Anavlochos 2022 topographical map (L. Fadin, B. Guillaume, F. Gaignerot-Driessen)
On the steep slope of Kako Plaï, some meters above the trenches dug by Demargne in 1929, excavations revealed a ramp leading to the entrance of a small rectangular building (ca 4.10 m by 2.70-3 m) with a stone bench against its back wall.
Due to severe erosion of the slope, the bench building is very poorly preserved but its construction and first renovation can both be securely dated to the PG period. The discovery of the two wheel-made female figures in the building and of several figurines and of the tenon of an anthropomorphic vase on the slope below, all dating to the PG period, leaves no doubt about the cultic function of the building from its first phase of use. Its third and last phase of renovation dates to the Late Geometric period.
Aerial photo of the slope of Kako Plai (Gaignerot-Driessen et al. 2020: fig. 22)
The Kako Plaï cult building from the North-East (Gaignerot-Driessen et al. 2020: fig. 17)
The slope below the cult building yielded clear evidence for communal meals and important gathering of people during the Early Iron Age-Early Archaic period: an extremely abundant quantity of fragments of pottery, mostly belonging to drinking, pouring, serving and cooking vessels, were recovered. Spindle whorls, an iron knife, fragments of iron and bronze pins and many fragments of figurines and plaques of that period were also collected from the slope.
Based on the pottery recovered, both the settlement and the necropolis were seemingly abandoned by the end of the first half of the 7th c. BCE. However, the votive material recovered from Kako Plaï and Deposit 1 shows that both remained visited until the Classical period. Classical figurines depicting kourotrophoi seated women and maidens holding what seems to be a hare were notably found in number at both place. Interestingly, a PG skyphos and the head of a wheel-made PG female figure were still on display in the sanctuary at Kako Plaï during the most recent use of the place. The abundant quantity of Late Geometric-Early Archaic sherds recovered from the slope were most likely used as fill for a terrace built below the cult building. The tumble exposed lower on the slope is probably all that is left from the retaining wall of this terrace.
Head of a PG wheel-made figure from the cult building of Kako Plaï (Gaignerot-Driessen et al. 2020: fig. 13)
Bibliography:
F. Gaignerot-Driessen forthcoming. Before the Polis: Recent Excavations at Anavlochos, Lasithi (2017-[2020]2022), in I.D. Fappas and P.P. Iossif (eds), Αρχαιολογικές Συμβολές. Ανατολική Κρήτη (Archaeological Contributions 5), Museum of Cycladic Art: Athens.
F. Gaignerot-Driessen, M. Anastasiadou, P. Baulain, G. Erny, C. Judson, A. Lattard, R. Machavoine, O. Vanwalleghem, V. Vlachou 2020. Fouilles de l’Anavlochos II: La nécropole de Lami, le sanctuaire de Kako Plaï et ses abords, le dépôts votif 1 et ses abords, les terrasses du sommet Nord-Ouest, Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger 1.
F. Gaignerot-Driessen, P. Baulain, G. Erny, C. Judson, R. Machavoine, O. Mouthuy, O. Vanwalleghem 2020. Fouilles de l’Anavlochos I: La nécropole de Lami, le sanctuaire de Kako Plaï et les dépôts votifs 1 et 2, Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger 1.