‘Contextualisation of three ports of the Hellenistic and Roman periods on Crete’
Even with increasing interest in Hellenistic and Roman Crete the story of the settlements that once lined the coastline remains untold. These settlements, many of which have been destroyed by the advance of urban and tourist development or by coastal erosion, played an important part in Hellenistic...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English English |
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2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39813/ |
| Summary: | Even with increasing interest in Hellenistic and Roman Crete the story of the settlements that once lined the coastline remains untold. These settlements, many of which have been destroyed by the advance of urban and tourist development or by coastal erosion, played an important part in Hellenistic and Roman Crete. All three of the harbours in this study can trace their origins back to the Archaic and Classical periods when the coastal settlements apparently prospered.
This comparative study of Hierapytna, Hersonissos and Phalasarna during the Hellenistic and Roman periods looks at these harbours and urban centres through two periods of change. It begins by showing how these harbour towns developed under a city-state system of control and in an environment that was politically and competitively challenging and where investment in harbour facilities was clearly limited in comparison to the previous periods and then goes on to look at the build-up and arrival of another period of prosperity based on the benefits of being a Roman province in the late first to third centuries C.E.
The study considers the development of each harbour town assessing the written, epigraphical and archaeological evidence and examines the similarities and differences between each of these harbours and their areas of urban occupation. The study reveals that whilst the evidence today for the harbour and urban areas is very limited (except possibly for Phalasarna) it is possible to assess these harbour towns and the changes that took place within them. Particularly in the case of Hierapytna it also shows how much the landscape has changed since the last century as urban development has expanded and an entire ancient city and its harbour has been lost. |
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