Island - The Current Excavations
A: Main Settlement

The project had four general goals when it began in 1989: 1) to continue excavation on the island of Mochlos in order to obtain a detailed stratigraphic sequence of occupation through the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age with artifactual and ecofactual remains; 2) to continue excavation on the island in the area of the Prepalatial cemetery and so to uncover an entire cemetery of the 3rd millennium B.C.; 3) to continue cleaning and excavation on the island in the area of the Minoan settlement in order to uncover a partial plan of the Prepalatial town and as complete a plan as possible of the Late Minoan town; and 4) to investigate and excavate selected sites on the adjacent plain in order to establish the relationship, especially in the Bronze Age, between the settlements on the island and sites in the plain.

The project has conducted excavation at five different sites, opened over 75 trenches, has realized many of these original objectives, and has made several additional, unanticipated discoveries. It has uncovered material from ten different periods of the Bronze Age, all of it in well-stratified deposits, including a continuous sequence of Early Minoan material, an isolated deposit of the Old Palace period, a continuous sequence of New Palace period material, and another sequence of LM IIIA and IIIB material. It has completed the excavation of the Prepalatial cemetery and has uncovered four houses and one street belonging to the Prepalatial settlement.

It has uncovered a large segment of the Late Minoan town on the island, and it has located and excavated two important outposts of this town on the adjacent coastal plain. It has also opened 20 unplundered LM III chamber tombs which belong to the LM III settlement uncovered on the island. It has uncovered remains of four different civilizations: Byzantine, Hellenistic, Mycenaean, and Minoan.

Mochlos map Mochlos: Island main excavation Mochlos: Island main excavation

1. Late Hellenistic (1st Century B.C.)
The remains of the Late Hellenistic fort were partly excavated by Seager who identified them as Roman houses. The current excavation found that these "houses" extended over an area nearly 60 m. long and continued in a line which connected with the eastern circuit wall of the fort that was already known from Seager's work on the island. Cleaning revealed two groups of connected rooms set behind, and to the north of, a continuous wall that extended the whole length of the area exposed. They might be described best as "garrisons" located just inside a continuous circuit of fortification wall which forms a large circle around the whole island.

The western group contains about nine rooms, many of them divided in two by a spur wall, and most of them previously excavated. Room 1 contained Eastern Sigillata A ware along with evidence for cooking and a large stone platform in the northwest corner of the room which probably served as a sleeping platform.

The room could be entered through a doorway in its east wall and may have provided access to a rectangular bastion that projected from the south side of the room. All of the rooms in this section adjoined one another and, entered from the east, north or west, they formed a solid, unbroken line of wall on their south. The section of rooms to the east, which were also excavated by Seager, were arranged a little differently.

They were set back behind a terrace wall or rampart that projected to the south leaving an open space between the buildings and the actual line of wall. A series of terraces lay in the space between these two building groups behind the same line of wall, and a wide staircase appears to have led up from one terrace to another, past an exedra on the third terrace, into the interior of the complex.

New excavations on either side of the area excavated by Seager uncovered two stratified layers in this fort, the uppermost Early Byzantine and the lower containing more examples of Eastern Sigillata A ware and Hellenistic relief ware, as well as coarse storage and cooking wares. The most striking discovery in this lower level, however, was a small terracotta head of Jupiter Serapis, one of the most popular gods in the Late Hellenistic period, especially important to mercenaries serving in Crete who are known to have made dedications to him (Sanders, pp. 36-37). Just to the south of this fortification the excavation has also uncovered a large building which may have served as a communal workshop.

Two of its rooms were provided with bench presses, the earliest examples known of this type of press; one was used to crush olives to make olive oil and the other to press wool, perhaps for the manufacture of felt.

