with CaCo3 during precipitation. Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) is not a major constituent but can vary locally (Goudie 1972). MgCO3 is more soluble than CaCO3, and therefore is leached more readily from the soil profile. The following conclusions can be made about calcrete in the Mediterranean area (Goudie 1972 and Dan 1977): 1. Calcrete can form on most bedrock and loose sediment surfaces. 2. The depth of the crust varies with the amount of precipitation and average temperatures. Thinner crusts develop under moister conditions because of more intense leaching so that the carbonates do not get reprecipitated in the crust. Time and amount of source material are also important. 3. Calcrete usually forms in the C horizon. The particle size of the underlying parent controls the thickness of the crust and the rate of crust formation.

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

SOIL EROSION The effects of erosion are evident in many parts of Greece, as shown by slopes completely stripped of soil, the dominance of shallow lithosols, and the extensive areas of alluvium deposited in valley floors. This situation is partly due to climatic changes, but the intervention of man is also crucial. The conversion of more land for agriculture had a negative effect on the landscape producing accelerated erosion and denuded landscapes. Clearing of the land has also resulted in increased evaporation in the shallower soils caused by the hot summer sun and drying winds (Kubiena 1970). Vita-Finzi (1980) identified two major periods of valley-fill as a result of increased soil erosion in Greece and other Mediterranean countries, an “Older Fill” containing Upper Paleolithic artifacts, and a “Younger Fill” containing sherds ranging from the 2nd to 3rd century A.D. to roughly the present (Vita-Finzi 1980). Vita-Finzi originally suggested that deposition of the “Younger Fill” was synchronous throughout the Mediterranean. Butzer (1974) pointed out that the timing of the start of aggradation ranges over a 500 year period and interpreted this as evidence for anthropogenic factors, which would better account for the diachronic nature of the sediments. He believes that human factors were the main causes of erosion and subsequent deposition. Wagstaff’s review (1981) and work by Pope and van Andel (1984) in the Southern Argolid also show that anthropogenic factors must be considered when explaining the causes of alluviation

35

after ca. 2500 B.C. Erosion of the landscape may also have been exacerbated by poor land management. Climatic fluctuations possibly contributed to this “Younger Fill.” In Europe the late Roman period (A.D. 500) was a time of increased rainfall and decreased temperatures (Bintliff 1982). Thus, the intervention of man and change in climate should both be considered as complementary causes. During the Roman period, when considerable land was cleared, Crete had a substantial grain trade with Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Italy (discussion in Sanders 1980). This trade shows that Crete was extensively cultivated, which would have a direct effect on soil erosion. Another variable to consider is tectonism. Crete is situated in an active tectonic zone, and the island has experienced an uplift in the west and a lowering of the land in the east. This change would also have had some affect on the sediments because tectonics controls the gradient of the land surface and thus the potential for erosion (Blatt, Middleton, and Murray 1972). In northwest Crete, evidence of aggradation around A.D. 400 has been documented (Moody 1987). The evidence from recent studies around the Mediterranean indicates that several periods of deposition have occurred since the end of the Pleistocene and that these phases are the result of local factors in addition to a general change in land use and climate (Davidson 1978; Davidson 1980; Davidson and Tasker 1982; Pope and van Andel 1984; van Andel, Runnels, and Pope 1986; Wagstaff 1981).

Field Procedures SOIL SAMPLES The entire island was surveyed, except for the precipitous cliffs. Field observations were compiled directly on topographic maps at a scale of 1:5000. The bedrock, soil types, and vegetation were studied. Soil samples were collected from 12 soil pits (Ill. 6) and from several surficial deposits. They were examined, described, photographed, and sampled. Sites for soil description and sampling were chosen on the basis of discernible landscape

features, for example behind terrace walls and at differences in bedrock type and vegetation cover. Bulk samples were collected from variable depths down the profile and not from horizons. Soil types were identified in the field by a number of criteria, including parent material and mode of deposition (colluviation, alluviation, etc.), texture, depth, abundance of roots, pH, slope, stoniness, color, and landscape or relief (FAO-Unesco 1977).

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PSEIRA VIII

METHODOLOGY FOR LAND USE The former land use was estimated from the extensive system of terrace walls still visible on Pseira. The area that was once terraced was estimated from the surviving remains. The area of the entire island was calculated including areas that

were unterraced and areas of flat land ( Na+ The relative cation concentrations on the clay humus complexes (Bohn, McNeal, and O’Connor 1979) are generally: Ca > Mg > K > Na

Illustration 11. Particle size plotted on a soil textural triangle.

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

CEC is probably the most important soil reaction because plants obtain most of their nutrients in ionic form through exchange phenomena. Calcium, magnesium, and potassium are all essential plant nutrients. Calcium is a macronutrient, and the exchangeable form is the most important source of available plant nutrient. In soils derived from sedimentary rocks, Ca2+ and Mg2+ are usually provided by micas and by secondary minerals such as carbonates and sulfates. The base saturation of a soil depends on the availability and degree of weathering of the minerals and the leaching of the cations. Despite the importance of Ca as an exchangeable cation, soils derived from limestone can be unproductive. Weathering releases Ca2+ and HCO3, which are leached under humid conditions or precipitated under more arid conditions. The fertility of limestone-derived soils generally increases with the amount of silicate impurities in the parent material. On slopes subject to erosion, limestone soils are usually shallow and unproductive (Bohn, McNeal, and O’Connor 1979). Magnesium (Mg) plays a major role in plant metabolism, and it is essential for plants. In soils Mg occurs principally in the clay materials and in chlorites, micas, and vermiculites. The presence of available potassium (K) in the soil has much to do with the general tone and vigor of plants. Potassium is essential for the development of chlorophyll and is important in grain formation (Brady, ed., 1974). Minerals containing potassium include feldspars and micas, and these minerals are quite resistant to weathering. The greatest part (90–98%) of all soil potassium is in relatively unavailable forms “fixed” in the silicate mineral lattices. Only a small amount of K in soils is available to be taken up by plants (usually between 1–2%). The presence of Ca in abundance may reduce K uptake by plants, and K deficiency is common in soils with excess calcium carbonate (Brady, ed., 1974). The variations of exchangeable calcium, magnesium, and potassium with depth for selected soil profiles from Pseira are presented in Illustrations 12 and 13. The concentration of calcium in the soils on Pseira is considerably higher than the concentrations of magnesium or potassium. This situation can be attributed to the parent material and the fact that Mg is leached much more strongly than Ca

45

(Bonneau and Souchier, eds., 1982). Potassium contents are very low. Plants do not require large amounts of this element, and because of the way it is fixed in the mineral lattices, K is not easily exchangeable. This situation is what one might expect for soils developing on calcareous rock with minimum leaching of bases taking place, although the weathering of the phyllite rock would be a source of magnesium. In general, the upper soil samples have higher values of Ca2+ (which may be attributed to higher amounts of organic matter that would in turn result in higher CEC values). The soils are very low in clay and humus, especially at lower depths, and this influences the CEC. The Calcareous Lithosol, Profile 8, has the highest values for Mg but very low calcium amounts. This could be a function of the phyllite parent rock. The CEC values for the soils on Pseira are typical of soils in the Mediterranean region overlying hard limestones, and they show similar trends to other soil studies (Reifenberg and Ewbank 1933; Nevros and Zvorykin 1936; Anastassiades 1949; Khan 1960).

Illustration 12. Exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K of Profile 1.

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of the mica group, which includes muscovite, biotite, and illite. Micas were identified by a strong peak at 10Å. Higher orders appear for muscovite at 5.0Å, and a strong reflection appears at 3.33Å, which is combined with the most intense quartz reflection. Kaolin may have been derived from the underlying rock or formed by pedological processes. It is present in higher amounts at greater depths in the soil profile. The samples taken from colluvium at the archaeological site contain moderately high amounts of kaolin, which would have been weathered from the limestone and phyllite rocks and eventually been deposited on the promontory through alluviation and colluviation and/or through anthropogenic means. The presence of a concentration of kaolin has been interpreted as indicative of a more weathered soil system. The vermiculite-smectite interlayer appears after glycolation with a strong peak at 6.8Å. This is a higher order of the vermiculite-smectite reflection. The first order of peak is not recorded on the X-ray diffraction pattern, which would likely be in the range of 14.2–16Å. Vermiculite and calcite are absent from most of the analyses. In the particle-size analysis the soils were treated with acetic acid, which dissolves carbonates, and this acid would account for the absence of calcite in the soil clay. Quartz is very stable and is present in moderately high amounts in all samples. Veins and masses of quartzite in the Phyllite nappe (see Farrand and Stearnes, Chapter 3) and the Plattenkalk limestone would account for the presence of quartz in the soil clay.

Illustration 13. Exchangeable Ca, Mg, and K of Profile 5.

MINERALOGICAL ANALYSIS In general, the soil samples analyzed by X-ray diffraction contain chlorite, kaolin, micas, a vermiculite-smectite interlayer, and nonphyllosilicates such as quartz and calcite. Minerals having d-spacings in the range of 14Å include vermiculites, chlorites, and smectites. Vermiculite is differentiated from chlorite by heating the sample to 550° C, at which point the 14Å peak collapses to 10Å, but the chlorite reflection is unchanged. Chlorite is low in all samples. The 10Å peak represents the reflection

Sample Profile 1 (0–10 cm) Profile 1 (20–45 cm) Profile 4 (0–20 cm) Profile 12 (0–10 cm) Profile 13 (MM–LM) Profile 13 (Byz.) Profile 13 (surface)

Quartz

Chlorite

Kaolin

Mica

Calcite

Vermiculite

mod mod mod mod mod mod high

low low low low low low low

low mod mod low mod mod mod

mod mod mod mod mod mod mod

–– –– –– mod –– low ––

very low –– –– –– –– low ––

KEY

Table 5. Clay mineralogy.

80%

dominant

Mixed Layer mod mod mod mod mod low mod

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

47

Soils and Land Use Terra rossa soils are relic palaeosols formed during the humid conditions of the Tertiary and of the Pleistocene (Kubiena 1970). In areas throughout the Mediterranean, these soils are preserved as buried soils (where the original soil profile has been decapitated and new soil has developed on top) or as residual soils found in Karst depressions. They are also found in regions where the climatic conditions favor the preservation of their original pedological features. In areas where the soil was scarce, it was sometimes added from elsewhere. These anthropogenic soil deposits may have retained pedological features of the relic Red Mediterranean soils. Erosion on Pseira has been severe, leaving only embryonic patches of soil in solution hollows and crevices. The only substantial soil found on the island is retained behind the remains of terrace walls (Ill. 14). The Red Mediterranean/Lithosols on Pseira are rubified. This characteristic is a relic pedological feature, although the soils are probably still undergoing rubification since they were deposited as terrace fill. Iron oxides present in the soil are crystallized and transformed into hematite after each rainy period. The Brown Mediterranean/ Lithosols have not been rubified, which suggests that they are a contemporary soil. The soil remaining on the island can be described as being polygenetic, consisting of AC profiles. Pseira must have once had a thicker and more complete soil cover, because it is otherwise difficult to account for adequate sediment sources for the extensive deposits that have accumulated as colluvium and through anthropogenic means at the archaeological site. On the main promontory at the archaeological site (called Katsouni), two distinct layers of sediment have been detected. A lower reddish deposit is dated to the Middle/Late Minoan period, while upper deposits contain Byzantine sherds. There is clear inference that the source for the sediments on the site was soil mantling the slopes. The particle size distributions, color, texture, and other diagnostic features compare with those of the soil retained behind terrace walls. This sequence of aggradation conforms to other depositional phases in Greece and throughout the Mediterranean (Vita-Finzi 1980; Davidson and Tasker 1982; van Andel, Runnels, and Pope. 1986).

The extent of terracing on Pseira reflects the magnitude of human effort in soil conservation to maintain sufficient land for agriculture. The Minoan terrace walls follow the contours of the island and are built of stone bonded with soil. By the Late Minoan period, it is apparent that the inhabitants on Pseira used all possible land, because in places the terrace wall remains are found butting right up against streambeds. On average the walls stand 0.6 m to 1.4 m in height, and two are higher: 1.78 m high (G 2) and 1.98 m high (M 58). The terrace walls obviously stood higher in the Late Minoan period, because rubble from their collapse is often in front of them. The adverse effects of accelerated erosion have forced man to adopt methods to conserve soil resources. Hill-slope terracing has been used throughout antiquity, and terraces are among the most widespread influences of man on the landscape. Terraces have several purposes: 1. They help to prevent slope erosion. 2. They allow cultivation of steep slopes by providing level land. 3. They help to retain soil moisture by providing deeper sediments for absorption. The soil only blows away when it is dry, and any activity that conserves soil moisture is beneficial. 4. They help promote root penetration. The terrace walls on Pseira are usually more or less parallel, following the contours. Observations on Crete show that terraces for olives and grapes tend to be better constructed than those used for grain and fodder (Moody and Grove 1990). The extra value of the crop justifies the trouble of building the stone walls. The two dams (Sites M 9 and M 29) in two ravines on the southeast slopes of Pseira were used as reservoirs. They were built during the Late Minoan I period. Water would have been held in the spring and used for irrigation, and the soil collected from behind the dams could be carted upslope and reused as terrace fill. The evidence suggests that terraces like the one at Site G 2 functioned as check dams as well as

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Illustration 14. Extent of terracing on Pseira.

plots for cultivation. Check dams are usually built in a step-like manner along a drainage course and at a variable distance apart (e.g., G 2 and the terraces below it, and M 29 and the terraces below it). If terraces and check dams are kept in good repair, they virtually eliminate the effects of sheet and gully erosion. The soil retained is relatively stable but, once the wall is breached, erosion is rapid and difficult to contain. Terracing and check dams have

been documented from the Southern Argolid (van Andel, Runnels, and Pope 1986) and North and South America (Herold 1965; Donkin 1979; Shea 1987; Smith and Price 1994) as well as from Crete and elsewhere in Greece (Moody and Grove 1990; Whitelaw 1991; Rakham and Moody 1992; Foxhall 1996; Krahtopoulou 1997; French and Whitelaw 1999; Frederick and Krahtopoulou 2000). The two Pseira dams, M 9 and M 29, acted both as check

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

dams and reservoirs, principally the latter, providing both water for irrigation and soil collected behind them, which could be used as terrace fill when the

49

reservoirs were periodically cleaned out (Betancourt and Hope Simpson 1992).

Conclusions The ancient remains on Pseira show that the island once supported a prosperous community. The terrace walls indicate that the Bronze Age inhabitants practiced soil conservation and supported the settlement with agricultural crops and probably some grazing of sheep and goats. Although most terrace walls are partially ruined, the remains reveal to what extent the island was terraced (Ill. 14). The total area of Pseira is 1.75 square kilometers, and approximately 1.46 square kilometers could have been potentially used for agriculture. Approximately 60–70% of the available land was terraced and, depending on the slope, 80–88% of the slopes were made into flat land. This means that 60–70% (0.9 km2 or 90 hectares) may have been used for agricultural activities. The soils on Pseira are typical of Greece and the Mediterranean region, and the productivity of the available land would provide a subsistence level of farming for the island. The core of Mediterranean farming is the cultivation of cereal and olive crops. The olive tree is the traditional indicator of the true Mediterranean climate. Olives grow well on limestone soils and, unlike many other crops, can grow on thin, stony, calcareous soils in areas where precipitation is a limiting factor. Agronomists have shown that olives grow well only on calcareous soils (Reifenberg 1947). Along with wheat and olive, vines form the familiar triad in the Greek diet. Grape growing is a prominent and traditional feature of Greek agriculture, and the ability of the vine to flourish in rocky, highly calcareous soils makes it a valuable crop (Kayser and Thompson 1964). Cereal crops are also fairly tolerant in the range of soil conditions. Wheat will tolerate mildly acidic soils, while barley is tolerant to moderate amounts of alkalinity and other salts in the soil. Wheat does not grow well in a very low rainfall area, but barley is well adapted to the summer drought conditions of Greece (Kayser and Thompson 1964). In the Mediterranean area, moisture stress is a limiting

factor for agricultural land use, so that it is likely that barley was an important crop during the Late Bronze Age (Kayser and Thompson 1964). It is common practice to intercrop olive with cereals and sometimes grapes (personal observations; Kayser and Thompson 1964). During the Byzantine period, cereal crops were cultivated, as there are several threshing floors (alonia), which have diagnostic constructions datable to this period. On Pseira it would seem, in any case, that the terraces supported a variety of crops (olive, vine, cereals) during the Bronze Age occupation. Even assuming a minimum wall height, the terrace fills would have provided adequate soil, and the present chemical state of the soils found on Pseira indicates that they could support these staples. The soils on Pseira have undergone a long and complex history, making the classification of the present soil profiles particularly difficult. They are polygenetic, and they have been reused during the history of the island. It appears that there have been pedological processes taking place in these deposits. The soils on the island are alkaline, medium textured sandy silt loams with stony phases throughout the profile. In general, they are shallow soils characterized by an AC profile; horizonation is faint or absent. CaCo3 is moderately abundant throughout the soil profiles with percentages in the range of 25–35%. Organic matter is low, and its rapid decomposition results in little being incorporated into the solum. Cation exchange values are moderately high, but the abundance of calcium ions must be taken into consideration. Mineralogically, the soil clays include kaolin, mica, and chlorite, which are in part inherited from the weathering of the underlying bedrock types and formed as a result of pedogenic processes. A smectite-vermiculite interlayer is present. The island offers a unique opportunity to study its soils and its Bronze Age land-use patterns.

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Elsewhere on Crete, terraces have been reused continually throughout history. If the soils and terraces from a situation similar to Pseira could be studied, this would help to determine if other Bronze Age settlements practiced soil conservation and reused the soil. Present day land-use studies have been carried out on Crete where the present day situations are available and communication with the local

population plays an important role. Unfortunately, this is not the case on Pseira, which has been uninhabited since ca. A.D. 900 and used seasonally for grazing of sheep and goats until A.D. 1978. On the other hand, this situation is fortunate in that it has resulted in the preservation of the evidence for Minoan and Byzantine agriculture.

Sample Descriptions Samples from thirteen locations are described (Profiles 1–13). Dry color of soil is recorded first. PROFILE 1, SITE G 2: RED MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (RM/LI) Samples were collected from soil retained behind an ancient terrace wall in the limestone area north of the archaeological site. The site was on a 25 degree slope, 90 m above sea level. The surrounding vegetation consisted mainly of dispersed thyme, pistachio undershrubs, and steppe grasses. The soil was very dry when sampled. Faint horizonation was present down the profile. Micromorphological samples were taken at various depths. 0–10 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and light brown (7.5YR 6/4) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; abundant fine and medium roots; faint boundary; pH 7.6. 20–45 cm. Reddish yellow to strong brown (7.5YR 6/6–5/6) and yellowish red (5YR 4/8) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium subangular blocky; few plastic roots; pH 7.6. 45–80 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 5/6 to 5YR 4/8) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium subangular blocky; fairly stony; calcic layer 80 cm+; pH 8.2. PROFILE 2, SITE M 6: RED MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (RM/LI) Profile 2 was located on a 25 degree slope behind an ancient terrace wall about 40 m asl. The parent material was limestone. The dominant vegetation in the immediate area was a type of wild

oat/graminae, which was in contrast with the rest of the vegetation on Pseira. A calcic horizon began at 80 cm below the surface and continued to some depth. Horizonation was very faint. In general, the soil was darker near the surface. 0–5 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; abundant fine roots; pH 8.0. 20 cm. Strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) and brown (7.5YR 4/6) sandy silt loam; strong, medium subangular blocky; abundant plastic fine and medium roots; fairly stony; pH 8.0. 45 cm. Reddish yellow (7.5YR 7/6–6/6) and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) sandy silt loam; increase in CaCO3 giving rise to a paler hue; stony fragments of phyllite; pH 8.0. 60–90 cm. Yellowish brown (5YR 4/6 to 5YR 4/8); soil embedded in the calcic horizon; pH 8.1. PROFILE 3, SITE D 4: RED MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (RM/LI) The profile was located in the north of the island on a gentle slope of about 12 degrees, at 100 m asl. A medium-sized olive tree was 4 m NE of the profile. The parent material was limestone. It was very windy on this part of the island. Vegetation consisted of garigue and steppe grasses. The soil was quite shallow and bright yellowish red in color. There was no horizonation. 0–5 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 5/6 to 5YR 4/6) silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; abundant fine roots; pH 7.4.

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

5–45 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 4/8) loam; fairly stony; strong, medium subangular blocky; pH 8.0. 50+ cm. Calcic layer; pH 8.5. PROFILE 4, SITE D 10: EXTREME LITHOSOLIC/RED MEDITERRANEAN The profile was located on gently sloping terrain in the north. The remains of an enclosure with dry stone boundary walls, probably Byzantine, could be seen at this location. The parent material was limestone, and the soil was shallow. 0–20 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 4/8) and dark reddish brown (5YR 3/6) silt loam; moderate, medium crumb, subangular blocky; pH 8.0. PROFILE 5, SITE D 12: BROWN MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (BM/LI) The profile was located on the transition between limestone and phyllite bedrocks in the north. The samples were collected from the soil retained behind a large terrace wall about 90 m asl on a 15 degree slope. The vegetation consisted of thyme, pistachio, Jerusalem sage, and various steppe grasses. There was no apparent horizonation. 0–5 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) sandy loam; moderate, medium crumb; abundant fine and medium roots; pH 7.6. 5–30 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6–5/8) sandy silt loam; weak, medium crumb; pH 8.0. 40–50 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4– 6/3) to yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy silt loam; weak, medium crumb; pH 8.0. PROFILE 6, SITE M 8: COLLUVIUM Profile 6 was located west of the promontory on the NE slope of Hill 39, about 20 m asl. Terrace walls and remains of house walls were on this slope. The underlying bedrock was limestone. Many large stones as well as pottery sherds were throughout the profile. The soil site is a filled in Minoan house. 0–10 cm. Brown (7.5YR 5/4) and dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) sandy silt loam; moderate,

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medium crumb, stony; fine and medium roots; secondary CaCO3 present; pH 7.8. 20–25 cm. Strong brown (7.5YR 5/6 to 7.5YR 4/6) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium subangular blocky; rocky; pH 8.0. PROFILE 7, SITE L 6: RED MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (RM/LI) The profile was located on a slope about 136 m asl. The slope was moderately steep, approximately 30 degrees, with remains of ancient terrace walls. The parent material was limestone, and the plant cover consisted of sage, pistachio, heather, and a wind-torn olive tree approximately 5 m NE of Profile 7. Horizonation was not apparent; a calcic layer was below 80 cm. 10 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 5/6 and 5YR 4/8) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; many roots; pH 8.0. 30 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 4/8 and 5YR 5/8) silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; calcareous concretions; plastic; pH 8.0. 70–75 cm. Yellowish red (5YR 4/8 and 5YR 5/8) silt loam; in calcic layer; pH 8.2. PROFILE 8, SITE L 29: CALCAREOUS LITHOSOL The profile was located on a steeply dissected slope with a 38 degree gradient, in the extreme SW part of the island. The slopes had poorly preserved terrace walls. An extensive outcrop of calcrete resulted from the erosion in this area. The friable phyllite bedrock was breaking down and producing the yellow soil, which covered the slopes. It was very homogeneous with no horizonation, continuing to a considerable depth. This soil type was common on the steep phyllite slope in the SW of the island. 10–15 cm. Light yellow (2.5Y 7/4) and dull yellow (2.5Y 6/4) sandy silt loam; weak, fine crumb; fragments of carbonate concretions present throughout soil; pH 7.8. 30–40 cm. Light yellow (2.5Y 7/3) and dull yellow (2.5Y 6/4) sandy silt loam; weak, fine crumb; small stones and carbonate concretions abundant; pH 8.0.

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40–60 cm. Light yellow (2.5Y 7/3) and dull yellow (2.5Y 6/3) sandy silt loam; fragments of phyllite bedrock abundant; pH 8.0. PROFILE 9, SITE L 5: BROWN MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (BM/LI) The samples were taken from soil retained behind a large terrace wall at 140 m asl. The slope of the terrain in the area was about 18 degrees. The bedrock was phyllite. Horizon differentiation was faint. 0–10 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; abundant fine medium roots; fairly stony; pH 8.0. 30 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and brown (10YR 5/3) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; pH 8.0. 60+ cm. Very pale brown (10YR 7/3) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; calcic layer with some soil; pH 8.0. PROFILE 10, BUILDING BS/BV: ANTHROPOGENIC DEPOSIT AND MUDBRICK Profile 10 was taken from a Minoan house at the archaeological site (Building BS/BV; see Floyd 1998). The upper sample was taken from the fill in Space BS 5. The lower sample was taken from a mudbrick wall at the east of Space BS 5. 0–20 cm. Yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) sandy loam; moderate, medium crumb; few roots; pH 8.0. 60 cm. Dark yellowish brown (5YR 4/8) and yellowish red (5YR 5/6) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; rounded pebbles present; fragments of phyllite; pH 8.0. PROFILE 11, SITE L 12: BROWN MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (BM/LI) The profile was situated on a small plateau near the highest point of the island. Samples were collected from the soil retained behind a terrace wall, which extended the length of this plateau. The bedrock was phyllite, and limestone outcropped 18 m north of the profile. It is likely that the sample was in a zone of transition from the BM/Li to

Calcareous lithosol. Several ramnus and wild olive here were beginning to reach moderate height. There was no apparent horizonation, but at a depth of approximately 40 cm a white chalky coating was on the phyllite slabs. 0–20 cm. Pale brown (10YR 6/3) and dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) sandy silt loam; weak, fine crumb; abundant fine roots; pH 8.0. 20–45 cm. Light yellow (2.5YR 7/3) and yellowish brown (2.5YR 5/4) sandy silt loam; weak, fine crumb; presence of gypsum; fragments of phyllite; pH 8.0. 45–80 cm. Phyllite rock. Olive gray (7.5GY 6/1). PROFILE 12, SITE Q 21: BROWN MEDITERRANEAN/LITHOSOL (BM/LI) Profile 12 was located behind a terrace wall about 68 m asl on a 30 degree slope northwest of the cemetery. Many calcrete outcrops and remains of ancient terrace walls were in the area. The parent material was phyllite. Vegetation cover was thick with pistachio and heather dominating. Unlike the other sites, soil was in front of the terrace wall where it had not all been eroded downslope. One micromorphological sample was taken at a depth of 25 cm. 0–25 cm. Dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) soil in front of the terrace wall; sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; many fine roots; fairly stony; pH 8.0. 0–10 cm. Yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; many fine and medium roots; stony; pH 8.0. 15–25 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium subangular blocky; fairly stony; pH 8.0. 40–50 cm. Light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) sandy loam; CaCO3 concretions present; pH 8.0. 50/55 cm. Calcic layer; light gray (7.5Y 8/1). PROFILE 13, AREA BR NEAR BUILDING BS/BV: ANTHROPOGENIC DEPOSITS In the Plateia (Town Square) at the archaeological site, near the entrance to Building BS/BV, two periods of sediment deposition were present

SOILS AND LAND USE AT PSEIRA

(Betancourt, Armpis, et al., 1999). The upper level (which was from the Byzantine period) was yellowish brown in color, while the lower sediments (Middle Minoan/Late Minoan) were yellowish red.

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0–20 cm. Byzantine level. Yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sandy silt loam; moderate medium crumb; pH 7.8. 20–60 cm. Middle Minoan/Late Minoan level. Yellowish red (5YR 5/6) sandy silt loam; moderate, medium crumb; pH 7.8.

5

On the Historical Ecology of Pseira Oliver Rackham and Julie Ann Clark

Flora Islands are known for their peculiar plant life. The number of species is often reduced compared to an equivalent area of mainland, but the plants are often bizarre and specialized. This characteristic is demonstrated by Crete compared to Europe, and by the islands off Crete compared to Crete itself. For example, the islet of Elaphonisi, off the southwest corner of Crete, has quite different flora from the adjacent mainland, even though the environment is apparently similar and the two locations are now separated by sea only 1 m deep (the strait has been deeper for most of the Holocene). Pseira is a rather remote islet. It is separated from Crete—and has been at least throughout the Holocene—by a deep channel 2 km wide. As far as we can discover, no botanist had been there until the authors visited it in 1990. On an area of 1.75 sq. km, we recorded 92 species of flowering plants (throughout this paper the distinction between species and subspecies is ignored as being of little relevance; the convention Galium...pseudocanum is used as an abbreviation of “Galium graecum subspecies pseudocanum”). Further visits, including in the spring, would undoubtedly bring the total to well over 100.

