A Minoan Pottery Kiln at Palaikastro

Abstract

Nowadays new country tracks are constantly being opened all over the Greek countryside, as demanded by the general mechanization of agricultural work. This is at once the hope and despair of the archaeologist in charge of the area as it often reveals and sometimes destroys antiquities otherwise completely buried and unsuspected.A new country track of this kind following the foot of the northern slope of the Anemospiliara Hill just to the west of the loftier Petsophas at Palaikastro ran very near the top of the side of a curious round construction with burnt edges, a small section of which was barely visible below a thick bush of prinos (Plate 1). The area, known as Στῶν Μανϱοκουκουλήδων οἱ πεζοῦλες, is about 400 metres from the sea and 300 metres SE of the excavated parts of the Minoan town of Palaikastro at Roussolakkos. From it there is a splendid view over the whole site and the small bay of Palaikastro, with the trapezoidal Kastri Hill dominating the horizon in the background (map Fig. 1).