Brief Summary of Excavations at Kommos: Season VIII (1983)

157 BRIEF SUMMARY OF EXCAVATIONS AT KOMMOS: SEASON VIII (1983) Study and excavation of the Minoan town and Greek sanctuary at Kommos (Plate 1) continued from 20 June through 16 August 1983. Sponsored by the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, our work is under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens with the cooperation of the Greek Archaeological Service. This year the staff consisted of nineteen full-time members including Professors P. Betancourt, J. W. Shaw (Director), M. C. Shaw (Assistant Director), L. V. Watrous, as well as P. Callaghan. Numerous special ists in architecture, conservation, and drawing were also involved. George Beladakis of Pitsidia was again foreman in charge of some twenty workmen. Observ~rs from the Greek Archaeological Service were first Mrs. A. Karetsou and later Mrs. D. Vallianou. As in the past, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the SCM Corporation, certain other corporations and an anonymous donor, as well as the two sponsoring institutions, provided financial support. Excavation in earlier years had been divided between the Hilltop, the Hillside (Middle and Late Minoan houses) and the southern area, where a Greek sanctuary was found superposed upon monumental Minoan bui Idings (Plan 1). With the Minoan houses sufficiently sampled and indeed with their study for publ ication well underway we could now concentrate on the south. Here a few more outbui ldings of the sanctuary werp revealed, but more importantly the monumental Minoan building T was traced more extensively. The latter's excavation involved deep trenches, for its floor lies almost three meters below the level of the sanctuary court (see discussion of T in the most recently published preliminary report: Hesperia 51 [1982] 164-195) . 158 J. W. SHAW Some nine trenches of varying size were excavated, beginning on the southwest and extending to the east of the Fourth Century B. C. Greek temple. Earl ier I ron Age levels were first encountered in all trenches, especially in those southwest of Temple C where a dump of Geometric pottery from the time of Temple B was recovered. Of these three Greek buildings, V on the east is probably of the Seventh Century B. C. and may actually be an enclosure in front of a still undiscovered building to the northeast. Near it was found a pit that may have melted iron, the study of which could add considerably to our knowledge of Cretan metalworking, an activity suspected to have been carried out in the vicinity of Temple B. The second huilding, Q, located some distance south of V, was massively bui It, 5.4 m wide and with an entrance probably on the west. Apparently also of the Seventh Century B. C., it provided little information as to how it had been used. The third building, W, consisted of a tiny room (1.88 m by 2.15 m) which in a period of re-use had been furnished with a central block, apparently serving as a table, surrounded by slab seats. W was apparently built at about the same time as Temple C in the Fourth Century B. C., and during that phase it had a drain built into its eastern wall. The positioning of our trenches this year was determined partly by the sanctuary structures (~. the altars east of Temple C) which will be preserved in the future, as if on islands, at their higher level, and partly by our still incomplete understanding of Minoan bui Iding T, the exploration of which was the prime aim of the 1983 campaign. This aim was only partially accompl ished, however, owing to the restricted excavation time and the fact that the dimensions of T are even more monumental than expected. Since the history of T is a complex one, the following will simply deal with the major periods. The first phase of LM I Building T, which probably functioned jointly with Building J on the west, featured a long building oriented east-west. Portions of its northern fac;ade, which runs under the Greek temples and which faces upon a broi'ld east-west road leading from the sea on the west and then probably inland...