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Fig. 1. The 2025 excavation team (G. McGuire, © EBSA)
14TH EXCAVATION CAMPAIGN AT SISSI
14TH EXCAVATION CAMPAIGN AT SISSI
The 14th excavation campaign at Sissi took place from July 28th to August 22nd 2025 under the direction of Jan Driessen and the auspices of the Belgian School at Athens, and by a team of students and researchers from the UCLouvain and other universities (KU Leuven, Gent University, University of Hamburg) and four local workmen (Fig. 1).
Fig. 2. Sissi 2025 (north to the left). Court Building. Situation at the end of the 2025 campaign. Yellow stars indicate tests made in 2025. The Central Court and cistern in the southwest wing have been covered with geotextile (G. Storder, ©EBSA)
On the field, major tests took place in the north and south wing of the Court Building, like in 2024 (Fig. 2). More evidence for tephra from the Santorini eruption has been potentially discovered in the North Wing (Fig. 3). A test along the Court Building’s North Façade revealed an earlier level including a south-facing façade which seems to belong to a separate, earlier building. Although only a small stretch of it was excavated, there was especially Protopalatial pottery as well as considerable fragments of coloured plaster (red, blue, white) (Fig. 4). Continuous exploration of the lowest level in the South Wing revealed more small rooms of a single architectural complex with a different orientation and primary destruction deposits of a Protopalatial (MM IIB) date.
Financial aid this campaign came from the Belgian School in Athens, the Fonds National de Recherche Scientifique, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the ARC Talos, the UCLouvain (INCAL-CEMA), as well as a series of private sponsors.
Fig. 3. Court Building, North Wing. Eastern face of the stratigraphic section preserved beneath the FE704 blocking. The grey tephra layer is clearly visible (P. Bacoup, © EBSA)
Fig. 4. Court Building, North Façade. Field consolidation and sampling of painted plaster by Pepi Saridaki (P. Bacoup, © EBSA)
Fig. 6. Sissi apothiki, Birgit Konnemann at work (C. Langohr; © EBSA)
Fig. 6. Sissi apothiki, study and conservation of Late Minoan IA ceramic deposits from the Court Building and funerary Zone 18 (C. Langohr; © EBSA)
STUDY CAMPAIGN AT THE SISSI APOTHIKI
STUDY CAMPAIGN AT THE SISSI APOTHIKI
The study season started on May 12th at the Sissi apothiki and continued till the end of September.
Pepi Saridaki and Birgit Konnemann continued with, respectively, the conservation and drawing of the finds from the previous campaigns (Fig. 5), while Guillaume Storder, Vassiliki Barka and Ava Vanhoof supervised the systematic checking, management and inventory of the archaeological material stored in our research laboratory (ca. 15.800 objects, 35.500 samples, 9990 bags of ceramic sherd material corresponding to various kinds of stratigraphic units).
Ilaria Caloi (U. Ca’Foscari Venice), together with Aurore Schmitt (CNRS/U. of Montpellier), accompanied by G. Salvadori, D. Aquino and A. Sanavia, completed the ceramic study of Burial Building 9, the first volume in the final publication series of Sissi.
Charlotte Langohr (FNRS/UCLouvain) focused on completing the ceramic studies of Building CD, the second volume in the final publication series of Sissi. Nikita Dauby (FNRS/UCLouvain) focused on Late Minoan IA ceramic deposits from the Court Building and Zone 18 in particular (Fig. 6). About 50 samples of ceramic vessels as representative of the typo-morphologic repertoire and different chaines opératoires were selected and a demand of permit for petrographic, chemical and mineralogical analyses has been submitted to the Eforia of Lasithi. Anastasia Solomou (FNRS/UCLouvain/Montpellier) studied the children’s bones from the cemetery, in particular of Burial Building 9.
Paul Bacoup (Postdoc FSR/UCLouvain) examined burnt fragments of architectural clay elements and timber charcoal samples from several deposits, identifying various types of wooden elements of different sizes and species, mainly for roof and ceiling elements (Fig. 7). Sarah Georgel-Debedde (U. Paris I) conducted an initial macro-trace examination of Protopalatial, Neopalatial, and Postpalatial pithoi from Sissi with a view to study their manufacturing techniques from a diachronic perspective (Fig. 8).
Our other collaborators also continued the study of ground stone tools and vases (Christina Tsoraki), textile implements (Agata Ulanowska), and faunal material (Valasia Isaakidou).
Fig. 7. Paul Bacoup examining wood imprints in burnt fragments of architectural clay elements from early Neopalatial (MM IIIA) deposits in Zone 8 (C. Langohr; © EBSA)
Fig. 8. Sarah Georgel-Debedde conducting an analysis of forming techniques of Postpalatial pithoi from Sissi (C. Langohr; © EBSA)
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