Suchergebnisse

The paper presents the result of the soundings carried on in Ayia Triada in 1997-1999, starting from the data of old excavations and notebooks. The abundant graphic and photographic documentation reveals the complex history of the area due to ancient and modern activities. Our research concerned the following areas: A) In the area of the tomb of the Painted Sarcophagus the funerary building was brought to light, and reexamined, allowing us to date its construction to early LMIIIA2. Some decades after, the tomb was robbed as a consequence of a damnation memoriae within the framework of a strong competition among elites. B) In the nearby of Tholos B, the ossuary has been cleaned, and an entrance door in its western side has been identified, closed in MMII. C) In the area to the South of Tholos A, the small funerary chambers 1-10 have been analytically surveyed. A small pottery deposit and the reexamination of the walls has allowed the attribution of the complex to a mature phase of MMIA, and the identification of three architectonic phases. D) In the area to the West of chambers 1-10, the three rooms a-c, found empty by earlier excavators, have been investigated, and dated after our study to MMIA. They were probably built immediately before chambers 1-10, and had the same function. An eleventh room has been identified. The back wall of Rooms a-c included two baetyls, determining a kind of ceremonial door with its sill, looking towards Tholos A. In a later phase, the two baetyls had been incorporated in a small paved room, which can be dated to MMII and which represented a cultic space, as demonstrated by the presence of a slab/kernos. The entrance of this space was no more oriented towards the tomb (as in the betyls wall), as a consequence of changes in the funerary sphere. E) In the area of Tholos A, a small portion not yet excavated has been investigated along the northern side. F) Moreover a small sounding has been made in the so called Cyclopean wall, already brought to light in the '70es. The wall was built in the protogeometric period, and its eastern part overlapped the wall of Tholos A, already as a ruin. The wall delimited a ritual space linked with the tomb, probably used for the cult of the ancestors. G) Finally, a rich dump of MMIA pottery has been discovered in an ellipsoidal pit behind the wall of the baetyls. The vases were probably part of the original furniture of the nearby chambers 1-10, removed in MMIB to make room for the new depositions found in earlier excavations. In the final chapter a summary of the most important results is proposed. The profanation of the tomb of the Painted Sarcophagus is set against the framework of the urban phases identified in the new excavations; the event is furthermore interpreted in the perspective of the political relations between the centres of Knossos and AyiaTriada: the damnatio memoriae would echo the destruction of the palace of Knossos and the changes in the relations among the settlements of Crete. Second, the frequent uses in the area of Tholos A have been highlighted , especially in MMIA, with some insights in the nature of religious liturgies linked with the tomb. A short paragraph in the end attempts the reconstruction of a diachronic sequence of the whole area of the necropolis.

On the basis of the excavation notebooks and letters we reconstruct the difficult history of this excavation, and we attempt to explore, underscore, and to explain the circumstances that conditioned many choices that were made. Regarding the decision to begin digging at this new site, towards the end of the third excavation campaign at Phaistos, we point to hypothetically two particular factors: first, the clear wish of Halbherr to assert the right of the Italian mission to excavate in the area of the Messarà following a diplomatic incident with Cretan authorities that arose from the excavation of the necropolis of Kalivia by S. Xanthoudidis, and secondly the number of finds from Phaistos, relatively small with respect to that from Knossos, something that hurt the sense of dignity or national pride which had always driven the efforts of F. Halbherr outside the borders of Italy. In fact, the decision to begin this new excavation even took by surprise G. De Sanctis, who immediately advised Halbherr not to start anything else in Crete, for fear of interfering with the beginning of explorations in the Cirenaica, which they had already planned.We then review the difficult time that Halbherr spent deciding whether to continue the excavation directly by himself after a brief period of collaboration with R. Paribeni had come to an end. We note how the publication of that excavation became a kind of ordeal. After several limited trenches by L. Banti, there really was a plan for continuation, but it was not followed by D. Levi and C. Laviosa in the 1970 s. By 1977, when the first part of the earlier excavations were being published, a new cycle of projects aimed exclusively at re-excavating what had been excavated for the purpose of resolving many problems (especially with regard to chronology) that remained from the earlier excavations was undertaken (to 1999).In the second part of this paper, we address the motivating criteria and the scientific problems addressed by each excavation cycle: from the iconography of the most important finds, to the problem of political relations with Phaistos (beginning with a letter by F. Halbherr in which he asks whether the two centres did not perhaps constitute an upper and a lower city). We furthermore discuss the influence of Evans upon the reading of stratigraphy, the relations between Minoans and Mycenaeans, the interests of L. Banti in religion, and the most recent hypotheses regarding the complementary roles of Phaistos and Haghia Triada (in the context of the whole island, through which the strategic position of Knossos emerges clearly towards the end of the Middle Minoan III period).In the last part we trace a general history of the site, beginning with the Venetian period and going back to the possible rite of foundation at the beginning of Early Minoan I. For each period we summarize the most important data that has emerged from recent work, and we refer to the detailed contributions for each period, which constitute the primary chapters of a yet unpublished history of the site.This study also presents a new general plan of Haghia Triada in colour, with the indication of each of its chronological phases, and three appendices present, respectively, the texts of the letters sent by F. Halbherr to D. Comparetti regarding the excavations at Haghia Triada, the most important passages from the letters of F. Halbherr to G. De Sanctis regarding this excavation, and two letters by F. Halbherr, one to L. Pernier, the other to L. Pigorini, in which he explains the stratigraphy and the history of the centre Haghia Triada.