Knossos

Knossos

Κνωσός
Restored North Entrance with charging bull fresco
Crete, showing Heraklion, location of ancient Knōsos
Alternate name	Cnossus
Location	Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Region	North central coast, 5 km (3.1 mi) southeast of Heraklion
Coordinates	35°17′53″N 25°9′47″E / 35.29806°N 25.16306°E / 35.29806; 25.16306Coordinates: 35°17′53″N 25°9′47″E / 35.29806°N 25.16306°E / 35.29806; 25.16306
Type	Palace complex, administrative centre, capital of Crete and regions within its jurisdiction
Length	North-south length of inhabited area is 5 km (3.1 mi)[1]
Width	East-west width of inhabited area is 3 km (1.9 mi) max.
Area	Total inhabited area is 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi). The palace building itself is 14,000 m2 (150,000 sq ft)[2]
Height	Unknown
History
Builder	Unknown
Material	Ashlar blocks of limestone or gypsum, wood, mud-brick, rubble for fill, plaster
Founded	The first settlement dates to about 7000 BC. The first palace dates to 1900 BC.
Abandoned	At some time in Late Minoan IIIC, 1380–1100 BC
Periods	Neolithic to Late Bronze Age. The first palace was built in the Middle Minoan IA period.
Cultures	Minoan, Mycenaean
Associated with	In the Middle Minoan, people of unknown ethnicity termed Minoans; in the Late Minoan, by Mycenaean Greeks
Site notes
Excavation dates	1900–1931 1957–1960 1969–1970
Archaeologists	For the initial teams' work discovering the palace: Arthur Evans; David George Hogarth, Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens; Duncan Mackenzie, superintendent of excavation; Theodore Fyfe, Architect; Christian Doll, Architect For the additional work on the Neolithic starting in 1957: John Davies Evans
Condition	Restored and maintained for visitation. Evans used mainly concrete. Modern interventions include open roofing of fragile areas, stabilized soil, paved walkways, non-slip wooden ramps, trash receptacles, perimeter barbed wire fence, security lighting, retail store and dining room[3]
Ownership	Originally owned by Cretans, then by Arthur Evans, followed by the British School at Athens, and finally by the current owner, the Republic of Greece.
Management	23rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
Public access	Yes
Website	"Knossos". British School at Athens.  "Knossos". Odysseus. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-06-17.
Current activity is preservational. Restoration is extensive. Painted concrete was used for wood in the pillars. The frecoes often were recreated from a few flakes of painted plaster.

Knossos (/ˈnɒsɒs/; Greek: Κνωσός, Knōsós, [knoˈsos]) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.^[4]

The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos.^[5] The coins came from the Roman settlement of Colonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, and politically including, Kephala. The Romans believed they had colonized Knossos.^[6] After excavation, the discovery of the Linear B tablets, and the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris, the identification was confirmed by the reference to an administrative center, 𐀒𐀜𐀰, ko-no-so, Mycenaean Greek Knosos in Linear B, undoubtedly the palace complex. The second palace was built on a much grander scale over the old Palace after an earthquake destroyed it. The structure and ruins we see today are from the second Palace. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built.

The site was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos. The excavations in Knossos began in AD 1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941) and his team, and they continued for 35 years. The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeded his original expectations, as did the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he termed Linear A and Linear B, to distinguish their writing from the pictographs also present. From the layering of the palace Evans developed de novo an archaeological concept of the civilization that used it, which he called Minoan, following the pre-existing custom of labelling all objects from the location Minoan.

The palace of Knossos was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. It appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. An approximate graphic view of some aspects of Cretan life in the Bronze Age is provided by restorations of the palace's indoor and outdoor murals, as it is also by the decorative motifs of the pottery and the insignia on the seals and sealings.

The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, c. 1380–1100 BC.^[7] The occasion is not known for certain, but one of the many disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward. The abandoning population were probably Mycenaean Greeks, who had earlier occupied the city-state, and were using Linear B as its administrative script, as opposed to Linear A, the previous administrative script. The hill was never again a settlement or civic site, although squatters may have used it for a time.