On the theory of island biogeography, the number of species of plants or animals on each of a group of islands, S, should depend on the area of the island, A, by an exponential relation of the form S = aAb or log S = log a + b log A where a and b are parameters constant for each group of islands but varying from one group to another. The islands of the Cretan island arc follow this relationship reasonably closely, considering the variable quality of the information (as far as we know, this is the first time that the theory has been tested with the floras of a group of European islands). For its size, Pseira is richer than would be expected; this fact may reflect either its closeness to mainland Crete (allowing species to colonize more easily) or its greater variety of habitats than on some islands. About one-eighth of the flora of Crete consists of endemic species peculiar to the island. Very few of these species extend to the offshore islets, and few of the islets have endemics of their own. Pseira, for example, lacks the famous endemic Ebenus cretica, common on the mainland of East Crete, for which the islet ought to be an excellent habitat. It lacks

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Senecio gnaphalodes, an endemic of Karpathos and East Crete, which occurs on the Cretan coastal cliffs close by. Asperula rigida, an endemic undershrub common on the nearby mainland, is absent from Pseira. Only five Cretan endemics are known on Pseira. One is a shrubby pink, which hangs on the great sea-cliffs. This species is presumed to be Dianthus...sitiacus, frequent on cliffs in East Crete (but nowhere else); but there are a number of closely related endemic shrubby pinks in Crete, and this one might turn out on further investigation to be unique to Pseira. Another endemic is the tiny Galium... pseudocanum, also a cliff plant. The undershrubs Phlomis lanata and Stachys spinosa, endemic but widespread in East Crete, extend to Pseira. A mysterious plant of Pseira is the wild artichoke, avgria agginavra, well known to local fishermen as an edible plant. This plant is apparently the thistle Cynara sibthorpiana, described by Boissier in the last century, related to the cultivated artichoke C. scolymus. It has an extraordinary distribution, being reported from four other islets and from the extreme northwest and northeast peninsulas of Crete (Rechinger 1942, 105). There is an “islet flora” of plants, which are more common on the islets off Crete than on Crete itself. On Pseira there is Atriplex halimus, one of the large group of “saltbush” undershrubs of the family Chenopodiaceae, which are characteristic of Old World semi-deserts. This shrub is widespread in the driest

parts of Europe. It occurs on most of the islets off Crete except Gavdos, the largest islet. It occurs on Mochlos Island near Pseira, but it is rare on the adjacent mainland: indeed, in all mainland Crete, it flourishes only on the city walls of Herakleion and in the Myrtos area. This situation may have to do with the degree of browsing—goats and sheep are exceedingly fond of Atriplex and easily exterminate it. African plants are more prominent on the islets than on mainland Crete. Pseira has Aristida ascensionis, which otherwise very rarely extends into Europe and only in the driest places; it occurs around Myrtos (Ierapetra) and in a few other very dry spots in Crete (it is an African representative of the three-awn grasses of the New World). Another rare plant of Pseira is Silene greuteri, a species discovered as recently as 1982, which is widespread on the remoter shores (especially islets) of Crete. Islets tend to have few species of trees and shrubs. The commonest islet tree, land-juniper (Juniperus phoenicea), is absent from Pseira. The only trees or potential trees are lentisk, wild olive, fig, and carob. Animals are more numerous than might be expected for a nearly waterless islet. We saw large healthy hares, lizards, and the giant millepede, which occurs on Crete. There was a report of a skink (liakovni).

Vegetation This part of Crete has an extraordinary tectonic landscape formed by a row of similar mountains. Each is a tilted block formed mostly of the banded limestone called Plattenkalk and of phyllite (see Farrand and Stearns, Chapter 3). The blocks are bounded and isolated by faults and gorges. The series of mountains—Velanouri, Papoura, Kapsas, and Kastellos on the coast north of Mesa Mouliana, Liopetra—has a sea-girt outlier forming the island of Pseira. Although the hard Plattenkalk determines the shape and ruggedness of Pseira, there is also much

phyllite as well as smaller amounts of calcareous aeolian sandstone and calcrete. Plattenkalk itself exists both as a hard banded limestone and a green metacarbonate (the metamorphosed upper part of the limestone). All of these formations can be well vegetated. The sandstone can form a fertile soil. Phyllite, though crumbly, forms less well-developed soils. The hard limestone does not easily form a soil (nor does it form karst hollows in which sediment might collect), but its fissures give scope for the roots of deep-rooted plants to penetrate. However, Pseira is more arid than the mountains on Crete.

ON THE HISTORICAL ECOLOGY OF PSEIRA

Like other islands, it appears to attract less rainfall than the mainland. On the steep slopes soils are not well retained; on the flatter top of the island they have been cemented in past dry periods to form masses of calcrete. MAQUIS, PHRYGANA, STEPPE Pseira, like the rest of Crete, is covered with a mosaic of maquis, phrygana, and steppe (Rackham and Moody 1995, Chapter 10). Maquis is composed of deep-rooted, long-lived shrubs or potential trees. Of these almost the only one on Pseira is lentisk, Pistacia lentiscus. This shrub occurs throughout the island as thickets up to 3 m high, which are often clonal—all the stems being branches from a common root system. Its abundance is closely related to the geology, so that geological boundaries can be seen from a distance. On phyllite, lentisk covers about 60% of the ground; on other rocks it seldom exceeds 25% and is often very drought-bitten, suggesting difficulty with rooting. It often grows better where archaeological structures, terrace walls, and the edges of calcrete afford better root penetration. Lentisk grows very well where sea-spray reaches it. The most vigorous patch of all, two clones about 20 m across, is associated with a thick calcrete deposit over phyllite. The spiny, miniature evergreen shrub Rhamnus... oleoides often accompanies lentisk. Actual trees are insignificant. There are a few small, drought-bitten wild olives (Olea...oleaster), one fig tree (Ficus carica), and one carob (Ceratonia siliqua). Maquis is miniature woodland, and it has a definite, though reduced, suite of herbaceous and even climbing plants. Within the lentisk bushes are occasional plants of Prasium majus, the climbing vine Clematis flammula, and the grass Piptatherum miliaceum. The climbing grass Brachypodium retusum, common in mainland maquis, is limited to one clone and may be a recent arrival on Pseira. Phrygana consists of undershrubs, shallow-rooted, short-lived woody plants that are not potential trees. These plants partly fill the gaps between the lentisks. The proportions of the dozen species vary in no very systematic way, but there is some variation with geology. In descending order of abundance, the species are these:

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Phyllite: dwarf heather Erica manipuliflora Greek thyme Thymus capitatus Phagnalon graecum Phlomis lanata (Cretan endemic) Cistus salvifolius (characteristic of nonlimestone soils) Salvia triloba (in one well-vegetated ravine) Atriplex halimus Calcareous sandstone: Thymus capitatus Erica manipuliflora Phagnalon graecum Asparagus stipularis Plattenkalk: Phlomis lanata Euphorbia acanthothamnos Thymus capitatus Calcrete: Erica manipuliflora Thymus capitatus Phagnalon graecum Helichrysum...barrelieri Fumana ericoides Salvia trioba (rare) Spiny-broom Calicotome villosa, one of the most common Aegean undershrubs, is absent from Pseira, as from most islets. Undershrubs tend to be better developed on pockets of deeper soil and behind ancient terrace walls. Pseira seems not to have been recently burned (although near the Byzantine farm the rocks are red-edged, suggesting a hot fire in the past). On much of the mainland, undershrubs tend to come and go on cycles determined by the practice of shepherds burning the landscape to improve the pasture. Undershrubs are killed by the fire. This feature distinguishes most undershrubs from shrubs (e.g., lentisk), which survive burning and sprout from the base. After a fire, they may be replaced by different species. On Pseira and other islets, their lives are not thus cut short. Many of the

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undershrubs are in a senescent phase; for example, Euphorbia acanthothamnos and Erica manipuliflora are often in characteristic died-back or “leggy” states. It may be that undershrubs vary over the years, as has been noted over twenty years of observations at Myrtos, a part of the Cretan mainland also not affected by browsing or fires. Steppe is the vegetation of annual and perennial herbs, grasses, and bulbous plants that partially fill the gaps between the phrygana. It accounts for a large proportion of the flora on the island. Typical species are: Perennial grasses: Dactylis hispanica Hyparrhenia hirta Annual grasses: Aristida ascensionis Bromus fasciculatus Stipa capensis Annual legumes: Hedysarum spinosissimum Hippocrepis unisiliquosa Onobrychis caput-galli Ononis viscosa Trifolium scabrum Other annual herbs: Bupleurum gracile Evax pygmaea Helianthemum salicifolium Limonium echioides Linum strictum Plantago afra P. bellardii Perennial Herbs: Mandragora officinalis Psoralea bituminosa Thistles: Carlina lanata (especially on calcrete) Tuberous and bulbous plants: Allium rubrovittatum

Arisarum vulgare (aroid) Serapias species (orchid) Steppe occurs everywhere, but it is best developed on calcrete. EXCAVATION PLANTS An unexpected feature of the steppe are plants normally thought of as weeds of cultivation, recorded here especially around the sites and dumps of recent excavations. These species include Sinapis alba, Anchusa azurea, and Ajuga iva (rare in Crete). This is not the first time that excavation has produced unexpected plants: for example, a year after the dig at the Minoan peak sanctuary of Atsipades (Hagios Vasileios), many species had appeared that were apparently absent from the surrounding phrygana. The “excavation plants” on Pseira seem too profuse to have been brought in accidentally. Probably, as at Atsipades, the disturbance awakened buried seed. Although the interval since the last cultivation of the island seems too long for seeds to survive, the distinction between weeds and plants of natural habitats is less marked in Crete than in the rest of Europe: many apparent weed species live also in dry steppe and rock-pockets. CRUSTS Probably important in Cretan geomorphology are the crusts of small plants, which hold the surface of the ground together and protect it against erosion in heavy rain. Crusts are well developed on Plattenkalk, sandstone, and especially calcrete, but not on phyllite. They consist of the minute fern-like plant Selaginella denticulata, mosses (Tortula species), the earth-dwelling lichens Cladonia foliacea and Ocrolechia species, and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). CLIFFS Cliffs are important because they reveal what the vegetation might be in the absence of browsing and burning. The sea-cliffs of Pseira vary in consistency. On stable Plattenkalk cliffs, characteristic plants are Dianthus...sitiacus, Centaurea argentea, Malcolmia flexuosa, and the fern Asplenium adiantumnigrum. This assemblage of plants is not unexpected, although we have not seen it exactly

ON THE HISTORICAL ECOLOGY OF PSEIRA

matched elsewhere (the Centaurea and Asplenium have not so far been recorded from other islets). Atriplex halimus is mainly on crumbling cliffs. Present, but less common than expected, is Crithmum maritimum, known all over Europe as an

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edible plant of sea-cliffs: it is Shakespeare’s “samphire”: ...halfe way downe Hangs one that gathers Sampire: dreadfull Trade King Lear IV .vi, 15

and is the Cretan glystrida.

Comparison with Mount Kastellos Kastellos, on the coast 11 km east of Pseira, is a massif with a similar combination of Plattenkalk, calcareous sandstone, and phyllite, but it is not an island. It is rather more vegetated than Pseira, with trees and shrubs such as plane Platanus orientalis, oleander Nerium oleander, Vitex agnus-castus, and Spanish broom Spartium junceum, which indicate the presence of ground water. Euphorbia acanthothamnos, noted as a common and rather unexpected undershrub on Pseira, is also

a common dominant on Kastellos. Otherwise the vegetation is generally similar, but the flora is richer, and not only in endemic plants. Undershrubs on Kastellos but not on Pseira are Anthyllis hermanniae, Osyris alba, and Hypericum empetrifolium. Anthyllis occurs on several other islets, and on Kouphonisi a giant form of it is dominant in the sand-dune vegetation.

Conclusions Islets differ from the mainland. They are more arid. In the Pleistocene, they were probably too small to have the herbivorous animals (elephant, hippopotamus, deer), which are presumed to have influenced mainland vegetation. They are probably less affected by fire, being out of reach of mainland fires. They have different cultural histories: some Cretan islets (Gavdos, Gaidaronisi, Kouphonisi) have had a very intensive human history. Islets without a reliable water supply are unlikely to have been browsed as intensively as the mainland. The arid character of Pseira is shown by the presence of rather sparse vegetation cover with semidesert plants confined to the drier parts of Crete, for example Aristida ascensionis and Limonium echioides. It is more arid than the mainland opposite, and it lacks ground-water plants. However, other desert plants such as Lygeum spartum, Lycium intricatum, Convolvulus althaeoides, and C. dorycnium are absent. Such plants are more prominent on

the south coast of East Crete, and especially on the southern islets of Gaidaronisi and Kouphonisi, than on Pseira. The island was browsed and probably burned in the past, as shown by the remains of mandras (sheepfolds), at Sites J 1 and L 1, and a concrete cistern, at Site Q 20. Sheep or goats were last kept in 1978. Browsing at present is probably only by hares. There is some sign of reduced browsing in the increased growth of sensitive plants, although lentisk, the most common shrub, is so unpalatable that browsing has little affect on it. One sign of less browsing is the presence of Centaurea argentea, ordinarily a cliff plant, of which one individual was noted away from the cliffs. (The mainland opposite also now has little browsing, so that cliff plants are spreading into accessible places.) As a place for human settlement, Pseira is less attractive than most of mainland Crete. It is hardly surprising that it has been inhabited only rarely.

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However, the southern islets of Gaidaronisi and Kouphonisi are more arid and less hospitable than Pseira, and yet have evidence of dense and (on Kouphonisi) wealthy settlement. A drawback of Pseira is its small size, which might make it difficult to keep domestic animals (the coasts are so steep that the island could not have been much bigger at times of lower relative sea-level). It is difficult to say how much effect human activity has had on the ecology of Pseira. We doubt whether the island could ever have been much more vegetated under the present climate than it is now. The soils appear unstable, but there is still plenty of soil left. It is conceivable that the absence of

Juniperus phoenicea, which forms extensive woods on mainland Crete only 10 km to the southwest, could be due to a past fire (this tree being easily killed by burning); but very little is known of the history of this tree in Crete. In the pre-Neolithic period, when the Aegean climate appears to have been wetter and less fiercely seasonal than it is now, Pseira could well have had less drought-resistant plants. The only probable relic of cultivation is one carob-tree near the sheepfold. The olives could be relics of Byzantine cultivation, but they are not obviously ancient.

Part II Previous Work

6

Pseira Island after the Byzantine Period and before 1906 Philip P. Betancourt

“The Gulf of Mirabello is enclosed by picturesque mountains,” wrote Captain T.A.B. Spratt (1865, 152) “... but it presents no cultivation that is visible whilst sailing up the bay, nor a single inhabitant on its shore; all looks wild and grand from the sea.” The abandonment of all unfortified towns along the coast in this part of Crete, a circumstance that suggests piracy and raiders, seems to have been the usual situation during most periods between the last occupation of the Early Byzantine monastery on Pseira Island and the late nineteenth century. Pseira, even more exposed than the nearby coast of Crete, was not inhabited permanently. Pseira does not seem to have been visited by any of the Medieval travelers who wrote accounts of their voyages, and it is not listed on the Medieval portolans (Kretschmer 1909; Delatte 1947; Avrameas 1972). The earliest literary reference is by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, who was in Crete in 1415 and saw the island but did not visit it (Platakis 1974, 13). Pseira was not placed on his map. After this time, the islet is mentioned regularly on maps and other sources, but with no details. In spite of the gradual increase of Cretan population in general (Kolodny 1968), Pseira does not appear in any 18th or early 19th century population census.

For the situation in northeastern Crete in the early nineteenth century, the best surviving account is by the traveler Robert Pashley (1837) who saw Pseira from Crete but did not go there. He mentions no people or other activity on the island, meaning that if any local resident tended a few animals or grew a few crops there, he was counted among Kavousi’s 100 families or Sphaka’s 39 families, because Pseira was not recorded as having any official population. Spratt passed this way later in the century (1865, 152), but he did not visit Pseira. His report on the island was short: Two islands lie within the gulf—a small one, called Kumithia, near the head, and a larger one, called Psyra, near the outer part; but neither has been noticed by any ancient author, or contains inhabitants.

Little had changed by the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1903, while Harriet Boyd was directing the excavations at Gournia, a local boat captain suggested she make a trip to the island of Pseira to look at the remains of substantial walls that were visible above ground. She sailed to Pseira accompanied by her young assistant Richard Seager and by Adelene Moffat, the excavation’s artist.

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The party noted the presence of pottery fragments indicating the walls were from a Bronze Age town from the same period as Gournia (Seager 1910, 5). Boyd must have been impressed with the site because she decided to excavate there the following year. She requested an excavation permit, and it was issued in the spring of 1904 (Kretike Politeia 1904). Gournia occupied so much of her attention in 1904, however, that the excavation of Pseira was never

realized. She spent the entire season of 1905 studying the finds from Gournia in preparation for their publication (Hawes et al. 1908), and by 1906 she had married and retired from archaeological fieldwork (Allsebrook 1992, 132). The permit to excavate at Pseira was assigned to Richard Seager, and he excavated on the island in 1906 and 1907. A summary of his work is presented in the next chapter in this volume.

7

The Excavations of Richard Seager on Pseira Philip P. Betancourt

To make an evaluation of Richard Seager’s excavations on Pseira, one must understand something of his training and experience. Archaeology was just beginning when Pseira was first excavated. Seager was one of the pioneers in Cretan archaeology, and his ideas on the Minoans were still developing when he worked on Pseira Island. His interests and temperament as well as his archaeological methodology are crucial to our understanding of the work he performed; he was the first person in modern times to take a serious look at the island, and he produced the platform of knowledge on which all later research must build. Richard B. Seager was born on October 20, 1882, in Lansing, Michigan. After a semester of study at Harvard University, he moved to Europe; for the rest of his life, except for travel, he divided his time between Europe and the United States until his death in 1925 at the age of 42. He excavated several sites in Crete, but he was best known for his work at Vasiliki, Mochlos, Pacheia Ammos, and Pseira. He was wealthy enough to support his interests in archaeology, and he did not require any academic or professional post. Information on Seager’s life is contained in several sources. For his archaeological career up to the time of his work at Pseira, the most important documents are the excavation reports published by

Harriet Boyd Hawes, Edith Hall, and Seager himself (Boyd 1904–1905 a; 1904–1905 b; 1905; Hall 1904–1905; Hawes et al. 1908; Seager 1904–1905; 1906–1907; 1909; 1910). Other works on Seager and his excavations include a short biographical article (Kenna 1970), recollections by those who knew him in Pacheia Ammos (Georgiou and Becker 1974; Becker 1978), and the biographies of Harriet Boyd Hawes (Hawes 1965; Silverman 1974; 1980; Allsebrook 1992; Fotou 1993). The most complete biography of Seager himself is by Becker and Betancourt (1997). In 1903, at the age of twenty, Seager joined the archaeological expedition of Harriet Boyd working at Gournia and other sites on the Isthmus of Ierapetra, in eastern Crete (for her biography, see Allsebrook 1992). According to Boyd, Seager’s duties in 1903 included taking “special charge of the pottery as well as helping in the field” (Boyd 1904–1905 a, 33). While he was working on this project, he had opportunities to direct excavations at Hagia Photia on the south coast (Boyd 1904– 1905 a, 21), at Vasiliki (Seager 1904–1905), and at Gournia itself. In March of 1906, Harriet Boyd married British anthropologist Charles Henry Hawes, and she retired from fieldwork to write her final publication of the excavations at Gournia (Hawes et al. 1908).

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Her permit for work on the Isthmus of Ierapetra had been transferred to Seager in the fall of 1905, and he excavated a second season at Vasiliki in the summer

of 1906 (Seager 1906–1907). Late in the season, he made test excavations at Pseira and decided to mount a full campaign the next year.

The 1906 Season at Pseira The preliminary work at Pseira followed the pattern Seager had used for Vasiliki, with a small test in one year to see if the site merited additional work. By 1906, the island was well known to the members of the American expedition. They had first visited it in 1903, on the advice of a “Turkish boatman” (Seager 1910, 5; the name refers to the type of boat, not the nationality of the boatman, as demonstrated by Georgiou and Becker 1974, 94). A brief description of Pseira’s appearance before excavation was incorporated into one of the preliminary reports of the excavations at Gournia (Boyd 1904–1905 a, 21): Psyra, an island off the shore of Kavousi Bay, is covered with megalithic walls and strewn with excellent specimens of decorated ware similar to the best pottery from Gournia.

Richard Seager worked on Pseira for three days in 1906. He supervised twenty workmen in the effort, uncovering several architectural spaces. His most important discovery was in Building BQ, a set of rooms located on the Pseiran beach at the foot of a long staircase that led up from the sea to the town’s main square (Pl. 8A). His work here discovered a hoard of Late Minoan IB pottery of the finest workmanship, including several vases in the Marine Style (Seager 1910, 30–31). The discoveries in Building BQ included a series of elaborately decorated clay vases, a bull figurine that had been covered with white paint, and other objects that were most likely used for rituals (for their publication, see Betancourt and Banou 1999). Many of the pieces in Room BQ 1 had probably been imported from the large Minoan palace at Knossos, and they convinced Seager to begin a full-scale excavation the next summer.

The 1907 Season at Pseira A nine-week season, with eight weeks of digging and additional days for religious holidays (Megas 1963), was accomplished between May 13 and July 20, 1907 (Seager 1910). The staff of fifty to eighty workmen remained at Pseira during the week, returning to Crete each weekend. Supplies were brought in by boat because “digging on an absolutely desert island is quite a problem” (Seager 1907 a). The Byzantine cistern on the site was used as a kitchen, and it is possible that the modern repairs on its vault are from this period (see Pl. 7, at the left of the photograph). Seager described the island as “a jolly place to dig” (1907 b). He was accompanied by his uncle Benjamin H. Berry, an artist and architectural draftsman, who made the site plan and kept

an illustrated catalog of the most important finds (the catalog has never been found). By the time Seager began his main season at Pseira, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of several aspects of Cretan archaeology. He was well versed in using pottery to date the strata. Because of his work at Vasiliki and Gournia, he knew as much as anyone of the Bronze Age pottery sequence in eastern Crete. The EM styles at Vasiliki had been well stratified, and their stylistic progression had been firmly fixed by Seager himself. Archaeological technique in 1907 involved the use of large teams of workmen under the supervision of a foreman. The architecture dictated the direction of excavation because there was no

THE EXCAVATIONS OF RICHARD SEAGER ON PSEIRA

preconceived grid (the grid in Seager’s published report was added after excavation). Houses were given designations as they were found, and numbers were sometimes written in pencil on the bases of whole pots after they were washed. Sieving was common, especially in tomb excavations, but only the most striking small finds, like sealstones, were retained. Seager sieved almost every deposit from Pseira, but relatively few objects were kept. Seager was not familiar with the systems of detailed architectural study already being used by many excavators (particularly among German archaeologists). He relied on his architect Berry for the completion of the plan, with the result that it has several problems. Aside from some omissions and inaccuracies, the chief drawback is a failure to indicate streets or the division between buildings. Thus, Pseira’s settlement appears as a sprawl of housewalls, in sharp contrast with the plan of Gournia where the town can be seen as a series of blocks divided by lanes (Seager 1910, plan and Hawes et al. 1908, plan). The Pseiran excavation discovered a substantial settlement (Pl. 8). Most of the houses were uncovered down to their LM IB floors, and a few were investigated below the floors in order to see something of their earlier history. Because Seager pitched his tent on the most level part of the peninsula, Building BS/BV was not excavated (Pl. 9). Seager was convinced that the town had met a violent destruction. The evidence suggested that many of the rooms had been looted. Deposits of broken pottery were found all over the streets in front of the houses, as if they had been thrown there by the town’s sackers, and some of the rooms contained human bones (Seager 1909, 302). Few bronzes or other precious objects were found in the settlement, suggesting that the valuable items had been removed. At the close of the season, the cemetery was excavated. As Seager reported, we found the early cemetery and opened 33 graves crammed with pots. They all date from the EM II

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and III and MM I periods. The graves are of two kinds, the rock shelter style with no walls or covering slabs and very fine graves of the Cycladic cist type lined with thin slabs and covered with big capping stones. We got about 100 pots in clay and 70 stone vases in all sorts of stones (Seager 1907 d).

The work was completed by July 20, 1907. Seager did not return for any additional excavation in later years. Richard Seager’s book on Pseira was published by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, the successor to the Free Museum of Science and Art, which had published previous reports on the American excavations in eastern Crete (Seager 1910). It was thirty-eight pages long, with nine plates, two of them in color. Nineteen line drawings were inserted in the text. In all, forty-one objects from the town were illustrated. Among the plates were two photographs showing the site as a whole, and a restoration of the relief paintings found in Building AC (Shaw 1996), now sometimes identified as a “Shrine” (Hood 1977, 65–167). Betancourt (1998) adds parallels with a shrine at Malia (Poursat 1966, fig. 3). In the book, Seager expressed his views on the history and nature of the Minoan settlement on Pseira. He regarded the town as a community of traders and seafarers. All the buildings were identified as houses, and he suggested several domestic functions for them, including ceremonies in shrines (especially in Building AB, his House B; for discussions see Hood 1977, 167; Gesell 1985, 132). The cemetery was not published, and it is known only from comments in letters and in publications on other subjects (Seager 1907 d; 1912, 11). The results of Seager’s excavations in the Minoan town and in the cemetery are summarized along with the previously published reports of the modern investigations in those areas (Betancourt and Davaras, eds. 1995; 1998 a; 1998 b; 1999; 2002; 2003). Seager also did work that today would be regarded as an archaeological survey; that work is summarized here.

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Seager’s Archaeological Survey of Pseira Island Although the concept of the systematic archaeological survey had not yet been developed in Seager’s time, intensive examination of the area around an excavation site was an integral part of the early excavator’s archaeological work. Seager’s published report shows that he spent time walking over most of Pseira Island, and he made many observations on the topography and its relation to human occupation. He noted some of the major archaeological features, including the cemetery (Site Q 1) and the Byzantine remains at the highest part of the island (Site L 1). Excavations were carried out in the area of the well (Site H 3), and in Minoan houses located in its vicinity (Site H 4). GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS Richard Seager’s observations on the geology of Pseira and its vicinity are sparse, but they are remarkably accurate. He recognized that Pseira was an uplifted block (today called a horst), and that it was a part of the same geological system that also included the Gulf of Mirabello and the low areas on the Isthmus of Ierapetra to the south (see the geology chapter by Farrand and Stearns). He recognized that the land at Tholos Bay had sunk at some time in the past, a remarkable insight for the period before knowledge of tectonic plate movements. Seager summarized his view in two sentences (1910, 5–6): A chain of rocky hills bounds the Kavousi valley on the west, descending in great cliffs into the Gulf of Mirabello. At the Tholos of Kavousi this chain, through some convulsion of nature, has been submerged; the isolated mass of Pseira, however, is beyond doubt a continuation of the same system, and rises abruptly from the sea on the western side.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS Seager regarded the harbor area as the most important feature of the island’s topography. He was surely correct in observing that the protection from northern and northwestern winds was a determining factor in the location of the main settlement. He suggested that “aside from the harbor the island could have offered but little to attract settlers of any sort even in Minoan days” (Seager 1910, 6).

Although he noted the existence of the terraces on the hills above the town, he believed the Pseirans were primarily a maritime people. The nature of the Bronze Age occupation of the island was given considerable thought. Seager was especially interested in possible sources of water, and a well at the location named Megali Ammos, in the cove east of the main peninsula, was cleaned of debris (Site H 3). The water was salty, furnishing evidence for a relative rise in sea level after the well was built. He also noted the cistern on the southern Byzantine farm (Site L 1), suggesting that it would hold a little water, but that it would make a “precarious and inconvenient water supply” for the residents of the town (Seager 1910, 7). Comments on changes in the size of the population were based on the extent of the settlement, a sound approach for an island with only one habitation center. Seager concluded that major population increases occurred in the period he called MM I (equivalent to modern MM IIB) and again in LM I. The destruction and abandonment in LM IB was clearly apparent, though the reoccupation by a smaller population in LM II and LM III was not recognized. The later history of the island was also discussed briefly. Few remains from the first millennium B.C. were found. Seager noted the discovery of one redfigured sherd from the Classical period, but little else from this time was mentioned. The substantial Byzantine farmstead on top of the high hill on Pseira Island formed a prominent feature then, as it does now. At the time of his Pseira excavation, Seager regarded the farmstead as a Roman fort, an identification followed by later writers (Leatham and Hood 1958–1959, 277; Kenna 1970, 324; Sanders 1982, 141), even though Seager himself corrected the date after his excavation of Roman and Byzantine levels on Mochlos identified the stylistic differences between Roman and Byzantine pottery the next year (Seager 1909, 276). As a whole, Seager tried to give a balanced view that put the Bronze Age remains into a historical perspective, even though that perspective was presented simply and with few details.

