Dreros ( grc, Δρῆρος), also (representing

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

pronunciation) Driros, near Neapoli in the regional unit of

Lasithi Lasithi ( el, Λασίθι) is the easternmost regional unit on the island of Crete, to the east of Heraklion. Its capital is Agios Nikolaos, the other major towns being Ierapetra and Sitia. The mountains include the Dikti in the west and the Thr ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

, is a post-Minoan archaeological site, 16 km northwest of Agios Nikolaos. Known only by a chance remark of the 9th-century Byzantine grammarian

Theognostus Theognostus (russian: Феогност; died 11 March 1353) was a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople who served as Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'. Life Theognostus was born in Constantinople and later in his life became Pe ...

(''De orthographia''), archaeology of the site shows Dreros to have been initially colonised by mainland Greeks in the early Archaic Period about the same time as

Lato Lato ( grc, Λατώ, Latṓ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the village of Kritsa. History The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay betw ...

and

Prinias Prinias (ancient Rizinia) is an archaeological site in Crete that has revealed a seventh-century BCE temple with striking similarities to ancient Egyptian architecture, including an Egyptianised seated goddess. It is southwest of Iraklion, about ...

Archaeology

The early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

site, first excavated in 1917, was most prosperous in the 8th–6th centuries BCE; later it became a minor satellite of

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

and continued to be occupied into the

Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. It comprises two acropoleis with an Archaic-period

agora The agora (; grc, ἀγορά, romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. It is the best representation of a city-state's response to accommodate the social and political order of t ...

between them. Almost the whole of the city and its

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

have been excavated, confirming that this is a post-Minoan Greek habitation; its inscriptions are in Dorian dialect. Traces of fortifications have been discovered. There is also a large communal

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

dug between the late 3rd and early 2nd century BCE, which contained Archaic inscriptions, one of which, famous as the

Dreros inscription The Dreros inscription is the earliest surviving inscribed law from ancient Greece. It was discovered in Dreros, an ancient settlement on the island of Crete, in 1936, and first published by Pierre Demargne Pierre Demargne () (8 February 1903 � ...

, the "sacred law of Dreros", is the earliest complete record of constitutional law found in Greece, which mentions the Dorian Cretan titles ''kosmos'' and ''damios''. 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 the

Attalid The Kingdom of Pergamon or Attalid kingdom was a Greek state during the Hellenistic period that ruled much of the Western part of Asia Minor from its capital city of Pergamon. It was ruled by the Attalid dynasty (; grc-x-koine, Δυναστε ...

king of

Pergamum Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on th ...

Eumenes II Eumenes II Soter (; grc-gre, Εὐμένης Σωτήρ; ruled 197–159 BC) was a ruler of Pergamon, and a son of Attalus I Soter and queen Apollonis and a member of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon. Biography The eldest son of king Attalus ...

, in 183 BCE. The site has little to offer to the casual tourist.

Temple of Apollo Delphinios

South of the agora is one of the earliest free-standing

Greek temple Greek temples ( grc, ναός, naós, dwelling, semantically distinct from Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, s ...

s; it dates from the

Geometric period Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of th ...

(ca 750s BCE). The ''Delphinion'', as it is called, was dedicated to

Apollo Delphinios Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. It was excavated in 1935 by

Spyridon Marinatos Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos ( el, Σπυρίδων Νικολάου Μαρινάτος; November 4, 1901 – October 1, 1974) was a Greek archaeologist, best known for leading excavations at Akrotiri on Santorini (1967–74), where he died and i ...

, who published it. Three statuettes made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

sheets hammered over moulding cores (

sphyrelaton A ''sphyrelaton'' ( el, σφυρ-ήλατος for "hammer-elongated", plural: ''sphyrelata'', σφυρήλατα) is a term used for a type of archaic Greek bronze votive statues of considerable size. Features The ''sphyrelata'' were obtained by ...

) "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 the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion. They probably depict

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

and

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

and their mother

Leto In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Leto (; grc-gre, Λητώ , ''Lētṓ'', or , ''Lātṓ'' in Ancient Greek dialects#Provenance, Doric Greek) is a goddess and the mother of Apollo, the god of music, and Artemis ...

and together are known as the "Dreros Triad."

Eteocretan inscriptions

Two

Eteocretan Eteocretan ( from grc-gre, Ἐτεόκρητες, Eteókrētes, lit. "true Cretans", itself composed from ἐτεός ''eteós'' "true" and Κρής ''Krḗs'' "Cretan") is the pre-Greek language attested in a few alphabetic inscriptions of anc ...

inscriptions on blocks of grey

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

were excavated in 1936 by

Pierre Demargne Pierre Demargne () (8 February 1903 – 13 December 2000) was a French historian and archaeologist. Biography Pierre Demargne went to school at ''l'École normale supérieure'', where he took and passed the ''agrégation de lettres'' exam. He ...

and Henri van Effenterre from the western part of the large cistern mentioned above. These inscriptions were housed in the museum at Neapolis, but were lost during the Germano-Italian occupation of Crete during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Notes

References

Archaeological Museum of HerakleionPerseus site: Dreros
* ttp://www.kairatos.com.gr/myweb/ancientcitiesdion-grammion.htm "The ancient cities of Crete": Dreros* John Boardman, 2006. in ''Greek Sculpture: Function, Materials, and Techniques in the Archaic and Classical Periods'',

Olga Palagia Olga Palagia is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is a leading expert on ancient Greek sculpture. She is known in particular for her work on sculpture in ancient Athens and has edited a ...

, editor (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

)
on-line excerpt
.

External links

* {{Coord, 35, 15, 24, N, 25, 37, 42, E, display=title Lasithi Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Crete Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Mycenaean Crete Cretan city-states Doric Greek inscriptions Ancient Greek law Iron Age sites in Greece Acropoleis in Greece