PRINIAS
Malevizi, Crete.
A modern village
near the site of an ancient city in central Crete. The
“patela” is a fiat-topped steep-sided acropolis (686 m)
just N of the main watershed and dominating the two
main N-S passes across the E foothills of Ida. Accessible
only from the W, it had a mainly unfortified perimeter
and measures ca. 230 x 560 m. The site has generally
been identified with Rhizenia/Rhittenia (see Guarducci),
but a plausible case has been made for Apollonia
(Faure); either way it was probably normally subject
to Gortyn in Classical and Hellenistic times. The excavations date to 1906-8 and since 1969.
Apart from a few Neolithic finds the earliest traces
of occupation are of the latest Minoan period (LM III);
evidence of early post-Minoan occupation has recently
been increased by discovery at nearby Siderospilia of
Proto-Geometric tholos tombs with inhumations and a
Geometric cremation cemetery. Also of these periods is
an important deposit of votive terracottas and vases
found near the E edge of the plateau, including types with
antecedents of the end of the Minoan period (female
figures with cylindrical skirt and raised arms, sometimes
with snakes; tall clay tubes with vertical rows of loop
handles). A small enclosure found nearby against the
rock formed the sanctuary of this snake-goddess, whose
cult seems to last from Subminoan to late archaic times.
The site's most important remains are of the archaic
period. Roughly in the middle of the plateau are the
poorly preserved remains, close together, of two 7th
c. temples. The more northerly (A: 9.7 x ca. 6 m) has
a nearly rectangular elongated cella entered through a
single door from a pronaos to the E with a single central square pier in antis. In the center of the cella is a
slab-lined rectangular sacrificial pit on hearth, on each
side of which stood a single (probably wooden) column
on the central longitudinal axis. Many pieces were found
of the limestone frieze (originally situated on the facade
or at socle level) carved with horsemen in relief, and of
two (later?) female statues each seated on a chair on the
end of a sculpted architrave, probably from the upper
part of the cella door (reconstr. in Iraklion Mus.): major
works of Daedalic art. Temple B to the S was built in a
similar technique but with dissimilar and less regular
plan (ca. 18 x ca. 5.5 m); it had an opithodomos in addition, full of storage vessels, and both cella and pronaos
had a central door on the E. Like A the cella had a hearth
with an offering table at its W end, and a libation basin
in the NW corner. Like the somewhat earlier Dreros
temple (q.v.), these temples represent an early type
deriving from the Mycenaean meganon with certain
Minoan features added; the architectural order is not yet
cleanly defined. The cult seems not to have outlasted the
archaic period.
A number of archaic house foundations have been
found on the plateau. At its SW side, W of the temples, is
a rectangular Hellenistic (probably 2d c.) fort, with
square towers projecting from the corners, interior
dimensions 40 x 36 m and entrance on the cliff edge at
the SE corner. Reused in its walls were blocks bearing
early inscriptions and primitive (7th c.) funerary stelai
incised with a hoplite or female figure. Inside and round
the fort were found many arrowheads and other iron
weapons, and sling-bullets of lead.
Inscribed sherds (2d c.) attest a cult of Athena. No
coins have been found at the site, which seems to have
been gradually depopulated in the Hellenistic period and
has little sign of city life after the 2d c. B.C. If the site
was Apollonia, settlement probably largely moved to its
port (of the same name) near modern Gazi, just W of
Iraklion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Halbherr,
AJA 11 1st ser. (1896)
530-31; id.,
AJA 5 (1901) 399ff
I; id.,
RendLinc 14
(1905) 401-4; A. Taramelli,
MonAnt 9 (1899) 328-34
I;
L. Pernier,
RendLinc 16 (1907) 301-3; id., “Di una
città ellenica arcaica scoperta a Creta dalla missione
italiana,”
BdA 2 (1908) 441-62
I; id., “Vestigia di una città ellenica arcaica in Creta,”
MemIstLombardo 22
(1910) 53-62; (1912) 213-26
MI; id., “Templi arcaici sulla
patèla di Prinià's,”
ASAtene 1 (1914) 18-111
MPI; id.,
“New elements for the study of the Archaic Temple of
Prinias,”
AJA 38 (1934) 171-77
PI; id. & L. Banti,
Guida degli scavi italiani in Creta (1947) 75-80; M.
Guarducci,
ICr I (1935) 3-4, 294-302; id.,
Historia 7
(1933) 363-70; 8 (1934) 71-77; E. Kirsten, “Rhizenia,”
RE Suppl. VII (1940) 1138-53
P; M. P. Nilsson,
The
Minoan-Mycenaean Religion (2d ed., 1950); P. Faure,
KretChron 17 (1963) 16-17, 22-24; id.,
BCH 91 (1967)
131; G. Rizza, “Nuove ricerche sulla Patela e nel territorio di Prinias,”
Chronache di Arch. e di Storia
dell'Arte 8 (1969) 7-32; reports in
BCH 84 (1960) 840;
94 (1970) 1161; 95 (1971) 1055-56;
Deltion 24 (1969)
Chronika 2, 414; 25 (1970)
Chronika 2, 454.
D. J. BLACKMAN