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General Discussion and Conclusions As the survey of Seager’s work at Pseira clearly shows, there was no overall research plan for dealing with the community. Seager excavated in over forty buildings. Some of them were almost completely excavated, while others were scarcely touched. Few buildings were excavated sufficiently for the recognition of a complete house-plan. The excavation progressed quickly, with several teams working simultaneously. Only the most interesting pottery pieces and the art objects were kept. Seager’s work was sufficient to establish the general size of the community, its main periods of occupation, and much of its architectural layout. The work correctly recognized that some houses were large and important architectural units that were perhaps inhabited by the community’s leading citizens, while others were more modest. The general chronology of the town, and its main architectural phases, were recognized and noted (even though the names applied to these periods has changed slightly since Seager’s lifetime). Seager published selected objects from the town, especially the finer and more artistic pieces. He had no interest in stone tools, loom weights, or other household objects with limited artistic merit. In retrospect, Seager’s work at Pseira was uneven. He was very familiar with Minoan pottery, and he was an expert at using it to establish the date of individual strata. Much of the pottery chronology for the Early Bronze Age had been established by his excavations at Vasiliki, and his work with Late Minoan I vases at Gournia had given him a thorough knowledge of this period as well. He was a competent field excavator, and he took care to uncover walls with enough attention for their study, but he seldom followed through to ensure their proper examination. In contrast with the more thorough scholarship of Harriet Boyd Hawes who published a larger range of her discoveries at Gournia, from architecture to loom weights, Seager falls short. He cannot be faulted for his chronological conclusions, which were often far in advance of the proof that would justify them. Recent advances in this area of research (Warren and Hankey 1989; Manning 1995) have confirmed most of the general

views of Seager and his contemporaries. In most cases, the sequences of styles have proved to be correct, even if some adjustments are necessary in the precise correlations with other sites. Richard Seager’s main failings were in his limited architectural knowledge and his lack of interest in doing more than sketching in the broad outlines of history. By not recognizing the open Town Square, and by not taking any interest in either the layout of the town as a whole or the configuration of individual buildings, he neglected the evidence that could establish the style and development of Minoan provincial architecture. As he had no interest in the small finds other than pottery, he did not record or keep the thousands of clay weights, stone tools, and other artifacts that would allow room functions to be established, as well as many other things. When he neglected to publish the cemetery, information was irretrievably lost. Seager’s strength was in pottery study. The dates he assigned to levels from the Early Minoan period at Pseira can usually be trusted. When he placed a stratum in EM II, he was basing his conclusions on the presence of Vasiliki Ware, still regarded as the main criterion for EM IIB (Warren 1972, Period II; Betancourt 1979). He correctly regarded the finds of Hagios Onouphrios II Ware as earlier (confirmed by the stratigraphy at Myrtos, for which see Warren 1972, Period I; for additional references, see Manning 1995, 48–50). The strata with White-onDark Ware at Pseira were properly regarded as EM III (it should now be termed EM III–MM IA; for the ware see Betancourt 1984). Much less was known of the Middle Minoan styles. Only two MM pottery phases had been recognized at Vasiliki (House B and House A; for the excavation, see Seager 1904–1905; 1906–1907). The local style of their ornament made it difficult to relate them to central Cretan styles, and so synchronisms with the Knossian tripartite nomenclature system were very uncertain. As a result of these difficulties, Seager divided his Pseiran Middle Minoan material into two phases, which he called MM I and MM III. MM I, similar to material from House B at Vasiliki, included MM IA, MM IB, and MM IIA (Walberg 1983, 126–127). Some of the

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deposits were even from MM IIB (Walberg 1983, 128–129). These difficulties arose from the nature of the material excavated at the Pseiran settlement. At Pseira, as at almost all Minoan sites, the whole pieces of pottery were found in destruction layers. These contexts also included a substantial number of sherds from earlier vases that had been used and broken in the years since the building’s last destruction. Because these latter vessels were fragmentary, and because the east Cretan workshops and the central Cretan ones did not use exactly the same styles, reconciling the two local pottery chronologies is sometimes difficult. Evidence for the pottery sequence at Pseira was intermittent, with a large amount of information about each stage that was destroyed but less information about the intervening years. Three stages with whole vases were recognized from late Early Minoan to Middle Minoan. The phase Seager called EM III contained White-on-Dark Ware, and although it is still often called EM III, it is mostly contemporary with Knossian MM IA (Betancourt 1984, 17; for the Knossian development, see Momigliano 1990; 1991). Seager called the next phase MM I, but much of its pottery would be regarded today as MM IIB (for discussion see Walberg 1983, 128–129). Seager best described what he meant by the MM III period at Pseira in connection with a contemporary phase found at nearby Mochlos (Seager 1909, 284). His description in the work on Mochlos clarifies that the Pseiran phase contained a substantial amount of lustrous dark-on-light pottery, and that he used the label MM III to distinguish it mainly from the pottery at the end of his LM I phase. The term LM IA was not yet in use, but it is clear that the “MM III” style at Pseira and Mochlos included both MM III and LM IA material; today it would be called LM IA. In summary, Seager’s three Middle Minoan phases at Pseira have the following synchronisms: Seager’s “EM III” = Knossian EM III to MM IA Seager’s “MM I” = Knossian MM IB to MM IIB Seager’s “MM III” = Knossian MM III to LM IA Late Minoan IB was known from the pottery studies at Gournia (it was then called simply LM I). Seager was completely familiar with the local

styles, and he had visited Knossos enough times to familiarize himself with central Cretan LM I; he could recognize many central Cretan imports on sight, from either whole vases or sherds. Seager correctly recognized that LM IB in eastern Crete was occasionally being called LM II at Knossos and Palaikastro. He wrote, “I believe the Palace style [i.e., LM II] to be simply part and parcel of LM I coming toward its end and that the 2 periods can be made one for these sites in Eastern Crete” (Seager 1907 c). Some of his colleagues disagreed at the time, but Seager’s view would prevail; the “LM II” of British publications from as late as the 1920s (for example, Bosanquet and Dawkins 1923, fig. 35 and passim) is now regarded as the last stage of LM I (LM IB), following Seager (for discussion of the most pertinent vases, in the Special Palatial Tradition of LM IB at Knossos, see Betancourt 1985, 140–148; for the vases in detail, see Müller 1997). Much less was known of other styles in 1907. Late Minoan III in eastern Crete had received scant attention, and at Gournia it was sometimes not distinguished from LM I. The pottery from Western Asia was largely unknown to those working in Crete, so that coarse-textured eastern pottery would not be recognized. It was not yet possible to distinguish local Byzantine pottery from its Roman predecessors because stratified Roman and Byzantine pottery would not be found until 1908 when Mochlos was excavated. Given the stage of knowledge, Seager did very well in many things, but Cretan archaeology was still in its infancy, and errors were inevitable. As a whole, his work was not very different from that of most other archaeologists working in Crete at the time. He was a reasonably careful field excavator, and a real expert in pottery studies. Unfortunately, he failed to follow the example of Harriet Boyd, in many ways the best archaeologist working in Crete at the time, and he really hated writing up his results. Seager left the site of Pseira without doing any consolidation work for the walls. Because Minoan architectural practices used mud as binder between the stones, stone constructions deteriorated as the rains washed out the soil from between the stones, and a considerable amount of consolidation was necessary in later times. This work was carried out

THE EXCAVATIONS OF RICHARD SEAGER ON PSEIRA

in 1975 under the direction of Costis Davaras. Walls were in fairly good condition when the modern project began (Pl. 8), and grass covered the places where Seager had not excavated, like the Plateia (Pl. 9). Richard Seager was a generalist. He tried to see the overall picture rather than the small details, and he was very good at sketching in major periods of

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history. He used basic information on geography, topography, ethnology, and common sense to help interpret what he found, and to establish the main points of Pseiran history. The most compelling vindication of Seager’s work is that the modern project has found most of his general conclusions about Pseira to be correct.

8

Research at Pseira, 1908–1984 Philip P. Betancourt

After Richard Seager finished his work in 1907, the island of Pseira was largely neglected by archaeologists except for an occasional visit to see the ancient remains. Seager himself guided visitors to the island on several occasions over the next few years (Hall 1910 a; 1910 b), and other visitors hired boats on their own to make the trip. They left only a few records of their visits (Schachermeyr 1938; Hammond, Dunbabin, and Roberts 1948, 41–42). One of the best-documented trips is the journey made by John Pendlebury on his first trip to eastern Crete in 1928 (Hammond, Dunbabin, and Roberts 1948, 41–42). Pendlebury walked through the town, but he recorded few details of its condition in 1928, spending more ink on his panic during the boat ride back to Pacheia Ammos. He did note that goats were being kept on the island, an important point for the history of herding on Pseira. According to Ioannis Kouroupakis, the guard for Mochlos and Pseira, who was interviewed on the subject of twentieth century Pseiran animal husbandry in 1988, when he was 48 years old, both sheep and goats were kept on Pseira until 1978 (Kouroupakis was already employed as the guard at the time the practice was forbidden). Two shepherds lived in the cave all year so no one would steal their animals. The cistern was used for water in the spring

of the year, but the ancient well at Megali Ammos was not used. According to Kouroupakis, the animals either did without water or drank seawater the rest of the year. More than 200 animals were kept on the island. When the animals were taken to market, they were herded into boats from the location called Mandra (for these locations, see the map in Ill. 1). For people outside of the local area, interest in Pseira during the twentieth century was mostly archaeological rather than as a tourist location. Several institutions acquired collections of pottery from the site. In addition to the official gifts made by the government of Crete to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Betancourt 1983) and to Mount Holyoke College (Foster 1978), several groups of sherds were legally collected during the years after Seager’s excavations, forming valuable teaching and study collections. Published groups include the collections in the British School of Archaeology at Athens (Jones 1986, 247–248, pl. 3.21) and the Akademisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany (Kaiser 1976). Other groups are in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

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A few objects from Pseira were dispersed by exchange. Three vases from the site were acquired by the National Museum in Copenhagen by exchange with the Candia Museum (Blinkenberg and Johansen n.d., 26, pl. 33, nos. 1–3). The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired some objects by exchange with the museum at the University of Pennsylvania. Field research on Pseira was resumed in 1955 when a diving operation was conducted in the harbor in August of that year. John Leatham and Sinclair Hood directed the project in collaboration with Nicolas Platon (Leatham and Hood 1958–1959, 275–278; for shorter reports see Hood 1955, 35, fig. 8, and Frost 1963, 103–104). The diving was part of an investigation at several harbors in Crete, and only a short period was spent at Pseira. The expedition explored beneath the sea with several divers. It recorded a concrete mole within the harbor as well as stones, sherds, and complete vases lying on the seabed off the point of the peninsula. The concrete mole was at a depth of ca. 1.50–2.0 meters below the water line. It consisted of one large section about 7.50 m long plus some smaller pieces, none of them projecting more than 0.50 m above the seabed. The concrete was eroded and pitted, and no straight edges were visible. The expedition concluded that the remains had once formed a pier partially or completely across the harbor, and that the water had risen more than 1.5 m since the mole was built. The remains were regarded as Roman because Seager had reported Roman finds from the island (1910, 6). Except for the date, the conclusions of Leatham and Hood still stand. The mole was surely a pier across the harbor. Substantial evidence exists for a relative rise in sea level in this part of Crete, so that a difference of 1.5 m between modern times and the date of the pier’s construction does not seem out of line. The Roman date, however, is surely incorrect. Leatham and Hood reached their conclusion because they accepted Seager’s statement in his published report (1910, 6). The modern investigation of the relevant period, including a cistern built with concrete, indicates a date of occupation in the Early Byzantine period between the sixth and the ninth century A.D. (for published reports, see Albani and Poulou-Papadimitriou 1990; Albani

1995; 1996). The concrete mole is almost certainly to be assigned to somewhere within this period. The expedition of Leatham and Hood also explored the seabed southwest of the tip of the Pseiran peninsula. The seabed here had a slope of about 30 degrees (Frost 1963, 103). Stone blocks on the floor of the sea looked like terraces, and the divers concluded that landslides had toppled house walls into the sea, and that the blocks had slid down the slope until a slight change in topography caused them to collect in terrace-like shapes. Pottery sherds were among the stones, and complete vases were found at depths of between 10–12 meters and 20 meters (Leatham and Hood 1958–1959, 278, fig. 10, nos. 6–11; Frost 1963, 104). Both the stones and the vases were regarded as remains that had washed down from Minoan houses on the peninsula. In 1976, Jacques Cousteau undertook a new underwater investigation (Cousteau 1978), in collaboration with Charalambos Kritsas. The expedition explored the same ridges of stones and pottery lying off the tip of the peninsula, but the new investigators reached a different conclusion on the nature and causes for the deposition. Noting that the remains were in a line, Cousteau suggested that a row of Minoan ships had been sunk, probably as a result of the eruption of the volcano of Thera and its resulting tsunamis. The pottery raised by both expeditions was from MM IIB, not LM IA, so destruction by the volcano is not very likely (for the ceramics, see Leatham and Hood 1958–1959, fig. 10, nos. 6–11; Davaras 1976, 375–376, pl. 297). The theory of landslides from the peninsula is more likely than a theory of a row of ships capsizing and carefully staying in a row all the way down to the bottom of the sea. By the 1970s, the walls exposed by Seager were starting to crumble. Minoan architecture used soil as a binder with the stones, and the annual spring rains of Crete had gradually washed the soil away, weakening the walls. One of the editors (C. Davaras) consolidated the walls and strengthened them with concrete in 1975 as a part of the work of the Greek Ministry of Culture (Davaras 1977, 340). The conservation was crucial for the preservation of the site, and it prevented its destruction through erosion in subsequent years. In 1981, the Minoan town on Pseira Island was photographed from the air as a part of the balloon

RESEARCH AT PSEIRA, 1908–1984

photography project conducted by J.W. and E.E. Myers (Myers, Myers, and Cadogan 1992). The clear and detailed photographs provided an excellent record of the site (Davaras, Betancourt, and Farrand 1992). They demonstrated the architectural features that were above ground and visible before the new excavation began.

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After a number of informal visits to the island in previous years, the author made a more extensive surface reconnaissance of Pseira Island in 1984. The new project began in 1985.

Part III Ethnology Studies

9

Introduction, Ethnology Section Philip P. Betancourt

The early twentieth century professions, trades, and traditional crafts in rural Crete have received increasing scholarly attention as they have started to radically alter and disappear. The relevance of many of these activities to the interpretation of the archaeological record is self-evident. In a part of the world where the geography, climate, vegetation, and other factors have a direct relation to the ancient situation, the ways in which Cretans responded to challenges in the days before mechanization often have close relevance to the responses of other periods in time. Archaeologists working in Crete should not ignore the ethnological record. The Pseira Project contributes four studies to the body of information on pre-mechanized Crete. Teresa Howard publishes a description of fishing practices at Mochlos in the early 20th century. Peter M. Day writes about the dynamics of the pottery systems used in eastern Crete during the twentieth century and the complex ways in which they developed. The writer provides a study of limekilns and an examination of the development of the trading system centered at Mochlos in the early 20th century. No pretense is made that these four studies are the most important areas of investigation for this region. They are, however, aspects of early twentieth century life in this part of Crete that have never received detailed examination before, and they all

have relevance to the archaeological situation on Pseira Island. Several types of evidence contributed to the studies. Archival research and library research were important, and for some of the studies, like the documentation of the limekiln at Makra Opsis, new field work was essential. Like all studies of this type, however, the oral history of the region contributed significantly to the results. Interviews with persons who remembered the periods with which the authors were concerned were a part of all the studies. The sources were imperfect, but they permitted the recording of some of the aspects of life as it was remembered from the days before the “machine age” reached into all aspects of modern life. This is the last generation in which studies like this can be made, and it is important to record them for their own sake as well as for the occasional insight into antiquity. In fact, in the period of over a decade between the time when the studies were made and the present date of publication, some of the elderly people of the region who remembered the situation of nearly a century ago have forgotten many of the details or are no longer with us. It is a good thing that the research for these four studies was started before 1990; none of them could be written today.

10

Traditional Fishing Practices in the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Area Teresa Howard

Although modern technology has caught up with the coastal area fishermen of northeast Crete, many of the techniques they use are still largely based on traditional practices. Electronic depth sounders have replaced lines and stones as a way of reading the seabed. A daily consultation with the national weather bureau is considered basic, but the men also spend long hours gazing at the sky for any signs of changes in the weather. The first gasoline-powered motor was introduced in the years preceding World War II. This boat was not used for fishing but for transport of goods. At that time most fishing was done in small wooden craft, as a family business. Sadly enough, most of the professional fishermen in the first half of the twentieth century were too poor to afford the most basic fishing nets and lines, and in the 1940s, only one fisherman, a man named Manolis Koinakis, had nets. They were made of cotton string. Most fishermen resorted to dynamiting their prey on a regular basis. Dimitris Papadakis, a fisherman from Tourloti, recalls that his great-grandfather dynamited fish, indicating that the practice goes back to the late nineteenth century in this part of Crete (the Greek law of 1876 declaring this practice illegal applied to Crete after its union with Greece, but it was ignored in this part of Crete).

The professional fishermen dynamited, so they did not use any of the traditional practices of previous centuries; these older ways of fishing, however, were kept alive by the many farmers and villagers from the surrounding area, who had small rowboats and fished for enjoyment and to vary their diet (Pl. 10A). People would occasionally row up to thirty kilometers each way to fish for their own table. Rowing a kilometer or two was considered routine. A craftsman in Tourloti who also made donkey saddles constructed many of the smaller wooden boats, which were between three and four meters long. This local tradition supplied the neighboring villages with boats, but they were not sold outside the immediate vicinity. Most of the larger boats were bought from other parts of Crete or from elsewhere in Greece. Although many of the larger boats were equipped with masts, sailing as a method of locomotion was quickly lost once motors were introduced. Most of the boats around Mochlos were small, so that even two people alone could pull the boat onto the coast in case of bad weather. Each village had a place on the coast where the village’s boats would be kept, often near where the village had gardens. A few of these areas are still in use today. In the summer, the fishing fleet and other boats are anchored to the southeast of the island of Mochlos where they are protected from

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the prevailing northwest wind (called the meltemi). In winter, the larger boats are taken to Altsi, a natural harbor to the west, directly opposite Pseira. Only a few people made their living as fishermen. The area of the eastern part of the Gulf of

Mirabello was not a good market for fish, and the fishermen had difficulties in selling their catch. Often, they bartered the fish for oil, bread, or other foods. Because they were not landed people, they did not raise food of their own.

Systems Used for Fishing The basic fishing equipment consists of nets and a system of set-lines called the paragadia. People also use single lines for trolling (pulling the line behind the boat) or for bottom fishing. Some methods of catching fish, such as traps, were once common but are no longer used today. NET FISHING There are various kinds of nets, all prepared and used in different ways. Most of them are dyed yellow to make them less visible under water. Today, all nets are purchased. The manomena or barbounodikta (red mullet nets) consist of three layers of netting (a triple net is called a trammel net). The two outer layers have large “eyes” about five to ten centimeters square (i.e., ca. 8 cm across the diagonal). The central layer is longer and has smaller “eyes” (ca. 5 cm across the diagonal). The nets are about a meter and a half high. They are usually put together in sections about 25 meters long, and several sections are combined to make nets up to about a kilometer long (Pl. 10B). They are put out in the late afternoon or at three or four in the morning, in known fishing spots where they settle to the seabed forming a low wall. The fish that feed on the bottom of the sea try to pass through the wall, and the center layer of netting traps them after the fish pass through the outer layer. As the fishermen draw up the nets, they are neatly piled in one area of the boat and arranged so that the caught fish are easily accessible. The fish are removed either on the way back to port or after docking. This kind of fishing goes on year round, but it is more effective in the summertime. Typical net fish caught in this way include red mullet (Mullus barbatus), scorpion fish (Scorpaena porcus and Scorpaena scrofa), stargazer (Uranoscopus scaber), and parrot fish (Sparisoma cretense).

In summer, very fine, single-layered nets are also used. They are up to two meters high, with very tiny “eyes” (about one and a half centimeters on the diagonal). As the fish grow during the summer, the fishermen put out nets with larger “eyes.” The nets, which are put out singly, are about thirty meters long. Placement is at strategic locations where the small fish are known to school at night. Every night, the fish gather to sleep close to the shore, and they leave early in the morning. The fish are caught either as they arrive or as they leave. These nets are used to catch small fry, especially the bogue (Boöps boöps). Most fish are captured by being entangled in the net. Small sardines (Sardina pilchardus) and atherina (Atherina presbyter and Atherina hespetuw) are also caught this way. The small fish are removed from the net after docking (Pl. 11A). If a fisherman notices a school of sardines or other small fish, he will use a small single net, surrounding the fish, and then frighten the prey by throwing stones or making loud noises. Often, a stone (unmodified in any way, but chosen with a shape that can be tied by a cord) is tied to a rope and kept in the boat so it can be thrown several times. The frightened fish are driven into the net, to be removed later by shaking them out. These small fish can be used either for bait or as food. Another type of fishing is called the karteria. The method is similar to that used for the small fry, but on a much larger scale. It is used especially for tuna fish (Euthynnus aletteratus). Here, the nets are quite tall, up to five meters high, so that they can extend from the seabed to the water surface in the coastal waters. The “eyes” are about four to six cm across (i.e., 6 to 8 cm across the diagonal). The nets are never longer than a hundred meters. The tuna season begins in December and can extend until May. The nets are placed in passage areas where

TRADITIONAL FISHING PRACTICES IN THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO AREA

large schools of tuna are known to pass. Since the tuna are surface fish, the nets have to be tall enough to float near the surface. It is very important to have the right proportion between the weights and the floats when the nets are sewn, so that the nets will stand as a wall and not be pushed over by the current. Large quantites of fish can be caught, with most fish weighing about a kilogram, and with the total catch running as high as a hundred kilograms on a good day. More often than not, however, the nets are brought home empty. In the springtime, the same nets are used to catch melanouria (the saddled bream, Oblada melanura). At this time of year, the fish come close to shore to spawn. Much of the success here depends on the phases of the moon. All the fishermen know that if the spawning takes place during the full moon, no fish will be caught. The total season is no more than a month, and several factors have to be right to assure success, including a calm sea and a new moon. Another net, much less comonly used in this part of Crete, is called the klambano. This net combines the characteristics of the karteri and the manomeno. It is as tall as the karteri (five meters) and has three layers like the manomeno. It is made of stronger thread and has larger “eyes” than the manomeno. It is about fifty meters long. This net is especially used in the late winter to early spring. The fishermen go out on moonless, very calm nights to set out the net in silence. They cannot make any light, even from a cigarette. Once the net is out, makeshift items are used to make noise to frighten the fish into the nets. This is a good way to catch sea breams, barracuda, salema, and scissor fish. Scoop nets are used occasionally. One method is to take a lantern out at night on very calm nights and walk along the rocky edges of the coast. People surprise cuttlefish and other kinds of seafood, either scooping them out with a scoop net or harpooning them with a long stick. An old method no longer used employed live parrot fish (Sparisoma cretense) as bait. The informants stated that a gray parrot fish (never a red one) was caught with a hook and pole and kept alive. It was tied by the mouth and pulled along the rocky shore to lure other parrot fish into rock pools where they could be caught with scoop nets. An old method still currently in use is employed for catching cuttlefish. One needs a

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lure, a small rowboat, and two fishermen. The lure is either a live female cuttlefish or a wooden imitation called a xylosoupia. These lures are quite precious and jealously guarded. Often small bits of mirror are attached to the end of the lure. The idea is to use the female to attract the male cuttlefish. In the case of the live bait, the attraction is obvious; in the case of the lure, the male sees his reflection in the mirror and is attracted to it. This method is used on very calm spring nights. One fisherman plies the oars silently while the other pulls the lure with one hand and has a scoop net ready with the other hand, netting the cuttlefish when he hears it take the bait. LINE FISHING The most typical traditional method for line fishing is called the paragadi. Both professionals and amateurs use it. The paragadi is the name of the basket used to contain long lines of nylon with their intervals of hooks (Pl. 11B). Lead weights are available today, but a few fishermen still use stones, which were more common in earlier times. Before nylon was introduced, the lines were made of hemp and horsetail. Normally, the paragadi contains a single line, called a mana. The line is a kilometer long, with hooks attached at three to six meter intervals. The hooks are tied with special knots to meterlong thinner lines called the paramani (for a discussion of the paragadi, see Christopoulos 1989, 80). This method is used all year round, although some periods are considered leaner than others. Usually, the lines are put out at night, although some fishermen have success in the daytime in very deep waters, and there is one method, using live bait, that is done only in daylight. The fish caught vary according to the size of hooks and the bait used. Among the fish caught this way are the common dentex (Dentex dentex), the common sea bream (Pagrus pagrus), the common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus), and many kinds of grouper and related fish. In the fall, floated lines are employed to catch the dolphin fish (Coryphaena hippurus, the fish depicted on the “fishermen fresco” from Thera). Fishing is also accomplished with single lines. The katheti is a very simple system. It consists of a line, a hook, and a weight. The line is long enough to reach the bottom. It can be from forty to a hundred meters long. The top end is attached to a cork

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board and wrapped around until one reaches the bottom end where about three hooks are attached at ten centimeter intervals. A weight is attached at the bottom end as well. The line is baited and dropped over the side of the boat. It is simply pulled in when the fish is felt tugging at the line. Today, the most common fish caught in this way are combers and perch, but in the past large quantites of sea bream were commonly brought in. The zoka is a special hook and weight that is baited with octopus. It usually consists of a large hook up to about eight to ten centimeters long with a lead weight about three to four centimeters in diameter at the upper end (with the weight welded to the hook). The octopus should be of medium size and fresh. The weight is brought up through the octopus so that the hook is hidden between the tentacles. The heavy nylon line pierces the octopus hood through a hole at the end of the weight. Fishing with the zoka is usually done from sunset to midnight. Moonlight is acceptable for this type of fishing. The fishermen will go out to areas where the seabed is rocky and uneven to fish for groupers. They are caught at depths of twenty to forty fathoms. The fisherman lets the line down and quickly raises it again as soon as it touches bottom to give the impression of the octopus moving. There are several different types of trawling, all slightly different according to the fish caught. Until about 1980, a method using artificial fishing lures and weighted lines was used for grouper and dentex, but this method is no longer successful in this area. In the summer, melanouri (the saddled bream, Oblada melanura) are caught by trauling. The fisherman will prepare a thin nylon line and his own lure by using seagull down, small hooks, and a small amount of red thread to make a small fishing fly. The hooks are baited with crushed sea snails (Monodonta). The lures are not weighted. They are pulled behind the boat in the late afternoon, with the boat traveling back and forth in the open sea, stopping only to pull in a hooked fish. At night fall and before dawn, fishermen traul for barracuda. Again, a homemade lure is employed. Previously, the fisherman will have caught needlefish with artificial lures. They spear the needlefish with thin wire and attach two three-pronged hooks, one at the belly

and one at the tail. The lure is pulled behind the boat. The most common fishing area for this method is the island of Pseira. Amateur fishermen used all the preceding methods, while the local professional fishermen before World War II resorted mostly to dynamiting. FISHING WITH POLES Only amateur fishermen fish with hooks, from poles. Villagers have fished this way since well before World War II, and the practice probably goes back much earlier. A conversation with Dimitris Papadakis and Michalis and Manolis Heretakis recalled the days when improvised materials were used. Fibers from the small iris (Iris unguicularis cretensis) would be twisted together to make a small line for the hooks, and these lines would be attached to longer lines of cotton or hemp. Another kind of fishing was with one long line of hemp, with one large hook baited with fish, octopus, or cuttlefish tied to a board as a float with a stone called a mazari that was used as a weight. These lines were sometimes attached to the rocky shoreline. This was an effective way to catch grouper when they were still abundant (in the 1950s and before). Poles are used today to catch melanouria (Oblada melanura). A large quantity of dried bread is thrown into the water from a spot where the fisherman can see the fish, but the fish cannot observe him. Once the fish gather, a hook baited with more bread is cast into the water by using a very long pole (four to five meters long). FISH TRAPS Fish traps are no longer used locally, but they were once fairly common. Locally made traps, called kertous, were woven from the branches of the skynos (the lentisk or wild pistachio, Pistacia lentiscus). They were round baskets with a hole in the center top protruding inward so that once a fish was lured inside the trap, it was practically impossible for it to escape. The traps were set in shallow waters, weighted with horseshoes, and baited with squash leaves in order to catch parrot fish (Sparisoma cretense). Another common bait was crushed sea urchin. Leontidis records similar traps (1986, 46–47).

TRADITIONAL FISHING PRACTICES IN THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO AREA

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List of Fish and Other Marine Fauna Commonly Caught in the Gulf of Mirabello Area In this list of marine fauna, the Latin name is followed by the common name in English and by the local Greek name used in eastern Crete. The nomenclature and classification of the fishes follows the recommendations of Whitehead et al. (1984). A few of the Greek names are recorded by Thompson (1947) and by Hureau and Monod (1973). PISCES (FISH) Scyliorhynidae Scyliorhinus stellaris (dogfish, nursehound), gatavki Comments: caught in deep water with deep water nets or paragadia; not a welcome catch; inedible. Triakidae Galeorhinus galeus (tope), galevo~ Comments: caught on heavy lines in deep water; inexpensive but a good catch. Squatinidae Squatina squatina (angel-fish, angelshark), bioliv Comments: less and less common during recent years; a deep water fish; usually given away; must be skinned to be eaten. Torpedinidae Torpedo marmorata (marbled electric ray), moudiavstra Comments: not welcome; gets tangled in the nets; inedible. Rajidae Raja clavata (thornback ray), karkavki Comments: same as the angelshark. Dasyatidae Dasyatis pastinaca (common stingray), salavki Comments: may weigh up to 150 kg; the small ones are given away; the large ones are sold after being skinned; many are found in areas where dynamite fishing has occurred because they scavenge the seabed.

Myliobatidae Myliobatis aquila (common eagle ray), aezov~ Comments: same as the angelshark. Clupeidae Sardina pilchardus (pilchard; sardine), sardevla, frivssa Sprattus sprattus (sprat), yiciov~ Comments: excellent bait when 5–7 cm long; not commonly caught in this area; caught with small single nets. Atherinae Atherinae presbyter (atherina), aqerivna Atherina nespetuw (atherina), aqerivna Comments: caught with small single nets. Engraulidae Engraulis encrasicolus (anchovy), sardevli Comments: same as the sardine and sprat. Muraenidae Muraena helena (Mediterranean moray eel), smevrna, smuvnera Comments: not caught on purpose; gets tangled in the nets; given away or thrown away; dangerous when brought into the boats alive. Congridae Conger conger (conger eel), mouggriv, drovggo~ Comments: same as the moray eel but not dangerous; now used as bait. Belonidae Belone belone (garfish), belonivda Comments: caught by trauling; used as bait for barracuda. Gadidae Trisopterus minutus (poor-cod), prosfugavki Gaidropsarus Mediterraneus (shore rockling), gavi>daro~ Comments: caught with nets and paragadia; inexpensive; the large ones are used for soup.

