Orientations of Tombs in the Late-Minoan Cemetery at Armenoi, Crete

The village of Armenoi lies some ten kilometres south of the port of Rhethymnon on the north coast of Crete, in a hilly region situated on a north-south axis of the island. The region is bordered by areas where the Minoan civilization is known to have flourished, notably Mastabas-Rhethymnon ' and the plain of Agios Vasilios.' Near the village, on a low eminence just west of Mt Vrysinas, is a very remarkable Late Minoan cemetery, with numerous tombs cut deep into the 'kouskouras' limestone bedrock. Curiously, it is not known where the people buried here actually lived surface surveys and two test excavations, at nearby Kastalos and Somatas, have failed to locate what must have been a substantial settlement. Excavation of the Armenoi tombs (by Dr Iannis Tzedakis) began in 1969,' and the cemetery (which extends over an area of some 35 acres) now ranks as the greatest of the Late Minoan II-IIIB Period (1450-1190 B.C.). The earliest of the tombs so far dated is no. 200, which was in use during the second half of the fifteenth century B.C .•4 but this tomb is exceptional, being underground but of corbelled 'tholos' construction. All the rest are chamber tombs cut into the bedrock (Figures I and 2), and date from the late fifteenth, and more especially from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries. So far, 216 tombs have been excavated.' Some forty more tombs are known, and the final total might reach as high as three hundred. The site was carefully planned, with paved paths and some level1ing of the ground. Here and there the grain of the rock proved difficult to work, and a tomb was left unfinished. These unfinished tombs give clear evidence of the sequence of construction. First, the dromos (consisting of a ramp or steps) was cut into the rock, with carefully-fashioned sides that incline inwards a little as they rise from their base; these sides are normal1y straight and paral1el and so the typical dromos has a very wel1-defined orientation. When the dromos was complete, the outline of the entrance was incised into the rock-face at the end of the drornos, and the chamber (usual1y circular or horse-shoe in shape) cut away. A dromos is typically between 1m and 2.5m in width and between 3.5m and 7m in length (although some are longer one prestige tomb has a dromos no less than 16 metres long). Occasionally a niche is built into a sidewall. The tombs appear to have served for family burials, and in some the remains