By John Freedman Originally posted elsewhere August 22, 2019
Reposted on Contemplating Crete April 12, 2021
How far are we from the living and the dead of the ancient world? On Crete, rarely more than a step or two away. This is not the beginning of a horror story, but rather of a short excursion back into the past. My wife and I were driving to the south coast of Crete yesterday and took a short detour on the way. We simply could not drive by a sign leading us to a late Minoan cemetery. What a fascinating little diversion it was. Just a few kilometers north of the village of Armenoi (pronounced armEni) and a few kilometers south of Rethymnon, we found this, the largest extant cemetery from the late Minoan period, roughly 1400-1200 BC. For the first hundred years or so burials were made according to a plan that separated wealthier individuals from the poorer. By around 1300 BC that plan was abandoned and people were buried alongside one another irregardless of their social status. Most of the tombs were probably dug to accept entire families. The tombs themselves, as well as the corridors (or “dromos”) leading to them, are all carved out of a rock that is known locally as kouskouras. It was soft enough to be managed with relative ease, but hard enough to withstand the vagaries of time. Over 230 tombs have been discovered since the cemetery was unearthed in 1969; archaeological work continues to this day. According to the wonderful Minoan Crete website, “The most imposing tomb (number 159) had a dromos of 15.50 metres and a staircase with 25 steps. The entrance to the chamber was two metres high, the size of a normal doorway. A pillar supported the east wall. To the left and right of the tomb entrance two rectangular column bases were found, cut in the rock.” There are also quite small graves that are little more than shallow holes in the ground. Chemical tests done on remains found in the crypts revealed some fascinating information. Men tended to live approximately to the ages of 28 to 31, while women tended to die by the age of 20 to 25. Most surprising to me is the fact that there is no sign that any of the tested individuals ever ate any kind of seafood. That seems quite unexpected for folks that were buried on an island just 9 kilometers from one of the great seas of the ancient world. Aside from the website mentioned above, I also pulled information from signs posted at the cemetery.
All text and photos © 2019 John Freedman. If you wish to reproduce, repost or use any of the text or any photo, please ask for permission. Renewal of copyright © 2021 John Freedman.
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