A Regional Survey and Analyses of the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, Volume 1

Book excerpt: Vrokastro remains one of the few Early Iron Age settlements excavated in Crete, and it is key to understanding the nature and history of regional settlement during this period. Volume I of the Vrokrastro survey presents the first catalogue of the pottery excavated from the settlement and cemeteries by Edith Hall in 1910 and 1912, along with a brief analysis of metal objects from the town and its cemeteries and new profile drawings and photographs. This site is important for its size, long settlement history that includes both the Bronze and Early Iron Age, and its artifacts, which reveal a local pottery tradition and contacts with other areas of Crete and the Aegean. In addition, Vrokastro is the only completely excavated site within the survey boundaries, and is thus the type-site for the new systematic survey recently undertaken in this area. Barbara Hayden provides new insights concerning the chronology of the settlement and its tombs, the nature of occupation at the site over 500 years, and commentary on burial practices and techniques. She reviews the evidence for contacts with other areas in Crete and the Aegean. This publication will be of use to those interested in ceramics of the period, settlement patterns, history, trade, burial customs, and metalworking. Following the first two catalogues of the Cretan collection of the Museum's Mediterranean Section, its conclusions are an integral part of the overall Vrokastro regional survey.