LASAIA
(Chrysostomos) Kainourgiou, Crete.
An extensive Graeco-Roman city 8 km W of Lebena. The earliest remains in the vicinity are two Early
Minoan tholos cemeteries and an Early Minoan settlement, but there are no other remains earlier than the
late 5th c., at which time the city appears to have been
founded. The site was then occupied continuously as a
harbor and city until at least the late Roman period,
and was at its most prosperous and extensive during the
period of the Roman occupation.
The site is a small headland, opposite the offshore
island of Nissos Traphos, flanked by two small bays
with sandy beaches. An ancient mole, possibly of Roman
date, which runs from the foot of the headland almost
to Traphos ensured calm water in either one of the bays,
depending on the direction of the wind.
The late 5th and 4th c. occupation of the site seems
to have been concentrated on the slopes and the flat summit of the low hill which rises immediately behind the
headland. Buildings on the summit include one with
foundations entirely of white blocks, situated right on
the seaward edge of the hilltop, overlooking the whole
site. In later periods occupation spread over the whole
of the headland, and along the steep slopes overlooking
the bay to the W. Further buildings were erected to the
E of the headland. Over the whole of this area the remains of the city are still clearly visible, both as a dense
spread of broken pottery and as a mass of stone walls,
built of red, green, white, and brown blocks used
haphazardly.
On the headland three buildings of some importance
can be traced. In the center of the headland are the remains of a substantial building whose main feature is
an oblong court measuring 27 x 10 m. On the N side
it is flanked by a long narrow hall or corridor 5 m wide,
and on the S by a corridor 3 m wide, which continues
along the E and possibly the W sides of the court also.
At either end of the S corridor, against the courtyard
wall, is a built altar or statue base. Beyond the S corridor are suites of almost square rooms. The building
seems likely to have fulfilled a public rather than a
private function but its precise identity is uncertain.
Southwest of the building described the headland has
been terraced to form a natural podium for a temple. A
flight of six steps, 10 m wide, survive, flanked by massive side walls. Set back 3 m from the top of the steps
are two square altar bases, one on either side of the entrance to the cella. Two walls of the cella survive and
show it to have been approximately 5 x 8 m.
Toward the S tip of the headland are the remains of
a Christian church, one corner of which has been lost
by erosion of the cliff edge. At the N end of the building is an apse 8 m in diameter. The nave is of a similar
width, and flanking it are two narrow aisles. Beyond
the nave and aisles there may have been a narrow narthex.
The city was supplied with water by a built aqueduct
which ran across the hill slopes to the E to reach a spring
source about a km away. On the NE extremity of the
city the aqueduct appears to have emptied into a large
built cistern with plastered walls. The city's cemeteries
lay to the W of the settlement. In the late Classical and
Hellenistic periods burials were in dug graves and cists
on a small headland. Roman burials were in built barrelvaulted tombs a little farther W.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. B. Spratt,
Travels and Researches in
Crete (1865) II 8; D. J. Blackman & K. Branigan, “An
Archaeological Survey on the South Coast of Crete,”
BSA
70 (1975)
PI.
K. BRANIGAN
