The Therans and Dikta

The northernmost structure, Building 1, was erected during the LM IA period and included a projection or balcony on the east side of the north corner that was decorated with sandstone horns of consecration.

The building was destroyed in LM IB and immediately cleaned out and reoccupied in LM II; some of its original contents, which were removed, were found heaped against the north wall. This had made it impossible to determine its function, but the use of the horns of consecration suggests to the excavators that it may have been a shrine or part of a temple complex. This is further suggested by the discovery of parts of a chryselephantine statuette in the small open court south of the building. The statuette assumes the pose of the terracotta votaries known from MM Petsophas, and may indicate that the LM I successor to the Peak Sanctuary was located in the town of Palaikastro, most likely in the area where the statuette was found.

We suggest that Building 1 and its neighbours to the south and west formed a cult area for the settlement. The particular cult is suggested by the pose of the statuette, with fists clenched on the breast of the young male, and the hairstyle, with the head shaved except for four circular locks left in a line along the top of the head and woven into a braid, which could be related to one of the stages of the Minoan rites of passage.

Building 1 is separated from Building 4 to its west by a passage c. 5.00 m wide, and Building 4 is set back and on a slightly different alignment from Building 1. Building 1 in LM IA looks remarkably similar to the Urban Shrine in the Arrival Town in the miniature painting on the south wall of Room 5 in the West House at Thera. The town is shown with a harbour coming up to the buildings, where we believe the harbour to have been at Palaikastro, and a promontory with a large building on it in the same position as the promontory at Palaikastro explored during the first excavations (1902-6) and found to have a large Minoan structure.

Could the Ship Frieze show a festival that took place in Crete and included the aristocratic youth of Thera going to Crete to be initiated in the Minoan rites of passage that took place at Palaikastro, perhaps called Dikte in the Minoan period?

INTRODUCTION

The miniature wall-paintings from Akrotiri have been the subject of much and varied debate since their discovery by S. Marinatos in 1972 and rapid publication in 1974. It is generally agreed that the scenes on the north and south walls of Room 5 of the West House are narrative, probably relating to events that took place prior to the abandonment of the house in the LM IA period and its subsequent destruction. The attention paid to detail in topography, architecture and dress suggests that the locations of the events are also real and, therefore, should be identifiable.

Marinatos suggested that they took place in Libya, but conceded that the third town, or the town where the fleet arrives, could be a Minoan town strongly influenced by Libyan elements, perhaps Akrotiri itself (1974, 53-56). Warren re-evaluated the scenes and concluded that they should be set in the Aegean (1979, 121-129). Gesell was more precise and suggested that the topography most resembled the coastal towns of eastern Crete, which are known to have had trade contacts with Thera (1981). Most recently, Morgan has fully studied all the elements in the paintings and concludes that they depict Aegean scenes and that the Arrival and Departure towns are Cycladic, most probably Akrotiri in the case of the former and a small settlement on Thera or a nearby island such as Christiana for the latter (1988, 91-92).

This paper looks at the topography and construction of the Arrival Town and compares it with that of the Minoan town at Roussolakkos, Palaikastro. A few words will also be said about the interpretation of wall-paintings with regard to the function of the newly discovered buildings at Palaikastro.

TOPOGRAPHY AND STRUCTURE

The topography of the Arrival Town comprises three distinct elements: a promontory, a harbour, and a town or palace.

The promontory has traces of at least three built structures on the highest point. These are poorly preserved but the lower half of a young man may be seen standing in the doorway of the building nearest the sea, watching the fleet arrive. Below the structures is a large wall with upright triangular cuttings, likened to dove-cots by Marinatos. It seems more likely that this would have been a high retaining wall with frequent holes to allow for seepage, designed to stop this side of the promontory from being eroded by the sea. At the base of the wall is a small cove with three small boats pulled up on the shore. Beyond the cove brightly coloured rock work may be seen disappearing into the sea.

A similar promontory exists to the north-east of the town at Palaikastro. There are remains of at least two substantial structures of the Neopalatial period on the highest point, after which the north-east tip of the promontory abruptly falls away into the sea (MacGillivray and Sackett 1984, 137-138, Fig. 4). The sides are badly eroded so that a retaining wall, if such existed, would have long since collapsed into the sea. Aerial photographs show the position of collapsed stone and the position of the cove, now filled with sand, may be traced (ibid., Pl. 8).

The harbour of the Arrival Town is shown between the promontory and the town, so that to get from one to the other the young men must run along the high ground above two small ships floating in the harbour.

