KISAMOS
(Kalami) Apokoronas district, Crete.
The existence of two cities of this name on the N
coast of Crete on either side of Kydonia is proved by
the
Peutinger Table, which mentions both and puts this
one 8 miles E of Kydonia. This one must be the Kisamos
referred to by Strabo (
10.4.13) as the harbor of Aptera.
Although it is usually located at or close to Kalyves,
4.5 km E-SE of Aptera, where Roman and later sherds
have been found, a strong case has now been made for
locating it at Kalami, on the coast by the former
Fort Izzedin, immediately below Aptera and just inside (W of) the now sunken
porporella (the Venetian
harbor defense mole). Kalami is 8 miles (12.8 km) from
Kydonia, nearer to Aptera than Kalyves and more sheltered, and has house foundations, traces of quays, and
Classical as well as Roman sherds. A dependency of
Aptera, the city had no history of its own. (The Kalyves
site may be ancient Tanos.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Pashley,
Travels in Crete I (1837;
repr. 1970) 48-49, 54-55; Bürchner, “Kisamos (2),”
RE
XI (1922) 516; M. Guarducci,
RivFC (NS) 14 (1936)
158-62; J.D.S. Pendlebury,
Archaeology of Crete (1939)
21-22; M. Guarducci,
ICr II (1939) 9-11; P. Faure,
KretChron 13 (1959) 184, 201; id.,
BCH 84 (1960) 206-9;
id.,
KretChron 17 (1963) 24; S. G. Spanakis,
Kriti II
(n.d.) 190, 192-93 (in Greek); Brit. Adm. Chart, 1658.
D. J. BLACKMAN
