Site details

Chamaizi: Liopetro

PK	C5090
TITLE	Chamaizi: Liopetro
WGS84	35.212589° N, 26.015015° E
Accuracy	Exact

LAT/LON	35.212589, 26.015015
LON/LAT	26.015015, 35.212589

DMS

35° 12' 45.3204" N

26° 0' 54.054" E

W3W	juiced, amphibian, disposal
UTM	35 S, 410350, 3897063
EGSA87	683261, 3898190

Elevation m	417
Elevation feet	1368.1
Region	Crete
Subregion	Siteia

GENERAL SITE TYPE hab

TYPE

1.    hab.   Nowicki [2000], 101    '...containing evidence of Protogeometric and Geometric occupation.'
2.    Pottery.   Kanta [1980], 198    'A group of LM III vases which included stirrup jars, a flask, conical cups and a ring vase ...'
3.    Sherds.   Nowicki [2000], 101    '...good diagnostic .. sherds were noted about 80 m. beyond the Venetian fortification wall.'

SITE SIZE

- Nowicki [2000]  p. 102,  Size: 45000 sq. m.  Maximum: '...a distance of more than 300 m from east to west and 50 to 150 m from south to north.'

PERIOD (High Chronology)

1. Late Minoan III: (1420 BC - 1075 BC)
    a.    Kanta [1980]: 198, '...LM III vases...'

2. Late Minoan IIIC: (1200 BC - 1075 BC)
    a.    Nowicki [2000]: 101, 'Handles and tripod legs with finger impressions and vertical grooves can be dated to the LMIIIC-PG period, ...'

3. Protogeometric: (1100 BC - 900 BC)
    a.    Nowicki [2000]: 102, 'Handles and tripod legs ... can be dated to the LM IIIC-PG period.'
    b.    Nowicki [2000]: 102, '...good diagnostic PG and G sherds were noted ...'

4. Geometric: (900 BC - 700 BC)
    a.    Nowicki [2000]: 102, '...a Geometric krater, have been recorded as coming from Liopetro, ...'
    b.    Nowicki [2000]: 102, '...good diagnostic PG and G sherds were noted ...'

NOTES

1.  Nowicki [2000] 101: 'The late Dark Age town on Liopetro (PG-G), therefore, may have been of the largest in East Crete and was probably bigger than Vrokastro and Myrsini Kastello.'