However, fieldwork in 2015 revealed that during the early Iron Age, Knossos was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than indicated by earlier excavations. Whilst archaeologists had previously believed that the city had declined in the wake of a socio-political collapse around 1200 BC, the work of the Knossos Urban Landscape Project found that the city had prospered instead.^[8]

Except for periods of abandonment, other cities were founded in the immediate vicinity, such as the Roman colony, and a Hellenistic Greek precedent. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax (modern Heraklion) during the 9th century AD. By the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos 'Long Wall'; the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century.^[9] Today, the name is used only for the archaeological site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion.

In the first palace period around 2000 BC the urban area reached a size of up to 18,000 people.^[10] In its peak the Palace and the surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people shortly after 1700 BC.^[11][12][13]

Spelling

The name Knossos was formerly Latinized as Cnossus or Cnossos, and occasionally Knossus, Gnossus, or Gnossos^[14][15] but is now almost always written Knossos.^[16]

Discovery and modern history of the antiquities

In addition to having a history of some thousands of years in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Classical period, the ruins in the age of archaeology (that is, since the 19th century) have undergone a history of their own, from excavation by renowned archaeologists, education and tourism, to occupation as a headquarters by governments warring over the control of the eastern Mediterranean in two world wars. This site history is to be distinguished from the ancient.

Legends

A labrys from Messara Plain.

In Greek mythology, King Minos dwelt in a palace at Knossos. He had Daedalus construct a labyrinth, a very large maze (by some connected with the double-bladed axe, or labrys) in which to retain his son, the Minotaur. Daedalus also built a dancing floor for Queen Ariadne.^[17] The name "Knossos" was subsequently adopted by Arthur Evans because it seemed to fit the local archaeology. The identification has never been credibly questioned, mainly because of that archaeology.

Western civilization was thus predisposed by legend to associate whatever palace ruins should be found at Knossos with the legends of Minos and the labyrinth. The first name of the very first man to excavate at Knossos, Minos Kalokairinos (Μίνως Καλοκαιρινός), was taken from the legend. As far as is currently known, it was William Stillman, the American consul who published Kalokairinos' discoveries, who, seeing the sign of the double axe on the massive walls partly uncovered by Kalokairinos, first associated the complex with the labyrinth of legend, calling the ruins "labyrinthine".^[18] Evans agreed with Stillman. The myth of the Minotaur tells that Theseus, a prince from Athens, whose father is an ancient Greek king named Aegean, reason for the name of the Greek sea (the Aegean Sea), sailed to Crete, where he was forced to fight a terrible creature called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half man, half bull, and was kept in the Labyrinth – a building like a maze – by the king Minos, the ruler of Crete. The king's daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. Before he entered the Labyrinth to fight the Minotaur, Ariadne gave him a ball of thread which he unwound as he went into the Labyrinth so that he could find his way back by following it. Theseus killed the Minotaur, and then he and Ariadne fled from Crete, escaping her angry father.

As it turns out, there probably was an association of the word labyrinth, whatever its etymology, with ancient Crete. The sign of the double axe was used throughout the Mycenaean world as an apotropaic mark: its presence on an object would prevent it from being "killed". Axes were scratched on many of the stones of the palace. It appears in pottery decoration and is a motif of the Shrine of the Double Axes at the palace, as well as of many shrines throughout Crete and the Aegean. And finally, it appears in Linear B on Knossos Tablet Gg702 as da-pu₂-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja, which probably represents the Mycenaean Greek Daburinthoio potniai, "to the mistress of the Labyrinth," recording the distribution of one jar of honey.^[19] A credible theory uniting all the evidence has yet to be formulated.