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Zeidae Zeus faber (John Dory), cristovyaro Comments: same as the shore rockling; the Greek name has been recorded as both chrestopsaro (crhstovyaro) and christopsaro (cristovyaro) (Thompson 1947, 74, 282). Serranidae Epinephelus aeneus (white grouper), sfurivda Epinephelus guaza (dusky grouper), rofov~ Polyprion americanus (stone bass; wreckfish), blavco~, tampikevra Comments: caught with heavy lines, paragadia, katheti, and zoka; becoming rare in this area, but were once abundant; the fish may weigh up to 50 kg. Serranus cabrilla (comber), cavno Serranus hepatus (brown comber), mpoukanavra Comments: caught in all ways; inexpensive but popular; staple diet of village people; the Greek name for the comber is also recorded as chanos, channos, and chani (cavno~, cavnno~, and canniv, Thompson 1947, 283). Moronidae Dicentrarchus labrax (European seabass), lauravki Comments: no longer common here. Apogonidae Apogon imberbis (cardinal fish), kromivdi Comments: not common; not eaten. Carangidae Seriola dumerili (greater amberjack), magiavtiko Comments: can be as large as 20 kg; in the fall and in dolphin fish season, live dolphin fish are used as bait to catch large amberjacks. Naucrates ductor (pilotfish), pilovto~ Comments: not common; not eaten. Trachurus trachurus (horse mackerel), sabrivdi Comments: not often caught near Mochlos and Pseira, but commonly used as bait in nearby areas of Crete.

Coryphaenidae Coryphaena hippurus (dolphin fish), lampouvga Comments: seasonal passage in great schools from late September to early December to feed on small fry; some years great quantities are caught, while other years fewer are present; average size is 50–100 cm long, weighing between 800 g and 3 kg; fishermen note their appearance by the presence of great flocks of seagulls over the sea; today caught with floated set lines, with frozen squid as bait, or (for enjoyment) by trawling; the modern Greek name is labouga (lampouvga), recorded by Thompson (1947, 94). Sciaenidae Sciaena umbra (brown meagre; corb), sikiov~ Umbrina cirrosa (shi drum), mulokovpi Comments: no longer common. Mullidae Mullus barbatus (red mullet), koutsomouvra Mullus surmuletus (striped red mullet), mparmpouvni Comments: difficult to tell apart visually, but the striped red mullet commands a much higher price; caught with the manomena; one of the most popular and expensive fish, usually eaten fried; widely fished, but less abundant than in former years; bottom fish; caught in shallow waters, especially in July and August. Sparidae Boöps boöps (bogue), govpa Comments: caught in small nets; very common; caught during different stages of development from 5 cm to 30 cm long; inexpensive, popular fish; commonly used as bait. Dentex dentex (common dentex), sungrivda Comments: one of the most desirable and expensive fish; usually weighs around 3 kg but may be as large as 13 kg; caught with paragadia, especially with live bait (in the summer) and by trawling. Diplodus annularis (annular sea bream), spavro~ Comments: common; caught in nets and with paragadia; inexpensive.

TRADITIONAL FISHING PRACTICES IN THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO AREA

Diplodus puntazzo (sharpsnout sea bream), carakivda Comments: see below, under white sea bream. Diplodus sargus (white sea bream), sargov~ Comments: common; usually caught with paragadia; lives in rocky areas; can reach 1 kg in weight and 30 cm in length; best bait is the sea cucumber (Holothuria polii). Oblada melanura (saddled bream), melanouvri Comments: caught in a variety of ways; the normal size is 250 g, but can reach 800 g with a length of 30 cm; lives in rocky, coastal areas. Pagellus erythrinus (common pandora), luqrivni Comments: usually caught with paragadia or with katheti; becoming uncommon in recent years; normal size is 250–500 grams in weight, but can reach 1.5 kg and 50 cm; lives in deeper areas in rocky, coral areas (not over sand). Pagrus pagrus (common sea bream), fagkriv Comments: common; may reach 12 kg in weight; usually caught with the paragadi; a desirable catch; expensive. Sarpa salpa (salema), savlpa Comments: usually caught in nets; can reach 1 kg in size and 45 cm in length; feeds chiefly on seaweed. Sparus aurata (gilt-head sea bream), tsipouvra Comments: not common in this area. Spondyliosoma cantharus (black sea bream), skaqavri Comments: similar to the white sea bream. Pomacentridae Chromis chromis (damsel fish), kalogriav Comments: common; normal size is about 8 cm; used as live bait for the dentex; formerly salted and preserved as food.

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beginning fishermen today (1990), especially with snorkels (scoffed at by the professional fishermen). Scaridae Sparisoma cretense (parrot fish), skavro~ Comments: formerly found in the southern Cyclades, but now is only common along the northeast coast of Crete; may reach about 30 cm in length, with a weight of 0.5 kg; feeds only on plant life; normally caught in larger quantities in August, especially in the morning catch with three-layered nets; caught near the rocky shore line; when caught in the morning (before the fish has had an opportunity to feed), normally cleaned by just removing the spleen and then prepared by frying whole and serving in tomato sauce. Trachinidae Trachinus draco (greater weever), dravkaina Comments: caught in nets and with paragadia; has highly poisonous spines; may reach ca. 35 cm in length with a weight of 800 gr; used in soups. Uranoscopidae Uranoscopus scaber (stargazer), luvcno~ Comments: gets tangled in the nets; edible but not desirable; used in soups. Scombridae Euthynnus alletteratus (little tunny), kovpano Comments: a fish of passage, common from December to May; caught in great quantities by local fishermen but also pursued by larger boats from outside the immediate area; caught in the large single nets; normal size is about 35–40 cm in length with a weight of 1 kg. Sarda sarda (Atlantic bonito), palamivda Comments: similar to the little tunny but less common and usually larger; may reach 180 cm long with a weight of 5 kg.

Labridae Coris julis (rainbow wrasse), gulov~ Comments: used as live bait but less desirable than the damsel fish.

Scomber japonicus (chub mackerel), koliov~ Comments: common; caught in nets.

Labrus merula (brown wrasse), ceilouv Comments: can reach 35 cm and 1.5 kg but not desirable; used for soup; it is a common catch for

Thunnus thynnus (tuna), tovno~ Comments: similar to the bonito.

Scomber scombrus (mackerel), skoumpriv Comments: common; a prize bait; caught in nets.

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Xiphiidae Xiphias gladius (swordfish), xifiva~ Comments: lives in open seas, alone or in couples rather than in schools; may reach 5–6 m long and weigh as much as 120 kg; occasionally, much smaller ones are caught by local fishermen; normally caught with very large paragadia, but not by local fishermen; boats come from as far away as Italy to fish for them; the large paragadia lines are stored in oil drums, and the hooks are usually about 10 cm long; the lines, which extend for kilometers, float freely on the open seas and are marked by floated flags; often, local fishermen find lost pieces of these large paragadia lines. Gobiidae Gobius paganellus (rock goby), kokobiov~ Comments: lives near shore; caught by children from the shore; not eaten. Sphyraenidae Sphyraena sphyraena (barracuda), tournav~ Comments: when young, the fish live in schools; when a school is noticed, about 25 m of manomeno nets are put out, and the fish are frightened into the net; a normal catch can be 20–30 kg of fish, with each fish weighing about 0.25 kg; the mature fish do not live in schools; they are up to a meter long and are caught by nets or by trawling. Mugilidae Mugil cephalus (gray mullet), kevfalo~ Comments: usually caught in nets; may reach 50 cm in length with a weight of 3 kg; used for soups; not an expensive fish; many people will not eat this fish because it is considered a dirty fish (it will eat anything); often caught from the shore with a cast line in the harbors of Crete, but not in this area. Scorpaenidae Scorpaena porcus (black scorpionfish), skorpiov~ Scorpaena scrofa (red scorpionfish), skorpivda Comments: caught with nets; may reach 50 cm in length, with a weight of 2 kg, but those caught locally are usually much smaller; because of their spines, many small scorpion fish get caught in the nets, which is considered a liability; the color varies

with the environment (fish from rocky areas are red while those from grassy areas are dark brown); the spines are poisonous, not life threatening but painful (a local treatment for a bad sting is to plunge the hand in scalding water or to hold it over a burning rag soaked in gasoline); highly desirable for soups; compare the more common modern Greek name skorpina (skorpivna, Sfikas 1976, 37). Triglidae Trigloporus lastoviza (streaked gurnard), kapovni Comments: not common in this coastal area; usually lives in deep waters over sandy bottoms; locally reaches about 20 cm in length, weighing less than 0.5 kg. Soleidae Solea vulgaris (common sole), glwvssa Comments: common locally but not often caught. Echeneididae Remora remora (common remora), kollhsovyaro Balistidae Balistes carolinensis (gray triggerfish), gourounavyaro Comments: occasionally caught with paragadia; considered an oddity, although the older fishermen will skin it and add it to soups; may reach 40 cm in length with a weight of several kilograms. Molidae Mola mola (ocean sunfish), feggarovyaro Comments: rare in this area. Lophiidae Lophius piscatorius (anglerfish), kovta Comments: caught by trawlers in the open sea, but not common near the coast. MOLLUSCA (MOLLUSKS; SHELLFISH) Haliotidae Haliotis lamellosa (common ormer), autiavki Comments: empty shells often found surrounding octopus lairs; not eaten in this area, and not used for bait.

TRADITIONAL FISHING PRACTICES IN THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO AREA

Patellidae Patella coerulea (limpet), petalivdahv Comments: often gathered for food and sometimes used for bait; in former years used more commonly for bait; found attached to rocks at the shore line. Trochidae Monodonta turbinata (toothed winkle), trocivda Comments: same as the limpet. Turbinidae Astraea rugosa (rough star shell), matavki Comments: sometimes found in nets; edible but usually not eaten. Cypraeidae Cypraea lurida (lurid cowri), gourounavki Comments: not used for any purpose, but pretty so collected as a curiosity. Tonnidae Tonna galea (giant tun shell), tonnivda Comments: often gathered by snorklers, alive or dead; not caught in the nets; meat is edible but not often eaten today; may reach 30 cm in size, but most specimens are under 20 cm in length Gymatiidae Charonia sequenzae (triton shell), trivtona~ Comments: often gathered by snorklers; not caught in the nets; the meat is eaten, usually stewed with onions and tomatoes. Pinnidae Pinna nobilis (fan mussel), pivnna Comments: caught by snorklers, and occasionally caught in nets; edible. Spondylidae Spondylus gaederopus (thorny oyster), streivdi Comments: brought up by sponge divers in previous years, before all the local sponges died; sometimes caught in nets placed in deep waters; edible raw. Sepiidae Sepia officinalis (common cuttlefish), soupiav Comments: very common; caught in nets and

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with a scoop net; the high season is in the spring; this is one of the foods which is permitted during the lenten fasting period; cooked in the ink and often served with wild herbs; commonly used as bait. Sepiolidae Sepiola rondelaki (little cuttle), solaravki Comments: brought in by the deep sea trawlers but not caught locally; purchased today for use as bait. Aloliqinidae Loligo vulgaris (longfinned squid), kalamavri Comments: no longer fished for locally. Ommatostrephidae Ommatostrephes sagittatus (sagittal squid), qravyalo Comments: rarely caught today (1990); used as bait; compare modern Greek trapsalo (travyalo, Thompson 1947, 260). Octopodidae Octopus vulgaris (common octopus), ctapovdih Comments: common; fished for as food and as bait; today is often speared, using something silver and shining as bait to lure the animal out of the rocks where it hides. ARTHROPODA (CRUSTACEANS) Stomatopoda Squilla mantis (mantis shrimp), katsarivda Comments: rarely caught in nets; eaten. Crangon crangon (common shrimp), garivda Comments: caught by the off-coast trawlers from May to September; purchased locally for bait and for consumption. Scyllaridae Scyllarides latus (flapjack lobster), karabivda Scyllarides arctus (flapjack lobster), karabidavki Comments: caught in the karteria nets on occasion but more often speared by snorklers; may reach up to 45 cm in length with a weight of 2–3 kg; eaten boiled.

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Palinuridae Palinurus elyhas (thorny lobster), astakov~ Comments: sometimes caught in nets, and sometimes caught with the paragadia lines; special lines utilizing wire attachments for the hooks are sometimes set for this lobster; may reach 50 cm in length with a weight of 3 kg; very expensive. Dromiidae Dromia vulgaris (sponge crab), camavlh~ Comments: sometimes gets caught in the nets; not eaten Calappidae Calappa granulata (crab), kabouvri Comments: occasionally caught; not eaten. Maiidae Maia squinado (spiny spider crab), kabromavna Comments: occasionally caught in nets; may reach 30 cm in size without the legs; eaten boiled.

Xanthidae Eriphia spinifrons (yellow crab), malliavra Comments: found all along the coast; people used to eat them, but no longer eaten. ECHINODERMATA (SEA URCHINS) Echinidae Paracentrotus lividus (red urchin), acinov~ Psammechinus microtuberculatus (Mediterranean green sea urchin), acinov~ Comments: gathered both for food and for bait; found all along the coast; only the eggs are eaten, always raw. Holothuriidae Holothuria polii (sea cucumber), matsouravna Comments: gathered as bait; difficult to find and time-consuming to prepare as bait but considered highly effective, especially for catching the white sea bream (Diplodus sargus).

Other Sources of Information The author lived in Mochlos for fourteen years, working on a fishing boat for four years, and was directly involved with fishing as a livelihood for the following ten years. During this period, she learned the traditional ways for sewing nets, making paragadia, and other fishing practices. Among the many local sources of information on past fishing practices, the following persons are particularly noted: Emmanuel Koinakis, fisherman from Mochlos, died in 1986 at about the age of eighty-three (many conversations over several years).

Dimitris Papadakis, fisherman originally from Tourloti now residing in Mochlos (1991), age about 55 (many conversations over several years) Manolis and Michalis Hairetakis, fishermen from Mochlos, ages in 1991, 38 (Manolis) and 46 (Michalis) (the author worked on the boat with them for four years).

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Coastal Trade: the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello in the Early Twentieth Century Philip P. Betancourt The older residents of the villages at the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello can still recall the local sea trade of the early years of the twentieth century (for the principal informants see the list at the end of this chapter). They recollect that traffic by sea greatly changed in character during the 1940s. Before the beginning of World War II, both

passengers and goods were carried regularly on a wide variety of small craft, with the sea traffic reaching its peak of volume just before the war. Local trade by sea slowed considerably during the war years, and it was not renewed after peace was restored.

The Oral Tradition All the informants agree that Mochlos was the local center of the trade network that carried goods by sea in the early twentieth century. They recall that other ports, like the one at Pacheia Ammos a few kilometers to the west, were of secondary importance. Traffic through Mochlos included contact with other countries, so that a customs house was stationed there, but much of the trade was clearly domestic. Mochlos acted as the port for the inland agricultural villages (Kavousi, Lastro, Sphaka, Tourloti, Ano Mouliana, and Exo Mouliana). Sea traffic provided an important link between this part of the north coast of Crete and the villages, towns, and cities located to the east and

west. The system required the construction of several warehouses to hold the goods awaiting shipment, and during sailing season the port at Mochlos was a thriving center. Many products were carried by sea. The list included olives, grapes, vegetables, olive oil, wine, ceramics, soap (which was manufactured in Mochlos as well as elsewhere in Crete), and many other commodities. Several informants regarded the question of the cargo as academic because the small craft carried whatever needed transporting whether it was a passenger, a flock of sheep, or a load of lumber. The carob, however, was mentioned as the most notable product for this part of Crete (for the

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remnants of this crop, see Hayden, Moody, and Rackham 1992, 312). The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), which still grows widely in eastern Crete, has a fruit that consists of a long, slightly curved pod up to about 30 cm long with a pulp that is up to 60% sugar (Vizetelly, ed., 1931, V, 302). Many of the residents recall the harvesting of this crop, which was grown by many farmers as a way to augment their income from other crops; seasonal work was available for all who wished it harvesting the pods. Most of the harvest was taken to Mochlos for shipment by sea because no installation for processing the carob existed in the local area (for the earlier nineteenth century carob trade, see Spratt 1865, 110–111). Carob was exported both as a food for humans and for livestock. According to the local people, much of the crop from this part of Crete went to Turkey. In addition to the regularly scheduled sea trade in large ships, a more informal traffic by sea seems to have persisted on a more-or-less regular basis. Anyone who needed to send goods or travel east or west could find a place on one of the many boats and ships that stopped regularly at Mochlos. Products were often carried by sea in preference to travel by land. Items to be shipped were transported to the coast by pack animals. In fact, since the road from this area eastward to Siteia was not paved until 1946, and travel by horseback or mule was the most common way of traveling before that time, the sea was the easiest way to send any bulky commodity. Although those who were interviewed remember the activities at Mochlos connected to shipping, they note that small-scale manufacturing was concentrated elsewhere. Potters, carpenters, metalworkers, and other craftsmen had their establishments at different villages, especially in the small towns on the east-west road that ran some kilometers inland. Kavousi, Sphaka, and Tourloti were all inland towns located on the main dirt track connecting Hagios Nikolaos with Siteia. Skilled artisans were located in all of these towns, and one could have a boat built, a pair of shoes made, or have a piece of carpentry or ironwork done by one of the skilled workers in these small towns. No village had a monopoly on the light manufacturing, and one would go to wherever the craftsperson happened to live.

Mochlos was primarily important for its harbor, but it attracted many businesses of various types. It had a customs house, warehouses, stables, inns, three cafes, bakeries, a tailor, a leather-working establishment, and a church. One of the cafes served food, and a second restaurant was also present in the town. A bottling plant prepared carbonated beverages (gazozes). One building was a gambling casino. Although Mochlos catered mainly to the needs of the passengers and cargo that went through the port rather than to the on-going requirements of the rural population living in the countryside, the needs of the port were considerable; at one time, say the residents, Mochlos was larger than Siteia. Ample documentation indicates the accuracy of this oral history. The situation at the eastern edge of the Gulf of Mirabello was only a small part of a much wider pattern in Greece (for comments on the coastal trade of southern Greece, see Tumasonis 1983, 303–304). In addition to the steamships that plied Greek waters, the Union of Greek Shipowners recorded over 15,000 small sailing boats engaged in coastal shipping in 1938, carrying over a million tons of goods annually (Chadbourne 1943, 71). Because the official figure represents only the recorded cargo, one must assume it is very conservative. A vivid description of the situation in Greece was made at the time by Stanley Casson: The main objects of food and necessity are still conveyed by the many thousands of small sailing vessels, caiques, barques, brigs and even small boats handled by two or three men. The numerous harbours of the Greek and Turkish coasts and islands are still considered as places for the sale and purchase of commodities as well as for the docking of ships. In this they contrast completely with the harbours of countries like France, Italy, Spain and Western Europe as a whole o(Casson 1938, 466).

Within this system, Mochlos seems to have been the most active harbor at the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello. After World War II, the sea traffic disappeared. Mochlos, deprived of its main livelihood, ceased to be an important port, and most of the residents moved away. The warehouses fell into neglect, and only a few fishermen used the port as a haven. Trade shifted to truck traffic.

COASTAL TRADE: THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

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Historical Perspective and Discussion What the local residents witnessed was the end of a complex system of coastal trade whose beginnings go back into history, presumably into antiquity. It was a system that seems to have developed in eastern Crete from the impetus of several factors: geographic, technological, political, religious, social, and historical. The system was a response to a need for the movement of goods at several levels, some small and informal and others requiring the expenditure of considerable capital and organization. We have detailed information on this system only from its final years. By the nineteenth century, the pattern of coastal trade in eastern Crete was well established. Commerce had expanded greatly in the eighteenth century because of several complex factors including greater exploitation of the Cretan peasants by the Ottoman Empire to produce surpluses for export and new demands in Western Europe for agricultural products caused by increased population and local wars that disrupted Western European agriculture (Leon 1972, 25). The earliest reliable statistics for ships, for 1813, recorded 40 ships from Crete, but the figures are surely much too low because small craft under private ownership were not recorded at this period, and they must have accounted for a vast majority of the traffic by sea (see the discussion of Leon 1972, 43). It was no accident that the Gulf of Mirabello was a pivotal point in Cretan trade; the region was already a trading center in the third millennium B.C. for reasons that are mainly geographic. Crete has a central spine of mountains that runs east and west along much of its length, slowing long-distance traffic by land in most directions. At the Isthmus of Ierapetra, however, complex NE-SW trending faults created a downdropped graben that made a break in the mountains where Crete is only twelve kilometers wide. This isthmus was the easiest passage from north to south across Crete. Junction points of trade by land and sea often develop into important centers. The change in transport requires warehouses for the goods awaiting shipment, port facilities for the ships, stables for the pack animals that bring goods to the coast, and accommodations for passengers and the people to serve them. Mochlos, however, never developed in

this way. Its floruit as a trading center was brief, and by the 1950s it was almost deserted. The reasons for its lack of development are crucial to an understanding of the history of the entire region. The Gulf of Mirabello is a large, open body of water at the north of the Isthmus of Ierapetra. In the nineteenth century, the most important focal point here was at the eastern end of the good coastal road linking eastern Crete with the center of the island. At the western side of the Gulf of Mirabello, the road to central Crete connected with the road to the south, the rougher trail eastward, and the sea lanes. A fortress at Spinalonga dominated this end of the Gulf, providing military protection for a series of small harbors along the coast; the best ports were at Poros and Hagios Nikolaos (on the fortress, see Gerola 1906, 570; on the ports, see Denham 1963, 217–221). Only small harbors existed along the central and eastern shores of the Gulf. Most large ships visited only the important ports, but the local fishermen and other residents used smaller anchorages to transport their goods to the larger towns or elsewhere (for the earlier history of Aegean ports, see the portolans recorded by Kretschmer 1909 and Delatte 1947, and see the comments and bibliography of Avrameas 1972). Robert Pashley, who visited the island of Crete in 1834, furnishes one of the best pictures of life in Crete in the nineteenth century (Pashley 1837). His route, by road rather than ship, went around the Gulf of Mirabello, through Kavousi, north to the coast just east of Kavousi (only possible at or near Mochlos), and then south, away from the coast, back up into the hills to Sphaka. His map is not accurate because he places Mochlos too far west (Ill. 15), but he clearly marks a route that still exists, descending down to the coast at the Mochlos harbor and then southeast to Sphaka. He makes no mention of any coastal community, and probably any people who lived at the coast will have been counted with Kavousi’s 100 families or with Sphaka’s 39 families (Pashley 1837, 323). Trade was very active in Pashley’s time, and Crete was exporting a long list of commodities, with three and a half million okes of olive oil leading the list (Pashley 1837, 302). Soap, almonds, cheese, citrus fruit, and many other items brought in

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Illustration 15. Map showing the journey of Robert Pashley in eastern Crete in 1834. The traveler’s journey is shown in dashed lines. He went to the coast west of Kavousi (i.e., at Mochlos) and then went back inland to Sphaka.

the funds to pay for both manufactured goods and the many foods and beverages Cretans required in larger amounts than they could produce: cloth, grain, rice, wine, raki, wood, pottery, cutlery and other objects of metal, and many other commodities. Nineteenth century sea trade was at least partly a response to the difficulty of traveling by road.

Passable routes connected the Gulf of Mirabello to central and southern Crete, but the way east was much more difficult. The road across the Isthmus between Ierapetra and the Gulf went much as it does today, from Ierapetra on the south coast to Pacheia Ammos on the north coast where it met the east-west route. Toward the east, the road went to Kavousi, and then “by a difficult and rocky

COASTAL TRADE: THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

mule-path, the mountain barrier to Sitia [sic] is surmounted through a pass” (Spratt 1865, 157–158). The alternative to the “difficult and rocky mulepath” was to go by sea. The same pattern continued into the early twentieth century, with only a few changes brought about by the shift from Ottoman domination to Cretan independence (secured in 1898). Changes occurred all along the Gulf. Religious and political factors soon ended the fortress of Spinalonga. Built by the Venetians in 1579, it was one of the strongest military positions in all of Crete; the Venetians had held out here against the Ottoman forces until 1715, long after Candia (modern Herakleion) was conquered in 1669. Spinalonga was one of the main Muslim towns in eastern Crete. After Cretan independence, it was declared no longer necessary for military purposes. In 1903, it was proclaimed a leper colony, and the last regular residents left in 1913. From now on, the most important station at the western end of the Gulf of Mirabello would be the Christian town of Hagios Nikolaos. European involvement in Cretan affairs early in the twentieth century brought closer relations with Europe. Trade increased rapidly as the new political climate opened up additional markets and sources of supply in Western Europe, and the stable political situation stimulated commerce and increased agriculture. After World War I, Christian refugees from Turkey swelled Crete’s population and stimulated growth even more (Howland 1926). Although the ports at the western side of the Gulf were more important, a need gradually arose for a station somewhere near the eastern end of the Gulf to take care of the needs of the small agricultural villages in this area. In addition to the difficulty of traveling overland, more population and greater exploitation of the land increased the requirement for a port as an outlet for surplus agricultural goods, and the larger population also meant more passenger traffic. To become an important town, the new station would have to fill three roles: 1. A stopping-place for ships (and especially for the many small sailing craft) bound east and west 2. A receiver of goods from the agricultural hinterland so that they could be shipped by sea to their markets

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3. A trans-shipment point for land transport and sea transport, connecting the road network to the south and to the east and west with the sealanes Several small harbors were east of Hagios Nikolaos. The three largest ones near the Isthmus of Ierapetra were Pacheia Ammos, Pseira, and Mochlos. Each one of these possible ports had some advantages to offer, but no single location filled all three needs. The problems involved geography, politics, and several other factors. Pacheia Ammos, at the northern terminus of the north-south route across the Isthmus of Ierapetra, was in the best position to connect the sea and land traffic. However, Pacheia Ammos was not a good place for ships to land if winds blew from the north because its anchorage offered poor protection. As Richard Seager wrote, “The land along this part of the coast is not particularly fertile and suffers greatly from winter storms which drive the salt spray far inland thus blighting the crops. ...There is no real harbor at the northern end of the Isthmus” (Seager 1916, 6–7). At the beginning of the twentieth century, after three quarters of a century of economic growth following the Greek War of Independence, the anchorage at the junction of the north-south road and the east-west road consisted of only “a few warehouses and a couple of roadside inns” (Seager 1916, 6). In the 1930s, at the height of the coastal trade, it consisted of “twenty or so tiny houses” (Stillwell 1943, 564). A few goods were shipped from Pacheia Ammos when the weather permitted it, but the volume was never very large. Pseira was in the best position to offer a stopping-point for the ships traveling east and west. It was strategically located for ships traveling across the Gulf, and its harbor was excellent, offering protection in most Cretan weather because its harbor faced southeast. However, Pseira Island was not inhabited. It had no population to build on and no one with any stake in seeing it increase in importance. Its land was already barren, with the fields long neglected and ruined by erosion. It also had no connection with the land traffic or with the agricultural hinterland of this part of Crete. It could only fill one of the three roles. As a result of these circumstances, it took no part in the trade.

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The third port was Mochlos. Its harbor was better than at Pacheia Ammos but not as good as at Pseira because subsidence had lowered the strip of land at the west of the harbor to a point where the waterway was open on the west. The harbor, however, was fully adequate. Mochlos was connected by roads, although poor ones, to the farms in its hinterland. The problem was the connection with the rest of Crete. Located at the foot of a steep gradient with an eight-kilometer-long trail to reach the road system, Mochlos was not really well suited to connect with the north to south road across the Isthmus or even with the east-west traffic that traveled overland. Ships could stop and farmers could get their products there, so it could fulfill two of the needs, but not the third one. Of the three candidates available as centers for growth, no single location could fill every requirement. Pacheia Ammos offered only a connection with the agricultural hinterland and the land traffic. Pseira could only provide a link to the sea-lanes. Mochlos, with connections to the sea and to the farms, was the best compromise, but it was really too far away from the east-west road to Central Crete to be a major town, because even as late as 1928, no road for motorized traffic ran west of Kalo Chorio (Pendlebury 1948, 21). As a result, the three needs were divided. Mochlos became the port for the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello. It served the needs of ships traveling east and west, and it acted as a port for the agricultural products of the area. Land traffic, and the connection to the Cretan network of roads, however, was shared by three different villages, all of which were joined to Mochlos by separate rough trails: Kavousi at the southwest, Sphaka at the south, and Tourloti at the southeast. All three of these villages, located on the east-west land route, acted as trans-shipment points to the port of Mochlos. The three villages were connected to the roadnetwork of Crete, and small storage areas were built at all three locations. With their increased importance as intermediaries between the smaller villages and the port at Mochlos came stores, light manufacturing, and other businesses. Because Mochlos remained outside the main network of roads, it never developed any economic base of its own aside from port activities.

After slow growth in the late nineteenth century, Mochlos developed rapidly. In 1908, when Seager pitched his tents there to excavate the Minoan town and cemetery on Mochlos Island, a few buildings had been built (for a photograph showing the customs house at the tip of the Mochlos peninsula, see Seager 1912, fig. 2). Mochlos was already serving as a port (Seager 1909, 274). Many other buildings were soon added, serving as warehouses, homes, restaurants, and inns. By the 1930s, the town was rich and prosperous (see the photograph by Bon 1932, pl. 75). Changes occurred in the 1940s. The German invasion and occupation of Crete during the Second World War began a period of alteration in most aspects of Cretan society, including the coastal trade network. Several factors that directly influenced the trading system of eastern Crete can be isolated: 1. The loss of Greek ships during World War II 2. Improvement in the road system in Crete 3. Increases in the number of trucks and other wheeled vehicles 4. The urbanization movement 5. Changes in the agrarian economy Statistics from the Greek government and the Union of Greek Shipowners document the loss of Greek ships during the early part of World War II. By 1943, two thirds of the ocean-going cargo vessels were lost, and the war had “virtually wiped out the auxiliary sailing fleet” (Chadbourne 1943, 70). With shipbuilding at a standstill because of the war, the fleet was not immediately rebuilt. By the end of the war, conditions had changed so dramatically that the smaller sailing craft that had accounted for much of the local coastal traffic in eastern Crete would never be replaced (for the revival of larger commercial ships, but not the smaller ones, see Andriopoulos 1987). The dirt road east from Kavousi was paved in 1946, and wheeled vehicles increased dramatically in the same period (Allbaugh 1953, 564, Table A 108). Goods that were once shipped by sea would now be transported by land, and new buses accommodated the passengers. Towns like Mochlos, which were not situated on the roads, declined dramatically.

