Archaeology Magazine - June 1965 - 10

Memoirs

continued

central portion of Crete, we saw to the south a magnificent panorama; far below us the great Messara
plain and beyond this through gaps in the coastmountains, the brilliant Libyan Sea. Our guide told
us there were once fifty Mohammedan villages in
this plain; "now it is a desert," he said, but this was
true only as regards man's habitation; a richer, lovelier tract of land cannot be imagined. We passed several absolutely deserted villages with blackened walls
as we wound down to the plain. Our last descent
was through a steep ravine and at sunset we arrived
at Aghios Dheka, the ancient Gortyna.
There we were hospitably received by Mr. Halbherr, who placed the house of the Italian Society at
our disposal. This meant a large bare upper room
in which to set up our beds and a place to eat downstairs as well as the friendship and guidance of
Manuel, son of a famous mountain chieftain and
himself a great character. He took us to the Labyrinth
- a huge cave connected with the story of the Minotaur, but probably nothing more than an ancient
quarry. This cave has been the refuge of the Christians in all the revolutions and there are scores of
tiny houses marked off in it with stone walls. In '89
our friends lived in these for more than three months,
the men going down to the valleys to work in the
day, the women and children remaining with the
flocks on the mountainside near the mouth of the cave
and all returning to the cave for the night.
Wednesday afternoon Mr. Halbherr himself
showed us the excavations at Gortyna where he has
found the most important early law inscriptions in all
Greek epigraphy. He is still a young man though he
has been working sixteen years in Crete and he is
one of the most courteous, modest gentlemen I have
ever met.
On April 19th we set on our independent quest
for a site to excavate. I had visited most of the important excavations in Greece, but it is one thing to
go after the deed is done, studying and verifying plans
and statements made by others; it is quite another
thing to find for oneself a place to dig. Distrust of
any possible successfilled my mind, as we started out
on that beautiful morning to cross the Messara plain.
How could I be sure that seeing I should see and
hearing, understand? My advisers had told me to
learn as much as possible from the peasants, but in
peasants' tales it is not easy to discriminate between
worthless gossip and valuable evidence.
Our route was planned by way of sites on the
south side of the island to Hierapetra, across the
isthmus, and back to Candia along the north coast.
98

Aristides soon formed a plan of action. When nearing
a village he would ride ahead, go to the inn and order
coffee for himself and any peasants who received him
kindly. By the time we arrived an altogether exaggerated opinion of our importance had spread
throughout the village, helped largely by the Greek
national costume worn by our foreman, which Cretans
had seen, if at all, only in patriotic plays, on actors
impersonating heroes of the revolution of 1821. Ladies attended by a man in this garb must be great
indeed! Soon sealstones, fragments of pottery and
bronze would be brought to us quietly and men would
offer to show the fields where these had been unearthed. Our first surprise was to find such fields,
usually on hillsides, absolutely strewn with potsherds,
so many that it was hard to believe them old. Other
evidence was soon forthcoming, and I might have
been tempted to put in the spade at more than one of
the sites we visited had it not been for the salutary
laws which forbid unauthorized digging, and the
wish on my part to defer judgment until we had seen
Kavousi, which had been specially recommended by
Dr. Evans.
Everywhere we met with great hospitality and
never failed to find decent shelter for the night. I
think there were three reasons for our cordial reception: first, the natural hospitality of the Cretans; second, the report that if satisfied with their village, we
might excavate there and bring untold wealth to the
community; third, the proof our visit gave that Crete,
freed at last from Turkish misrule, was a safe, orderly land in which even ladies might travel without
fear of molestation. It was this third reason that gave
heartiness to the people's greetings and made our
journey almost a fête.
It was Holy Week and we marveled at the endurance of our muleteer and Aristides who rode from
morning till night, crossing and recrossing the Messara plain, climbing steep acropoles, exploring caves
- as we wound
upward along the southern flank of
Dicte to Viannos, a delightful mountain retreat, 1800
feet above the sea- procuring for us at each stage
of our journey the best food obtainable, while contenting themselves with bread and wine. Even olives
are not allowed during the last week of Lent. Easter
we celebrated in a carpenter's shop at Aghios Vasilios.
The Eparch gave us a letter to the Demarch of
Kavousi- mark the name well, and look at it on the
little map, for you are likely to hear much of it. The
scenery about the Gulf of Mirabello is wonderfully
beautiful- a fine sheet of water with irregular margin
and, at the east, towering mountains not very high
perhaps but very rugged, very steep. Kavousi lies
about an hour from the sea at the foot of the moun-

Archaeology Magazine - June 1965

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1965