Excavation reports

Excavations at Pyla-Kokkinokremos

Report on the 2014-2019 Campaigns

Joachim Bretschneider, Athanasia Kanta, Jan Driessen

The site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos, located in Larnaka Bay in south-eastern Cyprus, was explored at different earlier occasions but continues to be of archaeological interest, in part because it is one of the few settlements that was occupied for a relatively short period during what are called the 'Crisis Years' of the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1200 BCE). The ethnic mix of its material culture is also astonishing with imports from Mycenaean Greece, Minoan Crete, Nuragic Sardinia, Hittite Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt, a variety unparalleled at other contemporary Cypriot settlements. Since 2014, an international team consisting of members of the University of Ghent and Louvain in Belgium and of the Mediterranean Archaeological Society in Heraklion, Crete, has continued its exploration, concentrating on different areas of the 7 ha-large hill. The aim of the new excavations is to obtain a better understanding of the social structure and internal organization of the site, and of its importance for the continuing discussions on migration, interaction, and acculturation, which typifies the late 13th and early 12th c. BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The volume is a detailed but preliminary account of the first six excavation campaigns (2014-2019) with a presentation of the archaeological material found in the different sectors of the hill. It also includes the first analyses of the different ceramic categories encountered and a report on the topographical work executed.

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Excavations at Sissi V

Preliminary Report on the 2017-2019 Campaigns

Vol. 1 & 2

Jan Driessen et alii

This volume, in two parts, is the fifth and last preliminary report on the excavations conducted at the Bronze Age site of Kephali tou Agiou Antoniou at Sissi in the nomos of Lasithi, Crete. It covers the campaigns during the summers of 2017, 2018 and 2019 with quite detailed reports on the different areas excavated, including the cemetery, the residential structures and the Court-Centred Building. We also report on the tests conducted and the three survey campaigns in the east part of the Sissi basin, with additional attention to the ammouda quarry and WW II remains. The volume also includes a series of scientific analyses that have been made on some of the material (ceramics, seals, gold, plaster, coins) and a brief presentation of the consolidation efforts that have been done on the remains discovered thus far. Since the study of the architecture, stratigraphy and finds is still on-going, all results should be considered as provisional. The final excavation reports that are in progress may modify some of the opinions expressed in this volume or the previous ones.

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Excavations at Sissi IV

Preliminary Report on the 2015-2016 Campaigns

Jan Driessen et alii

Between 2007 and 2011, the Belgian School at Athens undertook excavations on the Kefali or Buff o hill, east of the village of Sissi, on the north coast of Crete, only a few kilometres east of Malia. The project has revealed the remains of a settlement and cemetery, used during diff erent phases of the Bronze Age (2500-1200 B.C.). This volume details the results of the 2011 campaign, the last in our first 5-year programme. The work in the different zones is described and reports on Late Minoan pottery, petrographic analysis, shells and ground stone tools are attached.

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Excavations at Sissi III

Preliminary Report on the 2011 Campaign

Jan Driessen et alii

Between 2007 and 2011, the Belgian School at Athens undertook excavations on the Kefali or Buff o hill, east of the village of Sissi, on the north coast of Crete, only a few kilometres east of Malia. The project has revealed the remains of a settlement and cemetery, used during diff erent phases of the Bronze Age (2500-1200 B.C.). This volume details the results of the 2011 campaign, the last in our first 5-year programme. The work in the different zones is described and reports on Late Minoan pottery, petrographic analysis, shells and ground stone tools are attached.

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Excavations at Sissi II

Preliminary Report on the 2009-2010 Campaigns

Jan Driessen et alii

Since 2007, the Belgian School at Athens has undertaken excavations on the Kefali or Buffo hill, east of the village of Sissi, on the north coast of Crete where a Minoan site was occupied approximately between 2500 and 1200 BC. This volume is the follow-up of an earlier one on the 2007-2008 excavations (published as Aegis 1) and presents a preliminary report on the excavations carried out in 2009 and 2010. It concentrates on the different zones examined within the cemetery and settlement. There are also reports on the Late Minoan pottery, site conservation and environmental analysis as well as a paper on the use of GIS at Sissi.

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Excavations at Sissi

Preliminary Report on the 2007-2008 Campaigns

Jan Driessen et alii

During 2007 and 2008, the Belgian School at Athens undertook its first ever excavation on Crete, at the Minoan site of Sissi on the north coast of the island. Located at a few kilometres from the palatial site of Malia, the Sissi settlement presents a unique test case to examine the relationship between a palace site and its hinterland during the Bronze Age (2600-1250 BC). This volume gives some preliminary results of the two first excavation campaigns as well as an introduction on earlier explorations at Sissi, a report on the topography and some of the techniques used during the work. There is also a report on the Late Minoan pottery.

The excavations were carried out by the Université catholique de Louvain under direction of prof. Jan Driessen in collaboration with a team of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven under direction of prof. Ilse Schoep.