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The island of Crete is especially known as home of the brilliant Minoan civilization (3000-1200 BC). At about 4 km east from the palace town at Malia, the remains of a 3500-year-old settlement were identified on a hill called Kephali, east of the village of Sissi. Located on the coast and on a crossroad of land routes, the site obviously was of strategic importance. Since 2007, it is being explored by the Belgian School at Athens and especially by the Université catholique de Louvain and the Aegis research group.
© Sissi Archaeological Project/EBSA
© Cyprus-Pyla Excavation Project
The Late Bronze Age settlement of Pyla-Kokkinokremos has, since its discovery in the early 1950s, occupied a prominent position in the debates surrounding the “collapse” of Bronze Age Mediterranean societies c. 1200 BC. The short-lived character of the site (founded towards the end the 13th c. BC and abandoned during the first quarter of the 12th c. BC), its exceptional “casemate” architecture reminiscent of Aegean defensible settlements (Kastrokephala, Malthi-Dorion), as well as its extraordinary material culture – including Minoan, Mycenaean, Sardinian, Levantine and Anatolian ceramic products – all contributed to give the site its particular status in the Late Cypriot IIC-IIIA settlement landscape.
At Malia, excavated under the auspices of the French School at Athens, Charlotte Langohr is responsible for the study of ceramic material from Quartier Pi, an excavation directed by Maia Pomadère (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne). In 2025, Maia Pomadère and Charlotte Langohr initiated a new excavation programme in Quartier Theta, a coastal sector of the Minoan settlement that may be connected with the as yet unexcavated Minoan harbour. Several members of Aegis are actively involved in this project. Roxane Dubois is also responsible fo the study of ceramic material from the sector of the Agora. This new project directed by Bastien Rueff proposes a renewed examination of the architecture and associated material culture - largely unpublished and currently stored in the site’s storerooms - in order to reconstruct the history of an urban sector situated at the heart of the Minoan town of Malia. Jan Driessen, in collaboration with Alexandre Farnoux (Université Paris-Sorbonne IV), conducted excavations of a substantial domestic complex at Malia, designated Quartier Nu and dating primarily to the advanced phase of the Late Bronze Age; its final publication is currently in preparation. A number of doctoral and postdoctoral research projects undertaken within Aegis have centred on the first-hand examination of material from Malia, including those carried out by Nikita Dauby, Roxane Dubois, Katerina Famprikatzi, Killian Regnier, and Jenny Tsafou.
© Malia and the Sea Project/EfA
© Palaikastro Archaeological Project/BSA
Palaikastro is an important urban centre in the very east of the island of Crete, excavated by the British School at Athens. Jan Driessen has worked at this site since the inception of the new excavations in 1983 and has been closely associated ever since, especially where architectural studies are concerned. Tim Cunningham participated in the publication of Building 1 and of Area 6 – the latter in close collaboration with Prof. Carl Knappett of the University of Toronto. Charlotte Langohr and Quentin Letesson are also involved in the publication of Building 7 and Maud Devolder is involved in the publication of Building 5, two of the forthcoming publications.
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