Modern Palaikastro is without a decent harbour, but magnetic survey and geological observations suggest that the area now filled with sand and gravel, shown in dashed outline in Fig. 1, was a large harbour in the Bronze Age (MacGillivray and Driessen forthcoming). The northern part of the eastern Crete has tilted downward causing the coast at Palaikastro to sink roughly one or two metres below the Minoan sea-level (Flemming 1978, 429-431, Fig. 9; Montaggioni et al. 1981, 73). This would account for the submergence of the tip of the promontory and suggests that the Minoan coastline would have been further out. But, at the same time, erosion from the north slopes of Kastri was carried by the local currents, which run north-south, and deposited in the first catchment area to the south, that is, the bay at Roussolakkos. Thus, while the coastline sank the bay was filled in, creating the salt flats that exist inland from the present beach. This gradual filling in of the harbour since antiquity explains the complete absence of ancient artefacts between the beach and the slopes adjacent to the present excavations. If we accept these geological observations, the Minoan harbour at Palaikastro would have been at the south end of the large and protected bay adjacent to the town, and also would have cut off direct access from the town to the promontory, as depicted in the miniature painting.

The Arrival Town is made up of four main elements: a building with an ashlar fayade on the ground floor and tower-like constructions at either end, a large gate with a built storey above, a possible ashlar façade with horns of consecration to the right of the gate, and small mudbrick and plaster constructions, above the building on the left and the gateway, which are probably meant to represent the tops of town houses behind the main scene. These elements are regularized with minor adjustments in Fig. 3.

Shaw suggests that the town was fortified (1987, 109- 111, Fig. I), a point taken up by Morgan who stresses that defensive walls were a feature of Cycladic towns, but are not found in LM I Crete (1988, 86). Fortification seems unlikely given that there are at least two (more likely three) windows in the wall at the level of the ground floor, a feature otherwise unknown in fortifications. It seems more practical to see the wall in the building on the left as the ground floor for the entire building which includes the two towers on either side. Unfortunately, the space between the towers is not preserved, but, like Morgan (1988, 85-86), I suspect that there should be a wall probably with more windows, rather than the staircase on the published restoration. The tower on the left has a balcony on top with a small projection adorned with a pair of horns of consecration. Morgan calls this the Urban Shrine (1988, 85). Rather than limit this title to a single tower, I would stretch it to include the whole building to which the tower belongs, and hereafter use Urban Shrine to mean the whole building on the left.

The edges of the Urban Shrine are clearly shown by straight lines of vertical ashlar blocks, marking the corners of the building. If we accept that the towers form part of the building, it becomes a fairly tall block.

Returning to Palaikastro we observe that a quite close parallel exists in Building 1 of the new excavation (Fig. 2). Although badly disturbed by later reoccupation, the building's outline and most internal subdivisions may be understood. It is the finest of three buildings with similar, quite regular, rectangular foundations, and it was set at the north end of the Neopalatial town overlooking the harbour. The massive foundations supported finely-cut sandstone ashlar blocks and, to judge from the width of the foundations, the building must have stood at least two, possibly three, storeys high. This is supported by the arrangement of the ground-floor walls which suggest two or three staircases in the building (MacGillivray, Sackett et al. 1988, 267). Some time after the building's construction, a rectangular projection was added at the north-east corner and from the tumble beside it we recovered fragments of sandstone horns of consecration which must have fallen from the structure (MacGillivray, Sackett et al. 1988, 265, Pl. 41, b). The projection is not included in the plan in Fig. 2 because we are not certain that it existed during the LM IA phase under consideration here. It was not part of the original layout, but certainly existed at the end of the LM IB period when the building was destroyed. We suspect that it was added to the north-east façade soon after the building's construction, perhaps replacing a temporary feature at that corner of the building.

The shape of Building 1 and the horns of consecration from the north side are instantly reminiscent of the Urban Shrine. The layout of the three storerooms on the inside of the north wall may also be seen to correspond to the windows on the Theran building.

Building 1 was constructed early in the LM IA period and so would have been relatively new when the Theran wall-paintings were executed.

There is no firm evidence for a gate to the west of Building 1, as shown to the right of the Urban Shrine. The Neopalatial foundations of an irregular projection on the east side of Building 4 could well have supported such a gate but these are also left off the plan in Fig. 2 pending firm dating evidence (MacGillivray, Sackett et al. 1989, Fig. 10). The irregular passage between Buildings 1 and 4 leads into a small square, or plateia, and from there to a street that probably runs west to the Main Street. This, then, would have been the north entrance to the town.

The gate is shown to be staggered, possibly because it stood on uneven ground (Morgan 1988, 86). However, it could be the artist's attempt to show a gate set between two non-aligned buildings, such as Buildings 1 and 4 at Palaikastro.

The building on the right in the painting is too poorly preserved to allow identification with any existing structure, although its position would correspond to that of Building 4 at Palaikastro. There are no horns of consecration from the area of Building 4, but we have not yet investigated the LM I levels here.

INTERPRETATION

N. Marinatos has shown how the arrangement of all the wall-paintings taken with the finds from the West House suggest that it was a shrine and that the miniature paintings depict a warrior/naval festival associated with the sea and taking place in the spring (1983, 17; 1984). Benzi (1977) and Davis (1986) regard the hairstyles of the young people in the West House frescoes as indicative of their stages as initiates in ceremonies that would have marked important stages in a young man's and woman's life.

