Spratt was following the orders of his commander, Francis Beaufort, chief of the Hydrography Office of the Royal Navy, to “Pick up inscriptions and antiquities.” Moore, Dudley. "Thomas Spratt: 19th century Antiquarian traveller to Crete". Academia. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
The dates of the FN in Crete vary in the literature and on the Internet. After an initial definition by C. Renfrew in 1972 that was unacceptably over 1000 years, a date of the late 4th millennium proposed by L. Vignetti and P. Bello in 1978 became standard and is used by the team. Nowicki 2002, p. 15. The dates for EM are highly variable and depend on the theorist, but in general it covers the 3rd millennium BC and contains I, II, and III. Nowicki, Krzysztof (2002). "The End of the Neolithic in Crete". Aegean Archaeology. 6.
Duplouy 2018, p. 81 “The Villa was the hub of a complex system of exploitation and control of the territory, which included farms, agro-pastoral sites, check dams and lookout structures.” Duplouy, Alain; et al. (2018). "The Itanos Archaeological Survey". Activities: 11th International Cretological Conference. A2.1.
"Prospection archéologique à Itanos (Crète orientale)". ARSCAN. 2016. As might be expected of collaborative research, the participants belonged to multiple organizations. There were 3 Participants de l'UMR and 9 "Associates," many of whom later became the authors of some of the works cited in this article. They came from academic institutions located in Paris, Brussels, Crete and Rome. The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens was also represented.
S. v. Itanos. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnika, is an alphabetic dictionary of place names. Itanos is "a city of Crete." He adds, esti kai akra; "It is also an akra," where akra can mean either "cape" or "citadel."
A 2005 geophysical study says of it: "Itanos is marked mainly by three periods: Geometric, Roman and Late Christian, while the periods of original occupation and abandonment are not known." Vafidis 2005, p. 1025. The term "mainly" refers to an archaeological circumstance not readily visible in the ruins: the city was continuously occupied beginning in the 8th or 9th century BC and ending in the 7th century AD. Some parts of the occupation are less attested than others, while the material outside the chronological limits gives no evidence of its habitation. Vafidis, Antonis; et al. (2005). "Integrated geophysical studies at ancient Itanos (Greece)". Journal of Archaeological Science. 32 (7): 1023–1036. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.02.007. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
The details of an investigation and lawsuit are stated in Rackham & Moody 2012, pp. 228–230. The legal action came too late to prevent some destruction of sites, such as the ancient murex factory. Rackham, Oliver; Moody, Jennifer (2012). "4.3 Drivers of Change and the Landscape History of Cavo Sidero". In Papayannis, Thymio; Howard, Peter (eds.). Reclaiming the Greek Landscape(PDF). Athens: Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA).
A 2005 geophysical study says of it: "Itanos is marked mainly by three periods: Geometric, Roman and Late Christian, while the periods of original occupation and abandonment are not known." Vafidis 2005, p. 1025. The term "mainly" refers to an archaeological circumstance not readily visible in the ruins: the city was continuously occupied beginning in the 8th or 9th century BC and ending in the 7th century AD. Some parts of the occupation are less attested than others, while the material outside the chronological limits gives no evidence of its habitation. Vafidis, Antonis; et al. (2005). "Integrated geophysical studies at ancient Itanos (Greece)". Journal of Archaeological Science. 32 (7): 1023–1036. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.02.007. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
