Itanos
Sign in to saveItanus or Itanos () was a Greek city and port on the northeast coast of ancient Crete, on the promontory which the Romans called Itanum, the neuter form of Itanus, Latin for Greek Itanos. The base of the tripartite northeast promontory, today called Cape Sideros, is still called Itanos or Itano in modern Greek.
Key facts
- Ancient site.name
- Itanos
- Ancient site.native_name
- Ἴτανος
- Ancient site.native_name_lang
- el
- Ancient site.alternate_name
- Itanus (Latin)
- Ancient site.image
- File:Itanos R05.jpg
- Ancient site.image_size
- 300px
- Ancient site.caption
- Looking northward from the east akropolis over the beach and bay of Eremoupolis, with Itanos promontory in the background. The ground of the "deserted city" appears bare of vegetation except for overgrown mounds containing structural remains.
- Ancient site.map
- File:Location of Itanos.JPG
- Ancient site.map_caption
- Location of ancient Itanos in the municipal unit of Itanos (red area). The yellow area is the remainder of the Municipality of Siteia.
- Ancient site.map_size
- 300px
- Ancient site.region
- Lasithi Regional UnitSitia MunicipalityItanos Municipal Unit (2011)
- Ancient site.type
- Ancient Greek port city
- Ancient site.part_of
- Cape Sidero promontory, NE Crete
- Ancient site.area
- Maximum territory:
- Ancient site.discovered
- 1884
- Ancient site.archaeologists
- Primarily French School at Athens
- Ancient site.condition
- Subsurface ruins except for excavated features
- Ancient site.ownership
- Hellenic Republic
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
22 sectionsContents
- History
- Bronze Age and earlier
- Geometric, archaic, and classical periods
- Herodotean first mention
- Itanos and the geographers
- Coins of Itanus
- Hellenistic period
- The Hellenistic inscriptions of Itanus
- Archaeological site
- History of archaeological investigation
- British mission
- Italian mission
- French missions
- The collaborative missions
- Itanos Archaeological Survey
- Plan of the city
- Gallery
- Maps
- Notes
- Citations
- Reference bibliography
- External links
Itanus or Itanos () was a Greek city and port on the northeast coast of ancient Crete, on the promontory which the Romans called Itanum, the neuter form of Itanus, Latin for Greek Itanos. The base of the tripartite northeast promontory, today called Cape Sideros, is still called Itanos or Itano in modern Greek.
Occupation of the promontory began as early as the Final Neolithic, according to the archaeology. The site of the city itself, however, became inhabited in the Geometric Period of the 8th century BC. This city flourished independently of other Cretan powers, playing a leading role in the trade of the region, even becoming, for a while, a protectorate of Ptolemaic Egypt. It became part of the Roman province of Crete, and later Christian buildings were erected. For unclear reasons it was abandoned in the 7th century AD after a life of about 1400 years. The location was lost. Archaeologists were able to locate it in the 19th century. Recently it has become a subject in ground-breaking technologies of sub-surface surveying.