Mesara Plain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mesara Plain is the name of an illuvial plain in southern Crete, to the east of and overlooked by the ruins of Minoan Phaistos.[1] It stretches for about 50 km, with a width of about seven km. Since 1500 BC the plain has grown up to 6km due to a build up of illuvial sediment. Clays from the Mesara have been found to be the source of significant amounts of Cretan Minoan pottery; soil and rock types from the fringes of the Mesara, particularly the foothills of the Asterousia Mountains at the south and the foothills to the north within the Psiloritis Mountains.[2] Alternatively this landform is known as the Messara Plain.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ C.Michael Hogan, Phaistos Fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian (2007)
  2. ^ Joseph W. Shaw, A Lm Ia Ceramic Kiln in South-Central Crete: Function and Pottery Production, 2001, ASCSA, 172 pages ISBN 0876615302

[edit] Literature

  • Livingstone Vance Watrous, Plain of Phaistos: Cycles of Social Complexity in the Mesara Region of Crete, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA (2006), ISBN 1-931745-14-5.


 This Greece-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.