History

Arthur Evans developed his concept of Minoan civilization primarily from the excavations at Knossos. His periodization and general styles and other characteristics have wider application throughout the Aegean. The site has had a very long history of human habitation, beginning with the founding of the first Neolithic settlement circa 7,000 BC. Over time and during several different phases that had their own social dynamic, Knossos grew until, by the 19th to 16th centuries BC (during the 'Old Palace' and the succeeding 'Neo-palatial' periods), the settlement possessed not only a monumental administrative and religious center (i.e., the Palace), but also a city with a population of up to 100,000.^[20] The site was destroyed by fire but has been reconstructed.

Neolithic remains are prolific in Crete. They are found in caves, rock shelters, houses and settlements. Knossos has a thick Neolithic layer indicating the site was a sequence of settlements before the Palace Period. The earliest was placed on bedrock. A. Evans estimates its age by calculating a multiplier of 1800 years per 2.82 metres from the start of Early Minoan at 3400 BC to the end of Middle Minoan at 1600 BC. The 8 metres of the Neolithic is then equivalent 5100 years, except that Evans takes off 10% to allow for a possible increased deposition rate of mud materials. Adding the 4600 of the Neolithic to 3400 gives about 8000 BC for the start of the Neolithic at Knossos. The Proto-Neolithic is missing. From the pottery fragments Evans distinguishes Early, Middle and Late Neolithic.^[21]

Evans observes that about 8000 BC a Neolithic people arrived at the hill from elsewhere, probably from overseas by boat, and placed the first of a succession of wattle and daub villages. Large numbers of clay and stone incised spools and whorls attest to a home industry of cloth-making. There are fine ground axe and mace heads of colored stone: greenstone, serpentine, diorite and jadeite, as well as obsidian knives and arrowheads along with the cores from which they were flaked. Most significant among the other small items were a large number of animal and human figurines, including nude sitting or standing females with exaggerated breasts and buttocks. Evans attributes them to the worship of the Neolithic mother goddess and figurines in general to religion.^[22]

Evans did not have carbon dating at his command. He would perhaps have been the first to admit that his 8 meters and 10% were nearly completely judgement calls, and that slight variations in either direction would change the overall date significantly. Currently a number of radiocarbon dates have raised the estimate to 7000 – 6500 BC; furthermore, "Knossos Neolithic remains without parallels elsewhere on Crete."^[23] At some time in that range a people possessing sheep, pigs, cattle, and growing grains and pulses took up residence on the elevation. The Neolithic was not general over the Aegean until 6500 BC; however, the Neolithic of Cyprus dates to the 9th millennium BC. If the Knossians were from Cyprus, accessible from anywhere in the Middle East or to any possible maritime peoples from anywhere in the Mediterranean, their ultimate origin might very well never be discovered.

Considering that Evans was necessarily not very clear on the Neolithic, being primarily interested in the palace, John Davies Evans (no relation), whose specialty was the Neolithic of the Aegean, undertook further excavations in pits and trenches over the palace, elucidating the Neolithic. These findings are summarized by McEnroe.^[24] In the Aceramic Neolithic, 7,000–6,000 BC, a hamlet of 25–50 persons existed at the location of the Central Court. They lived in wattle and daub huts, kept animals, grew crops, and, in the event of tragedy, buried their children under the floor. In such circumstances as they are still seen today, a hamlet consisted of several families, necessarily interrelated, practicing some form of exogamy, living in close quarters, with little or no privacy and a high degree of intimacy, spending most of their time in the outdoors, sheltering only for the night or in inclement weather, and to a large degree nomadic or semi-nomadic. Sufficient numbers of tribesmen still live in this way to reconstruct a fairly clear picture of life from the remains.

In the Early Neolithic, 6,000–5,000 BC, a village of 200–600 persons occupied most of the area of the palace and the slopes to the north and west. They lived in one- or two-room square houses of mud-brick walls set on socles of stone, either field stone or recycled stone artifacts. The inner walls were lined with mud-plaster. The roofs were flat, composed of mud over branches. The residents dug hearths at various locations in the center of the main room. This village had an unusual feature: one house under the West Court contained eight rooms and covered 50 m² (540 sq ft). The walls were at right angles. The door was centered. Large stones were used for support under points of greater stress. The fact that distinct sleeping cubicles for individuals was not the custom suggests storage units of some sort.

