Palaikastro
Palaikastro is an important urban centre in the very east of the island of Crete, excavated by the British School at Athens. J. 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 is very much occupied with the publication of Building 1 and of Area 6 – the latter in close collaboration with Prof. Carl Knappett of the University of Toronto who was on sabbatical at the UCL during much of the winter of 2007-2008. 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.
The Kouros Of Palaikastro
The Palaikastro Kouros is the earliest known example of a chryselephantine statue, an artistic technique renowned in Archaic and Classical Greece. Dated to the 15th c. BC (Late Minoan IB), it was found as heavily burned fragments during the 1987, 1988 and 1990 excavation campaigns at Palaikastro and, once restored, published in detail in the volume: J.A. MacGillivray, J. Driessen & L.H. Sackett, The Palaikastro Kouros. A Minoan Chryselephantine Statue and its Aegean Bronze Age Context, (British School at Athens Studies, 6), London, 2000 (with contributions by C.V. Crowther, P. Harrison, S.A. Hemingway, R.B. Koehl, M.S. Moak, A. Moraïtou, J. Musgrave, A. Nikakis, S.E. Thorne, J. Weingarten).
Since its discovery, there has been plenty of discussion on its taphonomy and the circumstances and reasons for its destruction. Now, new digital technologies may help to provide an explanation. In collaboration with the Cyprus Institute and the research group APAC (M. Polig, V. Vasallo) of Prof. S. Hermon and EFALAS (C. Sofianou, K. Zervaki), the application of a non-invasive and non-destructive 3D documentation technique using a structured-light scanner was performed.
Full text on the Talos website
The Kouros of Palaikastro