GREECE CRETE LASITHI MOCHLOS MAINLAND CEMETERY

Following earlier work by N. Papadakis in 1986, the UNCG excavations since 1993 uncovered a Late Minoan cemetery on the slopes of a hill just outside the modern village. It consists of more than 30 chamber tombs, most of them with a dromos, a stomion and an irregular chamber cut into the rock with a diameter between 1.3 m and 3 m. According to the location chosen for the cemetery, the tomb entrances on the downhill side face the bay to the west of Mochlos, a few tombs overlooking the islet on the north.

Below: plan of the mainland LM III cemetery. - At the site, some tombs have numbers painted on the rock. For the other tombs, the numbers of the UNCG publication were used here in the form U nn (with nn standing for any number). The few tombs not included in the UNCG plan and not marked at the site are noted here as N nn.

All the tombs were unplundered and could be dated to the LM III period (ca. 1400-1250 BC), thus relating this cemetery to the LM III settlement on the islet. In most tombs, one or two burials were found in painted terracotta sarcophagi or in pithoi, accompanied by a large variation of vessels or ritual objects as grave gifts.

Above left: The northern end of the cemetery with a view to the islet. - Above right: Tomb N7, looking to the South. - Below left: Tombs U5, U4, U3, U2 (from right to left, all in the UNCG map), looking North-East. - Below right: The neighbouring tombs U6 and 7 with long dromoi and connected chambers.