2.  Kanta [1980] says (198) '...in the area of this village.' It is not clear to me what she means by 'this village'.

3.  Liopetro's main role in history is that it was the site of a Venetian castle (http://www.kastra.eu/castleen.php?kastro=liopetro) built sometime around the end of the 16th c. but never much used it appears. It is the site of a find of LM III vases (Kanta [1980] 198, '32. Liopetro') and on that basis I included it in the atlas. Nowicki has this to say about it in his Defensible Sites in Crete, 101, '34. Chamaizi Liopetro/Liopetra' "An ancient site was mentioned on Liopetra by Spratt (I, 158) and after him by Pendlebury as of uncertain, but Post-Minoan date and elsewhere as a Classical-Roman settlement (Pendlebury 1939, 379 and 385)." In Pendlebury, The Archaeology of Crete, 1939, we read: 379: "Leopetra ... On the coast W. of Sitia. Spratt, I, 158 describes insignificant ruins and suggests it was the ancient Asos." 385: "Leopetro ... Foundations and sherds seen by writer 1938 ; Classical-Roman." Spratt is online. (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014703485;view=1up;seq=187;size=175) At Spratt, 158 we have this: "No ancient site could be heard of in this district; but at the termination of the eastern ridge which confines it there are the remains of a small fortress and buildings crowning a high precipice over the coast, and now called Leopetra. The Venetians supposed it to be the ancient Assos - a town, however, which Pliny places inland, and by no author is it placed on the coast; I am therefore led to doubt the identity, and, although I had no opportunity of examining them myself, Mr. Stokes, the officer who did so, states his opinion that they are not very ancient, but rather appear to be of the middle age, and not Hellenic, there being nothing but the foundations of walls of a fortress built of small unhewn stones and mortar. Local tradition, however, asserts it to be an Hellenic city, but on such points it is often in error; at all events this seems to have been the capital of the Mulianah district at some early period, prior to the Venetians, and was a likely site for a city." So when Pendlebury attributes the identification of Liopetra as Asos to Spratt he (Pendlebury) is mistaken. In addition to Spratt there is Gerola [1905]. Gerola's account is online (http://asa.archiviostudiadriatici.it/islandora/object/libria:198580#page/148/mode/2up) Gerola provides some detail about what the Venetian generals said when trying to persuade the Venetian Senate to support the building of a fort there in 1590/1595. "vestigie di un'antica grossa muraglia rovinata, et alcuni torrioni con quantità grandissima di pietre redotte in masiere, che dimostrano che vi fusseno antiche habitationi." "Remnants of an ancient ruined great wall, and some towers with very large quantities of stones (redotte in masiere?), which show that there is ancient habitation." "Nella sumità sono di molte cisterne antique et in stato tale che con pochissima spesa si riduriano nel pristino stato, mancandoli poco del già fatto; e fra l'altre vi n'è una in forma rotonda et è grande, che tiene grandissima quantità d'acqua, et detta acqua è perfettissima. Vi sono anco delle muraglie antique fatte in modo tale che quasi di presente si potriano fare nell'istesso modo." "On the summit there are many antique cisterns and in such a state that with very little expense they are refurbished, little lacking of what needs to be done, and among the others there is one with a round shape, and large, which holds a great quantity of water, and that water is very fine. Also there are antique walls made in such a way that they could be continued in the same way. Gerola (1905) continues (my translation): "Such interest of the Venetian magistrates in the ancient fortress is well justified by the favorable position of that mountain which from the sparkling waves of the Aegean, which scourges its rocky slopes, rises in its wild strength like an impregnable fortress. Toward the west its rocks drop sheer to the foot; while towards the north and south, the cliff can be considered inaccessible. In view of this, a small defensive wall was built along the western side, at the end a steep valley; at the north-west extremity above the promontory that goes into the sea, is another stretch of wall ending in a tower that had to be round, but with a square base; at the same time, a short wall turns towards the north, which soon ends, above the cliff. Only the southeastern part is truly defended, where the slope of the hill is much less steep; and there, in fact, runs a strong wall, worked on rough stones held together by lime, and equipped with a parapet of m. 0.60. Three square towers, about 6-7 meters on each side, defended the protruding corners of the enclosure. The interior is crowded by a real labyrinth of cisterns; some large, others smaller, often placed in a ring and communicating with each other, others still built perpendicular to each other, but all rectangular and covered with a barrel vault. The same church of S. Giovanni which rises above it, was originally perhaps also a cistern. From this and from other clues, he wanted to infer that the place was inhabited even before the Christian era." Result: Liopetra may have been the site of a Cl/He/Ro hab and we have Pendlebury's word for it. Of course there is no water on Liopetra and while people can and have built cisterns in such a place it could never have been the site at any period of a substantial human presence. It was certainly never anything like Karphi.

rhc

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Gerola [1905]: Gerola, Giuseppe. Monumenti Veneti nell'isola di Creta. Venezia, 1905 (M. CM. V), '* Liopetro', pg. 88. Online here.

2. Kanta [1980]: Kanta, Athanasia. The Late Minoan III Period in Crete; A Survey of Sites, Pottery and their Distribution. Paul Åströms Förlag, Göteborg. Sweden. 1980., '32. Liopetro', pg. 198.

3. Nowicki [2000]: Nowicki, Krzysztof. Defensible Sites in Crete; c. 1200 - 800 B.C. (LM IIIB/IIIC through Early Geometric). Aegaeum (Annales d'archéologie égéenne de l'Université de Liège et UT-PASP), 21., '34. Chamaizi Liopetro/Liopetra', pg. 101.

4. Pendlebury [1965]: Pendlebury, John D.. The Archaeology of Crete. Norton, 1965., 'Leopetra', pg. 379.

5. Spratt [1865]: Spratt, Thomas Abel Brimage. Travels and Researches in Crete. London, Van Voorst, 1865 (MDCCCLXV), 'Ruins at Leopetra', pg. 158. Online here.