The settlement of the Middle Neolithic, 5,000–4,000 BC, housed 500–1000 people in more substantial and presumably more family-private homes. Construction was the same, except the windows and doors were timbered, a fixed, raised hearth occupied the center of the main room, and pilasters and other raised features (cabinets, beds) occupied the perimeter. Under the palace was the Great House, a 100 m² (1,100 sq ft) area stone house divided into 5 rooms with meter-thick walls suggesting a second story was present. The presence of the house, which is unlikely to have been a private residence like the others, suggests a communal or public use, although the socio-political alpha male may well have lived there; i.e., it may have been the predecessor of a palace. In the Late or Final Neolithic (two different but overlapping classification systems), 4,000–3,000 BC, population increased dramatically, suggesting an immigration (which was Arthur Evans's view also).

Palace complex

The features of the palace depend on the time period. Currently visible is an accumulation of features over several centuries, the latest most dominant. The palace was thus never exactly as depicted today. In addition, it has been reconstituted in modern materials. The custom began in an effort to preserve the site from decay and torrential winter rain. After 1922, the chief proprietor, Arthur Evans, intended to recreate a facsimile based on archaeological evidence. The palace is not exactly as it ever was, perhaps in places not even close, and yet in general, judging from the work put in and the care taken, as well as parallels with other palaces, it probably is a good general facsimile. Opinions range, however, from most skeptical, viewing the palace as pure fantasy based on 1920s architecture and art deco, to most unquestioning, accepting the final judgements of Arthur Evans as most accurate. The mainstream of opinion falls between.

Location

View to the east from the northwest corner. In the foreground is the west wall of the Lustral Basin.

View to the south. The hill in the background is Gypsades. Between it and Knossos is the Vlychia. The South Entrance is on the left.

Reception courtyard in the palace of Knossos. The Royal family would entertain guests here. Members of the court would stand on the tiered platforms in the background.

From an archaeological point of view, the terms, "Knossos," and "palace," are somewhat ambiguous. The palace was never just the residence of a monarch, although it contained rooms that might have been suitable for a royal family. Most of the structures, however, were designed to serve a civic, religious and economic center. The term palace complex is more accurate. In ancient times, Knossos was a town surrounding and including Kephala Hill. This hill was never an acropolis in the Greek sense. It had no steep heights, remained unfortified, and was not very high off the surrounding ground. These circumstances cannot necessarily be imputed to other Minoan palaces. Phaestos, contemporaneous with Knossos, was placed on a steep ridge, controlling access to the Mesara Plain from the sea, and was walled.^[25] To what degree Minoan civilization might be considered warlike remains debatable. It can, however, be said that Knossos bore no resemblance to a Mycenaean citadel, whether before or during Mycenaean Greek occupation.

The complex was constructed ultimately around a raised Central Court on the top of Kephala Hill. The previous structures were razed and the top was made level to make way for the court. The court is oblong, with the long axis, which points north-northeast, generally described as pointing "north." Plot plans typically show the court with the long axis horizontal, apparently east-west with the north on the right, or vertical with the north on the top. Either arrangement is confusing unless the compass points are carefully marked. About 5 km (3.1 mi) to the north of the palace complex is the sea at the Port of Heraklion. Directly to the south is Vlychia Stream, an east-west tributary of the north-south Kairatos River. Kephala Hill is an isolated hill at the confluence.

