NEW EVIDENCE FOR WINE PRODUCTION IN EAST CRETE IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD. CONFIRMATION THROUGH THIN-SECTION PETROGRAPHY

• N. Vogeikoff - Brogan (American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 54 Souidias str., Athens 10676, Greece)

Most historians would argue that the trade of the Cretan wine did not start until the 1st century BC with the advent of the Romans. Although a small number of Hellenistic stamped amphora handles from Hierapytna have been found in Alexandria, historians have dismissed the material as evidence for substantial off-island trade of Cretan wine. Recently, however, the presentation of a number of deposits from several sites in East and Central Crete (Mochlos, Pyrgos Myrtos, Agios Nikolaos, and Knossos) has brought new evidence for the production of wine amphoras in Crete during the Late Hellenistic period (late 2nd/early 1st c. BC); petrographic analysis has confirmed the Cretan origin of the amphoras from Mochlos and Pyrgos Myrtos in East Crete and from Knossos in Central Crete.

In a recent conference on "Transport Amphorae and Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean", I argued that there is substantial evidence for production of local wine amphoras in East Crete as early as the 3rd century BC. The excavations at Trypetos, near modern Siteia, have yielded a number of transport amphoras made of a fabric very similar to that found in the nearby prehistoric excavations at Petras. The Petras fabric has been analysed with thin-section petrography and is consistent with the local geology. An application has been made to conduct petrographic analysis to a number of ceramic samples from the so-called "local" transport amphoras from Trypetos, at the newly established William MacDonald Petrographic Laboratory at the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it will discuss the results of the forthcoming petrographic analysis, which hopefully will confirm that the production of wine amphoras in East Crete begins in the 3rd century BC. Second, it will compare the substance of the Hellenistic fabric from Trypetos with that of the Minoan fabric from Petras; the two fabrics, as mentioned above, appear quite similar macroscopically and might be confusing to future surveys of the area, which base most of their dating on fabric analysis.