Mochlos: Island map Mochlos: Island main excavation Mochlos: Island main excavation

Further work is required before the Late Hellenistic period at Mochlos can be fully understood. At the moment there are several possible explanations for the remains which have been found here. The Ptolemies had been active keeping peace in the area since the 3rd century, and Patroklos, commander of the Ptolemaic forces in the Chremonidean War, established a garrison at nearby Itanos which the Ptolemies maintained well into the 2nd century. In the 2nd century they established another garrison at Leuke off the southeast coast of Crete and they may have felt a need to establish still a third as an additional base for their activities in eastern Crete and other operations in the Aegean.

The city states of Hierapytna and Praisos who both claimed this area of Crete may also have attempted to secure the strategic harbor at Mochlos for themselves. In the middle of the 2nd century when war broke out between Praisos and Itanos, largely as a result of a dispute over the administration of the Shrine of Zeus Diktaios at Palaikastro, Praisos may have felt a need to secure its northern frontier; later after war broke out between Praisos and Hierapytna and Praisos was completely destroyed, Hierapytna took up the territorial claims of Praisos and pursued the war against Itanos. It might also have felt a need to secure the northern approach to the isthmus which led straight overland to the city. In 115 B.C.

Hierapytna appealed directly to the Roman Senate to arbitrate its conflict with Itanos. It did so first through the mediation of itinerant justices from Magnesia on the Maeander, later through a Roman commission headed by Q. Fabius. In 112 the consul Calpurnius Piso was instructed to resolve the dispute and re-establish the border between Itanos and Hierapytna. Rome was now an active player in the area, but it may not have been until the next century that it actually required troops in the area.

In the 1st century Rome grew increasingly concerned as Crete, which had earlier supported Perseus in his wars against Rome, now supported Mithridates, supplying him with mercenaries, receiving his emissaries and opening its ports to Pontic ships.

These actions, along with the reappearance of Cretan piracy, provoked the Senate to demand the conquest of the island. An initial foray sent out in 77 B.C. met with disaster, but in 68 the consul Q. Caecilius Metellus landed on the island with three legions. He undertook the complete subjugation of the island, conquering Cydonia in the west first, then moving east to destroy Knossos.

The Cretan Aristion played a major role in the defense of the island and escaped to Hierapytna in 67 where he led the final resistance against the Romans. Hierapytna was the last city to fall, and while the details of Metellus's strategy in the conquest of the island are unknown, it is likely that he moved troops by land and by sea. To reach Hierapytna from Knossos, the easiest route would have taken him along the north coast of Crete to the isthmus of Hierapytna. Mochlos offered the best harbor at this point, and Metellus may well have established a camp here, or taken advantage of a pre-existing one, to support his troops in their march across the isthmus to Hierapytna.

2. Neopalatial (1700 to 1425 B.C.)

The excavation has focused on the LM I town. It has traced its maximum extent north, west and east on the island and has uncovered new streets and houses in the process; it has uncovered a segment of the town on the opposite shore behind the modern village of Mochlos and an outpost of the town at the eastern end of the plain; it has also discovered and excavated its ceremonial center.
On the island, the excavation has concentrated on the unexcavated area of the Neopalatial settlement in Seager's Block B and C, where parts of seven houses, two roads, and a narrow alley have now been uncovered.

House C.1, already partly exposed by Seager, is one of the latest of the houses to be built in this area, dating to LM IB. Its facade and staircase were built in ashlar masonry and a deep and extensive layer of Theran tephra was found beneath its LM IB floor. A kitchen was found in the northern part of the house, but it was not possible to excavate the entire house because one of the large Byzantine buildings sits on top ot it.

Mochlos Today Mochlos Today

A second house, C.2, also partly excavated by Seager, has been uncovered to the north with two workshops in its basement rooms. The western side of the building, excavated by Seager, lies under Seager's dump which is not yet removed. When it is, the northwest corner of the house can then be drawn and added to the plan. Eleven successive floor levels, ranging in date from LM IB to MM III, have been uncovered along the south facade of the house, where a retaining wall was built to support an approach to the house.

