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MEGALITHIC SITE NEAR THE TOWER OF ANCIENT ELEUTHERNA IN CRETE

Valdis Segliņš

Abstract

Crete is well known as a possessor of one of the most ancient cultural layers of Ancient Greece. At the same time the oldest cultural stages at Crete are quite different. These differences are most often identified in the outstanding archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age, complemented by a large number of high value historical monuments. In contrast, the historical period between Prehistoric Crete and Minoan Civilization is studied only fragmentary. The evidence and ruins of monuments of this final stage of the Stone Age are not fully revealed in the mainland of Greece as well, where they are commonly called cyclopical structures. However, these structures were mostly built in the middle of the Bronze Age or even later. On the island of Crete the search for megalithic Stone Age monuments and their ruins was carried out in the spring of 2019 and one of the most outstanding fragments of such monument was located near Ancient Eleutherna tower. Despite of numerous reconstruction and relocation works carried out in this area, individual blocks of the ancient megalithic building have remained on site and have not been moved due to their size. Perhaps these stones were regarded as kind of support for the fortification structure of Ancient Eleutherna and for centuries these stone blocks, which also bear fragments of ancient signs, have remained on site unnoticed. Similarly, individual fragments of ancient monuments were also located in other parts of Crete, which indicates that it would be useful to identify and document these ancient structures systematically in the future. For Crete it could be effectively achieved by developing remote sensing techniques with appropriate GIS coverage.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/2.2/s11.112

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