- Phaistos
Phaistos ( _el. Φαιστός), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the
island ofCrete . Phaistos was located in the south-central portion of the island, about 5.6 kilometres from theMediterranean Sea . It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. [* [http://www.matala-holidays.gr/phaistos.php Phaistos Palace Photos and Information] ] A palace, dating from the MiddleBronze Age , was destroyed by anearthquake during theLate Bronze Age .Knossos along with other Minoan sites was destroyed at that time. Thepalace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age.Archaeology
Phaistos was first excavated by Italian archaeologists
Federico Halbherr andLuigi Pernier . Further excavations in 1950-1971 were conducted byDoro Levi .The Old Palace was built in the Protopalatial Period, [* [http://www.uk.digiserve.com/mentor/minoan/phaistos.htm Phaistos profile] ] then rebuilt twice due to extensive earthquake damage. When the palace was destroyed by earthquake, the re-builders constructed a New Palace atop the old.
Several artifacts with
Linear A inscriptions were excavated at this site. The name of the site also appears in partially deciphered Linear A texts, and is probably similar to Mycenaean 'PA-I-TO' as written inLinear B . Severalkouloura structures (subsurface pits) have been found at Phaistos. Pottery has been recovered at Phaistos from in the Middle and Late Minoan periods, includingpolychrome items and embossing in imitation of metal work. Bronze Age works from Phaistos include bridge spouted bowls, eggshell cups, tall jars and large pithoi. [ [http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/10857/phaistos.html#fieldnotes C.Michael Hogan, "Phaistos Fieldnotes", The Modern Antiquarian (2007)] ]In 1908, Pernier found the
Phaistos disc there. This artifact is a claydisk , dated to between 1950 BC and 1400 BC and impressed with a unique sophisticated hieroglyphic script.ee also
*
Amari
*Ieropotamos River
*Kalyvia
*Kamares, Crete References
External links
* [http://www.travel-to-crete.com/place.php?place_id=22 Phaistos photos]
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