Excavation of House C.3 was completed in 1992. It is a large rectangular house of three floors with the main entrance located on the second floor from the west. The basement, where three magazines packed full of pithoi and other objects are located, is still in tact. Perhaps the most important find here has been a foundry hoard of bronze tools and copper ingots which was being stored for re-use. Eleven different types of tools have been identified, including two shapes never before documented in the Aegean. Storerooms were also located on the second floor where the staircase to the uppermost floor is located just inside the house's entrance.

House C.4. lies on the eastern side of a narrow alley across from Houses C.2 and C.3. Only its western side was uncovered, but it suggests a similar arrangement as that of House C.3 with basement stories located on a lower level of the hill slope and the main second floor level terraced above it. House C.6 lies to the north of House C.3 on the other side of an east-west street that separates the two buildings. The eastern half of the building appears to have been re-used in the Late Hellenistic fort.

Building B.2, which displays palatial architectural features, is the main ceremonial center of the Neopalatial town. It is separated from Block C by a paved street, running north-south, and from House B.1 to the south, which was excavated by Seager, by a terraced courtyard. Terraced against the hill slope, the building was three-stories high, and because of its terracing, part of each story is still preserved. Two pillar crypts are located on the lower story at the east end of the building and considerable evidence for ceremonial activity has been found here.

Among the evidence are numerous conical cups that were used as lamps and placed on a low wall and on the pavement of the courtyard located outside the crypts to the south. A staircase, intact with 14 steps, leads up from the easternmost pillar crypt to a room which was a major focal point in the building. The main entrance to the building also leads from the east facade of the building through a corridor into this room. It is a room surrounded by doorways which is provided with a basin against its north wall. Two columns with an offering stone between flank the impluvium on the south and a drain leads out under the floor to the street on the east. Fancy LM IB cups were found in this drain.

A kitchen area has been excavated near the center of the building, with a large room that probably served as a dining area, which could be reached via a long corridor that led from a secondary entrance in the building's west facade. The third floor of the building may be traced beneath the Late Hellenistic fort that runs through the Minoan building incorporating many of its walls into its own structure. The largest building on the site, the only one built with ashlar walls, showing considerable evidence for ceremonial use, the building may also have served as the administrative center, villa, or manor house of the LM IB settlement.


B: Cemetery

The Early Minoan Cemetery at Mochlos is one of the largest and most important of the Prepalatial cemeteries in eastern Crete; it contains more built tombs than any other single cemetery in Crete, of any period, and has produced a wide variety of rich finds that have provided much information about the Prepalatial period of Minoan civilization. The cemetery was excavated in 1908 by Richard Seager, who uncovered over 20 built tombs on the island of Mochlos, as well as a number of pithos burials, rock shelters, and simple pit graves. Two monumental tombs, I,II,III and IV,V,VI, were located on a narrow terrace running along the west face of the island.

Mochlos : The main excavation area on the Island Mochlos : The Cemetery on the Island Mochlos : The Cemetery on the Island

Their size and architectural details, their relative isolation, symbols of rank, including large numbers of gold diadems, found among the grave goods, and evidence for differential treatment of the deceased, all indicate that these tombs were reserved for a ruling elite. There is some reason to believe that they were family tombs and belonged to individuals who played a religious role in the community, in which case they may well have belonged to the chiefs of Prepalatial Mochlos.

The smaller, more numerous tombs, including rock shelter and pithos burials (VII-XXIII and Alpha-Lambda), were located on the adjacent South Slope and were used by the population at large. Most of the built tombs were constructed at the beginning of the EM II phase (ca. 2900 BC) and continued in use in the EM III phase (ca. 2300 to 2000 BC); fewer appear to have been used in the MM IA phase (ca. 2000 to 1900 BC).

