Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

with whom they had commercial dealings,
but, despite their repeated appeals for help,
in 146 B.C. Ierapetra succeeded in destroying
the city. In decline and no longer
independent, in 58 B.C. Pressos was
occupied by the Romans who partially
rebuilt the city. However it had, lost all its
power.
The Minoans and Eteocretans of these
lands chose a "holy mountain" to take their
votive offerings to the gods. The most
imposing of these peak sanctuaries is found
on the mountain of Prinias, which is very
difficult to scale because defended by a very
steep wall of jagged rocks on its western
face and by a
deep gorge on
the east. In the
past shepherds,
farmers and
townsfolk
climbed as far as
the summit
carrying offerings
of figurines and
objects in
terracotta, bronze
and gold which
were deposited in
a sacred enclosure or hidden in the cracks
between the rocks.
The mountain-top sanctuaries were not
always situated on the highest mountain
peaks. Even low hills which were unusual in
form or simply emerged from flat terrain
could function as holy mountains for the
population: for example the little mount
Katrinia at Piskokephala, nowadays
cultivated with olive groves and vineyards,
and the low ridge of Alia, crowned with
a small white church between Sykia and
Papagianades, where many votive offerings
have been found (now exhibited in the
museums of Sitia and Ayios Nikolaos).
At Prinias in
particular there
a large number of
horned scarabs in
clay have been
found, the rinoceros
orytes commonly
known as
"rhinoceros scarab"
and believed, in the
"household" cults,
to be talismanic.
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