Excavations in the Hagios Charalambos Cave: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

The cave of Hagios Charalambos is a Minoan secondary ossuary in the Lasithi plain in the mountains of east-central Crete. It was excavated in two campaigns (1976-1983 and 2002-2003). Artifacts include pottery, figurines, seals, stone tools, metal tools and weapons, jewelry, and other objects buried with the deceased. The original burials range in date from Neolithic to Middle Minoan IIB, but the bones were all moved to the ossuary within a relatively short period in MM IIB. Some of the bones were partly sorted before their secondary deposition. The skulls indicate many traumas and three sophisticated trephinations, the earliest thus far known in Greece.