The Kairatos River reaches the sea between the port of Heraklion and Heraklion Airport to the east. In ancient times the flow continued without interruption. Today the stream loses itself in the sewers of Heraklion before emerging from under a highway on the shore east of the port. It flows down from higher ground at Arkhanes to the south, where part of it was diverted into the Knossos Aqueduct. The water at that point was clean enough for drinking. When it reached Knossos it became the main drain of the sewer system of a town of up to 100,000 people, according to Pendlebury's estimate.^[26] Today the population is mainly to the north, but the sewer function continues, in addition to which much of the river is siphoned off, and the water table is tapped, for irrigation. Looming over the right bank of the Vlychia, on the opposite shore from Knossos, is Gypsades Hill, where the Minoans quarried their gypsum. The limestone was quarried from the ridge on the east.

The archaeological site, Knossos, refers either to the palace complex itself or to that complex and several houses of similar antiquity nearby, which were inadvertently excavated along with the palace. To the south across the Vlychia is the Caravanserai. Further to the south are Minoan houses. The Minoan Road crossed the Vlychia on a Minoan Bridge, immediately entering the Stepped Portico, or covered stairway, to the palace complex. Near the northwest corner of the complex are the ruins of the House of the Frescoes. Across the Minoan Road entering from the northwest is the Arsenal. On the north side of the palace is the Customs House and the Northeast House. From there to the northeast is the modern village of Makrotoichos. Between it and the palace complex is the Royal Villa. On the west side is the Little Palace.^[27]

The Royal Road is the last vestige of a Minoan road that connected the port to the palace complex. Today a modern road built over or replacing the ancient, Leoforos Knosou, serves that function and continues south. The excavated ancient Royal Road is part of the complex. The junction of the ancient and the modern roads is partly over the Little Palace. Just to the northwest of there, off the modern road, is where Evans chose to have Villa Ariadne built as his home away from home and an administrative center. The villa is on a slope overlooking the ruins. At the edge of the property, on the road, is a pre-excavation house renovated many times as a residence for the official Keeper, called the Taverna. Immediately to the south of the villa, over parts of the Little Palace, is the modern Stratigraphical Museum, a square building. Excavation continues sporadically on its grounds. To the south of the museum is a modern settlement across from the entrance to the west court. Parking facilities are to the north, off Leoforos Knosou. A band of fields has been left on the northwest between the palace complex and the city streets of Heraklion. The east and west are protected by north-south mountain ridges, between which is the valley of the Kairatos.

General features

Magazine 4 with giant pithoi placed by the archaeologists for display. The compartments in the floor were the permanent locations of pithoi, or storage jars, like these, which stored wet and dry consumables, such as wine, oil and grain. When full, they were multi-ton and immoveable. They were sunken for easier access to the wide mouths and for support.

The great palace was gradually built between 1700 and 1400 BC, with periodic rebuildings after destruction. Structures preceded it on Kephala hill. The features currently most visible date mainly to the last period of habitation, which Evans termed Late Minoan. The palace has an interesting layout^[28] – the original plan can no longer be seen due to the subsequent modifications. The 1,300 rooms are connected with corridors of varying sizes and direction, which differ from other contemporaneous palaces that connected the rooms via several main hallways. The 6 acres (24,000 m²) of the palace included a theater, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms (also called magazines). Within the storerooms were large clay containers (pithoi) that held oil, grains, dried fish, beans, and olives. Many of the items were processed at the palace, which had grain mills, oil presses, and wine presses. Beneath the pithoi were stone holes that were used to store more valuable objects, such as gold. The palace used advanced architectural techniques: for example, part of it was built up to five stories high.

Water management

The palace had at least three separate water-management systems: one for supply, one for drainage of runoff, and one for drainage of waste water.

Aqueducts brought fresh water to Kephala hill from springs at Archanes, about 10 km away. Springs there are the source of the Kairatos river, in the valley in which Kephala is located. The aqueduct branched to the palace and to the town. Water was distributed at the palace by gravity feed through terracotta pipes to fountains and spigots. The pipes were tapered at one end to make a pressure fit, with rope for sealing. No hidden springs have been discovered as at Mycenae.