COASTAL TRADE: THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

A gradual migration to the cities has been a steady factor in Greek demography during most of the twentieth century. The rural population, 77% in 1920 and 67.2% in 1940, dropped to 56.7% by 1961 (Vlachos 1969, 129). Job opportunities in the cities were the main cause for the exodus from small villages, with Athens as the chief recipient of new residents. The demographic shift, which was often encouraged by government policies (McNeill 1978, 105), lessened the need for transport and other services in places like rural East Crete. Like many other places in Greece, the agriculture of the eastern Gulf of Mirabello underwent some changes during this period. The market for the carob declined, and farmers concentrated on olives, grapes, and a few new crops like bananas. They were shipped by truck, using the new roads. By the 1950s, the change in commercial patterns was complete. As a visitor to Mochlos wrote in 1955, “The modern population is dying out; those

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who remain in the village live in half-derelict houses built on a point and are, I think, the poorest people I have seen” (Frost 1963, 101). The pattern of sea-traffic along the coast of Crete was gone, and the towns that were situated along its route could not maintain themselves economically without it unless they changed their economic foundation completely. The village of Mochlos would soon revive, but the revival was based on new and very different opportunities. During the 1970s and 1980s, this part of Crete developed an economic system based on improved agriculture and an influx of tourism. The transformed agriculture was based on olives that were watered by irrigation and on vegetables grown in plastic-covered hothouses. Mochlos profited more from the new influx of tourists, because the town’s residents were able to capitalized on its picturesque setting and unspoiled beauty. By the 1980s Mochlos was prosperous again, but the coastal trade was only a memory.

Sources of Unpublished Information The history of Mochlos and the other villages in the eastern Gulf of Mirabello has been discussed with many of the author’s friends in the region, over many years. Thanks are expressed in particular to the following persons whose comments were especially informative. Michalis Hairetakis, of Kavousi and Mochlos; born 1945; fisherman; resident of the region all his life (many conversations between 1986 and 1993). Ioannis Kouroupakis, of Tourloti, Crete; born 1940; resident of Tourloti and Mochlos all his

life, and guard for ancient Mochlos and Pseira for the past twenty years (many conversations between 1985 and 1989). Georgios Katapotis, of Mochlos, Crete; born in 1916; resident of eastern Crete all his life; physician (retired); former Demarchos of Siteia, Crete (many conversations between 1986 and 1994). Michalis Zervakis, of Mochlos, Crete; born about 1930; resident of the region all his life (many conversations between 1987 and 1993).

12

Traditional Lime Production in the Eastern Gulf of Mirabello Region Philip P. Betancourt

Before the 1940s, a series of small, privately owned operations furnished the lime needed for construction in the small Cretan villages opposite Pseira. According to one source, more than twenty lime kilns once existed, and every streambed had at least one (Zervakis interview, 8/8/88). The operations themselves were fairly simple, but they made a significant contribution to the local economy both in terms of the lime produced and the employment opportunities created during the summer months; although only a kiln or two worked each season, a busy operation could employ more than twenty men. All the lime was consumed locally, with no surplus available for sale outside the immediate area. The processes used local raw materials, the same materials that were available in antiquity and continue to be available today. Although several superior cements were developed in Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (for a good summary, see Neville 1973, Chapters 1–2; for bibliography on the history of concrete, see Kemp et al. 1982), the new technology did not reach the small villages of the Isthmus of Ierapetra. Instead, local cements were made from high-calcium lime, similar to the lime that had been produced in many parts of Europe since antiquity.

The making of lime and cement became a major industry during the Roman period after the development of pozzolana concrete using high-silica volcanic ash as an additive (for the technology of water-resistant Roman concretes, see Conophagos 1982; Mishara 1982; and especially Lamprecht 1984, with much additional bibliography; for directions on building a Roman limekiln with many similarities to the modern Cretan kilns, see Cato, de Agri Cultura, 38). In the late Roman Empire the skills declined, especially in rural areas that had no easy access to pozzolana ash or suitable alternatives. Although many periods in the Medieval and later technology are not documented, indirect evidence like the continuous construction of plastered buildings and the destruction of marble and limestone monuments for lime-making as well as the survival of ancient kiln technology into postMedieval times suggest the Roman technology never completely died out (for the destruction of monuments, see Gregorovius 1898, VI, 713–726; Lanciani 1901, 38 and 191–194; for the survival of Roman techniques, see Reusche 1977). The limekilns of modern Crete, the descendants of this long tradition, are part of a technology that has been documented from many sites in modern Greece (the

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Illustration 16. Steps in the manufacture of cement made from lime.

principal study of the limekilns of Greece and adjoining areas is Reusche 1977; for a map of sites in Greece, see his p. 35, fig. 3). The process of manufacturing high-calcium lime involves several simple chemical changes. A stone consisting primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), usually limestone or marble, is calcined by heating it to at least 800° F so that CO2 is driven off, forming calcium oxide (CaO, also known as quicklime). Soaking the calcium oxide in water, a process called

slaking, causes it to become calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2. The hydrated lime can be mixed with sand, gravel, or other aggregates to make a limemortar that will set in the presence of air by uniting with carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate. The cement will not set under water because it requires carbon dioxide for the setting process, so it can be stored if it is kept wet. The steps are shown in Illustration 16.

The Local Lime Production The lime production on the coast opposite Pseira was done in two separately owned operations. Limestone was heated in kilns built especially for the purpose at locations convenient to wood and stone. After the stone was calcined, the quicklime was transported to the village of Sphaka for slaking and sale. An emporium that acted as the central distribution point for all the area was located at the village of Sphaka (according to Ioannis Nikoloudakis, the local word was empovrio, not empovrio); the emporium continued in business for many years using the lime from a succession of different kilns. The kiln locations were determined by a proximity to stone and fuel. Most were in streambeds where brush and other wood could be cut for fuel and where the cobbles and boulders from the streambed provided a ready supply of limestone, but an exception was a kiln at the eastern end of Mochlos Island (Zervakis interview, 8/8/88; Kouroupakis interview, 8/10/88). The water-worn stones

from the ravines were easier to obtain than quarried stone. Kiln sites were moved or temporarily abandoned when the nearby fuel was exhausted, a circumstance that happened long before the depletion of the stone supply. Water in the streambeds was not a factor because the kilns operated only during the dry summer months. A kiln in a streambed about five to six kilometers inland from Mochlos, at a location called Makra Opsis (Makrav O v yi~), is a good example of the kilns in the area (Pls. 12A, 12B, 13A). It is the only nearly complete example still standing in the region. The kiln was built by Nikolaos Sylignakis and his father Manolis in the 1920s (Nikoloudakis interviews, 8/88 and 7/93). It is a cylindrical construction with an arched doorway, with an internal diameter of over 3 m (Ill. 17). To provide a level area for the kiln, a small terrace wall was built at the east side of the streambed, and the area behind the wall was filled in with stones and a little soil. The

TRADITIONAL LIME PRODUCTION IN THE EASTERN GULF OF MIRABELLO REGION

kiln was constructed on this new terrace. It was backed against the east side of the ravine by using the natural soil of the hill as the back of the kiln. Perhaps the design was intended to facilitate loading the kiln by walking up the hill to place the stones in it from above, as was frequently the case in other locations in eastern Crete (Blitzer 1984, 153), as well as in other parts of southeast Europe (Reusche 1977), in eighteenth century England (Hudson 1972, 50), and elsewhere (Müller 1976, 70, fig. 1). Only drywall construction was used, without mortar. Walls were of varying thickness, with the thickest portion, measuring 1.30 m, near the door. The kiln was an open cylinder with no roof. A clay lining, still partly preserved when the kiln was studied in 1993, was added inside the chamber in order to protect the limestone walls from the intense heat of the firing. In 1993 the walls stood to a height of

Illustration 17. Plan and section of the kiln at Makra Opsis.

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2.80 m (Ill. 17), with the internal clay lining preserved up to a height of 2.5 m. The door was a corbelled opening on the western side of the kiln, and the walls were thicker at the sides of the doorway. No sign of a floor was visible by the 1980s. Manolis Sylignakis had learned to make lime in Thessaloniki (Nikoloudakis interviews, 8/88). He worked at the trade only in the summer, and he trained his son to follow in the same profession. The first kiln the elder man built was at a location called Sygomalia (Sugomavlia), not far from the location at Makra Opsis where the second (and similarly built) kiln would be constructed two years later. The kilns of the Sylignakis family were loaded by building a corbelled dome of limestone cobbles and boulders inside the cylindrical chamber and then placing additional stones on top of the dome, filling the upper part of the kiln. No evidence for the exact configuration that would have been used

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for the corbelling survived at either kiln, but a wide variety of possibilities are known from other eastern European lime kilns (Müller 1976; Reusche 1977), including domes begun at the floor and domes built on a shelf like the one in a kiln at Achladia, in eastern Crete (Davaras 1980, 121, fig. 5). The fuel was stacked below the stone dome so that it could be fed and tended for several days. Local memory of the length of firing time varied widely (from four to ten days), but by analogy with the limekilns at modern Kritsa and Hagios Nikolaos, a five to eight day period seems to be about correct for the local limestone using wood for fuel in the kiln. During this period, the fire would need to be tended continuously for the first three to five days, and the remainder of the time would be used for the chamber to cool down. The kiln at Makra Opsis hired over twenty workmen when it operated. The men were employed in cutting and transporting brush and other fuel, carrying stones, and getting the quicklime to the emporium at Sphaka. Mules and donkeys were used to transport the quicklime. Because of the seasonal nature of the job, the workers were mostly farmers who used the kiln work to augment their income during the summer. The operations in rural Crete were much smaller than the businesses near larger population centers. The kiln in Plate 13B, which operated near Hagios Nikolaos until it was demolished in the winter of 1987–1988, was the final stage of a kiln that had been renewed and repaired many times. It bears a striking resemblance to Italian limekilns of the 17th century (Levine 1988). The final version used in the 1980s required 55 tons of quarried limestone for each firing. It took six nights and five days to calcine the stone, using the intense heat furnished by a fuel of the dregs from olive presses, stoked with a mechanical feeder. The emporium at Sphaka received the quicklime from the kilns, slaked it, and distributed the final product. Quicklime is not suitable for storage over long periods of time because it takes on water from

the atmosphere and increases in bulk, so it must be carried to the slaking area soon after manufacture. All the lime from the local kilns was consumed in the immediate vicinity. It was not regarded as a very good lime because of a high content of “sand” and other impurities (Nikoloudakis interviews, 8/88). Petrographic thin sections of the local limestone studied by George Myer in the Geological Laboratory, Temple University, show that the “sand” was caused by inclusions of quartz in the original limestone rather than by any flaw in the manufacturing process. The emporium at Sphaka must have been a smaller version of a facility like the one in modern Herakleion shown in Plate 14 (still active when it was photographed in the summer of 1988, this facility closed permanently in the winter of 1988– 1989). The slaking was done in large rectangular pits (visible in the foreground of Plate 14), with the process requiring two weeks. Besides the slaking of the lime, the commercial enterprise at an emporium also included acquisition and storage of sand and gravel, packaging of cement, and the sale of these items and other materials used for building. Traditional lime production in the Sphaka area ceased during World War II and was not renewed after the war. The new road into the region was paved in 1946, responding to the increase in truck and automobile traffic in Crete (for documentation of automobile traffic in the late 1940s, see Allbaugh 1953, 564, Table A 108). With traffic moving more easily, the local business could not compete with the more efficient productions of Hagios Nikolaos, Herakleion, and other centers. In addition, less new architectural construction occurred in this part of Crete during the late 1940s as a natural result of a growing urbanization movement in Greece (Vlachos 1969; McNeil 1978, 255). By the 1990s, when limestone and gypsum were being quarried extensively in the Lava quarry at Mochlos (and exported for use in both cement and wall board), no lime mortar was made locally. All the cement used in the region was brought in from elsewhere.

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Emporium at Sphaka

Illustration 18. Schematic diagram of the role played by the emporium at Sphaka in the production and distribution of high-calcium lime.

Discussion Traditional lime production near the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello was an enterprise in which a few skilled workmen directed the manufacture of all the lime needed by several villages. The operation involved the expenditure of considerable effort, most of it by laborers who needed no prior training. None of the steps were mechanized, and nothing was needed that was not available locally. Four raw materials are necessary to make concrete: stone, fuel, water, and aggregate. The system used in the region that included the territory at the eastern side of the Gulf of Mirabello minimized the transport of these materials by dividing the processes between two locations: a kiln where the quicklime was manufactured and an emporium where it was stored wet for later distribution. When limestone is heated to form quicklime, it loses more than half of its weight, so that it is more economical to transport the quicklime than the stone. Limestone is widely abundant in the region, but a large concentration of brush for fuel is mostly available from the rugged ravines that are unsuitable for farming. As a result, the beds of the intermittent streams were widely used as a ready supply of both stones and wood. Water, however, is not present in these streambeds during the summer. In addition, when

quicklime is slaked it unites with enough water to triple its volume, so that its transport is more economical as the dry product. Sphaka, close to a water supply, was a natural choice for the location of the emporium. Aggregates furnished less of a problem. Sand and gravel could be collected for free at many locations. Most builders in the area preferred to dig their own sand or gravel, and they almost always purchased only the cement when they had a building project. The production and distribution system for the region is shown in Illustration 18. The emporium was the controlling center. It acted as the collection, processing, storage, and distribution point, bridging the gap between producers and consumers. Only through the emporium could the system guarantee the constant availability of a commodity produced only seasonally, with a steady supply of building materials accessible to anyone who needed them. To insure success, someone at the center needed to monitor the changes in supply and demand, control the flow of raw materials, plan for a sufficient storage of cement and other building materials to last until the next time a customer needed them, and negotiate prices that were in line with the rest of the east Cretan economy.

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Sources of Information Limekiln assistant, of Hagios Nikolaos, Crete; age about 50 at time of interview; in charge of watching the limekiln fuel stoking machinery at a kiln located in Hagios Nikolaos (interview and tour of kiln on July 19, 1987). Limekiln assistant, of Kritsa, Crete; age about 50 at time of interview; in charge of the limekiln stocking machinery at a kiln built of brick and concrete blocks in Kritsa (interview and tour of kiln, July 1993). Demitrios Kostoglou, of Ano Allikarnassos, Herakleion, Crete; age about 50 at time of interview; worker in the lime slaking operation, Herakleion, Crete (interview and tour of the lime slaking facility on August 13, 1988). Ioannis Kouroupakis, of Tourloti, Crete; born 1940; resident of Tourloti and Mochlos all his life, and guard for Mochlos and Pseira until he retired in the 1990s (many conversations over

a period of several years, with detailed discussions of limekilns on August 8 and 10, 1988). Pandres Nerandis, of Herakleion, Crete; age about 50 at time of interview; worker in the lime slaking operation, Herakleion, Crete (interview on August 13, 1988). Ioannis A. Nikoloudakis, of Sphaka, Crete; born 1906; resident of Sphaka all his life (repeated interviews by Peter Day and Philip Betancourt, and tour of limekiln sites, August 1988; interview and tour of limekiln sites by Philip Betancourt, July 1993). Giorgos Paschalakis, of Mochlos, Crete; age about 65 at time of interview (interviews on August 7–8, 1988). Ioannis Zervakis, of Mochlos, Crete; age about 40 in 1988; resident of the region all his life (discussions on limekilns on August 7 and 8, 1988).

13

Marriage and Mobility: Traditions and the Dynamics of the Pottery System in Twentieth Century East Crete Peter M. Day

This ‘standardization’ with regard to the producers and products; the division between those craftsmen who are permanently established in one location and others who are itinerant and work seasonally in various places within Crete (the vendéma); the conservatism of the types and shapes in combination with the quality of the product; along with the

almost complete lack of potters elsewhere in Crete outside these centers (Kentri, Nochia, Margarites, and Thrapsano); all these observations characterize Cretan pottery production. (Stratigis and Papadakis 1986, 73; author’s translation, emphases added)

The Denial of Change in Cretan Ceramic Ethnography STUDYING POTS AND POTTERS IN CRETE This chapter examines the place of ceramics during the twentieth century in East Crete, especially in the villages lying between Lastros and Exo Mouliana, above the harbor of Mochlos. It presents a view of change in pottery production and consumption, acknowledging potters’ active roles in the ceramic system of this part of the island. Ethnographic studies of potters in Crete have been carried out within two broad disciplines, those of Aegean archaeology and laographía, both of which have

presented an essentially static view of the craft, emphasizing continuity within a production-based perspective. These traditions of inquiry will be considered and alternative viewpoints suggested. Previously, potters have been accepted as intermediaries between the natural environment and material culture, affected by economic circumstance, creative skill, and related factors. In concentrating here on the varied and changing nature of production in this area, it is hoped to develop a dynamic view of ceramic production, considering

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potters as both problem solvers and individuals affected by and acting upon their social circumstances. This will involve an investigation of the manipulation of categories, techniques, and modes of production by potters and changes in action and perception by those consuming ceramic products in the area. The role of marriage and baptism as mechanisms transforming or maintaining pottery traditions on the island will be considered. It will be argued that within the study area, a strict adherence to accepted, imposed categories of Cretan pottery organization is not appropriate. On the contrary, the very nature and frequency of technical variants leads to a better appreciation of the place of traditional ceramic production in the recent past and to an understanding of the possible alternative strategies available for pottery production within Northeast Crete. The main pattern of traditions suggested in the opening quote has a firm basis and, indeed, is actually maintained through labor organization and raw material recipes, but this is not because of some unchanging trajectory over time, which ensures optimality. In fact, the maintenance of tradition sometimes encourages potters to transgress boundaries of practice in a way that defies economic explanation. Such variability from the “idealized” view of Cretan ceramic production repays study: in Cretan pottery ethnography the general rule has been emphasized to the detriment of the equally informative exception. THE DYNAMICS OF TRADITION IN CRETAN CERAMICS The opening quote of this paper represents a commonly held view of recent pottery production in Crete. It makes four basic points: that Cretan potters specialize according to vessel shape, that there is a clear division between sedentary and itinerant potters, that there is a distinct conservatism in production, and that potters are restricted to the four main centers recorded in the literature. Thus, a restricted and conservative image is presented of pottery on the island. Although the ability of potters to transfer from sedentism to itinerancy and to change the type of pottery they make has been acknowledged, along with the existence of “local” potters outside of the main centers (Vallianos and Padouva 1986, 18–19), these factors are often dismissed as being rare. Is

such a view a fair reflection of ceramic production on the island? To challenge the picture of a conservative organization of ceramic production is not to deny the importance of strongly reproduced patterns of technology and labor organization. These lie at the core of the issues addressed here. Traditions are, at once, the aspects most worthy of our attention and, conversely, the root of the problem in Cretan ethnographic work, when it fails to consider change. The choices available to potters solving any perceived ceramic need or problem are myriad, and there are usually a number of alternative paths through the production process, to result in a given pottery product. Reconstruction of the chaine operatoire has been suggested as a useful means of investigating such cognitive structures, which show themselves as technical variants (van der Leeuw 1994). Such variants can, indeed, correspond to social choices made by specific groups (Mahias 1993), but should not be seen as unchanging. On the contrary, the tradition, rather than having its own inherent momentum, is constantly reproduced and reinterpreted by its adherents, leading at times to change (van der Leeuw, Papousek, and Coudart 1992). Of course, it is in the very nature of a tradition that the acceptability of such change may be challenged or blocked by taboo or rejection, but it is the dynamic nature and the potential for redefinition and exploitation of traditions that provide us with fertile ground for examining ceramics in society (van der Leeuw, Papousek, and Coudart 1992; van der Leeuw 1993). In consideration of the vessel repertoire and production techniques of potters operating in twentieth century eastern Crete, those from Kentri on the Isthmus of Ierapetra and those from Thrapsano Pediadas in Central Crete have been most prominent (Ill. 19). They have been studied through descriptions of the generalized production process for each group and, as a consequence, there exist excellent data on the formation of vessels and the organization of labor (at least within the workshop environment) of these two centers. A similar interest has been shown in the potters from Nochia in West Crete and Margarites in the northern foothills of Psiloritis. There now exists a detailed inventory of kiln sites throughout the island (Psaropoulou 1996).

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Illustration 19. Map showing the island of Crete with main ceramic production centers.

The potters of the village of Thrapsano in Pediada have received most attention in cross-cultural, comparative literature, due to their being itinerant (Arnold 1985, 19; Kramer 1985; Rice 1987, 183). Their basic organization of production has been described in Hampe and Winter’s classic work (1962, 4–11, 16–32, 35–40), with thorough accounts given by Voyatzoglou (1972; 1973; 1984). The potters of Margarites are known for making a similar range of pottery, mainly storage jars, and are referred to by Hampe and Winter (1962, 33–35) and recorded extensively in more recent work (Vallianos and Padouva 1986; Leontides 1996). Perhaps less well known are the water jar makers of West Crete in the village of Nochia (Hampe and Winter 1962, 43–45; Vallianos and Padouva 1986, 22–23). In the east of the island, Blitzer has recorded the activities of the potters of Kentri (1984). It is no coincidence that these four well-recorded centers feature as the locations for pottery production that we saw in the quote at the head of this chapter. There are, however, aspects of Cretan potters’ activities that deserve further consideration. A concentration on production techniques at the main pottery centers, rather than production and consumption throughout and beyond the island, together with a denial of the complexity and fluidity of the role of potter and consumer, has led to

consideration of the Cretan ceramic system divorced from its social and geographical context. At times production variants were categorized as simply as possible and then linked with the past, leading to a simple contention of continuity in Cretan pottery manufacture. Taking inspiration from recent novel approaches elsewhere in the Aegean, in Siphnos (SpathariBegliti 1992) and Messenia (Blitzer 1990), we might leave aside this presumption of continuity and place East Crete within a broader social and economic environment. This involves an emphasis on the social, technological, and environmental background to the choice and manipulation of raw materials, especially highlighting the varied types of change, which occur in many aspects of the pottery system. While this chapter will emphasize the role of traditions in pottery production, it will also demonstrate that potters were more flexible in their location, mode of production, and products than has previously been recorded in ethnographic literature. Ethnographic work carried out in this project not only considered the case of many potters, but also comprised interviews with a variety of other people, not necessarily involved directly with pottery production. Their testimony as consumers of all types of ceramics was valuable. They provided insight into the choices made by customers, and

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their assessment as non-potters gave a clear indication of the place of the potters in East Cretan society. Although many key questions were asked of all informants, most interviews took the form of loosely structured conversations, in an effort to avoid imposing the author’s approach to the ceramics. Gradually unfolding stories ultimately revealed more than attempting the reconstruction of attitudes and decisions from questions and formal structure. So, the aim here is to look beyond the stereotype of an essentially static pottery system in Crete to

make a first step in understanding the reasons for and consequences of change in the area. Before moving on to consider the evidence in detail, a prerequisite to reassessment is the examination of the context and content of previous research on modern Cretan pottery production, starting with a brief appraisal of the discipline of laographía and continuing to the use of such evidence in archaeological research.

Laographía and Archaeology in Cretan Ceramic Ethnography There have been two great influences on the nature of Cretan pottery ethnography: the tradition of Greek laographía and the use of ethnographic analogy in studies of archaeological pottery. As both of these have stressed strong links between the past and present, their effect is related in failing to promote the study of change and variation. LAOGRAPHÍA The nature and ultimate aims of laographía have been discussed thoroughly by others (Barbounis 1993; Danforth 1984; Kyriakidou-Nestoros 1978; Herzfeld 1982; 1987; Meraklis 1984; SpathariBegliti 1992, 1–20). In its original form, it involved the detailed recording of aspects of traditional life and expression, with its main emphasis on exploring the diachronic link between practices in antiquity and those of the modern laós or common people (Spathari-Begliti 1992, 3). In a relatively newly established nation state, and with a background of years of domination of the Christian tradition in the area, such a legitimizing link has been of importance in placing the current political form within an historical context. It is noteworthy that it is found easier to link the present to a more distant past of Classical Antiquity, rather than the Byzantine Empire, and such a view may have its roots in the construction of a Western European past. In general, such an argument has led to direct formal comparisons between processes of Classical times, and earlier, with the present, rather than

an understanding of any continuity or discontinuity that may exist between the two periods or differences in the level of data (concerning the elite or the masses) available for the period (Barbounis 1993, 43–49). Nevertheless, this passionate pursual of laographía has resulted in a rich legacy of information on traditional crafts within the Aegean, encouraging the recording of an ailing pottery production system and even aiding efforts to give new life to the craft. In ceramic studies, the meaning of formal links made between pottery shapes and technology of the past and present is not always clear. However, some authors have commented explicitly on the development of the twentieth century ceramic craft from the Ottoman and even the Byzantine periods (i.e., Kyriazopoulos 1984). The commonly used term ethnography has received close attention as a term and has been rejected, firstly as being linked with colonialist traditions of scholarship (Kyriakidou-Nestoros 1978, 19–22) and, secondly, due to the necessity to demonstrate that the éthnos and the laós were one and the same thing (Herzfeld 1986, 13). Thus, laographía developed as a somewhat independent discipline with a firm political aim, which ultimately denied change. However, developments in social anthropology and the response to social and economic changes within Greece led to some changes in the discipline of laographía. In addition to the work with emphasis on rural continuity, there grew

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studies involving a laographía, which encompassed the study of urban society and the class system (Meraklis 1984). A result of this reorientation has been the first substantial specific study on change in a case of traditional pottery production (Spathari-Begliti 1992). An associated mode of study of traditional Greek pottery has been that from the viewpoint of laikí téchni (lit. popular craft), which has tended to consider the products of the potters in isolation from the community that produced it (Spathari-Begliti 1994, 52). ARCHAEOLOGY AND CERAMIC ETHNOGRAPHY If the laográphos is involved in a discipline embedded within the realities of political legitimization and struggle, as Barbounis suggests that the discipline was “born under the influence of a national crusade” (1993, 27, author’s translation), it has been suggested that the archaeologist in Greece is (or should be) by definition a nationalist. Orlandos (1969, 6, quoted in Herzfeld 1986, 110) defines two directions of folkloric research: literary, and patriotic or archaeological. Formal ethnographic analogies for the interpretation of archaeological materials in other geographical areas have faced a reassessment in recent times, but this has had little effect on the archaeological use of Cretan ceramic ethnography. This is not to say that any one reading of the evidence of pottery production should be taken as proven or otherwise, rather that we might care to take into account the milieu of early texts of pottery ethnography just as we would an ethnographic informant. Working within a framework that emphasized continuity and change as natural concomitants of time, ethnographic evidence in Crete has often been used in archaeological interpretation, or as is the case in this volume, has appeared in archaeological books or periodicals with an implicit or explicit message for those dealing with pottery from the past. Early in the 20th century, Xanthoudides (1927) recorded Thrapsano potters working in the vicinity of Mount Juktas, near Knossos. He published their equipment and methods of manufacturing the large storage jars, which were similar to those excavated from the nearby Palace of Minos excavated by Evans. His conclusion that the construction of the

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modern jars was very similar to the ancient is one that has been echoed by several subsequent scholars (for example, Fiandra and Pelagatti 1962). Through formal analogy, he was prompted to identify Minoan clay disks as being potters wheels or bats, an identification that has proved useful (Evely 1988). The kiln sites discussed by Xanthoudides were subsequently relocated, and pottery samples from them were analyzed in another comparative exercise (Day 1989). Many references to modern Cretan and other Greek potters exist in the archaeological literature, and they are an inevitable and positive reaction to the presence of traditional production within the Aegean area. Casson (1938; 1951) concentrated on presenting aspects of trade around the Aegean, while other scholars have given emphasis to parallels between either ceramic forms or production installations. Warren (1978) demonstrated the similarity in shape between “pilgrim flasks” produced in Thrapsano and those similar Cretan flasks from antiquity. This is without doubt a shape that has a long history, but also one that is produced in various parts of the Mediterranean, being a common shape, for example, among the Djerba potters of North Africa. In contemplating such a vessel, we surely benefit from observing one way of making a pot of that type, rather than presuming a definite diachronic pattern. Laffineur (1990) has taken such formal analogies further in arguing that the socalled “pig-pens” in Bronze Age Knossos were actually structures to house a line of hand-turned turntables similar to those used by the Thrapsano potters in the early to mid-twentieth century. However, one might just as easily point to the dissimilarities between the two examples: notably that those made by the Thrapsano potters were generally dug into the bare earth, rather than constructed of quarried stone, and were located outside settlements. Indeed, it has been suggested that the large storage jars, which are so easily paralleled by the modern examples, were produced at a distance from the palace during the Bronze Age (Day 1988), and that many wares supposedly produced in the palace were, in fact, consumed there. It is clear that both the clay mixes and forming methods used in Thrapsano storage jars are, in some cases, similar to Bronze Age counterparts. However, extrapolating this to such aspects as the

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organization of labor, thus inferring that Bronze Age pitharádes were itinerant, is fraught with difficulty. A similar problem has been discussed in relation to Cypriot handmade pottery (Hankey 1983; Walz 1985). Thus, it is clear that claims of diachronic continuity in ceramics have not been restricted to Greek scholars, and that some of the analogies have been made without reference to the economic circumstance prevailing (Valavanis 1990). In all this it might be observed that the relationship between ceramic ethnography and archaeology in Crete was reflexive, in that archaeology fed off direct analogies from modern pottery production, while laographía used archaeological examples in its presentation of cultural continuity. What cannot be questioned is that an understanding of traditional pottery production on the island, even if not directly analogous with the Minoan ceramic system, demonstrates a series of possible methods of raw material exploitation and transformation, in an environment where the observer is usually relatively inexperienced. Nevertheless, such examinations of the longevity of ceramic traditions are beginning to be reassessed within an archaeological context. Specific paste recipes survive from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age until at least the Late Bronze Age, some spanning at least two thousand years in parts of Crete (Wilson and Day 1994; Day 1995; Day, Wilson, and Kiriatzi 1997). Having described the relationship between the study of archaeological and modern pottery as being reflexive, it is just this time-depth of material culture that encourages the study of the modern pottery as a dynamic process. COMMENT Set within the context of these two traditions of ceramic studies, Aegean ceramic ethnography clearly prioritized the description of materials, processes, and objects in a timeless framework. However, recent studies have begun to shift such an emphasis and to take a more diachronic and contextual approach. The most notable of these have been the ethnographic studies carried out by Harriet Blitzer (Blitzer 1984; 1990), who presents contextual ceramic

research to inform archaeological opinion. Her work on the potters of Messenia is especially notable for placing ceramic production and consumption within its historical context. She links the rise of the Koroni potting villages, and the broad distribution of the large jars that characterize the production, to changes in the political structure of the Balkan peninsula and to changing priorities in trade of the major powers of the time. Blitzer’s work emphasizes a methodological problem inherent in both laographía and archaeological use of ethnographic data. Both have concentrated on studying potters as producers continuing craft traditions, but have paid little attention to the consumption, use, and depositional patterns of pottery itself. There are a number of topics currently debated that have a strong bearing on many of the issues discussed in the preceding sections. If it is to be argued that a simple connection cannot be made between ethnographic observations and past human actions, the key must be to understand the circumstances of both the observer and the observed, fitting these into varied perceptions of time (Herzfeld 1991; Gosden 1994). Ethnographic studies, where the observer presents experience gained within a small window of time, often do not lend themselves to study of change. Of course, such a situation is not restricted to study within the Aegean. In fact, Papousek’s study of the Los Pueblos potters still remains one of the very few studies that take a diachronic approach to ethnographic ceramic research (Papousek 1981; 1989). A shift in emphasis, encompassing what effectively comprises an ethnohistoric study, will encourage consideration of the social life not only of the objects, but also of the techniques used to produce them, to see pots and potters as more than slaves to function and tradition. In reality, it is these very aspects that are most directly represented in the archaeological record. Production sites are few and far between and, therefore, ethnographic and archaeological information have been incompatible. As the emphasis moves to such matters of consumption in anthropology and archaeology (Miller 1995), then it may be argued that the link between ethnography and archaeology, even if one of contrasts, becomes easier to make.

