The Director of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens invites you to attend the Annual Open Meeting of the Institute with an introduction on the work of the Institute 2020, and a lecture by Dr Alan Peatfield (University College Dublin), “The Petsofas Peak Sanctuary: A Prelude” Thursday, 29th April 2021 5pm (Ireland) / 7pm (Greece)

Abstract

The peak sanctuary of Petsofas in East Crete was the first Minoan peak sanctuary to be investigated, in 1903 by John Myres. Rightly or wrongly, Petsofas became the definitive site by which all other peak sanctuaries are compared or contrasted. As a consequence, Petsofas seems to be the peak sanctuary about which we know most. We are discovering however, that this familiar site is unexpectedly enigmatic.

In 1971 and 1976, Costis Davaras himself excavated Petsofas as part of a programme of explorations of the peak sanctuaries in East Crete. The material from all of Davaras's excavations is now the heart of the East Cretan Peak Sanctuaries Project wherein Christine Morris and I are committed to bring all this material to publication. As we complete the writing of Prinias, we have turned to Petsofas. In the past two years we have gathered and organised the material in preparation for a major study. Even with this preliminary work we have realised that Petsofas is a richer and more complex site than previously realised. It is this glimpsed complexity that we propose to share with you in this lecture.

Please register via Eventbrite below and you will receive the Zoom link to attend the lecture nearer the time

Email for any further information: irishinstitutegr@gmail.com