Mount Juktas

Mount Juktas
Island of Crete, Greece

A mountain in north-central Crete, Mount Juktas (Greek: Γιούχτας - Giouchtas), also spelled Iuktas, Iouktas, or Ioukhtas, was an important religious site for the Minoan civilization.^[1] Located a few kilometers from the palaces of Knossos and Fourni and the megaron at Vathypetro, Mount Juktas was the site of an important peak sanctuary in the Minoan world. At the base of Juktas, at Anemospilia, is a site that has suggested to some that the Minoans practiced human sacrifice, but the evidence is currently somewhat in question.

Peak Sanctuary

Mount Juktas is the site of one of the most important peak sanctuaries in the Minoan world, and probably the first of them.

Archaeologial importance

have studied the site over an extensive period, examining fragments of pottery, remains of walls, and some unique kinds of stone that must have been hauled up the mountain because they do not otherwise occur there.

Religious importance

The mountain remains important in the religious life of the people of the area to this day – a

chapel is located about a kilometer south of the sanctuary along the ridge of the mountain. Every year, people from towns down in the plains below Mount Juktas bring flowers in procession to the chapel.

Archaeology

Juktas was first excavated in 1909 by

.

References

• Anna Simandiraki, Middle Minoan III Pottery from Building B of the Peak Sanctuary of Mount Juktas, Crete, and a general re-assessment of the Middle Minoan III Period, PhD Thesis, University of Bristol, 2002, British Library catalogue
• C. Michael Hogan (2007) Knossos fieldnotes, The Modern Antiquarian
• Donald W. Jones (1999) Peak Sanctuaries and Sacred Caves in Minoan Crete
  ISBN 91-7081-153-9

Line notes

External links

• Juktas Peak Sanctuary at Ian Swindale's Minoan Crete website
• Younger, John Linear A Texts: Religious Texts