Locating a Late Minoan Settlement near Prina on Crete (C7884)

In Hayden [2005] there is a description of a Late Minoan settlement in the Vrokastro area of Crete.  The site sits just below the western boundary of Hagios Nikolaos Bay.  I have given it the identifier C7884.  The general situation is this:

 The approximate position of C7884 (which I will justify here) is  35.093541° N,  25.699069° E.  Hayden describes it as follows:[1]

"Location

Nearest modern village and distance: Prina, 2.25 km.; 

Distance from sea: 4.8 km.; 

Elev.: 280 m.; 

Toponym: Kato Prina;

Location on Brit. map: 10/64.15; 

Transect: 12: 2:2:805-890 p.; pottery collected by field.

Topography

The site is located on the central plateau of a ridge that extends E-W in the middle of the pass between the villages of Prina and Meseleroi. 

Slopes of the ridge are 10°; the location takes advantage of water sources on both sides of the ridge; a spring to the S at Aghios Georgios, and a well located below the ridge to the NE. Directly S and paralleling the ridge is a ravine that may also have been a seasonal water source."

Analysis

My position for Hagios Georgios was derived from Hayden as follows. She says "The site is located on the central plateau of a ridge that extends E-W in the middle of the pass between the villages of Prina and Meseleroi." There is such a ridge. It stretches from about  35.093340° N,  25.705669° E at the east end to about  35.093864° N,  25.698154° E on the west.  It is visible in the next figure.

Looking WNW from the pass to Meseleroi and in the direction of Prinas.  The ridge which Hayden mentions is in the foreground.  It continues to the W where, near its end, sits the settlement (green paddle)

The chapel of Hagios Georgios (F7970) sits about 310 m south of the west end of this ridge at F7970. It is separated from my proposed location by a shallow valley (elevation drops about 20 m) which is what I take Hayden to mean when she says 'Directly S and paralleling the ridge is a ravine that may also have been a seasonal water source.'  The following figure should make this clear:

The site C7884 is in the center at the green paddle.  The ridge on which it sets is marked by the 'H' paddles at the far upper right and in the center just outside the circle.  The straight line is drawn from the chapel of Hagios Georgios, F7970, to the site center at C7884.  The elevation profile of that line is at the bottom with F7970 on the L and C7884 on the R.  The chapel sits at about 296 m; the settlement site at about 280 m.  Between them the valley dips about 20 m.

Hayden speaks of 'a well located below the ridge to the NE' but I cannot locate it.

The driving distances from the SW edge of Prina to the site ranges between 2.1 and 2.3 km. compared to Hayden's 2.25. 

A driving route from the town of Prinas (L) to the site at the green  paddle on the right.
The suggested routes (left panel) are 2.1, 2.1, and 2.3 km.

The elevation at C7884 is 271 m. vs. Hayden's 280. 

The distance from the marker to the nearest seashore (at 35.129150° N,  25.727914° E) is 4.742 km vs. Hayden's 4.8.   I show this in the next figure.

A circle centered at C7884 (green arc) touches the shore (green paddle labelled 'Shore') at 35.129150° N,  25.727914° E.  The radius of the circle is 4777.5 m.

Hayden requires a slope of 10° for ridge on which the site sites.  From my suggested location the slopes (averaged at 150 m from the marker) are: to N: -7.24; E: 14.1; S: 3.36, and W: -10.08.  In this rolling country a single numerical parameter is not adequate to describe slope at the site.

Slopes at 150 m. from the marker for C7884.  The slopes vary more sharply at north and west; less so to south and most sharply to the east.

These agreements are sufficiently close for me to suggest this particular location. Her language sometimes suggests that the location is further up on the ridge to the E in the direction of Meseleroi. But the elevations there are in the 340 m. range; a substantial increase over her suggested 280 m.

Another source for this area is Pollard [2022] who gives the coordinates 35.09587 N, 25.70013 E for this site. [2] But I cannot convince myself that these coordinates are correct as they fail Hayden's prime criterion that the site should sit somewhere on a ridge that runs through the pass between Prina and Meseleroi.  Pollard's site would be on the northern edge of the Prinas valley and not on a ridge running through the pass.

Pollard's suggested lat/lon position on the upper left.  This position (on strongly sloping ground) is on the next ridge to the north.  It forms the northern boundary of the Prinas plain and the northern edge of the pass to Meseleroi.  My suggested position is at C7884 at center left.

Determining an accurate location of the ruined Venetian chapel of Hagios Ioannis would settle the matter since we are told (10) 'On the SE edge of the site is a ruined 15th c.? Venetian church of Aghios Ioannis, marked on the British 1:50,000 map.' I have examined the 'British 1:50,000 map' and while it shows the  name  of 'Ay Ioannis' it does not provide an icon to mark its position.

The ruined Venetian chapel of Hagios Ioannis.
Hayden  [2005] 'Photographic Tour of Vrokastro'.

British army 1:50,000 map of the Prina area.  Hayden's suggested position for C7884 is (10 x 64.15) which I have marked on the map with an arrow.  We see that the name 'Ay Ioannis' is given but without a marker or icon to indicate its position.

I have identified a pile of stone at F7970 and I suppose that this might be the chapel but this is sheerest guesswork.  The only guide is that the chapel should be to the SE of the site.

So we conclude with this:

Final Position of 

C7884 : Prina Hagios Georgios : 35.093541° N, 25.699069° E
C7884 (Pollard) : 35.09587 N, 25.70013 E
F7970 :  Hagios Georgios Chapel : 35.090786° N          25.698758° E
F7971 : Ruined chapel of Ay. Ioannis : 35.09244° N          25.699953° E  Maybe.
F4402 : Town of Prina : 35.095003° N          25.68646° E
F4437 : Town of Meseleroi : 35.0836° N          25.71219° E

In the Mycenaean Atlas (red arrow points to assumed position for C7884) it looks like this:

The Mycenaean Atlas is your preferred gazetteer for the Bronze Age ... and all of Antiquity as well.

Footnotes

[1]  Hayden [2005] Site Catalog, pg. 9, 'Aghios Georgios 2: AG2'.

[2]  The Appendices volume of that dissertation; pg. 54, '320. Prina Agios Giorgios'. 

[3]  Royal Engineers [1943:20] at or near coordinates 10.0, 64.15

Bibliography

Hayden (ed.) [2005] : Hayden, Barbara J., 'Site Catalogue', Supplemental Material from Reports on the Vrokastro Area, Eastern Crete, Vol. 3: The Vrokastro Regional Survey Project: Sites and Pottery. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. 2005.  Online here.

Pollard [2022]  : Pollard, Dominic. Between the Mountains and the Sea: Landscapes of Settlement, Subsistence and Funerary Practice in Later Bronze Age and Iron Age Crete: Appendices, Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Institute of Archaeology University College London (UCL).  June, 2022.  Online here.

Royal Engineers [1943:20] : Sheet 20 of 1:50,000 Crete / reproduced by 512 Field. Survey Company, Great Britain. Army. Royal Engineers. Field Survey Company, 512th. MAP G6812.C7 s50, [Cairo?] : Middle East Drawing and Reproduction, 1943-1945. Online here.