After a considerable gap some were re-used in the Neopalatial period, and it was at this time that the pithos burials were made. In 1912 Seager published his discoveries in his Explorations in the Island of Mochlos. In it Seager concentrates on the small finds, since they include some of the most spectacular objects from anywhere in Early Bronze Age Crete, but he neglects the architecture of the tombs. In the early 1970's Professor Jeffrey S Soles drew detailed plans of the cemetery and identified all of the tombs that Seager had excavated. The results are published in The Prepalatial Cemeteries at Mochlos and Gournia and the House Tombs of Bronze Age Crete, Hesperia: Supplement XXIV, Princeton 1992.



Mainland

A: Chalinomouri

At the eastern end of the Mochlos coastal plain, excavations have been carried out at the site of Chalinomouri, a naturally fortified promontory located above the coast, where a small farmhouse, with a storage room full of pithoi sunk below floor level, was uncovered. This building is located near a major source of fresh water and an extensive formation of green serpentine, used for stone-vase making. Its pottery is identical to pottery from the main LM IB settlement on the island, and the house served as a rural outpost of this settlement. It was partially reoccupied in the LM III period. The building is now fully published in Mochlos IA. Period III. Neopalatial Settlement on the Coast: The Artisans' Quarter and the Farmhouse at Chalinomouri, Philadelphia 2003.

The Minoan farmhouse at Chalinomouri.
The LM IB farmhouse, discovered at Chalinomouri in 1991, was a rectangular structure measuring ca. 8.25 by 14 m. which contained six or seven rooms. The 1991 excavations revealed evidence for terracing in the field that lies to the northeast of the house, evidence for storage of agricultural produce in pithoi buried beneath the floor of Room 2, and evidence for the manufacture of vases of green serpentinite, a material which is locally available on both sides of the ravine that this building overlooks.

Mochlos: Chalinomouri map Mochlos: Chalinomouri - Mainland

The building served as a rural outpost of the main settlement on Mochlos, where its pottery was made, and its occupants took advantage of the natural resources at this end of the Mochlos coastal plain with its abundant water supply to engage in a number of different activities. If the main settlement on Mochlos is thought of as a second-order site, overseeing the neighboring coastal plain for a larger site or nearby palace, this farmhouse is a good example of a third-order site whose occupants were in some way attached to the settlement on Mochlos and looked to it for social recourse and other needs of a more practical nature.

Four of the five rooms lying to the south of Rooms 1 and 2 were excavated in 1992, and evidence for LM III reoccupation was found in two of these. Like that found in Room 1 the previous year, this reoccupation made use of the earlier walls and differs in this regard from the reoccupation on the island where there is often a considerable accumulation of earth between the LM IB and LM III remains, eroded from the south slope of the island or the collapsed debris of LM IB buildings, so that the LM III buildings sit on top of the earlier structures and show little or no relation to them.

The reoccupation at Chalinomouri is not well-preserved since it lay near the modern surface and was itself badly eroded, especially along the western side of the house where the west wall has partly collapsed into the neighboring ravine. Evidence of this reoccupation was found in Room 1, but the best evidence to date was found in Room 4 where it was possible to identify an LM III floor at an elevation of +28.52-28.39 m.

A new wall which rested in part on an earlier wall separating Room 4 from Room 5 was built along the south side of this room at this new floor level and blocked an earlier doorway at the southwest corner of the room; it is the only LM III wall in the whole building however. The LM IB floor in the room lay ca. 0.50 m. below this level. The intervening area was filled with earth and preserved no wall or roof debris from the LM IB building.

A polished stone bead of serpentinite, which could have been manufactured in the house, was found in this fill. No LM III floor level was found in Room 5, but the later occupants of the building appear to have filled it with earth in a similar fashion to raise its original floor to a higher level. The LM IB floor in the room lay at an elevation of +28.12-28.06 m. and contained the remains of two piriform jars decorated with lilies, incised in the clay or applied in raised relief.

Rooms 3 and 6 were main activity Rooms in the house.

