Hagios Charalambos
A Minoan Burial Cave in Crete II. The Pottery
by Louise C. Langford-Verstegen
The finds from the cave at Hagios Charalambos in the Lasithi Plain illustrate secondary burial practices in Early and Middle Bronze Age Crete. The cavern adds to our knowledge of Early and Middle Minoan Lasithi and illuminates the function of the cave at Trapeza, which has close parallels for most classes of objects found at Hagios Charalambos.
The finds from the cave at Hagios Charalambos in the Lasithi Plain illustrates secondary burial practices in Early and Middle Bronze Age Crete. The cavern adds to our knowledge of Early and Middle Minoan Lasithi and illuminates the function of the cave at Trapeza, which has close parallels for most classes of objects found at Hagios Charalambos. Most of the pottery from the site is made locally, but a selection of imports from elsewhere in Crete ranges in date from EM I or earlier to MM IIB. The pottery shows a shift in the use of imports during the site’s history, reflecting a change in economic and/or political dominance and influence in Lasithi. Typical of pottery associated with burials, the types of vessels were mostly used for pouring and drinking liquids. Other small vessels probably contained precious oils, liquids, and unguents. The local offering tables would have been carried by a short stem and could hold a liquid or solid offering. The pottery shows that the people who deposited their dead in the secondary burial cave at Hagios Charalambos were in contact with ceramic production centers in East Crete, the Mesara, Knossos, the Pediada, and Malia. This range of influences speaks not only of trade relations and political spheres of influence but also of tastes in pottery production and consumption. The finds from the cave at Hagios Charalambos in the Lasithi Plain illustrates secondary burial practices in Early and Middle Bronze Age Crete. The cavern adds to our knowledge of Early and Middle Minoan Lasithi and illuminates the function of the cave at Trapeza, which has close parallels for most classes of objects found at Hagios Charalambos. Most of the pottery from the site is made locally, but a selection of imports from elsewhere in Crete ranges in date from EM I or earlier to MM IIB. The pottery shows a shift in the use of imports during the site’s history, reflecting a change in economic and/or political dominance and influence in Lasithi. Typical of pottery associated with burials, the types of vessels were mostly used for pouring and drinking liquids. Other small vessels probably contained precious oils, liquids, and unguents. The local offering tables would have been carried by a short stem and could hold a liquid or solid offering. The pottery shows that the people who deposited their dead in the secondary burial cave at Hagios Charalambos were in contact with ceramic production centers in East Crete, the Mesara, Knossos, the Pediada, and Malia. This range of influences speaks not only of trade relations and political spheres of influence but also of tastes in pottery production and consumption.
- By (author) Louise C. Langford-Verstegen
Other Titles in this Series
Mochlos IVA
Period III. The House of the Metal Merchant and Other Buildings in the Neopalatial Town
Volume 68
The Cave of the Cyclops
Mesolithic and Neolithic Networks in the Northern Aegean, Greece. Volume I: Intra-Site Analysis, Local Industries, and Regional Site Distribution
Volume 21
The Shrine of Eileithyia
Minoan Goddess of Childbirth and Motherhood, at the Inatos Cave in Southern Crete: Volume I: The Egyptian-Type Artifacts
Volume 69
An Archaeological Palimpsest in Minoan Crete
Tholos Tomb A and Habitation at Apesokari Mesara
Volume 70
Petras, Siteia I
A Minoan Palatial Settlement in Eastern Crete: Excavation of Houses I.1 and I.2
Volume 53
House X at Kommos
A Minoan Mansion Near the Sea Part 1: Architecture, Stratigraphy, and Selected Finds
Volume 35
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
Atlante tematico di topografia antica 36-2026
Urbanistica e monumenti, porti, Roma. Ricerche sui monti Aurunci
Volume 36
A Dramatic Event in Late Roman Florence
The Anomalous Burial Site Discovered beneath the Uffizi Gallery
Alexander the Great and the Campaign of Gaugamela
New Research on Topography and Chronology. IAMNI 1 (Italian Archaeological Mission to Northern Iraq)
Volume 53
Aspects of the Bronze Age in the Atlantic Archipelago and Beyond
Proceedings from the Belfast Bronze Age Forum, 9–10 November 2013
Ceramic Finds in Context (Roman to Early Islamic Times)
Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project VII
Volume 13
Citizenship Practised, Citizenship Imagined
Multiple Ways of Experiencing Citizenship in the Greek World
