What do we want to learn by digging Priniatikos Pyrgos?
Priniatikos Pyrgos is a unique example of a large and well-preserved coastal settlement and harbour town in the west-central Mirabello area that possesses substantial remains from both the prehistoric and historical periods. The topographical situation of this coastal promontory and hillock also ensured its long-term use as an industrial quarter for pyrotechnical activities. Excavation of this site is addressing three key issues and related research questions that pertains to both local Cretan and wider-scale Greek archaeology as a whole:
1) History and development: How does the development of this large diachronic coastal centre accord with, or differ from, other contemporary sites in eastern Crete, especially those recently excavated sites along the eastern side of the Gulf? What is the chronological range of the large Neolithic coastal settlement that underlies the Bronze Age site? What are its links to central Crete and the Cyclades? Is development continuous at this coastal centre from the Neolithic through to the Protopalatial period? What is the character of the Neopalatial settlement and industry on the headland? Does the rise of palatial Gournia in the Late Bronze Age accord with the decline of this adjacent site of similar scale further west?? What can the Classical and Hellenistic phases of settlement, for example, reveal concerning the inception, development, and history of this coastal polis? What can the character of these ceramics tell us about craft innovation and wider contact networks? What do the Late Roman through to Late Byzantine phases demonstrate concerning the role Crete played in long-distance trade? What does this settlement reveal concerning the agricultural and manufacturing base, regional consumption, and exchange networks across the Gulf and in the southern Aegean?
2) Regional Industries: a) Ceramic production: What are the products, chronological range, and technological developments of ceramic manufacture? Can these ceramics be differentiated from other production
centres?; can trade networks and perhaps polity be traced through the distribution of these ceramics? b) Iron smelting: Can chronological range and manufacturing techniques be determined? What can this investigation reveal concerning the relationship of Crete and Cyprus from the Early Iron Age to the early Greek period? Is there a Phoenician presence? Does this technology contribute to the economic and political development of Early Iron Age regional powers such as Vrokastro, and 7th-6th c. B.C. city-states, such as the nearby polis of Istron? c) Glass production: Is there evidence for primary production of glass at this site and is it a regional centre? What is the chronological range of glass artefacts at the site? d) Chipped stone: What can the chipped stone, particularly obsidian, tell us about contacts with the Cyclades and other Cretan sites in the Early Bronze Age? Was this a production, redistribution or simply a consumption site?
3) Environment: How were regional resources used in craft production and agriculture? What opportunities and constraints were presented by these resources?
A developing exchange network in industrial and agricultural products can also be documented in Crete and the southern Aegean, this extending from the fourth millennium B.C. through the first millennium A.D. Few well-preserved coastal sites of this chronological and functional range have been investigated within Crete. This is one of the fundamental academic contributions to be gained from this project; moving beyond the narrow chronological parameters of typical research projects to provide a
longue duree perspective on resource and landscape exploitation across a span rarely tackled in Aegean archaeology.
From a methodological perspective, the span of occupation presents many challenges and opportunities, and so the project seeks to contribute to the ongoing development of fieldwork practice in this region. A single-context excavation and recording system will be employed, modified to suit the specific soil and environmental conditions of the Greek summer (see Guide to Excavations). Excavators will be international professional fieldworkers who contribute to the excavation, recording and interpretative process. This reflexive, hands-on approach immerses crew members in the archaeological process and subverts the pitfalls that occur when there is a separation between, diggers, recorders, interpreters, specialists and report writers. A fully integrated system is our key ambition.
Each trench and the post-excavation operation is run by a team leader who coordinates the liaisons between the field and post-ex work, encouraging daily interaction between find and field specialists. Context sheets are the primary recording template and are complemented by narratives kept in notebooks. Daily reviewing of context sheets and plans is undertaken in liaison with the GIS and database team and all records are digitized during the fieldwork season. The database is networked in through a server in the post-ex facilities, allowing access and input by all team members under the supervision of the post-ex team leader.
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