Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Excavator · Archaeologist · Antiquities official · Scholar

Costis Davaras

fl. 1962–2002 · Greece

Greek excavator and archaeologist, active 1962–2002. Excavated with Philip P. Betancourt; worked with J. S. Soles and Metaxia Tsipopoulou.

Life and work

  1. 1962
    Collected the two bull figurines (INA 132, 133) from Inatos Cave, which were confiscated from an antiquities looter in 1962.

    Athanasia Kanta; Costis Davaras; Philip P. Betancourt, Honors to Eileithyia at Ancient Inatos: The Sacred Cave at Tsoutsouros, Crete: Highlights of the Collection (2022), p. 130

  2. 1968
    Ephor of antiquities for eastern Crete and author of a 1968 study of the Atsalenio Geometric tombs near Knossos.

    Joanne M. A. Murphy; Jerolyn E. Morrison, Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance: Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles (2022), p. xxii

  3. 1968
    Author of this 1968 study of the Atsalenio geometric tombs near Knossos, describing and comparing the pottery motives of the tomb vases.

    Two Geometric Tombs at Atsalenio near Knossos (1968), p. 146

  4. 1971
    Excavated the Phatsi Droggara necropolis (Chamaizi, Siteia) in 1971, where Tomb V containing the Cypriot bowl was found.

    Giampaolo Graziadio; Riccardo Guglielmino; Valeria Lenuzza; Salvatore Vitale, Φιλική Συναυλία: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology for Mario Benzi (2013), p. 165

  5. 1985–1987
    Published the excavation of the Hagios Nikolaos cemetery tombs with coins and gold jewellery, in ArchEph 1985 [1987].

    Adriana Calinescu, Ancient Jewelry and Archaeology (1996), p. 143

  6. 1995
    Co-authored Mochlos excavation report and the article on a new Oriental cylinder seal from Mochlos (ArchEph 1995).

    Tracey Cullen, Aegean Prehistory: A Review (2001), p. 217

  7. Undated
    Greek archaeologist and ephor of antiquities in eastern Crete who excavated the Phatsi Droggara necropolis, where a Cypriot bowl was found in Tomb V, co-published an Oriental cylinder seal from Mochlos and catalogued a steatite seal of possible Cypriot origin.

    Giampaolo Graziadio, The Aegean and Cyprus: Interaction Between Two Distinct Cultural Mediterranean Areas from the Third Millennium to Ca 1200 BC (2025), p. 118

  8. Undated
    Gave kind permission for sampling of Early Bronze Age artefacts from Aghia Photia, Crete, used in this lead isotope study.

    Chris Scarre; Frances Healy, Trade and Exchange in Prehistoric Europe: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Bristol, April 1992 (1993), p. 128

  9. Undated
    Excavated two Geometric tombs at Atsalenio near Knossos whose finds included Cretan-Cypriot oinochoai and lekythoi, and wrote on Cretan sculpture and a Minoan ship model.

    GALLOU CHRYSANTHI THE MINOAN CULT OF DEATH 2002 (2002)

  10. Undated
    Excavated the two Atsalenio tombs north of Knossos, cited as the source for those tombs.

    Vyron Antoniadis, Knossos and the Near East: A Contextual Approach to Imports and Imitations in Early Iron Age Tombs (2017), p. 39

  11. Undated
    Placed the Gulediana seated statue among his Ripe Dedalic I sculptures, shortly after the middle of the seventh century, and showed its throne type is found in Egyptian statuary.

    Lauren Adams, Orientalizing Sculpture in Soft Limestone from Crete and Mainland Greece (1978), p. 64

  12. Undated
    Described a circular kiln with stoking hole of probable LM I date found 300 m S.E. of Roussolakos at Palaikastro, judged a potter's kiln.

    R.E. Jones; J. Boardman; H.W. Catling; C.B. Mee; W.W. Phelps; A.M. Pollard, Greek and Cypriot Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies (1986), p. 250

  13. Undated
    Re-assessed and accepted the eschatological interpretation of ships in funerary contexts when publishing a Middle Minoan I terracotta ship model from the Mitsotakis Collection.

    Chrysanthi Gallou, The Mycenaean Cult of the Dead (2005), p. 44

  14. Undated

In the field

1 record

Hagios Charalambos cave

Connections

3 people
Philip P. BetancourtJ. S. SolesMetaxia TsipopoulouCostis Davaras
FieldworkColleagues

Colleagues & contacts

Mentioned in

12 mentions

Sources

  1. 1.Stephania Chlouveraki, Philip P. Betancourt, Costis Davaras, Heidi M. C. Dierckx et al. (2008). “Excavations in the Hagios Charalambos Cave: A Preliminary Report”. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 77, 539-605. American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Online
  2. 2.Giampaolo Graziadio, The Aegean and Cyprus: Interaction Between Two Distinct Cultural Mediterranean Areas from the Third Millennium to Ca 1200 BC (2025).
  3. 3.Giampaolo Graziadio; Riccardo Guglielmino; Valeria Lenuzza; Salvatore Vitale, Φιλική Συναυλία: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology for Mario Benzi (2013).
  4. 4.Tracey Cullen, Aegean Prehistory: A Review (2001).
  5. 5.Athanasia Kanta; Costis Davaras; Philip P. Betancourt, Honors to Eileithyia at Ancient Inatos: The Sacred Cave at Tsoutsouros, Crete: Highlights of the Collection (2022).
  6. 6.Adriana Calinescu, Ancient Jewelry and Archaeology (1996).
  7. 7.Chris Scarre; Frances Healy, Trade and Exchange in Prehistoric Europe: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Bristol, April 1992 (1993).
  8. 8.GALLOU CHRYSANTHI THE MINOAN CULT OF DEATH 2002 (2002).
  9. 9.Vyron Antoniadis, Knossos and the Near East: A Contextual Approach to Imports and Imitations in Early Iron Age Tombs (2017).
  10. 10.Lauren Adams, Orientalizing Sculpture in Soft Limestone from Crete and Mainland Greece (1978).
  11. 11.R.E. Jones; J. Boardman; H.W. Catling; C.B. Mee; W.W. Phelps; A.M. Pollard, Greek and Cypriot Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies (1986).
  12. 12.Chrysanthi Gallou, The Mycenaean Cult of the Dead (2005).
  13. 13.Laura-Concetta Rizzotto, "Sein Zum Tode..." Untersuchungen zu den gesellschaftlichen Strukturen anhand der Nekropolen und Gräber der protogeometrischen und geometrischen Epoche aus Mitt (2015).
  14. 14.Joanne M. A. Murphy; Jerolyn E. Morrison, Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance: Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles (2022).
  15. 15.Two Geometric Tombs at Atsalenio near Knossos (1968).
  16. 16.Stephania Chlouveraki et al., 2008, Excavations in the Hagios Charalambos Cave: A Preliminary Report.

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