West Chester University Digital Commons @ West Chester University Anthropology & Sociology College of Arts & Sciences 7-1975 Human Skeletal Remains from Kato Zakro Marshall Joseph Becker West Chester University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/anthrosoc_facpub Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Becker, M. J. (1975). Human Skeletal Remains from Kato Zakro. American Journal of Archaeology, 79(3), 271-276. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2307/503482 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts & Sciences at Digital Commons @ West Chester University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology & Sociology by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ West Chester University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Human Skeletal Remains from Kato Zakro* M.J. BECKER PLATE 47 Kato Zakro,a well known Minoan site on the is now under intensivecultivation. Although buri- easternshore of the island of Crete,has been the als have been recoveredfrom the gorge and the subjectof archaeologicalstudies since the very be- PezoulesKephala area, no Late Minoan burials- ginning of this century.Prof. N. Platon (Univer- sity of Thessaloniki)invited the authorto join the excavationteam during the 1973 field season to examine human skeletal remains recoveredfrom the nearbyPezoules Kephala tomb enclosures,and to assistin drawingtwo majorsections of the site. Hogarth'sexcavations in the centralpart of Za- A o kro in 1901produced no human skeletalremains. However, human remains were recoveredfrom caves located within the gorge.' R.B. Seager ob- taineda permit"to go to Zakroto try for the ceme- *' Gorge tery" (letter to G. Richter 15 March 1924) and spenttwo weeksin Mayin a futile attemptto locate the burial area. Hogarth' produceda sketch map of the Zakro 0 River delta which depicts the entire area around the site, including the location of the Pezoules KY Kephalatomb enclosures.These are locatedalong the trail to Apano Zakroto the west of the Zakro River and above the level of the first hills (ill. i). Prof. Platon'sexcavations have extendedour gen- eral knowledgeof the site proper,and his publica- tions should be consulted for a comprehensive understandingof the site.3The 1973excavations pro- ducedevidence that the ancientshoreline may have been immediatelyadjacent to the presentexcava- tion limits at the site. Thus the marshy area de- has been silted in pictedby Hogarth probably over ILL. i. Sketch map locating the Pezoules the past3,000 years, producing a fertileplain which Kephalatomb enclosureswest of Kato Zakro * The findings reported here were summarized in a paper had been transferred to the National Archaeological Museum presented at the Seventy-fifth General Meeting of the Ar- in Athens. chaeological Institute of America in December 1973. I would Special thanks are due H.S. Georgiou for her kind assistance particularly like to thank Prof. N. Platon, the excavator of in acting as translator and recorder in the examination of this these tomb enclosures, for his kind permission to analyze this material. Without her help none of this work would have been material and to conduct further salvage work at Kato Zakro possible. Thanks are also due J. Lawrence Angel for his during the 1973 field season. Prof. and Mrs. Platon extended many suggestions and continued help, which have been of every courtesy to the author while he assisted them at Kato enormous benefit to the author. Zakro. Thanks are also due Mr. Stylianos Alexiou, Director of 1 W. Boyd Dawkins, "Skulls from cave burials at Zakro," the Heraklion Museum, for his permission to examine the BSA 7 (1901) 150-55. skeletal remains stored in the museum. Both Mr. Alexiou and 2D.G. Hogarth, "Excavations at Zakro, Crete," BSA 7 the Assistant Director, Miss A. Lebessi, provided every pos- (1901) 121-49. sible consideration in furthering this research. Prof. Spyridon 3 N. Platon, Zakros: The discovery of a lost palace of an- Marinatos was extremely kind in taking time from his busy cient Crete (New York 1971). schedule to assist in searching for some of this material which This content downloaded from 144.26.117.20 on Thu, 14 May 2015 17:52:51 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 272 M.J. BECKER [AJA 79 contemporarywith the florescentperiod-have been which revealed the southern edge of Enclosure A located to date. (ills. 1-3). A farmer brought several ceramic ob- Recently, irrigation networks constructed at Apa- jects to Prof. Platon for inspection. Prof. Platon no Zakro have drained off most of the waters which investigated the find site and determined that the fed the lower reaches of the Zakro River. The river objects had been recovered from a rockcut tomb. has thus become a dry stream bed with