Kavousi Kastro

The Kastro is best known as a defensible “refuge” settlement of the “Greek Dark Ages”, inhabited from the early 12th to the mid-7th centuries BCE.

Most of the visible architectural remains on the site belong to the Late Geometric–Early Orientalizing phases of occupation (8th to 7th centuries BCE).

[2] Its long sequence of continuous occupation and stratified remains of architecture, floor surfaces, fills, and ceramic deposits provide important insights into domestic activities, architecture, and social organization of a community throughout the entire Early Iron Age, but before the transition to larger urban centers in the Archaic period (6th century BCE), such as at nearby Azoria.

Coulson (University of Minnesota; later, American School of Classical Studies at Athens), cleaned the site in 1982 in preparation for balloon photography for The Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete.

Full-scale excavations under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the 24th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Greek Archaeological Service, and with permission from the Greek Ministry of Culture, were conducted at both Kavousi Kastro and Kavousi Vronda from 1987–1990 and in 1992, followed by site conservation from 1993 to 1996, and study from 1990 to 2003.