Gournia () is the site of a Minoan palace complex in the Lasithi regional unit on the island of Crete, Greece. Its modern name originated from the many stone troughs that are at the site and its original name for the site is unknown. It was first permanently inhabited during the Early Minoan II periods (approximately between 2650 and 2100 B.C.E) and was occupied until the Late Minoan I period (approximately between 1700 and 1470 B.C.E.). Gournia is in a 6-mile cluster of with other Minoan archeological sites which includes Pachyammos, Vasiliki, Monasteraki, Vraika and Kavusi. The site of Pseira is close but slightly outside the cluster.
Archaeology
thumb|Late Minoan IB (1925-1875 B.C.E.) Rhyton found at Gournia. The ovoid Rhyton is abstract and geometrically styled.
left|thumb|300x300px|View of the ruins of Gournia from the Northeast.
Harriet Boyd Hawes first excavated the Minoan village for three field seasons in 1901, 1903 and 1904. Boyd and her team were able to expose nearly the entire town, uncovering sixty houses, the cemetery, a road system connecting everything and a central building which she called "the palace". Similar "palatial" complexes have been found throughout Crete and while recent scholarship have contested this original interpretation, the term 'palatial complex' remains the scholarly term for them despite being a misnomer. In 1971, 1972, and 1976 Jeffrey Soles and Costis Davaras conducted supplementary modest excavations at the site. In 1973 a lost notebook of Hawes was recovered which contained detailed descriptions and findspots of the recoveries. From 1992 until 1994 Vance Watrous conducted a survey of the site and its surrounding area. After cleaning seasons in 2008 and 2009, from 2010 until 2014 Vance Watrous excavated at the site.
Many of the archaeological finds from Gournia are held at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and a few at the Penn Museum.
Layout
The main town of Gournia is located 150 to 200 meters South of a coastal ridge which is itself located 100 meters South of the Northern Cretan coast. Other Minoan sites including Zakros to the east and Hagia Triada to the west followed the same sequence of building and destruction. While the causes of this destruction at Gournia are unknown, at Hagia Tradia they are known to be the result of major seismic events.
Cemeteries
thumb|Octopus Stirrup Jar found at Gournia, now in the Heraklion museum.
Sphoungaras cemetery
The Sphoungaras cemetery's natural rock shelters, openings in the rock, provided the Minoans for a suitable space to bury their dead without the need for physical labor to create or build tombs. Unlike the cemetery in Sphoungaras, people were buried in built structures here.