RUINS OF THE MINOAN CITY OF ROUSSOLAKOS
A remarkable archeological site between the fields of olive trees and the beautiful beach of Hiona.
Wedged between the olive groves and the beautiful beach of Hiona, the site of Roussolakos reveals the foundations of an ancient Minoan city that would have spread over the region in the post-Minoan period (around 1700 BC), but some of the tombs found there attest to human occupation during the first and second Minoan periods. The site may have been abandoned and then reinvested. From the bones, the approximate height of the Minoans could be established: 1.60 m for the men and 1.50 m for the women.
The plan of the city is declined in a central artery from which leave 4 perpendicular streets, dividing the city in 9 sectors. The facades of the houses along the central road were more imposing than on the other streets. The important pieces found in Roussolakos are, next to the usual amphorae or oil lamps, a grape press, and above all a plate engraved with the hymn to Zeus Dicean. This hymn to peace and life, which now rests in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, would be perhaps the first hymn dedicated to a god of all antiquity. Finally, a superb gold and ivory statuette, visible in the museum of Sitia, representing a god or an athlete was also excavated on the site.
In Roussolakos, life suddenly disappeared with the eruption of the Santorini volcano (around 1645 BC). Research continues and some presume that an "X-ray of the site" would reveal the fifth Minoan palace of Crete.
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