The Hagia Photia Cemetery I: The Tomb Groups and Architecture (Prehistory Monographs)

The Hagia Photia Cemetery takes its name from the nearby village on the northeast coast of Crete, 5 km east of modern Siteia. This large Early Minoan burial ground with over fifteen hundred Cycladic imports was discovered in 1971. A total of 263 tombs were excavated as a rescue excavation in 1971 and 1984. Among the 1800 artifacts are some of the earliest known Cretan discoveries of several types: the grave goods come mostly from the Kampos Group, an assemblage of artifacts known mainly from the Cyclades. Similarly, the tombs represent an architectural style and a series of burial customs that are foreign to Crete but familiar from elsewhere within the Aegean. In fact, the cemetery has such close parallels from the Cyclades that it has often been regarded as a Cycladic colony. The burial contents are an extremely interesting body of evidence for the study of the formative phases of Minoan Crete.Costis Davaras is the author of 'The Hagia Photia Cemetery I: The Tomb Groups and Architecture (Prehistory Monographs)', published 2004 under ISBN 9781931534130 and ISBN 1931534136.