When Dr. Kostis Davaras explored the Kefali hill for the first time in 1962, he instructed his technicians, including Kostas Nikakis, to explore the middle terrace towards the sea. Here they cleared an almost square structure but for reasons of time and more urgent responsibilities it was never published in detail.
Aerial photo of the Neopalatial Quarter (Zone 2) (C. Gaston): BA to the left, BC to the right (North to the right) (© Sissi Project)
The outline of this 80 m² structure, which we have labelled BA, was still visible when we came back to the site in 2007. Intensive cleaning of the interior produced quite a few loom weights, both in terracotta and stone, as well as bronze needles but most of the interior partitions had disappeared, however, although part of a terracotta panelled floor was preserved. This may have been a fire place since it is repeated in other nearby structures. The entrance to this building seems to have been from the southwest. Excavation of the surrounding area, however, revealed a basement room to the southeast, dug out in the bedrock, and smaller compartments added to the east wall of the square structure. All the material collected is Neopalatial, with perhaps a LM IA and LM IB sequence present in the basement room. This same room contained a fill comprising much marine fauna. The room communicates via a trough with two hollows (a gourna in Greek or auge double as they are called in Malia) with the higher compartment to the northeast. The spaces next to this also have troughs incorporated in their wall structures. They further contained quite a few loomweights, stone tools as well as pottery (especially cups). The combination of troughs and finds may suggest that this was a textile workshop.
North of Building BA are the remains of Building BC which was a relatively small rectangular structure of ca. 50 m², comprising only six rooms and accessible via the northeast. The rooms were found packed with massive fills of domestic pottery including cups, tripod cooking pots, pithoi and basins as well as many stone tools, all Neopalatial. One room also had a wine press. A few surprising discoveries were also made in this building, however. Two of its rooms (2.6 & 2.8) also comprised intra muros burials of neonates within a special pyxis-like vase, also of Neopalatial date. And two other rooms (2.10 & 2.11) had each a small limestone human figure, quite similar to the Cycladic marble figurines of the Early Bronze Age. This too seems to be a practice also attested at nearby Neopalatial Malia. Since the building was abandoned we wonder whether these idols reflect some special closing rite. Room 2.10 also had a small terracotta panel floor as did Building BA. The north wall of the building is damaged – probably by the Italian soldiers who recycled its blocks for the construction of a guard hut which can still be seen immediately to the north, on the lower terrace where the cemetery is located.
One of the neonatal intra muros burials found in Building BC (© Sissi Project)
Pseudo-Cycladic limestone figurines found in Building BC (Chronis Papanikolopoulos) (© Sissi Project)
At some point, Buildings BA and BC seem to have formed a single unit and rooms were inserted so that a court, protected from the northwest winds, was formed. The spaces added and especially room 2.12 comprised a dense fire destruction deposit – the only one in this Quarter – with several vases, including a decorated large storage stirrup jar and a finely carved blossom bowl. This destruction can be dated to Late Minoan IB, the same which struck the entire island around 1450 BC, and illustrated by another deposit in the basement of Building CD on the summit of the hill. West of Buildings BA and BC are the remains of other structures that have not been explored.
Stone Blossom bowl from Building BC (Chronis Papanikolopoulos) (© Sissi Project)
Further south and higher up the slope are the remains of yet another imposing structure of which unfortunately only the terrace wall is preserved, Building BB. It was founded on redeposited Protopalatial material but nothing was found within. It is probably contemporary to the other structures on the middle terrace. Thus far, no earlier nor later than Neopalatial occupation has been identified on this middle terrace and all buildings represent new foundations. It is likely that more such simple structures occupy the terrace between the cemetery and the summit.
Jan Driessen