Knossos

One of the two great cultures that flourished in Bronze Age Greece is the Minoan civilisation, based on the island of Crete. Despite flourising for many hundreds of years between around 3000 BCE to 1100 BCE, the Minoan culture suddenly disappeared and was almost unknown for centuries, except for references to it in Greek mythology.

Almost 3000 years later, the Minoan civilisation was rediscovered by English journalist and archaeologist Arthur Evans (1851-1941) who visited Crete in 1894 to study ancient writing on engraved seal stones. Convinced that he had discovered evidence of an important early civilisation, Evans was able to purchase land, and excavated at the site of Knossos from 1900 to 1932. He uncovered a great palace complex, and brought the Minoan culture back into the light.

In ancient Greek myth, Minos son of Zeus was the king of Crete. Minos kept a monster called the Minotaur, who had the head of a bull and the body of man, in a labyrinth beneath his palace. Every 9 years, the Athenians had to send 7 girls and 7 boys to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, as retribution for the death of Minos’s son Androgeos.

Inspired by this myth, the archaeologist Evans named the culture he discovered at Knossos the ‘Minoans’.

However, Evans also reconstructed portions of the palace in a way that might not be done today. Instead of just conserving the architecture to protect it, Evans reconstructed whole rooms, sometimes using guess work to make up missing features, destroying original elements in the process.

The dig at Knossos employed more advanced archaeological techniques than many previous excavations. The site was recorded carefully, and the finds were published in a series of books entitled The Palace of Minos.

Most of what we know of the Minoans is based on their material culture, or the objects they left behind. However, this does not mean that they left no written records. During the excavations at Knossos, Arthur Evans found objects which showed that the Minoans had at least two forms of writing, an early hieroglyphic text, (similar to that of the Egyptians), and a later more sophisticated type of writing known as Linear A. Neither of these forms of writing has ever been deciphered.

The sprawling palace buildings of Knossos show that the Minoans had an extensive understanding of engineering and construction. They used wood, metal and stone construction, the palace walls were plastered and decorated, and the buildings included special features such as light wells, toilets and a drainage system. The palace must have supported a large number of people - archaeologists found storage chambers that contained enough urns to hold 60,000 litres of olive oil.