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South
Acropolis and cover a total area of over 0.60 hectares. Each produced evidence of destruction and abandonment in the early 5th century BC. This destruction marks the end of the city's life and a long period of occupation. The Archaic rebuilding expanded the settlement to its maximum size (c. 15 hectares), created a zone of communal buildings on the upper west slope of the South Acropolis, and formalized what can be called civic architecture—generally supra-household communal spaces accommodating a variety of possible activities and configurations of groups.
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94:, Tholos, Kephalolimnos (Khordakia), Avgo, Skala, and Skouriasmenos. At Azoria, Boyd excavated a single trench on the summit of the southernmost peak, finding a puzzling series of circular structures superimposed on a large rectangular building. In her 1901 article, she reported finding "latest Mycenaean" and "early Geometric" pottery associated with the earliest levels of the trench, as well as material she attributed to
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to identify material later than 600 BC, suggesting that changes to the settlement had occurred by the end of Late
Orientalizing (c. 640-600 BC). In this phase transition, there is evidence for broad-sweeping alterations to the landscape of the site, the construction of monumental buildings, and the reorganization of both civic and domestic space, suggesting aspects of town planning.
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showing a distinct phase of architectural renovation involving significant changes in the way that the settlement was used and how public and private space was organized. This transition appears to have occurred sometime in the early 6th century BC. In foundation deposits of buildings it is difficult
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Work of the
American School of Classical Studies resumed at the site in 2002, beginning an initial five-year excavation campaign, called the Azoria Project. Tracing the growth of the Azoria settlement from the Bronze Age until its establishment as a regional centre in the Early Iron Age, the focus of
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The shrine of the
Monumental Civic Building is equipped with a curbed hearth and altar on which were found a variety of terracotta votive female figurines (stylistically dated to 8th and 7th centuries BC), votive stands and vessels, and food offerings. The finds from the main hall of the Monumental
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Although the site has a long history of use—occupied in the Final
Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age—the most visible remains are the houses and communal buildings of Archaic date (600-500 BC). The public buildings of Archaic date cluster close to the peak on the west and south sides of the
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excavations have been funded with grants from the
National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Loeb Classical Library Foundation, American Philosophical Society, Institute for Aegean Prehistory, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological
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The
Communal Dining Building had at least three store rooms (with remains of grapes, olives and grains), three kitchens, and three dining rooms (extant). The floor of the building is littered with food debris, drinking and dining wares, and large decorated
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Civic
Building—roasted leg joints of sheep and goat; chick peas and legumes (found preserved in pots on the floor); drinking and dining wares; stone kernoi (offering tables) carved into the top step of the bench, and a
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Two aims of recent excavations at Azoria have been to understand the early history of the site and to explore stratigraphically the changes in the form of the settlement in the transition from the Early Iron Age (or
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lying face down on top of the bench—indicate that it was used for public banquets and formal cult activities; it may have had ceremonial functions similar to those associated with magistrates' buildings
70:) periods. The city was destroyed by fire early in the 5th century BC, to be subsequently reoccupied on a limited scale c. 200 BC—probably a single tower constructed on the peak of the South Acropolis.
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Pots inscribed in Greek (both inscriptions and graffiti) are found within the building. An interesting find from the olive-press room is a reused pithos rim with its handles inscribed with the
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facility—the earliest documented lever-and-weights press, or beam press, in the post-Bronze Age Aegean. Although an
Archaic beam press has been reported from excavations at the Greek city of
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in eastern Crete in the Greek Aegean. "Azoria" (o Αζοριάς or (c. 1900) Μουρί τ' Αζωργιά) is a local toponym, not apparently an ancient place name or epigraphically-attested Greek city.
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Haggis, D.C., M.S. Mook, and Μανόλης Ι. Στεφανάκης. 2007. “Τρώτε και πίνετε άρχοντες: Καταναλωτικές ανάγκες, πολιτική δύναμη και κοινωνική ταυτότητα στον αρχαϊκό οικισμό του Αζοριά,”
202:, the evidence for olive pressing at Azoria includes a press bench, press beds, sockets for wooden beams, a press weight, roller-crusher and mortar block, a collection basin, a small
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Both the
Communal Dining Building and Monumental Civic Building were supplied by adjacent service complexes, comprising multiple store rooms (with food provisions stored in decorated
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Among the Archaic remains is a multi-room structure called the Communal Dining Building, which the excavators have interpreted as a possible andreion—a dining hall used for corporate
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Haggis, D.C., M.S. Mook, C.M. Scarry, L.M. Snyder, R.D. Fitzsimons, E. Stephanakis, and W.C. West. 2007. “Excavations at Azoria 2003-2004, Part 1, The Archaic Civic Complex,”
206:, a hearth and cooking stand, oil-separation vessels, and quantities of press cake (crushed olive pits, collected after grinding and pressing for use as fuel for hearths).
