Priniatikos Pyrgos
Welcome to the Priniatikos Pyrgos Excavation Project. Our
mission is to investigate the long-term history of this coastal
settlement in Crete through archaeological excavation. Occupation at the site
spans over six thousand years, beginning in the Late Neolithic
(fifth millennium BCE) and ending in the Late Byzantine
Period (fifteenth century CE).
The project is the first ever
excavation of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens and
our multinational team includes scholars from University College
Dublin, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Trinity College Dublin,
and University of California at Santa Barbara. Our first excavation
phase is now complete and we will begin post-excavation and
publication work in 2011.
What are we looking for?
Priniatikos Pyrgos is a
limestone headland jutting out into the southwest corner of the Gulf
of Mirabello in East Crete. Our research so far has revealed
evidence of prehistoric industrial activity (e.g. two pottery kilns)
and settlement, part of the Classical and Hellenistic city plan of
Istron and a previously undiscovered Byzantine ecclesiastical site
of regional importance. Our diachronic strategy provides
stratigraphic evidence for the long-term exploitation of this
coastal area, providing a rare excavation insight into long-term
trajectories of economic and environmental strategies of landscape exploitation. |
FEATURES
Current News:
Support funding provided
for sixth consecutive year by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory.
Fieldwork dates set as July 12th to
August 22nd (pending official permit).
High demand fills
field school for third consecutive year.
Bronze Age 1A
levels to be targeted in 2010.
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