Foundations in Stone

Over the centuries, the architecture and structural remains of Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine Crete have attracted the attention of many travellers as they have journeyed around the island. For some, this experience came as a result of Crete featuring as part of the Grand Tour during the 17th–19th centuries as visitors to the island viewed buildings and the remains of urban areas that have now become lost to us, and for which we must rely surviving journal entries, sketches and drawings of the likes of those of the Italian physician, naturalist and antiquarian, Onorio Belli, who visited Roman theatres around Crete in the 1580s. His observations, sketches and plans, like those of other travellers, remain an important part of research and investigation today. Parts of this landscape, though much more fragmented, were visible to I.F. Sanders and recorded in his 1982 foundational work, Roman Crete: An Archaeological Survey and Gazetteer of Late Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine Crete, though at the time, the lack of research, investigation and publication restricted his appraisal, dating and a detailed discussion of the architecture for these periods.

This third volume in the Cretan Studies series reopens this discussion by examining some of the new research, investigation and field studies on urban, rural and coastal sites and monuments across the island. As demonstrated by the articles in this volume, these are giving us a much more informed understanding of the architecture and the construction industry for the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine periods.