Landscape reconstruction in aid of Minoan archaeology: A case study for the Archaeological Site Directors at Palaikastro, East Crete

Jim Peterson¹, Lynette Peterson¹, Lucia Lancellotti¹

One hundred years of excavation and interpretation at the coastal Minoan site of Roussolakkos, at Palaikastro, East Crete, leaves us not only with Minoan treasures in museums and an apothiki (store-room/workroom) full of artifacts awaiting interpretation, but also a series of puzzles.

1. maritime trade must have taken place, but where is the harbour?
2. substantial stone wall building, including cut blocks, took place: where were the quarries?
3. the stone walls were surmounted by mud-brick: from among such stony ground, where did the clays come from?
4. a thousand years of pottery making: where did the clays come from?
5. why did the people of Roussolakkos have to re-locate their wells?

It is shown that:

1. the coastline has changed over the three thousand years since Minoan times. Studies of cliff retreat and the formation of a small sandy barrier, subsidence, and the accumulation of back-barrier sediments, shows that the remains of any harbour that existed will now be off-shore.
2. the dry stone foundations and walls included many ënatural blocksí from local talus but where ëworked blocksí were needed, aeolianite from a nearby quarry (known now as Ta Skaria) was used.
3. the clays are from a nearby valley that looks wide and well-developed enough to be natural, but is in fact, artificial.
4. the digging-out of the valley changed groundwater movement and dictated the digging of new wells.

These findings aid in interpretation of the archaeological results.

This study shows that archaeological site directors who ëdivertí some of their finds for support of landscape reconstruction can find that benefits outweigh opportunities foregone.