KARTEROS
(“Amnisos”) Pediada, Crete.
Ancient site on N coast 7.5 km E. of Iraklion. Homer
(
Od. 19.188-89) refers to its difficult harbor and to the
Cave of Eileithyia; a later tradition made it the port of
Knossos under Minos (
Strab. 10.4.8, probably a deduction from Homer rather than a genuine surviving Minoan
tradition, despite the considerable Minoan remains now
revealed). Ancient sources (see Guarducci) refer only
to the Amnisos river (now Karteros), the harbor, the
plain, and the cave and sanctuary of Eileithyia. There
is no clear evidence that a city called Amnisos ever
existed: no coins or public inscriptions of Amnisos are
known, and the main coastal settlement (Palaiochora)
may have been called Thenai.
A sandy beach runs E for 2.5 km from the mouth of
the Karteros. Half way along it is a rocky hill (Palaiochora), on which there was a fortified village (Mesovouni) in the Venetian period, probably abandoned
during the Turkish attacks of the mid 17th c.; Minoan
remains have been found beneath the ruined houses of
this period.
At the E and N foot of the hill and W of the hill are
Minoan remains, and traces of occupation on the W in the
early post-Minoan period also, though the evidence is
confused. In the archaic Greek period an open-air sanctuary was built over and into the Minoan ruins, which
were at least partly visible: in front of a long wall
fronted by steps was an altar, over and around which
were found large numbers of archaic votives, and faience
objects imported from Egypt. A coastal recession
deposited a deep layer of sand over the site, probably
in the Classical period. The sanctuary was rebuilt with
roofed buildings over the sand layer by the end of the
2d c. B.C. A dedication to Zeus Thenatas indicates the
identity of the cult practiced here (or one of them),
which lasted until the 2d c. A.D. at least.
Farther W, towards the river, lay the impoverished
settlement of LM IIIB, with traces of post-Minoan
occupation. The Minoan harbor must have lain in the
river mouth, then much less silted, but still rather exposed to the NW wind.
The Cave of Eileithyia (Neraidospilios or Koutsouras)
lies 1 km inland, in the ridge on the E side of the Karteros valley. First identified and briefly excavated in
the 1880s, it was fully excavated, with the coastal site,
in the 1930s. The cave (62 m long, 9-12 m wide and 3-4
m high) was entered from the E. Roughly in the center
of the cave are a large and small stalagmite (clearly
objects of cult) and a simple altar, surrounded by a
low wall (probably Minoan or Geometric); water dripping at the back of the cave may have been connected
with the (probably kourotrophic) cult, which seems to
have flourished in LM III-Archaic and Hellenistic-Roman
times. The remains are mostly of pottery, ranging in date
from Neolithic to 5th c. A.D.
Regarded in antiquity as the birthplace of Eileithyia,
the cave was her chief cult place. Her cult may also
have been later practiced in the coastal settlement, whose
origin may have been due to the cult rather than the
harbor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T.A.B. Spratt,
Travels and Researches
in Crete (1865) 66-67; 1. Hazzidakis,
Parnassos X
(1886-87) 339-42; Hirschfeld, “Amnisos (1),”
RE
(1894) 1871; L. Mariani,
MonAnt 6 (1895) 223; S.
Marinatos,
Praktika (1929-38, except for 1931 and
1937)
PI; Summaries in
AA (1930-37 and 1939) and in
BCH (1929-30, 1933-36, and 1938); M. Guarducci,
ICr
I.2 (1935); E. Kirsten, “Amnisos,”
RE Suppl. VII (1940)
26-38; R. F. Willetts,
Cretan Cults and Festivals (1962);
P. Faure,
Fonctions des cavernes crétoises (1964)
I; S. G.
Spanakis,
Crete, (n.d.) 52-56, 95-97, 128-29
MP.
D. J. BLACKMAN