Willetts (1962, 117), Koehl (1986) and Säflund (1987) have pointed out that elements of Neopalatial Cretan iconography suggest a Minoan origin for the ceremonies associated with initiation or the Rites of Passage festivals in which young, aristocratic males became adult members of society. These festivals are known to have taken place every spring in Classical and Roman Crete. Koehl's second stage of a young man's initiation, which he likens to the later parastatheis, is shown iconographically by a partially shaven head with hair left to grow long in tails along the top of the head. This would be the stage in which the two young fishermen are shown in Thera. In the next stage, the hair is allowed to grow-in a little, making short bangs, and may be pulled into a topknot. Koehl points out that many of the young men in the Ship Procession would be at this stage.

A spring festival commemorating the way in which the mythological Kouretes distracted Kronos and thus saved the infant Zeus took place every year at Palaikastro in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, when the site was called Dikta (West 1965). Crowther (1988) suggests that Palaikastro was probably called Dikta, or Dikte, during the Minoan period, citing the occurrence of the Linear A formula DI-KI-TE inscribed on offering tables found near a cave on the north slopes of Petsophas.

Palaikastro, then, may have been the setting for a yearly festival associated with the Minoan Rites of Passage ceremonies. Further support for this suggestion comes in the form of a chryselephantine statuette found in a small court, or plateia, separating the four main buildings of the new excavations (MacGillivray, Sackett et al. 1988, 267, Pl. 45d-f; 1989). The statuette is the largest and finest work of Minoan ivory sculpture, made of the most precious materials available to a Minoan craftsman. It has a blue serpentine head finely carved to show that the sides were shaved and four clumps were grown in a line along the top and woven together. This would place the statuette at Koehl's second stage of development, like that of Akrotiri fishermen. The gesture of the statuette, with arms folded upward and clenched fists in front of the chest, is one known from the Middle Minoan terracotta statuettes at Petsophas (Myres 1903, 356-387). But it is also found on the miniature wall-paintings at Thera, in the Meeting on the Hill, the Ship Procession and the young men running to and from the promontory of the Arrival Town (Morgan 1988, 117-118).

If the Theran miniatures may be linked with the Minoan Rites of Passage, one function of which would have been to provide a standing army of young aristocrats, it is quite possible that the final stage in the rites would have been to go the site in Crete where there was a building dedicated to commemorating the ritual, the evidence for which we may now have in the form of the new buildings from Palaikastro. It may be that the rites took place only in Crete, where young initiates gathered from throughout the contemporary Aegean where aristocratic society was dominated by Minoan customs, Wiener's Versailles Effect (1984). This would help to explain the suspected Mycenaean presence in the Ship Procession (Immerwahr 1977) and high quality Minoan Neopalatial objects such as the daggers inlaid with gold and silver from the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, surely the final resting place of Mycenae's top levels of society (Hood 1978, 175-183).

The West House at Thera may have served as a meeting or feasting place for young Theran aristocrats who took part in the Cretan ritual. Here the initiated could have commemorated the rites, a way of re-affirming their status, while welcoming new members to the club. But, perhaps I have gone out far enough on the thin ice of compounded theories and should retreat to the safe shores of certain facts by way of conclusion.

COMMENT

We know: 1.     That the topographical setting of Palaikastro includes a promontory with LM I buildings to the north-east of the town and that a building with lower courses in finely-cut ashlar blocks was constructed during the LM IA period at the north edge of the town looking out on the harbour and promontory from its east side.

This corresponds exactly with the relationship of the promontory, harbour and Urban Shrine of the Arrival Town.

2.     That Building 1 was the finest structure yet identified at Palaikastro and included a rectangular projection at the north corner of the east façade adorned with horns of consecration suggesting a religious function for the building, perhaps that of the town shrine.

The Urban Shrine of the Arrival Town also has a tower-like structure set on the side of the building facing the harbour which was also adorned with horns of consecration.

3.     That Palaikastro was the site of the Temple of Diktaian Zeus from the Geometric to the Roman periods, where the actions of the Kouretes in shielding the infant Zeus from Kronos were commemorated every spring and that, in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the site was called Dikta, the mythical birth place of Zeus.

The Arrival Town may not be Palaikastro. It could be another coastal town as yet unexcavated (and there are many in Crete). The important point is that we have recorded in a room in Thera a decidedly Minoan cult practice that would have attracted young men from all parts of the Minoan world, no matter where the scene is set. The implications of this are far more important than trade contacts and suggest connections at a high level of society. These cannot be ignored when attempts are made to understand Theran society as distinct from its rather more sophisticated neighbour to the south.

Addendum

A cleaning and conservation season at Palaikastro in 1989 clarified two points of relevance to this paper. The first is that the construction of Building 1 is now known to have begun during the MM IIIB/LM IA period and was disturbed during LM IA when the structure's internal plan and floor levels were revised, perhaps due to seismic activity that would have accompanied the Thera eruption. The second is that the irregular projection on the east side of Building 4 was shown to have been built over an open space following the partial destruction of the east façade of the building in LM IA. This confirms the plan in Fig. 2. The destruction in Building 4 may also be related to seismic activity. Pumice and soil samples from the open area between Buildings 1 and 4 are being analysed by Professor C. Vitaliano.

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