Room 3 which measures ca. 3.30 by 3.95 m. was apparently used as a kitchen and eating room. A large patch of carbon lay on the floor in the center of the room and the remains of a pithos with its base missing lay amongst the wall and roof collapse in the southeast corner of the room where it may have been serving as a chimney pot when the roof was still intact. A bench, measuring ca. 0.50 by 1.30 by 0.23 m., stands at the northwest corner of the room. A large number of limpet shells lay scattered on the floor in front of the bench along with the stone guide for a drill used in stone vase making.

A stone column base stands near the center of Room 6 which is about the same width as Room 3 but ca. 5.02 m. long. This room also appears to have been used for cooking and eating. A deposit of carbon was found here too and more limpet shells lay scattered along the northwest side of the room. A stone bench, stepped at two levels with overall measurements of ca. 0.67 by 1.15 by 0.16-0.44 m., is located in the north corner of the room, and a bronze awl and remains of a jug were found in the north-western area of the room.

B: Limenaria Cemetery

The excavation has also uncovered 31 LM III chamber tombs located on a hill at Limenaria. These lie a short distance to the south of the LM III settlement and belong to the settlement. They are typical chamber tombs, most provided with a dromos, and an irregular chamber measuring 1.3 to 3 m. across and barely high enough for one to stand upright. All but one of the tombs are unplundered. Each normally held one or two burials that were placed in terracotta sarcophagi or in pithoi, most of which were decorated. The pithoi might be decorated with a rope pattern or a drip decoration.

Mochlos : Limenaria cemetery - Mainland Mochlos : Limenaria cemetery - Mainland Mochlos : Limenaria cemetery - Mainland

The sarcophagi were usually painted more carefully with scenes related to the afterlife. Perhaps the most interesting was decorated on the inside of its rim with two small figures; one wearing an animal mask that resembles the head of a jackal has been interpreted as a god of the underworld, a psychopompos who like Hermes conducts the deceased to the afterworld. Another sarcophagus was decorated with a triglyph-metope frieze which could have come right off a Doric temple. Many of the burials were sufficiently complete, if only a few were still semi-articulated, that it has been possible to identify age, sex and physical abnormalities.

Perhaps the most striking observation about the burials is that many of the tombs were used by male-female couples. In those containing two burials, one of the burials was made later than the other, and the tomb was clearly reopened and the earlier burial relocated. In one tomb the bones of the earlier burial were broken up and relocated in a large cylindrical pyxis, of the kind used to hold cremations in the 12th century. Elsewhere the couples were buried in adjacent tombs and in one of these, Tomb 15, a tunnel was cut between the chambers. Some tombs contained no skeletal material and may have been used as cenotaphs.


In a typical tomb, 2 to 4 pots would be placed around the burial. Kraters for holding liquids, pitchers for pouring, and semi-globular bowls, used as drinking cups, as well as stirrup jars for holding oil and conical cups, used as lamps, are among the most popular shapes. But there is also considerable variation among the tomb gifts. Some tombs contained imported pottery, mainly stirrup jars from the mainland and from Chania in western Crete. Some contained objects that are usually identified as ritual objects, mostly differently shaped rhyta. In one tomb a rhyton shaped like a pomegranite and decorated with an octopus was placed with the second burial inside the tomb and an identical rhyton was smashed outside the blocking wall of the stomion.

Other tombs contained rich, luxury objects. A bronze bowl, covered with a bronze mirror, was located in one tomb it held a collection of jewelry, including a necklace of ivy-shaped faience beads, a gold signet ring and a bronze dress pin. Two seals were found with the burial in one sarcophagus, one decorated with a sphinx, the other with a lion munching the hindquarters of a deer. Bronze weapons were located in a few of the tombs. The mortuary variations in the cemetery reflect variations in the population at large and reflect the social stratification of the LM III population at Mochlos which is probably typical of the other Mycenaean settlements in the area.

The cemetery has now been fully published in Mochlos IIA, Period IV, The Mycenaean Settlement and Cemetery, The Sites, Philadelphia 2008.

Source
Text and partial photos: www.uncg.edu/~jssoles/Mochlos/main2.html

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