Florence Gaignerot-Driessen (Humboldt research fellow at the University of Heidelberg/ EFA/CNRS Archéorient/Aegis) will give a lecture entitled “Living, dying, and praying on a Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age mountainous site: preliminary results of the 2015-2017 archaeological fieldwork on the Anavlochos, Crete”.
The Anavlochos is a 5 km long North-West/ South-East crest of limestone extending above the village of Vrachasi (Lasithi, Crete) which was mostly settled from the Late Minoan III to the Proto-archaic period. A settlement, a cemetery and a votive deposit were partly and briefly excavated in 1931 by Pierre Demargne. In 2015-2016, the French School at Athens conducted an archaeological, topographical and geomorphological survey of the mountain range, in order to reconsider the remains investigated by Demargne and give a more complete and accurate picture of the ancient occupation. On the basis of the results, excavations were conducted in the summer of 2017, in the frame of a new 5- year programme. A bench sanctuary was brought to light above Demargne’s deposit, two new votive deposits were excavated on the North-western summit, as well as a group of graves in the cemetery.