The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi: Volume 1: Introduction and Background [Hardback]

This is the first volume on the Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi in western Crete. To date two hundred and thirty-two chamber tombs have been excavated. The necropolis is the most important and extensive, and the only intact, cemetery that dates to Late Bronze Age III on Crete. It was very rich in finds, which include more than 800 decorated vases, significant bronzes, painted larnakes, a boar’s tooth helmet and a stirrup jar with a Linear B inscription, and there is evidence for the remains of up to a thousand individuals. The volume presents the background and history of the site, describes and illustrates the most important finds. Field surveys and a geophysical survey were carried out with the goal of discovering the wealthy town which built the necropolis, and this was accomplished. Catalogues of the Minoan finds, and also the oft-overlooked Roman and Byzantine ones, from the surveys are included. Chapters on the topographical and the geological settings of the necropolis are presented, as well as a proposed method for tomb construction, a potential metal resource, and a chapter which discusses Armenoi, Western Crete and the Linear B tablets from Knossos.

"“The sophistication of the tombs and the material culture discovered at the necropolis attests to the existence during that period of centers outside Knossos and underlines the level of complexity such settlements had achieved. More importantly, it enriches our knowledge on the political and social structure of western Minoan Crete during the period before and after the decline of Knossos and the way the fall of the main political center and the Mycenaean peace that followed seem to have favoured the re-emergence of old centers.”"

Bryn Mawr Classical Review ()