Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi
The Necropolis of Armenoi (1390-1190 BCE), situated on the NW coast of Crete, 10 km. south and above the town of Rethymnon, is the only intact necropolis that dates to this period and the preservation of the finds and the human skeletal remains is outstanding. Work at the Necropolis commenced in 1969 and continues under the direction of Dr. Yannis Tzedakis. To date two hundred and thirty-two chamber tombs of varying sizes have been revealed. The abundance and artistic excellence of the artefacts found in the tombs is extraordinary. They include in excess of eight hundred decorated vases, seven hundred undecorated and coarse vessels, and three hundred and fifty bronzes. They include thirty-four decorated larnakes (sarcophagi), two of which are polychrome. Unique finds are a stirrup jar with a Linear B inscription, a boar's tooth helmet, and a reed basket decorated with bronze nails. The tombs contained the human remains of approximately one thousand individuals. A range of biomolecular analyses (organic residue analysis and stable isotope analysis) was conducted on material from the Necropolis of Armenoi as part of a project directed by Tzedakis and Martlew which covered sixteen Bronze Age Greek sites. The results of the scientific work, in which the Necropolis of Armenoi featured prominently, were incorporated in an exhibition that was mounted in seven international museums.
We undertook biochemical analysis (collagen extraction and isotope analysis) of the sample used for DNA analysis (ARM 503) to assess its state of preservation. The bone was well preserved, with a collagen yield of 6%, and carbon and nitrogen isotope values of d13C=-19.8 ‰ and d15N= 7.4 ‰.
Sample
• Armenoi 503 (I9123, 89 I): Female adult from Tomb 160 (LM III A2, ca. 1370-1340 BCE).
Tzedakis, Y and Martlew, H. (eds.) (1999). Minoans and Mycenaeans Flavours of their Time. Kapon Editions, Athens, Greece.
Tzedakis, Y, Martlew, H. and M. Jones (eds.) (2008). Archaeology Meets Science: Biomolecular Investigations in Bronze Age Greece. Oxbow Books, Oxford, U.K.