Archaeopaedia: Knossos

Knossos is a sprawling complex, roughly 13,000 sq. meters in area, and the largest of the Minoan Palaces on Crete. Because of its size and the sheer opulence of its artifacts, Knossos has been traditionally considered the seat of a Bronze Age island-wide government. Sharing many features with other palaces on the island, Knossos contained at least three stories of rooms dedicated to residential, ceremonial, administrative, and storage purposes. The palace's central focus was a large, paved open-air court, comprising over 10% of the site's total area (ca. 1458 sq. m.).

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Plan of Knossos (http://my.tele2.ee/docs/kreeta/img/knossos-kaart.gif)

Sir Arthur Evans, the first excavator at Knossos, established a relative chronology for the region based upon the seriation of pottery styles found at the site. Evans' phases begin with Early Minoan (EM) I, II, and II, run through Middle Minoan (MM) I, II, and III, and end with Late Minoan (LM) I, II, and III. These phases have subsequently been refined, subdivided, aggregated, and fixed to an absolute chronology. Following Biers (1996), the currently accepted dates of the Bronze Age Minoan phases are:

Pre-Palace Period  (EMI - MMIA)        - c. 3100-1925 BC

Old Palace Period  (MMIB - MMII)       - c. 1925-1725 BC

New Palace Period  (MMIII - LMIIIA1)   - c. 1725-1380 BC

Post-Palace Period (LMIIIA2 - LMIIIC)  - c. 1380-1000 BC

Although these dates are generally accepted in the field currently, there has historically been major disagreement over dating the end of the New Palace period and the final destruction of Knossos (see issues of chronology at Knossos).

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A reconstruction of Knossos (http://antique.mrugala.net/Crete/Images/Knossos%20-%20reconstitution.jpg)

Links

Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean: Minoan Architecture

References

Biers WR. 1996. The Archaeology of Greece. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2nd ed.

Evans A. 1964. The Palace of Minos. Vols. 1-5. New York: Biblo and Tannen

Palmer LR. 1969. A New Guide to the Palace of Knossos. New York: Frederick A. Praegar, Inc., Publishers

Greek Archaeology