Sanitation drainage was through a closed system leading to a sewer apart from the hill. The queen's megaron contained an example of the first water-flushing system latrine adjoining the bathroom. This toilet was a seat over a drain that was flushed by pouring water from a jug. The bathtub located in the adjoining bathroom similarly had to be filled by someone heating, carrying, and pouring water, and must have been drained by overturning into a floor drain or by bailing. This toilet and bathtub were exceptional structures within the 1,300-room complex.

As the hill was periodically drenched by torrential rains, a runoff system was a necessity. It began with channels in the flat surfaces, which were zigzag and contained catchment basins to control the water velocity. Probably the upper system was open. Manholes provided access to parts that were covered.

Some links to photographs of parts of the water-collection-management system follow.

• Runoff system.^[29] Sloped channels lead from a catchment basin.
• Runoff system.^[30] Note the zig-zags and the catchment basin.

Ventilation

Due to its placement on the hill, the palace received sea breezes during the summer. It had porticoes and air shafts.

Minoan columns

The palace also includes the Minoan column, a structure notably different from other Greek columns. Unlike the stone columns that are characteristic of other Greek architecture, the Minoan column was constructed from the trunk of a cypress tree, common to the Mediterranean. While most Greek columns are smaller at the top and wider at the bottom to create the illusion of greater height (entasis), the Minoan columns are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top, a result of inverting the cypress trunk to prevent sprouting once in place.^[31] The columns at the Palace of Minos were painted red and mounted on stone bases with round, pillow-like capitals.

Pottery

Pithoi, or storage jars, at Knossos

Pottery at Knossos is prolific, heavily decorated and uniquely styled by period. It is used as a layer diagnostic. Comparing it to similar pottery elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, Evans established a wider chronology, which, on that account, is difficult to question successfully. On the negative side, careful records of the locations of some objects were not always kept, due to the very size of the project and the difficulties under which the archaeologists and workmen had to labor.

Frescoes

Bull-leaping fresco now in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. The duplicate shown here is fixed to the wall of the upper throne room.

The palace at Knossos was a place of high color, as were Greek buildings in the classical period, and as are Greek buildings today. In the EM Period, the walls and pavements were coated with a pale red derived from red ochre. In addition to the background coloring, the walls displayed fresco panel murals, entirely of red. In the subsequent MM Period, with the development of the art, white and black were added, and then blue, green and yellow. The pigments were derived from natural materials, such as ground hematite. Outdoor panels were painted on fresh stucco with the motif in relief; indoor, on fresh, pure plaster, softer than the plaster with additives ordinarily used on walls.^[32]

The decorative motifs were generally bordered scenes: people, mythological creatures, real animals, rocks, vegetation, and marine life. The earliest imitated pottery motifs. Most have been reconstructed from various numbers of flakes fallen to the floor. Evans had various technicians and artists work on the project, some artists, some chemists and restorers. The symmetry and use of templates made possible a degree of reconstruction beyond what was warranted by only the flakes. For example, if evidence of the use of a certain template existed scantily in one place, the motif could be supplied from the template found somewhere else. Like the contemporary murals in the funerary art of the Egyptians, certain conventions were utilized that also assisted prediction. For example, male figures are shown with darker or redder skin than female figures.

Some archaeological authors have objected that Evans and his restorers were not discovering the palace and civilization as it was, but were creating a modern artefact based on contemporary art and architecture.^[33]

Throne Room

Throne from which the Throne Room was named, not the only throne at Knossos

The centerpiece of the "Minoan" palace was the so-called Throne Room or Little Throne Room,^[34] dated to LM II. This chamber has an alabaster seat identified by Evans as a "throne" built into the north wall. On three sides of the room are gypsum benches. A sort of tub area is opposite the throne, behind the benches, termed a lustral basin, which means that Evans and his team saw it as a place for ceremonial purification.

The room was accessed from an anteroom through two double doors. The anteroom was connected to the central court, which was four steps up through four doors. The anteroom had gypsum benches also, with carbonized remains between two of them thought to possibly be a wooden throne. Both rooms are located in the ceremonial complex on the west of the central court.

