Vrokastro was an ancient

Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture which was centered on the island of Crete. Known for its monumental architecture and energetic art, it is often regarded as the first civilization in Europe. The ruins of the Minoan palaces at K ...

settlement in the

Lasithi Lasithi () 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 Thrypti in the ...

regional unit of eastern

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It overlooks the Gulf of Mirabello. The site was a mountain citadel located on a hill 1,5 km east of

Priniatikos Pyrgos Priniatikos Pyrgos is an archaeology, archaeological site near the Istron River in the eastern Cretan regional unit of Lasithi (Greece). The nearest big town is Agios Nikolaos, Crete. The site is on a coastal promontory. It appears to have been ...

, another very early archaeological site. Nearby, there's a small resort town of Kalo Chorio, Lasithi. Yet another important archaeological site in the area is

Vasiliki, Lasithi Vasiliki is the name of a village in the municipality of Ierapetra, in the prefecture of Lasithi, on Crete, and the name of the nearby Minoan archeological site. The site took its name from the village. Geography Vasiliki lies on a small hill in t ...

. There's an Archaeological Museum in nearby

Agios Nikolaos, Crete Agios Nikolaos or Aghios Nikolaos ( ) is a coastal city on the Greece, Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island's capital Heraklion, north of the city of Ierapetra and west of the city of Sitia. In 2021, the Agios Nikolaos (municipality) ...

History

Vrokastro bridges the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the early Iron Age. It was first inhabited during the Middle Minoan period (ca. 2100 to 1700), then reoccupied at the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 1250 B.C.), and continuously inhabited until the seventh century B.C.

Archaeology

In 1910-1912, American archaeologist

Edith Hall Dohan Edith Hayward Hall Dohan (31 December 1877–14 July 1943) was an American archaeologist who earned Bryn Mawr College's first classical archaeology Ph.D. Hall was part of an excavation team with Harriet Boyd Hawes, Harriet Boyd in her early car ...

, of the

University of Pennsylvania Museum A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

excavated here the ruins of a Minoan period settlement. She uncovered a Middle Minoan and Early Iron Age settlement on the peak and north slope, elevation 300 m. Hall excavated burials from 1200 B.C. to 700/650 BC. This site may have been inhabited until 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 and a little later, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the t ...

(11th-8th centuries BC) and a little later. Scholars believe that the latest burials from the corbel-vaulted tombs at Vrokastro probably are concurrent with the central Cretan

Protogeometric Style The Protogeometric style (or Proto-Geometric) is a style of Ancient Greek pottery led by Athens and produced, in Attica and Central Greece, between roughly 1025 and 900 BCE,Van Damme, Trevor, and Lis Bartłomiej, (29 October 2024)"The origin o ...

.Barbara Hayden
''A Regional Survey and Analyses of the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, Volume 1: Catalogue of Pottery from the Bronze and Early Iron Age''.
Volume 113 of Museum monographs. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, Pa.). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. New work is being done at the site by archaeologists recently. A new Vrokastro Survey Project was initiated by Dr. Barbara J. Hayden (Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum).

Notes

Bibliography

* HALL, E. 1914. Excavations in Eastern Crete: Vrokastro, University of Pennsylvania, The University Museum Anthropological Publications III, iii, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum. * Hayden, B.J. 1983. "New Plans of the Early Iron Age Settlement of Vrokastro," Hesperia 52, 367-387. * HAYDEN, B.J., and MOODY, J.A. 1990. The Vrokastro Survey Project, Providing a Context for an Early Iron Age Site. Expedition 32: 42-53. * HAYDEN, B.J., MOODY, J.A. and RACKHAM, O. 1992. The Vrokastro Survey Project, 1986-1989: Research Design and Preliminary Results. Hesperia 61: 293-353. * B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 1: Catalogue of Pottery from the Bronze and Early Iron Age Settlement of Vrokastro in the Collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Archaeological Museum, Herakleion, Crete niversity Museum Monograph 113(Philadelphia 2003). * B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 2: The Settlement History of the Vrokastro Area and Related Studies niversity Museum Monograph 119(Philadelphia 2004). * B. J. Hayden, Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete 3: The Vrokastro Regional Survey Project, Sites and Pottery niversity Museum Monograph 123(Philadelphia 2005). {{Authority control Lasithi Minoan sites in Crete Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Crete Populated places in ancient Greece Former populated places in Greece Port settlements in ancient Crete