Kavousi Kastro

35°06′40″N 25°52′04″E / 35.111076°N 25.867885°E / 35.111076; 25.867885 (Kavousi Kastro)

Kavousi Kastro (also Kastro; Greek: Κάστρο) is an archaeological site in eastern Crete, Greece,[1] about 1.4 km southeast of the modern village of Kavousi, a historic village in the municipality of Ierapetra in the prefecture of Lasithi.

photograph
View of Kavousi Kastro looking east from the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete in Pacheia Ammos (2014). The location of the archaeological site is indicated by a circle; the location of Kavousi Vronda is indicated by a star.

Situated on a steep and rocky peak at an elevation of 713 m above sea level in the northern foothills of the Thripti Mountains, the site overlooks the Gulf of Mirabello and the northern Isthmus of Ierapetra. “Kastro” (“Citadel“ or “Castle”) is a local toponym; the ancient name of the site is unknown. The Kastro is best known as a defensible “refuge” settlement of the “Greek Dark Ages”, inhabited from the early 12th to the mid-7th centuries BCE. Most of the visible architectural remains on the site belong to the Late Geometric–Early Orientalizing phases of occupation (8th to 7th centuries BCE).

  1. ^ Boyd 1901; Gesell, Day, and Coulson 1985; Gesell, Day, and Coulson 1992; Haggis 2005, p. 136, site 80.