Teodoro "Doro" Levi (1 June 1899 – 3 July 1991) was an Italian archaeologist who practiced in the Mediterranean countries in the 20th century. [1] Specifically, Levi conducted excavations in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. From 1938 to 1945, Levi was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. [1] Levi has published a number of technical manuscripts on archaeology such as Festos e la Civiltà Minoica, tavole I published in 1976. [2] Some of Levi's most significant work was a long term excavation at Minoan Phaistos, [3] which site is the second most significant Minoan settlement (following Knossos) and which has yielded important finds such as the Phaistos Disk and extensive Bronze Age pottery. [4] [5]
Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 to 1450 BC to write the hypothesized Minoan language or languages. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was succeeded by Linear B, which was used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. No texts in Linear A have yet been deciphered.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings date to c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages, part of a wider bronze age collapse around the Mediterranean. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.
Knossos is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.
The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age. The disk is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and its original place of manufacture remain disputed. It is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.
Phaistos ), also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. Ancient Phaistos was located about 5.6 km (3.5 mi) east of the Mediterranean Sea and 62 km (39 mi) south of Heraklion, the second largest city of Minoan Crete. The name Phaistos survives from ancient Greek references to a city in Crete of that name at or near the current ruins.
Malia or Mallia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reforms it is part of the municipality of Hersonissos, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies 34 kilometres east of Heraklion, the Cretan main city. The town was the seat of the municipality of Mália. The municipal unit also includes the villages of Mochos (825), Krasi (147), and Stalida (1,237), and has a total land area of 60.720 square kilometres (23.444 sq mi). The town is a tourist attraction, primarily for its significant archaeological site and nightlife. The Minoan town ruins lie three km east of the site and cover an area of approximately 1 square kilometre (0.4 sq mi). The original name for the town is not known.
Heraklion is one of the four regional units of Crete. The capital is the city of Heraklion.
Gortyn, Gortys or Gortyna is a municipality, and an archaeological site, on the Mediterranean island of Crete 45 km (28 mi) away from the island's capital, Heraklion. The seat of the municipality is the village Agioi Deka. Gortyn was the Roman capital of Creta et Cyrenaica. The area was first inhabited around 7000 BC.
Minoan pottery has been used as a tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relative dates to the strata of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC Crete, have been found at sites through the Aegean islands and mainland Greece, on Cyprus, along coastal Syria and in Egypt, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans.
Hagia Triada is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. Hagia Triada is situated on the western end of a prominent coastal ridge, with Phaistos at the eastern end and the Mesara Plain below. Hagia Triada has yielded more Linear A tablets than any other Minoan site. Important finds include the Hagia Triada sarcophagus, and three carved stone vessels, known as the "Chieftain's Cup", the "Boxer Vase", and the Harvester Vase.
Mochlos is a modern, populated, and inhabited island in the Gulf of Mirabello in eastern Crete, and the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. There is evidence that Mochlos was not an island in Minoan times, but was attached to the mainland and acted as an eastern harbor.
Monastiraki is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan town on the island of Crete. The site is on the plain of Amari, west of the Ida massif. Monastiraki is 38 kilometres from Rethymnon.
The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery during his excavations at Knossos on Crete, new technologies including carbon dating and DNA analysis have led to significant revisions to the date ranges.
Akrotiri was a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera).
The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institutes headquartered in Athens, Greece, with branch offices in Crete, Limnos and Rome.
A kouloura, or kouloures is a circular subsurface pit with stone walls found in certain settlements within Ancient Crete, including Phaistos, Knossos, and Mallia. According to the stratigraphy, the kouloura were all constructed around MM II.
Kamares ware is a distinctive type of Minoan pottery produced in Crete during the Minoan period, dating to MM IA. By the LM IA period, or the end of the First Palace Period, these wares decline in distribution and "vitality". They have traditionally been interpreted as a prestige artifact, possibly used as an elite table-ware.
The Pylos Combat Agate is a Minoan sealstone of the Mycenaean era, likely manufactured in Late Minoan Crete. It depicts two warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with a third warrior lying on the ground. It was discovered in the Griffin Warrior Tomb near the Palace of Nestor in Pylos and is dated to about 1450 BCE. The seal has come to be known as Pylos Combat Agate.