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Haggis, D.C., M.S. Mook, L.M. Snyder, and T. Carter. 2007. “Excavations at Azoria 2003-2004, Part 2, The Early Iron Age, Late Prepalatial and Final Neolithic Occupation,”
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and the Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Greek Archaeological Service (General Directorate of Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture).
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Haggis, D.C., M.S. Mook, R.D. Fitzsimons, C.M. Scarry, L.M.Snyder, and W.C. West, "Excavations in the Archaic Civic Buildings at Azoria in 2005-2006,"
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194:) and kitchens equipped with large stone-lined hearths. The Service Building of the Monumental Civic Building also contained a well-preserved
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229:, typical of Archaic Athenian contexts, were transferred to supra-household communal but segregated feasting venues such as the andreion.
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Boyd, H.A. 1904. “Gournia. Report of the American Exploration Society's Excavations at Gournia, Crete, 1902-1905,” in
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stands, and bronze armor. A separate room had a ground altar with burned food debris, evidently used for regular
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city, established c. 600 BC, following a long period of continuous occupation throughout the Early Iron Age or
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Transactions of the Department of Archaeology: Free Museum of Science and Art University of Pennsylvania I
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Haggis, D.C., M.S. Mook, C.M. Scarry, L.M. Snyder, and W.C. West. 2004. “Excavations at Azoria, 2002,”
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Ancient Crete: From Successful Collapse to Democracy's Alternatives, Twelfth to Fifth Centuries BC
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Small, D.B. 2010. "The Archaic Polis of Azoria: A Window into Cretan 'Polital' Social Structure,"
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sacrifices. It has been argued that in Cretan cities, the activities of the domestic or private
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View of Azoria from the Kastro with the Kavousi plain and Bay of Mirabello, with the island of
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Destruction (early 5th century BC) deposit in a kitchen (B1500) of the Service Building
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The current work at the site is conducted by the Department of Classics of the
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Black-figure skyphos (drinking cup) from a kitchen in the Service Building
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the project has been the study of the 6th-century BC urban centre.
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The location was originally explored by the American archaeologist,
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is an archaeological site on a double-peaked hill overlooking the
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The Azoria Project excavations have recovered evidence of an
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Protogeometric krater from the kitchen of the Archaic Shrine
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Terracotta Votive figurines from the altar of Archaic Shrine
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Altar in the Archaic Shrine of the Monumental Civic Building
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Boyd, H.A. 1901. “Excavations at Kavousi, Crete, in 1900,”
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Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete
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Located about 1 km southeast of the modern village of
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Interior of a storeroom of a house (Northwest Building)
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127:periods (c. 600-500 BC). Excavation has identified
66:(1200-700 BC) and Early Archaic (700-600 BC) (or
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410:Whitley 2009; Small 2010; Wallace 2010: 278-284
490:(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010).
149:American School of Classical Studies at Athens
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137:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
139:and the Program in Classical Studies at
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500:Whitley, J. 2009. “Archaeology,” in
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495:A Companion to Archaic Greece
282:View of Azoria from Southwest
516:"Places: 180252821 (Azoria)"
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422:Azoria Project Bibliography
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613:Geography of ancient Crete
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567:Categories
540:25°52′00″E
537:35°07′04″N
518:. Pleiades
372:References
252:prytaneion
211:Eteocretan
200:Klazomenai
159:Research.
74:Excavation
383:Boyd 1901
227:symposium
177:hetairiai
102:periods.
522:March 8,
472:Hesperia
465:Hesperia
449:Hesperia
442:Hesperia
223:chthonic
173:syssitia
46:and the
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245:-style
163:Remains
125:Archaic
54:History
40:Kavousi
268:Dreros
260:poleis
247:kernos
243:Minoan
219:krater
192:pithoi
92:Kastro
88:Vronda
48:Siteia
32:Pseira
17:Azoria
524:2012
266:and
264:Lato
154:The
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