ABSTRACT
This inscription is situated in the middle of the south wall in the church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Kavalariana on the outskirts of Kandanos, in the province of Selino, which forms the southern part of the prefecture of Chania in western Crete (Map 2). The Byzantines counted their years from the creation of the world, which they set 5,508 years before the Incarnation; since the indication (called ‘indiction’) which specified the year precisely is unknown in this case, the year mentioned in the inscription translates as 1327/28.2 By that time the island had long ceased to be part of the Byzantine Empire, which was undergoing its last era, known as the Palaiologan period
(1261-1453).3 Instead, Crete had been ceded to the Venetians in 1204, in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, which saw Constantinople captured by Latin troops and its territories divided among the conquerors.
