Pseira Pseira Pseira (Greek Ψείρα) is an islet in the Gulf of Mirabello in northeastern Crete with the archaeological remains of Minoan and Mycenean civilisation. The island was explored in 1906–07 by Richard Seager and partially documented by Halvor Bagge in ink and watercolors based on photographs (University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1910), and more minutely examined in 1984–92 by Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras, for Temple University. Archaeological materials in this seaport, sited above its harbor, to which it was connected by cliffside stairs, span the period from the end of the Neolithic in the 4th millennium to the
Minoan religion Mochlos cemetery, for example, would have served the inhabitants of that island who settled in the south of the area. The cemetery itself has been interpreted to indicate a visible hierarchy, perhaps indicating social differentiation within the local population; larger, monumental tombs for the 'èlite', and smaller tombs, including some early "Pithoi" burials, for the larger part of the population. The German geologist Hans Georg Wunderlich argued that the Palace of Knossos itself was a mortuary temple. This interpretation is strongly rejected by mainstream archaeology. Walter Burkert warns, "To what extent one can and must differentiate between Minoan and Mycenaean