Excavations at Palaikastro. II: § 11.—Human Remains at Hagios Nikolaos

Extract

About a week after my arrival at Palaikastro, Mr Tod having made preliminary investigations resulting in the discovery of human crania associated with pottery of a very early period at Hagios Nikolaos, it was suggested that I should visit the locality. The present report contains an account of the results of my examination made in accordance with that suggestion. The date was April 3rd, 1903, and some final notes were added on April 8th, 1903. The simple building dignified by the title of Hagios Nikolaos is placed about five miles inland from the shore of Grandes Bay, hidden in a perfect labyrinth of intersecting valleys and ravines. The particular glen, on the southern slope of which the church is situated, runs, generally speaking, east and west, but turns at either extremity eastwards, running first to the south and then sharply resuming an eastward direction; while the western end, the head of the valley, trends slightly to the north.

A steep ascent across a couple of fields above the church brings one to the foot of the rocks forming the southern boundary of the valley, where the familiar local structure of an easily-weathered limestone is met with at once. Thence one must scramble up among great masses of lentisk and carob, with numerous thyme and sage bushes, in the interstices of fallen boulders, till, at about sixty feet above the foot of the scarp, one arrives at a cleft which gives access (cf. Fig. 1.A), to the ‘cave’ discovered by Mr Tod.