Pseira (Greek:Ψείρα) is an islet in theGulf of Mirabello in northeasternCrete with the archaeological remains ofMinoan andMycenean civilisation.
The island was explored in 1906–1907 by Richard Seager and partially documented by Halvor Bagge in ink and watercolors based on photographs (University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1910), and more minutely examined in 1984–1992 byPhilip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras, forTemple University. Archaeological materials in this seaport, sited above its harbor, to which it was connected by cliffside stairs, span the period from the end of theNeolithic in the 4th millennium to theLate Bronze Age, with the cultural high point being Early Minoan to Late Minoan IB. At that time the prosperous town of some 60 buildings was ranged round its open square (plateia), with a single large building that occupied one side. Like many contemporary Late Minoan IB sites, it was violently destroyed,c. 1550–1450BC.[1] A remnant of its population cleared spaces in the rubble and for a time continued to dwell in the ruined town.[2]
AMinoan seal-stone from the site representing a ship is a reminder that theharbour was essential. The Minoan community supported itself by fishing and subsistence agriculture: They deeply tilled and terraced agricultural sites where theymanured the thin limy soil with human waste from the settlement.[3] They did not enclose their planting sites, as the island's much laterByzantine practice was, a sign that goats did not roam free in Minoan Pseira; neither were pigs kept. Dams collected seasonalrun-off, for water was scarce on the island, though theAegean region was less dry in the second millennium BCE than now.
Consistent with the long period of occupation, burials in thenecropolis west of the town are of five kinds:Neolithic rock shelter burials;cist graves built of vertical slabs withCycladic parallels; small rock-built tombs; jar burials; and tombs imitating houses.Artifacts from thenecropolis included clay vases, stone vessels,obsidian, bronze tools and jewelry. Burials broke off inMiddle Minoan, before the town underwent itsLate Minoan expansion. The Late Minoan I building that occupies the northern side of theplateia, cautiously identified as a "civic shrine", featured paintedstuccobas-reliefs in its upper floor and retains afresco fragment of two women in Minoan dress of complicated woven design who face one another. Excavations at Pseira have been clouded by successive development in prehistoric stages obfuscating respective earlier stages, in contrast with more clearly defined strata inKnossos, for example.[4]
Excavation at the House of the Rhyta disclosed evidence for some Minoancult practice that add to our understanding of some Minoan rites, though the core meaning they evoked escapes us.[2] In three different structures cult activity involved the use ofrhyta, drinking vessels in several forms, all with a hole at the base, abull-shaped vessel,triton shells, andchalices, and a large number of cups. "Cult practices involving large numbers of rhyta continued into successive periods in the Late Bronze Age, as is demonstrated by an interesting religious structure atUgarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria) with 15 rhyta, includingMycenaean and Minoan examples," Betancourt observes. Chemical traces in a rhyton suggestbarley,beer, andwine. All of these ritual vessels were stored in between their periodic seasonal use, when large groups would gather in upper-floor rooms that had lime-washed and painted stucco reliefs on the walls and a floor that was ritually whitewashed (in the building fronting theplateia) or paved with stone slabs (House of the Rhyta). In the House of the Rhyta, there was a kitchen space below, too substantial for the occupants of the building alone; it had a corner hearth, a mortar built into bedrock in the opposite corner, and grinding rocks. The drinking rites that were observed in the upper room were apparently accompanied by feasting.
A hoard found by Seager near the lower harbor included a rhyton in the shape of a basket decorated withdouble axes, pear-shaped rhyta decorated with dolphins, a bull-shaped vessel, and a jar decorated withivy — which in a Greek context would indicate the presence ofDionysus — among other goods.
The meticulous modern excavations by Betancourt and Davaras resulted in several highly specialized publications, all fromINSTAP Academic Press:
An introductory CD-ROM for a broad public audience was also produced.
35°11′25″N25°51′35″E / 35.19028°N 25.85972°E /35.19028; 25.85972
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