Micro-regional map (F. Gaignerot-Driessen, IMS-FORTH)
The French School at Athens resumed work at Anavlochos in 2015 with a 2-year survey that allowed us to clarify the extent, nature and chronology of occupation of the ridge. Anavlochos was mostly settled from Late Minoan IIIC period (ca 1200 BC) through the Early Archaic period (7th c) and offers the remains of a 10 ha settlement, a 12 ha necropolis and three cultic places. Moreover it is located mid-way between the coastal settlement of Sissi, which was abandoned ca 1200 BC, and the urban center of the Archaic cities of Milatos and Dreros that developed in the 7th c. BC, precisely when the settlement and necropolis at Anavlochos were deserted.
Given the chronology, nature and scale of its remains, as well as its micro-regional settings, Anavlochos represents an exceptional case-study for the period of transition, leading from the Mycenaean palaces to the Greek poleis (city-states). Therefore, a systematic program of excavations was started in 2017 under the auspices of the French School at Athens.
Logo of the Anavlochos Project (2017-2022) (F. Gaignerot-Driessen)
The aim of the Anavlochos Project is to reconstruct the economic, social, and political organization of an Early Iron Age community established on a Cretan mountain, at the dawn of the poleis, by simultaneously exploring the remains of its residential, funerary and religious activities. More specifically, the project seeks to examine the formation and transformation of the social groups established at Anavlochos in the Early Iron Age period and to explore the potential existence of a central authority that could have been ruling these social groups.
Anavlochos 2022 topographical map (L. Fadin, B. Guillaume, F. Gaignerot-Driessen)
Excavations conducted at Anavlochos in 2017-[2020]2022 notably revealed a complete and separate district including a metallurgical workshop (Quartier de la Forge) in the Early Iron Age settlement that occupies the highest part of the central valley; series of stone tumuli in the contemporary necropolis extending at its foot; a bench sanctuary that remained visited during the Classical period mid-way between the settlement and the necropolis; and two votive deposits that yielded hundreds of terracotta plaques and figurines on the summit of the massif.
Aerial view of Anavlochos (Google Earth, F. Gaignerot-Driessen)
The first study season was conducted in the summer of 2023.
Logo of the Anavlochos 2023 Study Season (F. Gaignerot-Driessen)