Pseira VII: The Pseira Cemetery II. Excavation of the Tombs

Richard B Seager excavated the Minoan cemetery on Pseira, a small island off the northeast coast of Crete, in 1907. This work, however, was never published. More recently, the Temple University excavations (1985-1994) under the direction of Philip P Betancourt and Costis Davaras conducted an intensive surface survey of the cemetery area, cleaned and drew plans of all the visible tombs, and excavated tombs that had not been previously excavated. The results of these new excavations are published in two volumes. This volume, Pseira VII reports on the excavation and cleaning of the 19 tombs that still exist at the Pseira cemetery. The cemetery is remarkable for the diversity of its tomb types. Burials were in cist graves built of vertical slabs, in small tombs constructed of fieldstones, in house tombs, and in jars, and burials were communal, as is usual in Minoan cemeteries. The artefacts included clay vases, stone vessels, obsidian, bronze tools, jewellery, and other objects.