Excavations at Azoria, 2002

Abstract:This report summarizes the results of the first season of excavation at Azoria in eastern Crete and provides an overview of the project's goals and problem orientation. Work in 2002 concentrated on the peak of the South Acropolis and the occupational phases of the seventh-sixth centuries B.C. The recovery of a possible andreion complex suggests the urban character of the site in the sixth century and forms a starting point for discussing the political economy of the Archaic city. The excavations revealed important evidence for the organization of the sixth-century settlement and for the complex stratigraphic history of the site, including the Final Neolithic, Late Prepalatial, Early Iron Age, Archaic, and Hellenistic periods.