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The Basis of Cretan Pottery Production: a Review of Thrapsano In this section, the received picture of Cretan pottery production, from the several substantial studies carried out, will be presented. This will be followed in the next two sections by additional discussion arising from the author’s fieldwork. Perhaps the most basic feature defining twentieth century pottery production in Crete has been the division between the itinerant and sedentary potters. Of these, the itinerant potters have been studied in greater depth, in part because their system is unusual, but also because they were the most numerous. The potters of Karoti in West Crete and of Margarites in Central Crete sent out itinerant teams (Leontidis 1996), but attention has focused on the potters of Thrapsano. The village of Thrapsano is located in the Eparchy of the Pediada in Central Crete, approximately 32 km southeast of Herakleion and close to the town of Kastelli. The village has a long history of pottery production. Vallianos and Padouva (1986) suggest that the pottery tradition in Thrapsano dates from the end of the medieval period. They record that kiln remains from this period have been found in the vicinity of the village. A long history would seem to be supported by some etymological points. The head potter of a team is called the “Mastoras,” a term which is Byzantine in its origin (Casson 1938, 468). His second in command is called the “Sotomastoras,” which is clearly derived from the Venetian period in Crete, as is the name for the system of teams leaving the village seasonally: “Vendema” from “Vendemmia” = harvest. More recent roots are found in the numerous Turkish words used in relation to the village and its production system. For example, “Takimi,” the word for the itinerant team, is Turkish for a band or team. Early records refer to Thrapsano being involved in pottery production as early as the seventeenth century. Hampe reports that a Cretan monk writes that they “were all potters” in the village as early as 1642 (Hampe and Winter 1962, 215). An Ottoman firman from 29 November 1682 relates to the potters and their evasion of the tax of one tenth on income from their pottery (Stavrinidis 1986, 215,

Document 805; for this tax, see TriandaphyllidouBaladié 1988, 47–49). It is not stated why the potters of Thrapsano are singled out for such a notice, although it may be suggested that an itinerant existence may have made it more difficult for the government to collect taxes. We do not, however, know if the potters at Thrapsano were operating an itinerant system at that time. In the census of 1671, Thrapsano is recorded as being the largest settlement in the Eparchy of Pediada with 122 rich, 79 of medium wealth, and 5 poor (Stavrinidis 1986, 116). We thus have the image of a prosperous community, something emphasized by a document in 1746 (Stavrinidis 1984, 304), which relates that the settlement is situated at the center of the villages in the Eparchy of Pediada, and also has a larger population than the other villages

and is therefore a suitable location for announcements and other official matters, despite the overwhelmingly Christian population recorded in the Census of 1881 (854 Christians and 7 Muslims) (Stavrakis 1890, 120). Buondelmonti, writing at the beginning of the 15th century, refers to the area around Kastelli Pediada as being situated on a very fertile plain: Ibique prope eam Pidiata oppidum in fertilissimo campo apparet C. Buondelmonti, see Spitael 1981, lines 877– 878, my stress

It is of interest that in 1415 Buondelmonti encountered a member of the Kornaros family at that time near to Thrapsano (Spitael 1981, lines 880– 886). Spanakis publishes the will of Andreas Kornaros and the Kornaros family tree, showing that their main estate was situated at Thrapsano (Spanakis 1955). As we shall see in the following sections, the main Thrapsano potter to work in East Crete in the twentieth century was a member of this ancient family. It is evident from this that in acting as a regional center for a rich agricultural area, Thrapsano may well have been suitable for the sale of such essential everyday items as pottery vessels. The

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main activity of its inhabitants is made clear by the name of the settlement. In the Turkish documents, it is referred to as “Tzomlektzi” or “Tzomblektzi Kioi,” which means village of the potters (Stavrinides 1986, 116, note 44). The present day Greek name is also indicative of the major activity in the village, being derived from “Thrapsala,” the broken pieces of pottery around a kiln (Vallianos and Padouva 1986); indeed, the Ottoman census list of 1671 records its other name as being “Trapsana” (Stavrinidis 1986, 116). By 1951, Thrapsano had been overtaken in size by two other settlements in the Eparchy: Mochos and Kastelli. By 1971, these villages had been joined by the tourist resorts of Gournes, Limin Chersonissou, and Malia. However, it is clear that Thrapsano, contrary to its present position, had been a pivotal settlement in this agricultural area and has had a tradition in pottery making for a substantial amount of time. Thrapsano is known throughout the island as the point of origin of the itinerant bands of potters who left the village every summer until the 1960s to make pottery in nearly all areas of Crete. The fame of its potters has spread beyond the island and has been a much-quoted example of itinerant seasonal potters in more general work on ceramics (Peacock 1982, 27–28; Arnold 1985, 19). Psaropoulou estimates to have recorded 167 kilns within the village itself (1996, 103) and a further 134 kiln sites throughout the island built by potters from the village in their itinerant, seasonal work (1988, 177–178). As with other areas of Crete, there were many potters from Thrapsano who were working in the area studied in this chapter. THE THRAPSANO VENDAMA SYSTEM: THE TEAM We have a wealth of information concerning the techniques and organization of production of the large storage jars, for which Thrapsano is so well known, and of other ceramic vessels made by craftsmen from this village. The main sources for any assessment of the vendema system are Hampe and Winter (1962), Voyatzoglou (1972; 1973; 1984), Guest-Papamanoli (1983), and Vallianos and Padouva (1986). The basis of the Thrapsano seasonal itinerant system (i vendéma, lit. the harvest), is the team (to

takími), which usually comprised six persons (for detailed accounts, see Voyatzoglou 1972; 1984). Within the team, there was a hierarchical structure of seniority and a specialization according to separate responsibilities. The material rewards varied according to a member’s position. Seniority was observed even during meals, when the youngest member, usually the carrier (kouvalítis) would take food from the communal cooking vessel last and drink from the wine cup last. It was the mástoras, or master potter, who had overall responsibility for the formation of the team and its activities during the production season. The mástoras negotiated the rental agreements with the owners of the kiln site and the clay source, and he made the payment for the fuel collection rights. In pottery manufacture, he alone formed the large storage jars, which were the main product, made on a series of small wheels. The sotomástoras, who was the second in command, was responsible for finishing various aspects of the pitharia, such as the handles and decoration. He was the only other member of the vendema team who was involved in pottery forming: throwing pots on the kick wheel that the team normally had at their camp. The chomatás (lit. earth man) identified the local sources of suitable raw materials with the consultation of the mástoras and then dug them. He prepared the materials as a clay body for the potter. The trocháris/kaminiáris (lit. wheel man/kiln man), had a dual role, being responsible for turning the small hand driven wheel (to trochí) in the manufacture of pitharia, and he was also responsible for much of the kiln firing. He loaded the sun-dried vessels in the firing chamber of the kiln and regulated the length and temperature of the firing. The xilás (lit. wood man) collected and prepared bundles of wood for firing, and finally the kouvalítis was responsible for the transporting of both material and finished products. During the winter and spring, the mástoras would decide where on the island he wanted to take a team during the next summer season. He would make arrangements with the landowner of a suitable location and form a team that would work with him. Approximately 30–35 groups used to leave the village every year in May to go to their various destinations. Voyatzoglou suggests that their departure from the village was a festive occasion (1973, 13).

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They would not be expected to return until September. THE THRAPSANO VENDEMA: PRODUCTION Having reached their place of work, the team members would build a kiln (to kamíni) if there was not one already there. Hampe and Winter (1962) give a well-illustrated account of the construction of a Thrapsano round, updraft kiln. Other elements of the production area needed preparation, including the trench that contained the small turntables and the huts that the potters would use for sleeping (ta kalívia). The trench for the manufacture of pitharia usually housed between 8 and 12 turntables whose construction is described in detail by Voyatzoglou (1972, 27–28; 1984, 134–135). The kick-wheel in the temporary workshop would have been set up in the open air. Xanthoudides illustrates its use at Silamos, near Knossos (Xanthoudides 1927). For a detailed account of the use of the two types of wheel, see Voyatzoglou 1972, 27–41. RAW MATERIALS The xilás gathered and transported suitable wood. The mástoras would choose the clays and soils, which often came from sources that were well known, having been passed down for years as a suitable source. The chomatás would then dig and prepare the variety of clays that had been chosen. They would be brought to the kiln site, beaten, mixed in agreed quantities, and thus prepared as a ready clay body for the mástoras. Preparation of the clay in itinerant workshops did not involve settling tanks or levigation, but rather the clay was beaten with a wooden tool and then sieved to separate out large stones or other matter. The clay types most frequently referred to in the ethnographic literature are: 1. Red earth (to kokkinóchoma), a red soil (terra rossa) that has small stone inclusions. Some variants can be used unmixed in the manufacture of small vessels, or can be mixed with other clays or soils to form the clay body used in the production of larger pots. 2. White clay (to aspróchoma), a yellow to yellowish-white soil that is normally fine and

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plastic. It is usually an ingredient of clay mixes for both large and small vessel. 3. Lepida (lit. blade, i lepída or to lepidóchoma), a blue/gray coarse deposit, usually found in the phyllite-quartzite series, which produces large inclusions in the paste and is oily (laderí) to the touch. It is usually mixed with red soil to form the clay body used in the production of larger vessels. FORMING PROCESS The large storage jars were constructed by a series of clay coils, on a clay bat (i pláka), with the number varying according to the type of jar being produced, but usually 6 coils were used in forming the large storage jars (pithária). The mástoras would apply and shape each coil, while the trocháris sat in the trench and turned the wheel. Each vessel would be worked on in turn, leaving the latest section of the vessel to dry in the sun. By the time the last in the line was reached, the first would be ready to receive the next coil. When the full height had been reached, the storage jar was finished by the addition of handles (ta aftiá, lit. the ears) and simple decoration impressed with wooden tools. In contrast to this forming method, smaller vessels were made on the kick-wheel (o trochós) and tended to have a different clay mix. They were often formed by throwing the pot in a series of stages, joining coils together before bringing the pot wall up to the desired height. FIRING The vessels thus manufactured were fired in an updraft kiln with vessels separated by broken pottery sherds. The kilns were round and open topped (see Voyatzoglou 1984, 140). The smaller wheelthrown pots were often fired in open spaces between the large vessels. The top of the kiln would be covered with parts of broken jars and sometimes with corrugated iron. The firing itself, which usually lasted 4 hours, consisted of several stages (Voyatzoglou 1972, 91–93). The kiln would be left overnight to cool and would be unloaded the next morning.

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DISTRIBUTION Completed jars were then transported in pairs on the backs of pack animals to surrounding villages, where they were sold as pairs (to zevgári). THRAPSANO POTTERS—COMMENT Such is the traditional account of the Thrapsano potters, but Psaropoulou (1988) has brought a fresh perspective with her ideas concerning the dual workshop system employed by them. She argues that the production on both hand turned wheels and kick-wheels, and the corresponding differentiation of shapes and sometimes clay mixes produced on them, indicates two types of production co-existing in one potting system. Such an observation is heightened by Voyatzoglou’s (1972) observations concerning the production of glazed wares and other small vessels in the home village, most of

which are not produced by the Thrapsano potters during the vendema. In addition to the large storage jars, potters would make water jars (to stamní or i stámna and i laína) for fellow villagers before leaving on the seasonal itinerant diaspora (i vendéma), to provide for those in the fields during harvest. Additionally, some of the potters would make glazed wares after the vendéma, and would sell these vessels in the villages around Thrapsano (Voyatzoglou 1972, 98). In this study, such diversity of products and manufacturing techniques will be shown to be the basis of the very adaptability of the Thrapsano potters as observed in their behavior in East Crete. The exceptions to the rules presented in this section form the basis for an understanding of the potters of the Thrapsano tradition in the Lastros-Exo Mouliana area.

Kentri Potters Set in contrast to the Thrapsano potters are the sedentary potters based in villages; they produced smaller vessels, generally water jars. In East Crete, such potters are represented by the village of Kentri. Accounts have been published by Hampe and Winter (1962, 11–15) and, in more detail, by Blitzer (1984). Kentri lies in the southern part of the Ierapetra depression at a distance of about 4 km north of the town of Ierapetra. Vallianos and Padouva (1986, 19) claim that production in this village may be relatively recent and suggest a starting date of around the end of the eighteenth century. The last traditional potter ceased working in the village about 1987. Blitzer’s account is a detailed assessment of the potters and their products. KENTRI POTTERS: ORGANIZATION Unlike the Thrapsano potters, those at Kentri (known as oi tsikaládes; lit. cooking pot makers) did not work in teams, but rather employed helpers, usually two or three, for specific jobs such as the collection and transport of clay and fuel and the preparation of the clay mix used. The water jar makers worked seasonally from around May to October and had agricultural responsibilities in addition to those of their craft.

Blitzer (1984, 149–152) illustrates the large variety of small vessels produced in the workshops of Kentri, but the most common shape made, and the one which made the village its reputation, is the two handled water jar (to stamní). Other centers produced this pot, but only Nochia, a village in the west of Crete, had a reputation for water jars of such good quality. KENTRI POTTERS: PRODUCTION Two materials were used in mixing the ceramic paste: a white clay and a red clay. The former was taken from the hillside on the opposite side of the depression, about 3 km east of Kentri, close to the village of Vainia above the church of Hagios Pandelimon. This clay was mined out of the hillside. The red was taken from the plain at a short distance north of the village in an area named tsikalochómata (lit. cooking pot earths). It was a red alluvial deposit, and the potters dug down to a depth of 10– 20 cm. The white clay was beaten and then sieved. The red clay was prepared in a similar fashion until settling basins were introduced to the village. Vessels were made on a kick wheel and often built up in a number of stages, which were allowed to dry before the next coil was thrown on. The

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kilns were essentially of the same construction as those used by the Thrapsano potters. The pottery from these workshops was taken by pack animal to Pacheia Ammos and Ierapetra, from where it was taken on boats by merchants to markets such as the Mesara plain and around the coast to Goudouras, Siteia, and Hagios Nikolaos (Blitzer 1984, 143–145). KENTRI POTTERS: COMMENT Kentri formed a major concentration of potters whose water jars were a popular product throughout East and Central Crete. Thus, a large proportion of the village’s population was involved at some level in pottery production. Vallianos and Padouva (1986) suggest 30%. The Kentri potters had more substantial processing facilities for the clays they used than the itinerant workshops had, and they exploited raw material sources that were evidently suitable for the function of their most popular product. The potters often shared premises, and not all of them had kilns, as there would be days when kilns were not to be fired by their owner and were

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available for hire. The Kentri potters are presented in previous work as largely sedentary, with their distribution carried out by maritime trading through middlemen. The last potter ceased working at the village during the course of this study, bringing an end to a long tradition in the village. From their physical properties, it is clear that the water jars produced here were well-suited to cooling and purifying water, and that it was these vessels that formed the basis of the potters’ success. However, the village also produced other household forms, which were probably consumed mainly by Kentri, its surrounding villages, and the nearby large center of Ierapetra. Kentri’s location was excellent from the point of view of distribution of its products. Being on the Isthmus of Ierapetra, it had access to both Central and Eastern Crete and could distribute its goods out of harbors on both the north and south coast. In addition, Ierapetra provided the largest town of the region with a population of 2539 in 1881, and 5516 in 1951 and housed many Ottoman merchants during the last century (Stavrakis 1890).

Impression of Ceramic Production from Ethnographic Literature The picture presented in the literature is of a system divided between the two main groups of potters, the storage jar makers and the water jar makers, and it is viewed almost entirely in terms of the production of vessels. Nevertheless, not only was any one area of Crete interacting with other regions of the island, involving the exchange of pottery, but also the island itself was part of a wider system of pottery exchange and consumption spanning the Aegean Sea and beyond. The form of production in Crete in general and specifically in the study area cannot be separated from the nature and availability of pottery from other areas of the Mediterranean. In summary, the pottery system in twentieth century Crete has been presented in terms of a series of contrasts, of producers and products. Illustration 20 shows the divisions present within the two sides of pottery manufacture in Crete. This study addresses whether such structural oppositions are a

fair reflection of the activities of potters and consumers within East Crete, or the extent to which they comprise the divisions imposed by categorization in studies by ethnographers. CONTEXT OF THE CASE STUDY This case study derives from a larger study of modern pottery production in East Crete, which was incorporated in a largely archaeological work (Day 1991). It takes 11 of the 52 kiln sites recorded to provide an account of the evidence for traditional pottery production in the area of Lastros to Exo Mouliana, essentially the villages situated above the Bay of Mochlos. The 11 kilns are located in 5 villages (Ills. 21 and 22). In a series of interviews and accompanying fieldwork, carried out during the period 1986–1989, the main aspects of pottery production and consumption during this century were recorded. A number of production locations are

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Illustration 20. Diagram showing perceived structural oppositions in sedentary and itinerant potters of Crete.

identified here, and the distribution of the products and activities of the craftsmen are discussed. In the following discussion, where information is not of a personal nature, real names are used in this chapter. Unlike the situation in social anthropological studies in the Aegean, in ethnographic studies of pottery there has been no tradition of pseudonymity (Psaropoulou 1984; 1990). In fact, large inventories of names have been published (Leontidis 1996; Psaropoulou 1996). Regardless of how Cretan ethnographic studies should be approached, our research takes place within the framework of received views of Cretan pottery production, which has been recounted above. This author’s viewpoint as an observer will be presented in the section which follows, but we should be aware that the ethnographic informants, be they potters or non-potters, also act within their own frames of reference, which may be heavily influenced by national or local histories (Cowan

Illustration 21. Map showing East Crete, with kiln locations indicated.

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Illustration 22. Map showing location of villages and kiln sites around the Bay of Mochlos.

1988; 1990; Herzfeld 1991). Cowan clearly describes such circularity between laographía itself forming the framework for people’s answers to questions posed by the ethnographer, while Dubisch eloquently presents the importance of the observer’s own experience and its interplay with the society studied (Dubisch 1995). Being aware of such factors in the study, of course, does not preclude its execution; rather, it enhances our understanding of the issues addressed. This forms one of the last chances to record a ceramic system operating in this area, as the last traditional potter in East Crete retired from work during the course of the study. The rapid decline in

pottery manufacture has been felt widely in the Aegean (Spathari-Begliti 1994, 51), as is also the case with other crafts (Herzfeld 1991). Within this context, it is informative to see how production and distribution of pottery was carried out and which decisions underlay the choice and manipulation of raw materials. The study provides one possible model of ceramic production and consumption in an area whose archaeological ceramic system also formed part of the original study. Kilns that will be discussed in this study are those in the villages of Lastros, Sphaka, Tourloti, Mesa Mouliana, and Exo Mouliana (Ill. 22). Nearby production locations will also be referred to, but

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presented elsewhere in detail: Pacheia Ammos, Hagia Marina (at Monastiraki), Vanges (at Episkopi), Vainia, Kentri, and Paraspori (Ill. 21). The surrounding area is, of course, an integral part of the argument, but space restricts its full publication here. In short, this chapter produces a basic image of the way in which ceramics operated in the

study area, largely from the viewpoint of the potters themselves, but also from the perspective of pottery distribution and use. The main aim is to examine the way in which traditions are maintained and transformed with special reference to ceramic paste recipes as social markers.

Production of Ceramics in the Study Area KILN SITES WITHIN THE STUDY AREA The villages from Lastros east to Exo Mouliana provide an opportunity to examine potters of differing traditions. The main characteristics of their kiln sites are given in the catalog at the end of the paper. Three main types of potter operated in the area: 1. Itinerant Thrapsano potters came from their home village in the Pediada region of Central Crete to set up temporary production centers during the summer months. Exo Mouliana was a main site for these potters within the study area. The villages immediately bordering the area discussed here also had wellknown vendéma sites. 2. Potters from Thrapsano settled in the area at Exo Mouliana, marrying into the village. They and their descendants became locally based, working in the Thrapsano tradition. 3. In a similar vein, a potter settled in Lastros from the nearby potting center of Kentri. He came from a family whose members also had moved out from their original village base by marrying into other villages. Thus, in this area there existed both the accepted, “textbook” examples of itinerant potters in Crete along with others who do not conform to the accepted view in the ethnographic literature. All kilns within the area discussed here are round kilns of traditional Cretan type: stone built and of a simple updraft design with open top (see Voyatzoglou 1984 for plan, elevation, and section of such a kiln). They were situated for the most part on the edge or slightly outside of the numerous villages of the area, within easy reach of clay, fuel, and water. Not

all of the kilns discussed here were working at the same time. Of the 11 kiln sites whose use was recorded within the study area, the origin of the potters is varied: 1 kiln of the Thrapsano vendema potters 5 kilns of the Thrapsano potters who settled in the area 1 kiln of a Kentri potter who settled in the area 2 brick kilns 1 kiln of a “Turkish” potter These figures may be somewhat misleading in that they concern an area that represents the extent of a normal Thrapsano vendéma zone around one kiln. Other vendéma kiln sites were just outside the area of study, at Paraspori and in the area of the Isthmus of Ierapetra. In the latter area, three kilns have been recorded: at Vanges near the village of Episkopi (placed in Kato Episkopi Siteias in error by Psaropoulou, 1996, 120), at Hagia Marina near the village of Monastiraki, and by the coast east of the village of Pacheia Ammos (Ill. 21). These three kilns represent the changing location of a seasonal Thrapsano kiln, whose location changed due to such factors as landowners increasing their demands for land rent. Besides the two examples of brick and tile kilns in the area, one of which was built specifically to provide for the construction of a church in the village of Tourloti, the largest category of kilns was built by Thrapsano potters who settled in these villages and by potters trained by them or their children. These potters form a substantial group who dominated production in the area but who tend not to appear in the ceramic literature. They will form

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the basis for much of our discussion of mobility and change. Not all the kiln structures survived to be recorded in this study, however. The best preserved is that at the Gournia location, just outside Exo Mouliana. We know that the kilns did not differ greatly from each other; there were only two exceptions to this pattern in the study of East Crete as a whole. The first of these comprised locations, such as Kato Episkopi and Chandras, where potters built small open-top updraft kilns next to larger kilns, using the smaller kilns for more frequent firings of smaller vessels. In the second instance, potters from Euboea who had set up workshops in Hagios Nikolaos built rectangular barrel-vaulted kilns of the style used in the Aegean islands, notably by the potters of Siphnos (Troullos 1991, 106). One of these still survived in 1988 in the Stavros area on the outskirts of the town, having been converted into a house. Turning back to the study area, the Turkish potter who worked at Sphaka was remembered as someone who made storage jars, which differed little from the Thrapsano type. But memories of this time, at the turn of the century, were distant. The effect of the exchange of populations at that time might be a fertile ground for the examination of change in pottery production, especially as some occupants of Thrapsano had converted to Islam in the late seventeenth century (Stavrinidis 1984, 319; 1986, 173). Several of these kiln sites were originally used by itinerant potters on the vendéma and then reused by potters who settled in the area from Thrapsano. Elsewhere in East Crete, potters reused the kilns of another group of potters: for example, at Vagies near Palaikastro, a Kentri potter reused a kiln used originally by those from Thrapsano. VESSELS MANUFACTURED Pottery manufactured in the study area was relatively coarse and utilitarian in nature. None of the pottery produced locally contained painted decoration or glazing; only incised or impressed patterns were used. It is, however, worthy of note that, even in the case of utilitarian pottery, there were generally stylistic differences in both shape and decoration, which separated the products of different groups of potters (Vallianos and Padouva 1986, 53–56). What we might refer to as tablewares tended to be made in the coastal towns of Crete and off the island. The

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main products were: storage jars of various sizes, from large jars (pithária) down to those smaller jars for storage of honey and other products; pouring vessels for oil and raki; utilitarian vessels such as beehives; and water jars, both large and small (stamniá and laínia). The range of vessels produced is well documented by both Vallianos and Padouva (1986) and Blitzer (1984) and so is not repeated here, although the types of vessels produced by individual craftsmen and the change in their repertoires will be discussed later. As usual, the storage jars were associated with the potters from Thrapsano and water jars with potters of Kentri. CRAFTSMEN FROM THE “OUTSIDE”: ITINERANCY AND MOBILITY OF POTTERS Like other areas of Crete, the villages considered here played host periodically to itinerant potters who traveled from Thrapsano to make storage jars and other pottery during the summer months. We are not sure when these potters first became itinerant, but an Ottoman firman of 1682 (Stavrinides 1986, 215) orders the potters of the village to stop evading the one-tenth tax on their sales, which may have been harder to collect if they were not based permanently in the village. In any case, Thrapsanos potters are accepted as being a classic example of itinerant, seasonal potters, and it is worth examining how and why such a system might operate. The Thrapsano potters are not the only such example within the Aegean. The potters of Margarites on Crete were known to send out itinerant teams (Leontides 1996), and Psaropoulou (1987– 1988) relates that some Messenian potters moved to itinerant sites in other areas during the summer. Traveling to locations throughout much of the Peloponnese, the latter group of potters made large storage jars and a range of other vessels. The height of such activity was 1920–1940, and the last two teams went out in 1948. This comparative case is of great interest. As in the case of the Thrapsano potters, a mástoras formed a team, for which he was responsible, chose a location, and built a kiln. The team would comprise between 3 and 12 people, and they sold primarily in the village where they built the kiln, but also distributed their pottery up to 30 and sometimes 70 km away. In another case, the potters of Siphnos travelled on a seasonal basis to other islands and parts of the mainland to produce

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pottery (Spathari-Begliti 1992, 61–66; Troullos 1991, 151–170). Why, then, did some potters become itinerant? In the case of the Siphniots, it may be suggested that the demand on many islands may have been low and certainly not sufficient to keep one potter regularly employed on an annual basis. The collapse in the price of their special product, cooking pots, after the German occupation, and the previous dependence of the Siphniots on merchants to transport and distribute their products, gave the Siphniot potters little option but to leave the island either on a seasonal or permanent basis (Spathari-Begliti 1994). When considering storage jar makers such as those of Messenia and Thrapsano, there are compelling reasons for the itinerant system, not the least of which is that the periodic change in the demand for storage vessels would here be driven by uneven harvest years. The Messenian potters made the very large storage jars, known throughout the Aegean as Tzáres, which were traded along sea routes (Blitzer 1990). These jars would have been difficult to transport over land, due to their weight and bulk, as indeed were the smaller storage jars made by the Thrapsano potters. Therefore, within Crete, production at the point of consumption by itinerant potters is one obvious answer. Such a system also existed among the Phini potters in Cyprus (Hampe and Winter 1962, 62–72; Jones 1986, 870; London, Egoumenidou, and Karageorghis 1990). We may consider first factors of an economic nature, which may promote or otherwise concern such an itinerant system in Crete: 1. Storage jars are bulky and heavy. The effort and cost involved in terms of transport from a production center is great. Therefore, it is better to travel to establish a production site nearer to the point of consumption. As, until relatively recently, transportation was by donkey or mule, this made the dangers and expense of longer distance carriage too great. 2. Weighed against this are the construction “costs” of the kiln building, and the cost (either monetary or in barter) of renting the land for the kiln and workshop. 3. The effects of loss of male agricultural labor in the home village were minimized by the exploitation of women’s labor in men’s absence.