Griffin couchant (lying down) facing throne

The throne is flanked by the Griffin Fresco, with two griffins couchant (lying down) facing the throne, one on either side. Griffins were important mythological creatures, also appearing on seal rings, which were used to stamp the identities of the bearers into pliable material, such as clay or wax.

The actual use of the room and the throne is unclear. The two main theories are as follows:

• The seat of a priest-king or his consort, the queen. This is the older theory, originating with Evans. In that regard Matz speaks of the "heraldic arrangement" of the griffins, meaning that they are more formal and monumental than previous Minoan decorative styles. In this theory, the Mycenaean Greeks would have held court in this room, as they came to power in Knossos at about 1450. The "lustral basin" and the location of the room in a sanctuary complex cannot be ignored; hence, "priest-king."
• A room reserved for the epiphany of a goddess,^[35] who would have sat in the throne, either in effigy, or in the person of a priestess, or in imagination only. In that case the griffins would have been purely a symbol of divinity rather than a heraldic motif.

It is also speculated that the throne was made specifically for a female individual, since the indentation seems to be shaped for a woman's buttocks. Also, the extensive use of curved edges and the crescent moon carved at its base both symbolize femininity.

The lustral basin was originally thought to have had a ritual washing use, but the lack of drainage has more recently brought some scholars to doubt this theory. It is now speculated that the tank was used as an aquarium, or possibly a water reservoir.

Society

"Prince of lilies" or "Priest-king Relief", plaster relief at the end of the Corridor of Processions, restored by Gilliéron, believed by Arthur Evans to be a priest-king, wearing a crown with peacock feathers and a necklace with lilies on it, leading an unseen animal to sacrifice.

A long-standing debate between archaeologists concerns the main function of the palace, whether it acted as an administrative center, a religious center, or both, in a theocratic manner. Other important debates consider the role of Knossos in the administration of Bronze Age Crete, and whether Knossos acted as the primary center, or was on equal footing with the several other contemporaneous palaces that have been discovered on Crete. Many of these palaces were destroyed and abandoned in the early part of the 15th century BC, possibly by the Mycenaeans, although Knossos remained in use until it was destroyed by fire about one hundred years later. Knossos showed no signs of being a military site; for example, it had neither fortifications nor stores of weapons.

Notable residents

• Aenesidemus (1st century BC) sceptical philosopher
• Chersiphron (6th century BC) architect
• Epimenides (6th century BC) seer and philosopher-poet
• Ergoteles of Himera (5th century BC) expatriate Olympic runner
• Metagenes (6th century BC) architect
• Minos (mythical) Father of the Minotaur

