JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. T HE EARLY IRON AGE REMAINS at Vronda (Thunder Hill), a low ridge (421-427 m. above sea level) above the modern village of Kavousi in East Crete, have been known since Harriet Boyd (Hawes) excavated there in 1900.1 Led to the site by walls on the surface of the hill, Boyd uncovered a house and walls on the summit and a cemetery of eight small tholos tombs. Although the tombs and their contents were given preliminary publication by Boyd,2 the house and walls received only a brief description. Boyd excavated a space of 20 x 15 m. on the summit of the hill, uncovering a large house with a forecourt, the plan of which was too poorly preserved to be drawn. One room contained a hoard of iron tools, including a pick, an ax head, a complete sword in seven pieces, and numerous fragments.3 Below the summit on the southeast side of the hill she excavated an "excellent stretch of 1 H. Boyd, "Excavations at Kavousi, Crete, in 1900," AJA, 2nd ser., 5, 1901 (pp. 125-157), esp. pp. 131-136 ( Boyd, "Kavousi"). Other works frequently cited are abbreviated as follows: Brock cJ. K. Brock, Fortetsa, Early Greek Tombs near Knossos (BSA Supplementary Paper No. 2), Cambridge 1957 CMS II, i = N. Platon, Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel, II, Iraklion, Archdologisches Museum, i, Der Siegel der Vorpalastzeit, Berlin 1969 CMS II, v =I. Pini, Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel, II, Iraklion, Archdologisches Museum, v, Die Siegelabdrucke von Phdstos, Berlin 1970 Coldstream, "Knossos" = J. N. Coldstream, "Knossos 1951-1961: Protogeometric and Geometric Pottery from the Town," BSA 67, 1972, pp. 63-98 GGP -J. N. KAVOUSI, 1983-1984: THE SETTLEMENT AT VRONDA 357wall," 1.20 m. high and 13.0 m. long, and uphill from this a storeroom which contained parts of three large pithoi with molded serpentine patterns.4 Boyd dated these remains to a transitional period between the Bronze and Iron Ages, which she called "Submycenaean".5 No other specific information about the site was published.As part of their study of the Kavousi architecture and artifacts, the authors obtained permission to clean the settlement at Vronda.6 In the summers of 1983 and 1984 they were able to clean and plot a portion of the visible remains on the hill.7 In 1983 work concentrated on the southeast side of the hill, focusing on cleaning the storeroom identified by Boyd as lying between the House on the Summit (Building A) and the large wall on the east (Figs. 1, 3). Five rooms (Building B) were uncovered, along with a courtyard to t...