4. There was a risk taken by the potters in changing clay sources, but this problem is tackled by the use of a consistent clay recipe at different locations, made possible by the repetition of geological deposits over Crete. 5. Another benefit of the system is the ability to be able to target locations with high demand for the pottery products. 6. Operating in this fashion cuts out any role of a middleman in the distribution system, leading to a proportionately higher income for those producing the vessels. The Thrapsaniótes adhered to a specific, suitable clay mix, the raw materials of which were available thoughout the island in such formations as the Phyllite-Quartzite Series. Their production of a standard shape of storage jar throughout the island led to a successful specialist product identified with these itinerant teams. The Thrapsano system, though, cannot be explained totally in formal economic terms. Such an island-wide arrangement is heavily reliant on the strength of the tradition of these potters: both in terms of their own identity as a group and the identification by customers of their group as one worthy of patronage. As with many craft products, certain types of pottery became associated with a place or a restricted group of people: in fact, in the case of the Messenian pottery, with the harbor which exported them (Koroni—hence: Koronaiká). Likewise, with certain exceptions, the Cretan storage jars became inexorably linked with the Thrapsano potters. That these vessels were made by that group, in itself made them a desirable object. It is easy to overestimate the extent to which many Cretan villagers traveled during the early and middle years of this century, prior to the general introduction of motorized transport and the completion of an east-west road to Siteia around 1953. Many of those elderly inhabitants interviewed were very unsure of where the itinerant potters were from and quite unfamiliar with parts of the island outside of their immediate locality. The most common ascription of their origin was a general reference to Herakleion, but they were universally considered as something foreign to the local community.

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Therefore, one major effect which itinerancy had on these teams of potters was that they were effectively outsiders in the areas where they worked on a seasonal basis. As it was not certain that one team or an individual would return to the site of a previous year, this status often remained, although there are cases where the members of a team returned to villages where they had worked in the past. In addition, the teams tended to live outside of the villages, building rudimentary accommodation, or renting a small building and cooking communally. Villagers generally refer to the Thrapsano potters’ diet as being rather poor, as they ate mainly beans from a communal pot. Such comments serve only to reinforce the potters’ place outside of the population and practices of the local community. In many societies, skilled artisans are associated with the geographically distant realm, enhancing the prestige of their products through an emphasis on the exotic (Helms 1993, 32–37). Such observations may be beyond the realm of pragmatics and an economic approach, but understanding the Thrapsaniótes as outsiders and itinerants aids an appreciation not only of their status as itinerants, but also of a dimension beyond the practical when these potters are integrated into local communities through marriage or sponsoring baptism. The structure of labor organization within the takími system also has aspects that affect the Thrapsaniótes and those that affect the community in which they worked. Through the structure of the takími system, the Thrapsaniótes in most itinerant teams did not use local labor. Not only did the various members of the team cover all aspects of the production and distribution process, but also the

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teams were often family-based forming their own hierarchical training organization to bring on new master craftsmen. Junior members of the team learned and rebelled within this structure: some trainees came into conflict with the mástoras over what they should produce, but in general the system ensured a continuity of the techniques and repertoire of the group. In contrast, the Kentri potters, who produced in their home village, had a small group of helpers whom they could employ (Blitzer 1984), but lacked the rigid structure of the Thrapsaniótes. They often also used female labor in and around the workshop. Individuals could work with different potters, and so there was a movement of labor within the community. As argued earlier, the Thrapsano itinerant tradition did not, however, exist in isolation, but rather in juxtaposition with a workshop-based mode of production, including the use of the kick-wheel, to which the potters reverted on return to their home village. Thrapsano potters appear to have been trained first on the kick-wheel and to have retained this knowledge even when moving on to the manufacture of large jars and becoming a mástoras. It is suggested that their two modes of production effectively covered the conditions of economic and physical environments both within and outside their own village. Not only were the Thrapsaniótes operating outside of the social groupings of the area, but they were also in a predominantly male environment. When these potters moved from being outsiders to having a stake in the local community either by marrying in, or by baptizing a child, the characteristics of their organization, their choices, and their ceramic products changed.

Marriage, Baptism, and the Pottery System The majority of the kilns in the study area were built and used by potters who had married into the area or by those locals trained by these “outsiders” who had settled in the villages. Such a change of location for the potters involved not only a move from the outside to the inside of the host community, but also changes in techniques, organization,

products, and distribution methods. Such examples of changes in the pottery system provide us with the opportunity to examine pottery production and consumption as a dynamic process. More specifically, they facilitate study of the decisions that potters take, especially those taken in the context of a potential clash between transmitted traditions and

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the practicality of making pottery on a different basis within a new environment. Potters from both Thrapsano and Kentri married into the study area. Such a move may not be surprising for the case of the Thrapsaniótes, who are accepted by their very nature as craftsmen who move. The case of the potters of Kentri is perhaps less expected as (generally) they were tied to their home base and especially to the specific raw materials used in their production of water jars. Marriage was not the only way in which such a transformation of status and location could be achieved. The relationship of a godparent to a child is a powerful way of extending family links, and it was instrumental in arranging access to raw materials and locations for workshops/kilns. Perhaps such a link did not transform the potter’s status in such a marked fashion, but it nevertheless gave the craftsman a clear relationship with the local population, by koumbariá.

THE THRAPSANO POTTERS MARRYING INTO THE COMMUNITY Exo Mouliana had long been the base vendéma kiln site in the study area for the Thrapsano potters. Of the potters who worked in the area, Kornaros family members form the best known in the line of pitharádes from the Pediada, and eventually it was they who made Exo Mouliana the center of pottery in Northeast Crete (Ill. 23). Stavros Kornaros came from Thrapsano on the vendéma around the turn of the 20th century. He brought his son, who was still in training, and it was this son, Zacharias, who married into the village of Exo Mouliana. He became resident in the village and then went on to train others and work in many locations around the east of the island. Besides Exo Mouliana, he also worked at a variety of neighboring villages in the study area: at Lastros, Sphaka, Tourloti, and Mesa Mouliana. Outside of the immediate area, the same potter worked at

Illustration 23. Map showing location of kiln sites worked by Zacharias Kornaros

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Hagia Marina Monastirakiou, Piskokephalo, Ziros, Sitanos, and Palaikastro (Ill. 22). He died at a young age in 1938, but had trained Manolis Koutandos, who in turn taught Zacharias’ son, Michaelis Kornaros. All these potters continued to produce the normal repertoire of shapes of those from Thrapsano and to form what was, in effect, a smaller scale vendéma in the local area. This is in contrast to other Thrapsaniótes who married into other villages in East Crete, which are named in the following list. 1. Giorgos Angelakis had first visited Kato Episkopi, south of Siteia, on the vendéma with his father. He later married into the village and settled and built his workshop there. Angelakis made a range of smaller vessels and built a double kiln, so that he might fire smaller numbers of vessels more frequently and with less risk. 2. Manolis Hatzinikolakis came to East Crete with his brother and his uncle (M. Kouklakis) on the vendéma, working both in Lithines and Paraspori. He married into Chandras and worked with Kouklakis there. He built a double kiln, in the same fashion as Angelakis. 3. Manolis Kouklakis married into Chandras after working on the vendéma in Lithines. He also had kilns at Kapastou, Chandras and at the Stadium in Chandras. 4. A potter from Thrapsano with the surname Lambakis married into Palaikastro and made a kiln at Mertidia, just outside the village. He taught his son-in-law the craft. 5. Finally, Haridimos Kornaros, brother of Zacharias, also married into Exo Mouliana from Thrapsano, but although he worked with his brother Zacharias, he was not a mástoras. Zacharias Kornaros trained one of his helpers from the village of Sphaka, Manolis Galanakis, who became the main potter of that village and was known as “Karpathomanolis” as his father had married into the village from the island of Karpathos. Galanakis had learned the craft while working at Exo Mouliana for Kornaros and produced pottery in the 1920s and 30s, finally stopping work around 1935. He had no children, and pottery production in

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Sphaka thereafter was restricted to others from Exo Mouliana trained by Kornaros. KENTRI POTTERS MARRYING INTO THE COMMUNITY The community of potters at Kentri has been presented as sedentary and self-contained. After all, to a certain extent the Kentri potters were linked to three notable aspects of the production process in their home village. The first was that the technical demands on the performance of their special product, the water jar, were high. The combination of the alluvial red soils of the Ierapetra depression and the Miocene gray clay to the east of Vainia proved ideal for the correct porosity of the vessels, which in turn was vital to the vessel’s ability to cool and purify the water. The other two factors are associated with the distribution of their product, which relied on a market throughout central and eastern Crete. The situation of the village on the Isthmus was important, as both the north and south coasts of the island were easily accessible in order to transport the products by sea. Finally, linked to the last factor, were the merchants who bought up and sold on the stock of water jars. These merchants were in place in the nearby large town of Ierapetra, and any potter moving would thus isolate himself from this distribution system. Nevertheless, Kentri potters did move. Stylianos Tzanidakis married into the village of Lastros and built a kiln there. He continued to make a range of small shapes, including the traditional product of the Kentri potters: the water jar. It is worth noting that Tzanidakis was not the only Kentriótis to marry outside the home village and yet continue his activity in pottery making. 1. Ioannis Tzanidakis married into the nearby village of Vainia and taught the craft to two nephews by marriage and another man there. 2. Costis Blazakis married into Hagios Stephanos and built a kiln on his wife’s land at Charkokephalo. He later returned to Kentri after experiencing difficulties in pottery making in the new location. In addition, other potters from Kentri set up workshops in other locations, but did not marry into the community:

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1. Costis Menegakis went to work near Siteia, building a kiln at Tripitos. His son and grandson also worked there. He also built kilns in two locations in the hills around Malles bordering onto the Isthmus of Ierapetra. 2. Charalambos Venetsanakis went to work at Palaikastro, as his brother had married into that village. He used an abandoned kiln at Vagies, but only worked there one year due to serious problems with the local clay that he used. 3. Giorgos Sourgiadakis built a kiln at Xerokamares, on the outskirts of the town of Siteia, to serve the developing town.

There seems, then, to be a surprisingly strong mobile element in the way the Kentri potters were operating during this century. This is of interest as it suggests that these potters, who continued to identify themselves with their home village and the tradition of pottery there, were under a variety of influences and were constantly redesigning and renegotiating the way they manufactured pottery. The members of the Tzanidakis family are a case in point. They originally came to Kentri earlier in the century from the village of Pefkoi. Having learned the craft under apprenticeship in Kentri, Ioannis Tzanidakis then moved on, marrying into Vainia, the village only 2 km east of Kentri, across the Isthmus plain. It was there that he taught others,

Illustration 24. Diagram illustrating the movement of personnel and techniques in and out of Kentri

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who commenced production. Of these, Stylianos Tzanidakis married into Lastros and set up a worskhop (Ill. 24). The move to Vainia allowed the potters to stay with the same clay sources (in fact they were closer to them) while also remaining in a position that enabled them to plug into the existing distribution system. Moving to Lastros, however, was more of a risk, as they were moving away from both raw materials and the established distribution system. In this way, what seemed a static tradition of potters making water jars is shown to be one of change, through marriage and seasonal work. Change was evident in the village of Kentri itself. One potter attempted to make storage jars, although somewhat unsuccessfully. Another had learned to glaze pottery at Çannakale and had passed the technique along to his son and grandson. They kept the technique within the family, carrying out glazing behind closed doors. These potters were considered to be outside of the mainstream, and to a certain extent their activity beyond the usual practice was frowned upon by other potters. The potters of Kentri were used to making pottery just outside what was the largest town of the area, Ierapetra, which was also a harbor. It is notable that when they moved, most relocated to Siteia, the harbor town which has risen to rival Ierapetra in size. The potter Costis Blazakis, however, married into the village of Hagios Stephanos. He built a kiln at Charkokephalo, just outside the village, and worked there for two years between 1943 and 1947. However, the clays were not suitable, and he was forced to return to his home village of Kentri, where he worked until retirement in the mid-1980s. The case of Blazakis shows the real risk of failure faced by potters who moved. The extent of enforced change for potters marrying into another community should not be underestimated. The reasons for such difficulties could vary according to whether the potter was from the Thrapsano or Kentri tradition. While the Kentri potters would have more practical difficulties when they moved away from their special clay sources, the Thrapsano potters changed their potential market and even their organization of production. In Illustration 20, it was suggested that the Thrapsano itinerant production could be said to have an inherently male nature. Although the teams could not

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have left the home village every summer without most tasks there being carried out by the remaining female population, the life that they led was one based primarily on male hierarchical team organization. Marrying into a village meant that the potters’ life was mainly connected to the female domestic domain, and their land for kiln and workshop came down the female line. Equally, labor for the extra jobs involved in the ceramic production process would be heavily influenced by connections and relationships of the wife’s family on marrying into a village. Such a juxtaposition of male and female modes of work may be mirrored by the concept of the potters existing inside or outside of the community. Many authors have pointed to the clear division between female and male space in Greek communities (for example, du Boulay 1986; Loizos and Papataxiarchis 1991; Loizos 1994; Herzfeld 1986). The opposites expressed in the male/female divisions are symbolic and, thus, can be manipulated. The suggestion of female power in the household and male power in the community has been placed in the context of contrasts between inside/outside and the distinction between public face (that usually displayed to the ethnographer) and that of private reality. Both Campbell (1964, considering the Sarakatsani) and Herzfeld (1985, describing West Central Crete) have described virilocal post-marital residence rules. These systems often encompassed a lack of respect for the man who, after marriage, lived in property of his wife’s line. Although it is clear that the term “Sógambros” does carry such negative connotations, it is not relevant to a system where uxorilocality is the rule. In fact most of these attitudes have been subject to renegotiation in recent years, as dowry and post-marital residence rules have changed. Du Boulay, writing about Ambeli (1991, 65–66), shows that until the 1960s, postmarital residence was virilocal, but that thereafter with the outflow of males to developing urban centers, the pattern started to become uxorilocal. In some areas of the Aegean, the change to uxorilocal post-marital residence may be a mostly recent phenomenon, attributable to economic and social change in the Second World War and post-war era. A shortage of young eligible males, following economic migration, led to property being offered by the parents of potential brides (Galani-Moutafi

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1993). In contrast to many areas of the island, in East Crete uxorilocal residence seems to have been the normal practice for some time. Whatever its history as a practice, it remains the main factor behind change in the East Cretan pottery system and the major reason for the domination of our study area by potters marrying into the communities. Whatever the causes, what is of importance to us is how the potters deal with such a change of location and circumstance. There may be other reasons for both Thrapsano and Kentri potters to look for marriage partners outside of their home villages. These include the disruption of traditional sources of demand through economic problems in the inter-war period, which forced many potters to travel farther afield to sell their produce, changes in agricultural practice in the home village, and changes in the market of both storage and water jars. With reference to the change in agricultural practices, it may be suggested that the adoption of crops, such as vines that need more tending in the summer months, led to a scheduling conflict, which was at least partly responsible for

the decline in the vendéma system of Thrapsano. However, many of our cases of potters moving seem to be before World War II and, therefore, the major change in agricultural practice, encouraged by the Marshall Plan, had not yet taken place. BAPTISM Another social rite that could extend links of potters into a community was that of baptizing a child (syntechnía). There are certainly cases in the Isthmus of Ierapetra where Thrapsano potters baptized local children and were said to have thus guaranteed their access to clay sources or a kiln site. It should be remembered that the land owners were in a position of power not only when they had raw materials on their land, but also when they had a kiln and other structures there. A kiln built on someone’s land became the landowner’s property when the itinerant potters returned to Thrapsano. Each year, the mástoras had to renegotiate the rent of a location, and so any extra link within that village would be welcome.

Vessel Types Produced—Stability or Change? The type of vessel that a potter makes is an important part of his/her identity as an individual and any craft group to which he or she may belong. The categorization of pots may be based on color, decoration, or paste recipe, but in Crete it often relies on shape as an indicator. As the types and sizes of vessels produced by the two main groups of potter in the area are so different, it is of interest to observe whether vessel types change with the relocation of potters. This is not to suggest that potters were inflexible within their broad shape repertoire. Itinerant Thrapsano potters frequently referred to the fact that they made smaller storage jars when they were working in the eastern end of the island than when the vendéma took them to the region of Chania (due to the differing demands of agricultural storage in the two areas). However, in these cases they still based their identity on the pithári, and the professional competence of the mástoras was generally gauged by his competence in manufacturing these large vessels.

Within the villages of Lastros to Exo Mouliana, the vessel types made by the potters who settled there do not seem to have changed greatly from those they made before. This is not always the case. Some Thrapsano potters, who married elsewhere in the Siteia Peninsula, concentrated on making smaller vessels, and some ceased to make the large storage jars. The potter at Kato Episkopi and another at Chandras tended to concentrate proportionately more effort than previously on the manufacture of a range of smaller vessels, which served the household and agricultural needs of their villages within their “catchment” area. This resulted in their use of a smaller kiln size in addition to their kiln of more usual proportions for the firing of the pithária. Such changes in shape repertoire sometimes provoked the displeasure of other potters who considered themselves as more faithful followers of the tradition of their village. In contrast, the potters based at Exo Mouliana seemed to have continued making the pithária

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although, like others who moved, they made a more extensive range of different domestic pottery types for their new local market. The potter from Kentri who married into Lastros continued to concentrate

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on the manufacture of water jars, although he also produced a range of other utilitarian vessels for his village.

Marriage, Labor, “Mini-Vendemas,” and the Distribution of Pottery There are a number of contrasts in the way in which itinerancy or marriage into a village affected potters of different traditions. They reveal much about the way in which such traditions are reproduced and transformed. KENTRI TRADITION POTTERS In terms of labor organization, the Kentri potter who moved to Lastros did not have to instigate major changes. He still fulfilled the main role and, as the Kentri potters use a kick wheel and not a turntable, he did not need a helper to turn the wheel. The fuel gathering could be left to a hired hand, but the constraints of the new clay sources meant that he chose, transported, and prepared the clays himself. As was the case in Kentri itself, females of the household, usually the potter’s wife, helped with tasks such as taking vessels off the wheel and placing them for drying. The situation was similar for the Kentri potter who married into Hagios Stephanos, whose wife carried out several tasks in the workshop, with the exception of the actual forming of the vessel. Although often denied in ethnographic interviews, it is notable that at Kentri the link of pottery production to aspects of the female world was, at times, explicit. Not only Kentri potters, but also their customers throughout the eastern part of the island refer to Aphrodite, the grandmother of Spiros Menegakis, one of the last potters to work at Kentri, who traveled over the whole area selling water jars from pack animals.

totality of our study area might be considered as being a locality, but that is far from the perspective of the occupants. Several men interviewed insisted that they could not comment on local places or practices as they were not local (“tha se yeláso, den eímai apó ’do”), when in fact they had married into the village forty years previously and had been born in the neighboring settlement only two kilometers distant. This matter is important in considering what will be termed the “mini-vendema” in the area later in this section. Itinerant potters who worked in the area, although working seasonally within the villages, seem often to have arrived without the full team, as would have been expected to be the case from the existing literature. Instead, they used local labor for what amounted to the less-skilled jobs of transportation of fuel and raw materials. Some of these workers were eventually trained in pottery manufacture themselves. For instance, Manolis Galanakis from Sphaka and Manolis Koutandos were both trained by potters from the Thrapsano vendéma and eventually worked independently from their mentors. It was often recalled that local workers were paid in kind (in “pairs” of storage jars), and this may have increased the proportionate share of payment for the Thrapsano team, while increasing the links for these “outsiders” with the population of the host community. The teams, however, far from their home village, remained firmly in a male domain, in contrast to those of Kentri.

THRAPSANO VENDEMA POTTERS For the potters of the Thrapsano tradition, it was quite a different matter. To understand the changes that they effected, it is beneficial to return to the concept of “inside/outside” as it pertains to these villages of East Crete. As an external observer, the

THRAPSANO POTTERS MARRIED INTO THE AREA For the Thrapsano potter who settled, the structure of the vendéma had gone, and the reservoir of knowledge and experience inherent in most of the population of Thrapsano usually was not present. In

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some cases the response was to bring relatives from Thrapsano to work on a seasonal basis, and some of these relatives (for example, Chardimos Kornaros in Exo Mouliana) themselves married into the community. Their reliance on a large team was, to a certain extent, contingent on whether they continued to produce the large storage jars, which were manufactured on the hand-turned trochí. Partly in response to this problem and also as a means of serving their new market, some of these settled Thrapsano potters changed the emphasis of the types and sizes of vessels that they made. Being located in the village all year round meant that they were required to produce an array of shapes, rather than just the usual storage jars. With such a change came a heavier reliance on the kick wheel, which tended to mitigate the effects of changes in labor organization, although the potter still needed to hire some help. This change in shapes and kiln type was certainly the case in Kato Episkopi and Chandras. However, in the villages above Mochlos, there appeared another phenomenon. One potter who had married into the area, Zacharias Kornaros, and those associated with him, set up a vendéma system based on the village of Exo Mouliana, travelling out to the surrounding villages and other parts of East Crete on a seasonal basis. This apparently conservative “transplanting” of an itinerant mode of production to a new home village is worthy of our attention. It is of interest to consider why such a strategy might have been adopted by Kornaros and his co-workers. WHY HAVE A “MINI-VENDEMA”? Before considering why such a system may have existed, we may recount the disadvantages of moving production locations within a smaller area. If such a move involved changing clay sources, then this always included an element of risk, as the potter might need to test the suitability and reliability of a clay mix. Moreover, a seasonal change in location requires the use of different production sites and kiln structures, although such demands may be mitigated by the re-use of a former Thrapsano kiln from the full vendéma. The re-use of kilns was common, and a potter from Kentri reused the kiln of a Thrapsano potter at Vagies, Palaikastro. It has been acknowledged that the Thrapsano potters faced problems in transporting the large

storage jars over a distance. Nevertheless, it is difficult within such a small area to see the advantages solely in transportation terms of a move from the village of Exo Mouliana to produce pottery in Mesa Mouliana, Tourloti, or Lastros. Such a distance was well within the area of distribution of a normal Thrapsano vendéma site anywhere on the island. The availability of labor was mentioned by potters as being one of the main factors in searching out different kiln sites in the surrounding villages. It may have been the case that supporting a team of workers on a year-by-year basis was not a tenable proposition and that moving the location provided an opportunity to find workers willing to work for payment in kind. Equally, Thrapsano teams from the Pediada itself still returned to East Crete, notably to the nearby village of Paraspori, almost on a yearly basis. Keeping a version of the vendéma system enabled the Exo Mouliana potters to be more flexible in response to any competition that may have arisen. It is possible, however, to suggest a number of reasons for such a system, which are more concerned with perception, tradition, and social circumstance. At a basic level, such a system preserved the traditional organization of the Thrapsano potters. The yearly exit and return of the potters to Thrapsano itself formed an important part of the agricultural year of the village. The movement of the takímia comprised part of the identity of these potters, and so the continuation of the takímia in a new location preserved the system, which acted as the ‘trademark’ of this tradition. Such distinguishing features that define the identity of a group also include raw material recipes. Yet the continuation of this itinerant system in the area, albeit on a reduced geographical scale, is relevant not only to the perception of the potters themselves and the way in which they reproduce their own organization and technological practice. It is the customers, the users of the pottery, who also have a great influence on the preservation of such itinerancy. The identification of the Thrapsano craftsmen, their skills, the consequent quality of their product, and its practical and social value were all linked to their status as specialists from outside the community. In the early part of the century the “visit” of these potters, who had traveled from parts of the island of which most inhabitants did not have

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experience, and their production of a vital and yet still striking and unusual product, must have been an event in itself. Perhaps in commercial terms, such perceptions of the unusual helped to preserve what was, in effect, a monopoly on these products. It might be suggested that the “mini-vendema” preserved such a special status for these potters and their products. In addition, for a potter of the Thrapsano tradition who had moved into his wife’s village, such a

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system enabled him to work within a more predominantly male environment outside of the village and household buildings, while forming new familial or commercial relationship with surrounding villages. It is clear that a combination of some or all of these factors outweighed the disadvantages, and hence Zacharias Kornaros set up one of the most interesting aspects of production in this area, the minivendema based around his new village base (see Ill. 23, kilns worked by Kornaros).

Clay Source Exploitation and Resource Thresholds As part of an approach tailored to archaeological materials, this case study aimed to concentrate on the choice and manipulation of raw materials by potters in the area. The choices made by the pottery will per force be changed with the relocation of a potter either through marriage into an area or through itinerancy. KILN LOCATION AND THE DISTANCE TO CLAY SOURCES To a certain extent, the geology of the area is repetitive, and ceramic raw materials are widely available, and so this was not the factor in kiln location. This is a factor that enabled Thrapsano potters to work throughout Crete, exploiting a number of general clay recipes. There are, of course, other factors, such as the fuel and water supplies, which in Crete are relatively evenly spread across the landscape. So, although environmental factors play a part in kiln location, other variables are seen to be important. It is, for example, noticeable that in the area of study, most kiln sites are located very close to the main settlement that they serve (in the case of itinerant potters) or within the settlement (in the case of sedentary potters). Thus, it is clear that the risks and costs of transportation and the proximity to the point of consumption were important factors. In comparative ethnographic literature, much emphasis has been laid on the distance of clay sources to the kiln sites. This has been encouraged by an interest in ceramic ecology and the area of raw material exploitation likely to be associated with a

given production center. Arnold (1985, 35–60) developed an exploitable threshold model to investigate distances to ceramic resources, based on data from ethnographic studies of pottery making the world over. His Threshold A, the preferred territory of exploitation, is 1 km or less for both clay and temper; while Threshold B, the point beyond which exploitation of clay resources becomes uneconomic and unexploited without modification of the system (Arnold 1985, 55), is given as 7 km for clay and 6–9 km for temper. Between Lastros and Exo Mouliana, from the 11 kiln sites recorded, seven have clay sources of known origin, totaling 14 clays. Temper as such is not used in modern pottery of this area; rather, clay body is always prepared from a mix of either two or three clays. Of the 14 clays recorded, 10 were obtained within one kilometer of the production location, three within 2 km, and one at a distance of 2.5 km. This concurs with Arnold’s findings and, indeed, shows the wealth of resources in the area; a potter mixing different clays to form the body can obtain them at a short distance from the kiln site, because these kilns are widely spread (Ill. 22). The result is also in keeping with the study of 72 potter’s clays from East Crete within the broader study, which found that 41 were obtained within 1 km of the kiln site. Most major exceptions to this rule were found to be potters using automated forms of transport rather than pack animals (which were used by all those recorded in the Exo Mouliana/ Lastros area).