only rare A second enclosure was located nearby. The loca- surface water flow. This is important in the dis- tion of these tomb enclosures in the low hills covery of the tomb enclosures because water used in overlooking ancient Zakro would suggest that they Kato Zakro now comes from above, not via, the are part of the burial zone which served the Middle river, primarily through an irrigation system which Minoan population. When these enclosures were has been constructed in recent years. The discovery located an unscheduled salvage excavation was in of the Pezoules Kephala enclosures resulted from order. Prof. Platon, then in the middle of an ex- the construction in 1967 of an irrigation channel tremely busy field season, had to divide his crew 0 0 1 2 b NVN .. Meters ........ % .g . NA --a A BEDROCK~ waft ftm If ILL. 2. Planof TombEnclosure A 0 1 2 Meters a -, a 00- -00 ILL.3. Tomb EnclosureA, Section a-a' This content downloaded from 144.26.117.20 on Thu, 14 May 2015 17:52:51 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 19751 HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS FROM KATO ZAKRO 273 0 1 Meter b b' O0------0 00-O ILL. 4. Tomb EnclosureA, Section b-b' and attention to recover data from these complex these may be Middle Minoan I, but the necessary tombs. No time was available to bring in a physical diagnostic vessels do not appear to be part of these anthropologist to assist in this project. assemblages. Thus the date suggested is only an Prof. Platon's excavation records suggest that approximation based on reasonable interpretation Chamber A of Enclosure A had been used for new of the ceramic inventory. interments, with Chambers B and C having been The solid construction of the walls of Enclosure used to hold bones and artifacts associated with A and the height to which they now stand suggest earlier burials. Disarticulated bones were found in that these tombs were roofed, perhaps with beams every chamber as well as "outside" the chambers.4 and mortar or beams and stone slabs. Prof. Platon The two articulated burials visible in photographs does not believe that these chambers were roofed, of Enclosure A suggest that individuals were placed but rather that they were earth filled.5 Each new inside the chamber intact, with various burial of- interment would have been introduced, or in- ferings. These articulated burials, however, are not truded, by a separate excavation. included in this analysis. When new burials were Prior to examining the skeletal material ex- added, bones of former "occupants"were relocated cavated in 1967 a second and very brief salvage after being disarticulated. The apparent threshold operation was undertaken during the I973 field between Chambers A and C in Enclosure A (ills. season in order to acquaint the analysts with the 2-4) suggests that this was the usual path of entry. physical situation of the finds. This search resulted Chamber C may have been sealed off in antiquity in the recovery of additional skeletal material in- or may have had an entry which is not archaeo- cluding several teeth. A large proportion of this logically discernible. material came from Chamber B of Enclosure A.' Enclosure B (ill. i) appearsto be a simple rectan- As noted above, the majority of the skeletal re- gle. In 1973 no evidence of built walls could be mains from these enclosures are extremely frag- found, although the chamber is clearly evident in mentary. Analysis of even the most basic areas of the rock. A great number of small vessels were lo- concern-age and sex-thus becomes a most diffi- cated in the enclosures. Prof. Platon believes that cult task. The bones recovered in 1973 were tenta- 4 N. Platon, "Zakro," To Ergon (1968) o103-15; and, "Ana- 1967 only 62 could be immediately located. The remaining skaphi Zakrou," Praktika (1969) 162-94, plates 153-73. seven specimens were in other storage locations and will be 5Platon (supra n. 3). studied at a future date. The late Prof. Sp. Marinatos was 6 The human skeletal material recovered in 1973 was studied most helpful in initiating a search for the material from these together with the material from the 1967 excavations stored enclosures at Zakros which was taken to the National Ar- in the Heraklion Museum. Of the 69 "crania" identified in chaeological Museum in Athens for study and reconstruction. This content downloaded from 144.26.117.20 on Thu, 14 May 2015 17:52:51 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 274 M.J. BECKER [AJA 79 tively examined in the field. At the conclusion of in 1973 could be pieced together, but no entire the field season the skeletal remains excavated in bones were reconstructed.The work of Steele and 1967 were sought from the storage areas of the McKern7 on the analysis of fragmentary skeletal Heraklion Museum.