Dreros (Ancient Greek:Δρῆρος), also (representingModern Greek pronunciation)Driros, nearNeapoli in the regional unit ofLasithi,Crete, is apost-Minoan archaeological site, 16 km (10 mi) northwest ofAgios Nikolaos. Known only by a chance remark of the 9th-century ByzantinegrammarianTheognostus (De orthographia), archaeology of the site shows Dreros to have been initially colonised by mainland Greeks in the earlyArchaic Period about the same time asLato andPrinias.
The earlyIron Age site, first excavated in 1917, was most prosperous in the 8th – 6th centuries BCE; later it became a minor satellite ofKnossos and continued to be occupied into theByzantine period. It comprises twoacropoleis with an Archaic-periodagora between them. Almost the whole of the city and itsnecropolis have been excavated, confirming that this is a post-Minoan Greek habitation; its inscriptions are inDorian dialect. Traces of fortifications have been discovered.
There is also a large communalcistern dug between the late 3rd and early 2nd century BCE, which contained Archaic inscriptions, one of which, famous as theDreros inscription,[1][2] the "sacred law of Dreros", is the earliest complete record ofconstitutional law found in Greece, which mentions the Dorian Cretan titleskosmos anddamios.
In Hellenistic times, Dreros declined in importance to the extent that it was not included among the thirty Cretan cities that signed a pact with theAttalid king ofPergamum,Eumenes II, in 183 BCE.
South of the agora is one of the earliest free-standingGreek temples; it dates from theGeometric period (c. 750 BCE). TheDelphinion, as it is called, was dedicated toApollo Delphinios. It was excavated in 1935 bySpyridon Marinatos, who published it.
Three statuettes made ofbronze sheets hammered over moulding cores (sphyrelaton) "in the early orientalizing style of the late eighth century" (Boardman) were found in the precincts of the Temple of Apollo Delphinios; they are now at theArchaeological Museum of Herakleion. They probably depictApollo andArtemis and their motherLeto and together are known as the "Dreros Triad."
TwoEteocretan inscriptions on blocks of greyschist were excavated in 1936 byPierre Demargne andHenri van Effenterre from the western part of the large cistern mentioned above.[3] These inscriptions were housed in the museum at Neapolis, but were lost during the Germano-Italian occupation of Crete duringWorld War II.[4]
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