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CLAY CHOICE MOVEMENT AND TRADITION It might be thought that itinerant potters would have no problem in finding and adapting to new clay sources. After all, the Thrapsano potters were used to traveling to new locations and using the types of clay which recur at regular intervals around the island: calcareous gray clays, lateritic red soils or sediments derived from them, and shale/mudstone/phyllite deposits from the Phyllite/Quartzite series. Of course, the ability to use a recurrent recipe over the island is a great advantage, and yet there are differences in detail between the clay of different areas in their workability and in the way they dried and fired. The Thrapsano potters often expressed a preference for the raw materials of one location or another. Within the Lastros-Exo Mouliana area, there was a clear preference for the quality of the clays found near Exo Mouliana. In the 1950s, with the growing availability of automotive transport, potters started to deal with such risk by transporting some raw materials. A clear example is the use of clays from Kritsa by the vendéma potters at Pacheia Ammos. They had used these clays in previous years and preferred not to risk new raw materials. Potters marrying into a community may face different challenges according to whether they start to make different vessel shapes. Of course, the same sorts of conditions are faced by potters who make different vessel types, but who do not move location. 1. Making the Same Vessels For the Thrapsano potters making the traditional range of pottery, concentrating on storage jars, there were few problems. Generally, they married into villages where they had worked on the vendéma and so clay sources were known. On the other hand, potters moving from Kentri, in leaving their special clay sources in the Isthmus, which endowed such beneficial properties to the water jars, were taking a greater risk and had more problems. Tzanidakis, who married into Lastros, produced vessels that were a more pink/red color than those in his home village, which was ascribed in part, by other potters, to the fact that the clay was not as highly fired. He chose raw materials according to the recipe of his home village: a red and a

white clay. However, they were not of the same quality as those at Kentri, and he faced greater problems with lime-rich inclusions in the white clay that he exploited. In a similar fashion, Giorgios Blazakis, who moved from Kentri to Hagios Stephanos, experienced similar problems with nonplastics, which produced lime-spalling and eventually led to his abandoning that location after 3 years and moving back to his home village. 2. Making Different Vessels Potters who started to make different vessels, either in an attempt to serve a different market or because of a change in location, seem to have adapted poorly. One of the Kentri potters, Manolis Orphanoudakis, started to make the larger storage jars usually associated with the Thrapsano potters. These vessels were made by throwing a number of coils in series, until the required size of vessel was reached. The clay mix, therefore, had specific requirements to be able to dry and have the desired green strength. His clay paste remained that used for the smaller vessels of his tradition and was therefore unsuitable. He made the vessels with thin walls, which could not take the weight of the next coil added. Two potters interviewed at Kentri gave detailed accounts as to why such an attempt had failed and referred to the raw materials and techniques used by the Thrapsano potters when they came to make vessels within the Isthmus area. From this it is clear that it was not merely ignorance of how the rival tradition manufactured such vessels successfully that prevented such a change in repertoire in Kentri. In the same way, for years Thrapsano potters had made water jars on the kick-wheel. Despite their proximity to a specialist center producing water jars, the potters of the Thrapsano tradition in the study area still manufactured such vessels. However, the water jars made by the Thrapsanos potters were of poor quality, as they were made from a coarse clay mix, which made them very heavy, even before they were filled with water. This excerpt from an interview with a potter at Vainia illustrates their perspective on the problem: M.V.: The Thrapsaniotes make them, but they make them with thicker walls. The vessels that we make weigh 2 kilos, lets say. That which the

MARRIAGE AND MOBILITY Thrapsanioti makes must be 4 kg. The same item, the same vessel! P. D.: Why did they make them so thick? M.V.: ....Their teacher taught them that way? I don’t know. There is also a slight difference—the clay.... the clay. Manolis Vassilakis, Vainia, 10th August 1988

This was not an isolated incident. It was a widespead problem faced when the Thrapsano potters made smaller vessels (another being that vessels cracked when drying, as the walls were too thick in comparison to the size of the vessel for even drying). They certainly did not have the light, porous clay that was found at Kentri, nor the accompanying thin walls. Thrapsano jars are much heavier and are said by all to have been poor at cooling water. In fact, the problem was so common throughout the island as a fault, that there existed a popular rhyme about the Thrapsano potters: Sto Diálo tous apothaménous tou, Tou palio Thrapsanióti, Pou kánei ta stamniá vareiá, ke kataleí ti nióti” To the Devil with his ancestors! That damned Thrapsanioti, Who makes his stamniá heavy, And wastes away our youth. (Popular saying: Writer’s translation)

For this to be celebrated in a mantinada meant, at the very least, that the Thrapsano potters were not preoccupied with using a clay recipe suitable to the vessel type; an unwillingness was also observed in the Kentri potter’s attempt to manufacture storage jars. Thrapsaniótes to an extent did vary proportions and ingredients from their basic raw materials, but their range had been developed mainly for larger storage jars and hence remained unsuitable for smaller vessels. In fact, these two groups of potters were not the only ones to manufacture and sell water jars within this broad area. Two potters, who were of Siphniot origin but had moved to Hagios Nikolaos from Euboea, also occasionally made water jars. One of those potters made a virtue out of the shape, which was unfamiliar to the locals, claiming that the

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pottery had a special ability to cool water as it contained “ice-dust”. Furthermore, this example is important in that it shows the perception of craftsmen from outside the island to the raw materials available in East Crete. Cretan potters from both of the area’s main traditions maintain that clays from the area were unsuitable unless mixed: “ We mixed them together half and half, and afterwards they are stronger; they have strength, resistance. Because these simple clays here are not resistant.” Manolis Vasilakis, Vainia “ We made a mix because if we didn’t do it in that way, as soon as they dried in the sun, they would crack.........if it can’t stand the sun, it won’t stand the fire: Palaikastro clay was faulty for this reason.” Manolis Koutandos, Exo Mouliana “ In other words, if we used them separately, the red had the ability to withstand the heat, but you couldn’t pull it up, for it became too thin. Then the white had the property of being able to ‘stop’ the red and to make (the vessel) as thin-walled as you want. OK, I’m not saying that you could make it extremely thin, but it helped... that’s why we used a mix.” Charalambos Venetsanakis, Kentri

The Euboean potters were seemingly unaware of this rule and successfully manufactured their vessels from only one clay type. This exemplifies the contention here that rather than being driven solely by environmental or functional considerations, the choice and manipulation of raw materials comprises a social choice driven by tradition, training, and group identity. An external observer would acknowledge that there are not only a number of ways of making vessels of different shapes, but also that there are several alternative ways of making the same vessel type. The examples above have been used to demonstrate how potters of the area tend to continue with their clay paste recipes, even when they are unsuitable. It seems in this case that tradition and training weigh more heavily than varied demands brought on by manufacturing different vessels or working in new locations. This is not to suggest that potters do not think in a practical way about clays

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and clay mixes, as the following quotes demonstrate. Manolis Koutandos assesses the qualities of each of these soils that he uses. Black soil, which is an interbedded clay/shale deposit in the PhylliteQuartzite Series, is said to “resist the fire; it stops water escaping and the pot cracking.” This ingredient is oily and makes the vessel waterproof. He sees it as the crucial ingredient, saying that, “without that there (in the mix) nothing would happen”. White soil, which is a Miocene marl, has “glue” in it, thus providing support so that the pot does not “sit down” when you are building it. Finally, the red soil that he uses, a red alluvial deposit from the Ierapetra Plain, “has sand in it; it prevents the pot from cracking and is resistant to the heat.” Some of the properties mentioned are undoubtedly valid. The sand content in terra rossa deposits may have served as any “tempering” inclusion would, to stop the progress of cracks in the pot wall throughout the firing of the vessel. But such criteria are ultimately variable. G. Blazakis also used white and red clays at his kiln at Charkokephalo, Hagios Stephanos. The white was soapy and did not have stones in it, whereas the red had small stones, which ruined the pottery by cracking during firing. His efforts to sieve the soil to remove the stones proved ineffective. Blazakis’ answer to this problem was to abandon the kiln at Charkokephalo and move back to his original kiln in Kentri. However, other potters occasionally tried different mixes to produce the desired result, or more frequently varied the proportions of their traditional clays. Charalambos Venetsanakis illustrates this by his account of judging mixes, where diagnostic cracks were used to tell which part of the process was at fault in unsuccessful pottery and how the clay mix could be adjusted to compensate: “ The soil had qualities, as it needed 50% of one and 50% of the other, in other words, half-and-half. There was another (mix), when you may have had to put more of the blue (galanó) or more red, according to the qualities of the soils. We judged

that thing, shall we say, from what we observed during the manufacturing process up there. If we saw that the clay body....if we were drawing it up and we could not bring it up to the point that we wanted to, it meant that we needed more red. If then, you put in more red and it doesn’t bring the other up, they cut, they form cracks. That’s a science; it is essentially a science! And so on, if where they join... the neck with the body of the water jar, if the break was next to it, it meant that the body was very dry (yinoméno) when we put the neck on, to dry. The sun had affected it too much, and it had not taken. If the break was vertical, it means that it was poor ratios of the soils.” Charalambos Venetsanakis, Kentri

It is not suggested here that potters only stuck to recipes out of blind adherence to a tradition. Indeed, one potter, having been excluded from his clay sources, carried out many experimental firings to find one suitable mix. But as potters changed their locations and the types of vessels they made, their traditions were constantly evolving as technical systems, and were subject to a mix of change and conservatism. The shapes and the methods of manufacture change, and the organization of labor changes, but it seems that raw material recipes stay much the same, even when most unsuitable. Perhaps changing a clay mix leaves potters open to too great a risk in most aspects of the work; after all, the way they have learned to form, dry, and fire the clay is dependent on its choice and preparation. However, it is the potters themselves who reproduce and reinterpret traditions, and it is suggested that they use their clay recipes in part as a source of group cohesion during the constant redefinition of categories. After all, the Kentri potter attempting to make storage jars knows the location where the Thrapsano potters take their clays and how they prepare them. Despite his ability to obtain the same or similar clays, he will not, because they are not “his”. What he is and where he is from is, at times, more important than problems in production of a new shape.

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Terminology as an Indicator of Production The terminology that is employed by potters and by others to describe their professional position can be revealing in these questions of tradition, identity, and change. Labels can communicate simple division and unity, but also they can be altered and manipulated to take account of, or construct, a changed or aberrant identity. Perhaps the simplest expression of this is in the use of labels in a derogatory fashion, when applied to potters who have erred from the path recognized as “traditional” for a group such as the Thrapsano potters.

Most frequently, labels refer to potters of different traditions. Generally potters from Thrapsano were referred to as pitharádes, a term taken directly from their specialist ceramic product, the storage jar (to pithári). On the other hand, the potters in the village of Kentri, who specialize in water jars, are universally referred to as tsikaládes, which means “cooking pot maker.” In fact, almost without exception, cooking pots used on the island are not manufactured on Crete but on the Cycladic island of Siphnos (Ill. 25), which has led to speculation

Illustration 25. Map showing the Aegean and major production centers.

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regarding the origin of this label for the Kentri potters (Blitzer 1984, 155, n.7). There may be little point in restricting the origin of this term to Siphnos, as the Siphniots themselves were notably mobile and had their professional names changed as well as those of their workplaces. The “Tsoukalariá” (lit: cooking pot workshops) of Siphnos became the “Kanatádika” (lit: water jar workshops) of the urban centers. But equally, the workshops of one production center, which we would commonly associate with the production of “kanátes,” near Palaeochora in Aegina, seem to have been referred to as “tsoukaleía” as far back as 1835 (Koulikourdis 1990, 95). But even if such terms traveled, they may change just as the name of pottery vessels changed between producers and consumers. The vessel referred to as a yiouvétsi on Siphnos, where it was made, is generally referred to as a tsoukáli by those who use it elsewhere in the Aegean. Equally, the storage jars referred to as kioúpia in the production centers of Messenia are known as tzáres by the customers elsewhere. The Thrapsano potters working in East Crete seem to have used variants on such labels frequently in their efforts to categorize and negotiate the status both of potters who had turned away from the vendéma system and, considering the hierarchical nature of the itinerant teams, between the senior and junior members of a team. Interviews in the study area reveal that junior members of the team made efforts, sometimes rebuffed by elders, to learn the complete repertoire of shapes in order to gain status. The term Mástoras is used not only as a term of status within the team, but also a measure of a potter’s skill in comparison with others: “Autós ítan pragmatikós Mástoras” (“now he was a real mástoras!”). In the same fashion, the term Pitharás is used among the Thrapsaniótes to refer to a potter who belongs within their tradition. Of those Thrapsaniótes who settled in the study area, their change in status was sometimes communicated by referring to them simply as a technítis (craftsman). Other descriptions, meant as somewhat disparaging

to those who had settled away from the vendéma, were used by Thrapsano potters: “Autós ítan óla kioúpia” (“he was all kioúpia”—small storage jars). In the latter case, the stigma of the size of the storage jars the potter was able to make was linked with the use of a pot label (kioúpia), which is generally foreign to Crete. Therefore, the divisions of traditions are reinforced not only by raw material recipes, but also by terminology used to describe pots and potters on Crete. COMMENT: CHANGES IN PRODUCTION AND THE PRESERVATION OF IDENTITY IN EAST CRETE It has been demonstrated that, in contrast to the opening quote, the categories of pottery tradition and broad rules of production behavior were open to change and were capable of being manipulated. The differences between the two main groups active in the study area are reinforced by vessel shape, decoration, labor organization, and distribution. However, the movement of potters to emerging urban centers and the marriage of potters into the study area has spurred the reinterpretation of such traditions. While potters who settled sometimes changed their pottery and organization, here it has been suggested that recipes used in forming the clay paste seem to form one aspect that does not change readily. In the villages above Mochlos, it seems that, along with other aspects of ceramic production that have been discussed, clay mixing patterns passed on by their mentors were considered as a defining feature of their original producing group. It has been suggested that the “mini-vendéma” based around Exo Mouliana shows aspects of the preservation of a nature not explained solely in terms of the practical distribution of pottery. Rather, it preserves a mode of organization that is basic to the Thrapsano potters and cushions the change from the male world of itinerant pottery manufacture to the female world, which a potter marrying into the community entered.

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Consumption of Ceramics in the Study Area: Beyond Production Ethnographic studies of pottery in the area have emphasized the process of production, with little work being carried out on the place of ceramics in the context of consumption either locally or throughout the Aegean. As argued in the previous section, the practice of pottery manufacture in the area, its traditions, and its major changes during this century are deeply affected by its “end users”. Such a relationship of necessity includes the processes of distribution, but goes beyond the relationship of supply and demand posited for market economies. The exchange of pottery over wide areas of the Aegean reflects specialization within a few, restricted production centers of one type, for which those centers obtained a reputation. There is no doubt that Crete in general, and especially the area studied here, did not produce much of the highly decorative tablewares, nor the cooking pots used in most households on the island. Yet the value of these vessels, many of which would be classified as utilitarian ceramics, sometimes goes beyond the functional; they hold an innate value due to their being produced off the island of Crete. There is a social role of obtaining pottery from farther afield, exploiting links with visiting merchants. IMPORTATION OF POTTERY TO THE AREA Vessels imported to the study area comprised glazed pottery, cooking vessels, and some large storage jars. Most of the pottery that reached the villages was brought in via the harbor of Mochlos, whence products such as carobs were exported. East Crete was most accessible to trade from the East Aegean islands and the Cyclades. It is clear that due to its geographical location linking various areas, but also its distance from the long-time capital of the island at Herakleion, East Crete was of great importance in both legal and especially illicit trade. Illicit trade was especially strong in the area of the Gulf of Mirabello (Triandaphyllidou-Baladié 1988, 195).

GLAZED VESSELS FROM THE DODECANESE The most commonly mentioned source for glazed pottery was the islands of the Dodecannese, but potters returning from seasonal work in other areas of Crete made some simple glazed pottery in Thrapsano itself during the winter. Patmos and Kos were mentioned in Crete as the source of glazed bowls brought on caiques. Psaropoulou, however, suggests that glazed vessels were not produced on Patmos (1984, 105). But generally it is clear that there was a strong glazed pottery tradition in the Eastern Aegean influenced by the wares of Asia Minor (Kyriazopoulos 1984, 45–48, 51–53), notably on Kos and Rhodes. Some traders were Cretans. In this aspect, also, marriage played a part in facilitating the movement of pottery. One resident of Palaikastro Siteias married into Simi and traded pottery from the Dodecannese, including glazed bowls from Kos, to East Crete. He often unloaded his caique at Chiona in the Bay of Palaikastro. GLAZED VESSELS FROM ÇANNAKALE In addition to being often cited as the source of knowledge concerning glazed wares made in Crete, Çannakale is also mentioned as the source of imports of glazed vessels. Çannakale, situated on the southern edge of the Bosphoros at the western end, was a major center of production. Casson (1938) was far from enamored by the products of this center, but there is little reason to doubt its influence on decorative pottery of the Aegean in general (Kyriazopoulos 1984, 51–53; Troullos 1991, 45–54; Korre-Zografou 1995, 155–172). SIPHNIOT TSIKALIA Like most other areas of the Aegean, the demand for cooking vessels was served by products made on the island of Siphnos (Wagner 1974; SpathariBegliti 1992; Troullos 1991). The products of this island were made of clay that was especially suitable to stand up to the repeated thermal shock

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endured by these vessels. These tsikália, as they are known on Crete, were traded by caique (KorreZografou 1995, 27) and brought to harbors on the north coast of Crete. Siphniot pottery was shipped to Mochlos and Pacheia Ammos and traded for a variety of agricultural goods, specifically potatoes from Lasithi and onions. The Siphniot potters relied on middlemen to distribute their products, but the local inhabitants were still aware of where the cooking pots were manufactured. MESSENIAN TZARES Blitzer has given a full account of the production and trade in these vessels, which were produced in the southern Peloponnese. Even though Crete produced its own storage jars, still it was these imported vessels that were often found as oil storage vessels at the small harbors such as Pacheia Ammos (Blitzer 1990). Their qualities as large, strong containers for oil, added to the location of the port of Koroni Messenias on major shipping routes, stimulated their wide distribution. In East Crete they were used mainly as containers for bulk storage of oil in the harbors, and they tended not to be present in household storerooms. Each household within the study area had a large amount of pottery for use in display and as serving, cooking, and storage vessels. Those vessels that were not obtained directly from the potters, which were usually restricted to the itinerant potters and those who had married into the villages, were obtained from those who traded and transported goods from the harbors—in this case from Mochlos. As such, most pottery either was imported from outside the locality or was the product of potters who themselves came in from outside the area OTHER METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION AND “MARKET AREAS” The potters interviewed emphasized that they did not have specific market areas. Nevertheless, it was clear that proximity of settlement and the general topography of the area made the recognition of natural areas of distribution quite clear. Besides the potters based in Kentri and Vainia, who sold their pottery on to the merchants with boats based at Ierapetra, most potters considered here distributed their pottery by pack animal, either donkey or mule. Methods of pottery distribution were various, as

were methods of payment. The itinerant potters traded their jars in three main ways, but in almost all cases the pitharia were sold in pairs as they were transported thus, one on each side of a donkey: 1. In kind for the rent of workshop and kiln space, and for access to fuel and clay sources (this was sometimes paid in cash, but usually by jars). 2. In kind for food, especially broad beans and peas, which formed the staple diet while potters were on the vendéma. 3. Sold for money. The mástoras kept the cash until it was divided at the end of the season. Occasionally, pots were made to order, especially more specialized vessels, such as a kazanopítharo for the distilling of raki, and people came to the kiln site to buy jars. Normally, however, the itinerant potters sold their jars around the neighboring villages, loading up their animals and selling the pairs. The Thrapsano tradition potters who settled seem to have followed a similar pattern, with a greater variety of smaller vessels being sold locally directly from the workshop. Kentri Potters: In Kentri, the annual output of around 40,000 vessels was distributed to customers in a variety of ways. The majority of the pottery was sold to ships’ captains in Ierapetra and occasionally at Pacheia Ammos, who in turn took it around the coast selling the wares at the several harbors supplying the inland villages. There were other methods, which did not involve middlemen, where it was up to each individual concerned with the pottery making process, including the helpers, as to how their share was distributed. The potters from this village also sold their jars by loading them on pack animals and selling them themselves. In this fashion, they often exchanged the pottery for food, going for potatoes to the Lasithi Plain, an overnight trip, and to the Viannos area and the Mesara Plain over land. The Mesara is often quoted as being a good place to trade pottery, as the inhabitants had food to exchange, especially cereal crops. One year, one middleman tried to buy the whole of the annual production of water jars produced by the villages of Kentri and Vainia. This led to serious competition in the form of undercutting of prices, something that was considered disruptive. However, such a system does not appear to have

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survived, and individuals continued to sell the pottery on to various merchants and captains by themselves. Kentri potters who moved locations lost the option of such an established distribution system and had to sell the pottery to consumers themselves. Of course, the exception to this was the group of potters at nearby Vainia, who simply fitted into the existing Kentri system of distribution. Conversely, Stylianos Tzanidakis from Lastros took his pottery to be sold in the harbor market in Siteia. Thus, it appears that there are many levels of distribution in East Crete. The basic pattern seems to be of itinerant and sedentary pottery workshops scattered around the area selling their own vessels, but at Kentri there is a developed middleman system running in tandem. The distances and areas covered by the Kentri and Thrapsano potters vary, however, and it is those that are now considered. DISTRIBUTION AREAS Psaropoulou estimates that 30 km is the normal maximum distance from a given production center that the Thrapsano potters would go to sell their pottery (1988, 179). Within the study area, it seems that the Thrapsano potters and those of that tradition who have settled distributed pots up to ca. 15 km distance. When the points of production and consumption are mapped, certain areas of distribution emerge, which we might consider the “market areas” for specific kiln sites. Although these are, of course, by no means rigid over time, the emergent pattern respects natural topography, such as mountain ranges and major valleys, and settlement patterns in the area. The villages between Lastros and Exo Mouliana comprised just such an area, naturally delimited with related settlements. The Kentri potters appear to have had a much greater range in the distribution of their pottery. This was not only because of the transportation of their produce by sea, but also the vessels carried overland were taken greater distances in comparison to the Thrapsano potters. Either the potters themselves, or in the case of Aphrodite Menegaki, the wife of a potter, would be prepared to sell pottery as far afield as the Mesara Plain (ca. 100 km) or the far east coast around Zakros. This difference may be explained by the fact that the water jar, which was their main product, was a specialized

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object made from very suitable raw materials in a center that had developed a high reputation. The vessels could not be made in just any location, so the distance likely to be traveled to sell them was correspondingly greater. However, this situation does not reflect the position for all the wares produced in the Kentri/Vainia workshops. Ierapetra itself was a large town, and most of the utilitarian wares besides the water jars were bought by villagers themselves and this large, neighboring urban settlement. COMPETITION It is difficult to encourage potters to talk of competition in their trade. Jones (1986, 867) cites the potters from Thrapsano working in the Kentri area as evidence for the traditions being complementary and non-competitive. This situation is, to a certain degree, corroborated by the potters who were questioned. The Kentri and Thrapsano potters were not directly in competition. However, when any of these potters changed status, there was sometimes a conflict of interest. Different sorts of competition include the following: 1. Within Kentri, potters undercut each other in terms of the price to sell to merchants. 2. Between potters from Kentri/Vainia and their fellow villagers who had moved elsewhere in the region to sell in centers such as Siteia, potters based in Kentri usually got the upper hand due to their perceived better quality product. 3. Thrapsano potters on the vendéma sometimes encroached on the perceived market area of a colleague from the same Thrapsano tradition who had settled to build a permanent workshop. For example, it is clear that the itinerant potters in Paraspori at times infringed upon the natural market area of the potter based in Exo Mouliana who was originally their compatriot from the home village. RECENT CHANGES IN THE CERAMIC SYSTEM Changes in social and economic conditions in Crete have led to a marked decline in Cretan pottery manufacture by traditional methods; the last traditional potter in the study area stopped working in

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1987. Pottery manufacture survives in modern town-based workshops, mainly producing pottery for the tourist industry. The factors that lie behind such a decline differ according to the type of potter and the vessels being produced. In considering the decline of the itinerant Thrapsano potters, we may identify a number of problems. Firstly, in the post-war period, cultivation of vineyards in the home village increased at the expense of cereal crops. This left much more agricultural work to be done in the summer months and required the presence of men at Thrapsano, resulting in a labor scheduling conflict. This compounded the fact that the occupation of Crete during World War II had a great effect on the activities of the itinerant potters, as their movement around the island was more restricted, and thus their patterns of work were disrupted. The post-war economic change brought about rural depopulation in the village market areas as urbanization increased, attracting people to jobs in Athens, Thessaloniki, and the major towns of Crete. Therefore, the market for storage jars, a product linked directly with agricultural produce, declined markedly. Employment in urban areas and the national changes in economy meant that there was a general rise in the standard of living, which allowed men to avoid going on the vendéma to generate more income. Furthermore, investment in infrastructure by the 1950s led to the development of an east to west road system in Crete, which transformed the pattern of communications and transport on the island. Other technological factors were involved. The introduction of plastic vessels, which were

comparatively cheap, provided a real, if inferior, alternative to clay vessels for storage. The potters of Kentri were affected by a variety of factors, some similar to those above and some more specific to their case. The effect of urban growth strongly affected the Isthmus of Ierapetra, as a direct result of the expansion of tourism in nearby Hagios Nikolaos and Ierapetra. Additionally, some aspects of development and investment in infrastructure undercut the market for water jars: the advent of a piped water supply reduced the need for jars, while the arrival of electrical power and refrigerators removed the need for the cooling. Potters also frequently name the development of the thermos flask as being damaging to the one area of superiority that remained for ceramic water vessels—in portable jars for use in the field. Finally, with the broad range of utilitarian vessels made by the Kentri potters in mind, historical circumstances played a part in Kentri’s decline, as there was an increase in popularity of metal vessels after the population exchange at the turn of the century and in 1922, when many Christian refugees came to the area from Asia Minor. The result of this has been the total collapse of traditional manufacture of utilitarian pottery in East Crete. Elsewhere on the island, the villages of Thrapsano and Margarites still produce their traditional shapes, the former by the recent foundation of a co-operative, which ensures that younger members of the community are trained in pottery manufacture. Otherwise, the aspects of change that have been discussed in the section above have overwhelmed the pottery system of the area, as it existed until ca. 1960.

Comment This chapter has addressed the ways in which potters reproduced and transformed the ceramic system in East Crete, specifically in the villages of Lastros and Exo Mouliana. It has presented a challenge to the view of the potters as static, conservative players in an unchanging pattern of production. Rather, the potters performed a balancing act, altering aspects of their technological practice to meet the challenges of new social or

economic conditions, while negotiating their own position within their craft tradition. There are clear benefits in examining the flexibility of categories involved in ceramic production in twentieth century East Crete. It is not that post-industrial pottery making is somehow tainted and therefore of little use in understanding traditional crafts or in making ethnographic analogies for archaeology. On the contrary, the craft itself has

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always been in flux. The undeniably strong traditions have survived in spite of constant renegotiation of the status of the craft and the individuals involved. It has become clear that the strong division between itinerant and sedentary potters was not total. Examples have been presented here of itinerant potters who become sedentary and normally sedentary potters who left their home village in a pattern of seasonal work. Such changes have been equated with a move between the inside and the outside of communities, and perhaps between a male and female world. In changing locations of production and major aspects of their behavior, potters did not, however, lose their identity as members of their original tradition. Their use of shape, decoration, labor organization, and especially their clay pastes both altered and preserved their identity within the tradition in which they were trained. Marriages, and especially post-marital residence patterns, have been shown to have a major effect on such changes. For a potter, changing location not only brings practical challenges of the production of different shapes with the available raw materials, but in the case of the Thrapsaniotes thrusts them from an external, male world of production to an internal and more female world. It is suggested that the establishment of the “mini-vendéma” system in the area of study is a response aimed at controlling just such a change in the social context of the potter. The raw material paste recipes become part of this negotiation of identity in a time of change in the pottery system. The major division present between traditions was the broad nature of clay mixes. The creation or alteration of a paste recipe can be seen as social action: as an expression of a potter’s group affiliation. Ethnographers have stressed the production of pottery in Crete. In an area with a variety of

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modes of production, this has been instructive in consideration of how craftspeople create and adapt their working environment and in recording the mechanics of their technical systems. Yet, the pottery system of East Crete is more complex than this. Although pottery is an item of everyday use, we have shown here that the meanings in-built in ceramic vessels for both potters and consumers are beyond those of everyday existence and relate to identity, movement, and even marriage within the island. Some tablewares and water jars were brought into the study area from the centers of Herakleion and Kentri on Crete. Otherwise, pottery was either imported from other places in the Aegean or produced by potters from elsewhere, who were resident outside the villages of the area for the summer months. Pottery was thus a social and economic medium, a commodity brought in from outside or produced by outsiders: this pertains to both utilitarian and prestige pottery. Marriage was one of the few mechanisms that altered this pattern, in stretching trading links to obtain other goods. With new circumstances, decisions, rebellion, movement, rivalry, and abuse of other craftsmen all take place within pottery manufacture, forcing a constant redefinition of ceramic traditions. Returning, then, to our opening quote, it seems clear that the dichotomy between different types of potters is neither static nor in some instances real. If matters are so complex, we must be aware that a link between past and present pottery manufacture needs to be explained and not thought of as inevitable. In the study area presented here, the marriage and mobility of craftsmen in the local community thus gives us a unique insight into the way the Cretan pottery system worked and rids us of an image of potters as passive, timeless players in an unchanging act.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank all those residents of East Crete who freely gave me the benefit of their knowledge and memories: ethnographic work in this area is made a pleasure by their constant interest and generous hospitality.

I am very grateful to both Philip Betancourt and Costis Davaras for providing a base while some of the fieldwork described here was carried out, and especially to the former for his belief in such work. My introduction to potters in Crete came from Peter

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Ucko and was developed in Greece with the support and encouragement of Richard Jones; thanks are due to both of them. I have been privileged to learn much about ceramics and Crete from Harriet Blitzer, Jane Cocking, Alexandra Doumas, Betty Psaropoulou, and Maria Voyatzoglou. Lena Papapanagiotou provided valuable help in fieldwork and transcribed the tapes of interviews. My doctoral research, supported by a Postgraduate Award of the Science and Engineering Research Council, U.K., and a six month Greek Government Scholarship,

was conducted under the supervision of Sander van der Leeuw at the University of Cambridge. I am grateful for discussion with colleagues at the Laboratory of Archaeometry, Institute of Materials Science, NCSR Demokritos, where I carried out my postdoctoral research, funded by the Science Based Archaeology Committee of SERC. Colin Merrony is thanked for the illustrations. Caroline M. Jackson provided valuable comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. The opinions and inaccuracies in this chapter are, of course, my own responsibility.

Catalog of Some Kilns Mentioned in the Text Map references are taken from the 1:50,000 geological maps of IGME. 1. HAGIA MARINA, MONASTIRAKI (THRAPSANO VENDÉMA SITE) The mástoras Mathioudakis worked here before moving to Pacheia Ammos. The kiln is located 10 meters west of the church of Hagia Marina. Information gained in interviews at Episkopi and Vasiliki. Potters moved from here when price was raised on rent and went to work at Vanges, Episkopi (Kiln 2). Part of kiln structure still visible with pottery and ash dump. Potters: Thrapsano vendema + settled Thrapsanioti Z. Kornaros and Mathioudakis Psaropoulou (1988, Map 2) indicates that the mástoras G. Hatzinikolakis worked at this kiln site Pottery samples taken and analyzed Map reference: 2752 1088 Clay sources: Blue, from Sphakia, Episkopis, near Hagios Giorgios chapel, 1 km Red, from west of kiln site in valley, 0.3 km 2. EPISKOPI This kiln site at “Vanges” lies on the eastern side of the road that runs from Episkopi to Pacheia Ammos. None of the kiln structure is visible, in situ, but

there are fragments of vitrified wall lining. The area is under olive cultivation. The kiln was constructed and used after that at Hagia Marina, Monastiraki. The potter on the vendéma from Thrapsano moved because of the high rent being asked at Hagia Marina. He had baptized a child in Episkopi and was, therefore, able to use his connection to get a reasonable rent. In the first season the land was “free,” except that the owners took some pitharia. Potters: Michaelis Mirianakis and perhaps other Thrapsano vendéma teams Pottery samples taken and analyzed Map reference: 2740 1080 Clay sources: Gray, from Sphakia, Episkopis, 1 km Red, local, 0.5 km 3. EXO MOULIANA 1 This is the best-preserved kiln in the area with the exception of Vlazakis’ workshop at Kentri. Situated a small distance outside Exo Mouliana at “Ta Gournia,” it is the old kiln of Zacharias Kornaros, a Thrapsano potter who settled in the village. Later, the same kiln was used by Manolis Koutandos and Michaelis Kornaros. Potters: Michaelis Kornaros Manolis Koutandos Zacharias Kornaros

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Pottery samples taken and analyzed Map reference: 2903 1189 Clay sources: Blue/black, from Kolimbia, Mesa Mouliana, 2 km Red, from Sagariana, Exo Mouliana,