See also

• Linear A
• Linear B
• Magasa
• Minoan civilization
• Trapeza

Notes

References

• Evans, Arthur John (1894). "Primitive Pictographs and Script from Crete and the Peloponnese". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. XIV: 270–372. JSTOR 623973. doi:10.2307/623973. 
• —— (1901). "Minoan Civilization at the Palace of Knosses" (PDF). Monthly Review. 
• —— (1906A) [1905]. Essai de classification des Époques de la civilization minoenne: résumé d’un discours fait au Congrès d’Archéologie à Athènes (Revised ed.). London: B. Quaritch. 
• —— (1906B). The prehistoric tombs of Knossos: I. The cemetery of Zapher Papoura, with a comparative note on a chamber-tomb at Milatos. II. The Royal Tomb at Isopata. Archaeologia 59 (1905) pages 391–562. London: B. Quaritch. 
• —— (1909). Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete: with Special Reference to the Archives of Knossos. Volume I: The Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes: with an account of the discovery of the pre-Phoenician scripts, their place in the Minoan story and their Mediterranean relatives: with plates, tables and figures in the text. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
• —— (1912). "The Minoan and Mycenaean Element in Hellenic Life". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 32: 277–287. JSTOR 624176. doi:10.2307/624176. 
• —— (1914). "The 'Tomb of the Double Axes' and Associated Group, and the Pillar Rooms and Ritual Vessels of the 'Little Palace' at Knossos". Archaeologia. 65: 1–94. doi:10.1017/s0261340900010833. 
• —— (1921, 1928A, 1928B, 1930, 1935A, 1935B, 1936). The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustrated by the discoveries at Knossos. London: MacMillan and Co; Online by Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg.  Check date values in: |date= (help) [Volume 1, Volume 2 Parts 1&2, Volume 3, Volume 4 Parts 1&2, Index by Joan Evans]
  • —— (1921). PM. Volume I: The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages. 
  • —— (1928A). PM. Volume II Part I: Fresh lights on origins and external relations: the restoration in town and palace after seismic catastrophe towards close of M. M. III and the beginnings of the New Era. 
  • —— (1928B). PM. Volume II Part II: Town-Houses in Knossos of the New Era and restored West Palace Section, with its state approach. 
  • —— (1930). PM. Volume III: The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace: the most brilliant record of Minoan art and the evidences of an advanced religion. 
  • —— (1935A). PM. Volume IV Part I: Emergence of outer western enceinte, with new illustrations, artistic and religious, of the Middle Minoan Phase; Chryselephantine "Lady of Sports", "Snake Room" and full story of the cult Late Minoan ceramic evolution and "Palace Style". 
  • —— (1935B). PM. Volume IV Part II: Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii ; Chryselephantine Boy-God and ritual hair-offering ; Intaglio Types, M.M. III – L. M. II, late hoards of sealings, deposits of inscribed tablets and the palace stores ; Linear Script B and its mainland extension, Closing Palatial Phase ; Room of Throne and final catastrophe. 
  • Evans, Joan (1936). PM. Index to the Palace of Minos. 
• —— (1952). Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete: with special reference to the archives of Knossos. Volume II: The Archives of Knossos: clay tablets inscribed in linear script B: edited from notes, and supplemented by John L. Myres. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
•  Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "Cnossus", Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 44 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Cnossus", Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 573–574 
• Begg, D.J. Ian (2004), "An Archaeology of Palatial Mason's Marks on Crete", in Chapin, Ann P, ΧΑΡΙΣ: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Hesperia Supplement 33, pp. 1–28 
• Benton, Janetta Rebold and Robert DiYanni.Arts and Culture: An introduction to the Humanities, Volume 1 (Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 1998), 64–70.
• Bourbon, F. Lost Civilizations (New York, Barnes and Noble, 1998), 30–35.
• Castleden, Rodney (1990). The Knossos Labyrinth: A New View of the 'Palace of Minos' at Knossos. London; New York: Routledge. 
• Whitelaw, Todd (2000). "Beyond the palace:A century of investigation at Europe's oldest city". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies: 223, 226. 
• Davaras, Costos; Doumas, Alexandra (Translator) (1957). Knossos and the Herakleion Museum: Brief Illustrated Archaeological Guide. Athens: Hannibal Publishing House. 
• Driessen, Jan (1990). An early destruction in the Mycenaean palace at Knossos: a new interpretation of the excavation field-notes of the south-east area of the west wing. Acta archaeologica Lovaniensia, Monographiae, 2. Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit. 
• Gere, Cathy (2009). Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226289540. 
• Landenius Enegren, Hedvig. The People of Knossos: prosopographical studies in the Knossos Linear B archives (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2008) (Boreas. Uppsala studies in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations, 30).
• Macdonald, Colin F. (2005). Knossos. London: Folio Society. 
• MacGillivray, Joseph Alexander (2000). Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth. New York: Hill and Wang (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). 
• Pendlebury, JDS; Evans, Arthur (Forward) (2003) [1954]. A handbook to the palace of Minos at Knossos with its dependencies. Oxford; Belle Fourche, SD: Oxford University Press; Kessinger Publishing Company. 

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