Motifs Recurs Throughout the Palace of Knossos and in Minoan Art
Knossos: Palace of the Minoans
The Palace of Knossos is located just south of mod-twenty-four hours Heraklion near the north coast of Crete. Built by a civilization that nosotros phone call the Minoans, it covers about 150,000 square feet (14,000 square meters), the size of more than 2 football game fields, and was surrounded past a boondocks in artifact. The site came to prominence in the early on 20th century when it was excavated and restored by a team led by British archaeologist Arthur Evans.
When the palace was outset constructed "it must have been a remarkable sight, quite unlike annihilation seen on Crete before," writes J. Lesley Fitton in her book "Minoans (Peoples of the Past)" (British Museum Press, 2002). She notes that although other settlements on Crete around this time built palaces of their ain, none was equally large equally Knossos. "Knossos peradventure began every bit a 'first amidst equals,' and the relationship between the powerful groups that built the palaces may not have been entirely friendly." The position of Knossos was not accidental, and Fitton notes that it lines up with a sanctuary located at Mount Juktas to the south.
Mysteries and destructions
Despite the fact that the palace was excavated a century ago there are withal many questions that researchers have about the palace and the people who lived in it.
For instance, the chronology of the palace is a thing of scholarly contend. Construction of the palace appears to have begun around 1950 B.C., although at that place may have been structures predating it. This "first palace" (as information technology is sometimes chosen) was damaged (likely by earthquakes) around 1700 B.C. and a 2nd palace was built on top of it. Recently, however, scholars have called into question how extensively this "first palace" was damaged, write researchers Colin Macdonald and Carl Knappett in a chapter of the book "Intermezzo: Intermediacy and Regeneration in Eye Minoan 3 Palatial Crete" (British Schoolhouse at Athens, 2013). The papers published in their book raise the possibility that rather than a "first" and "second" palace, there were several phases of renovation and modify that occurred over a period of centuries.
The bodily proper name of the people who lived in the palace is unknown. The Minoan writing organisation is undeciphered and the proper name "Minoans" comes from Arthur Evans, who believed that he had constitute the palace of "Male monarch Minos," a mythical Cretan king who supposedly constructed a smashing labyrinth on Crete. Today, archaeologists know that King Minos likely did not build this palace.
Researchers do know that the palace suffered from several disasters throughout its history. The palace probable suffered disruption effectually 1600 B.C., when the eruption of a volcano on Thera caused a tsunami that hit parts of Crete. The palace was hit with another ending (of some form) effectually 1450 B.C., when sites across Crete were destroyed and a people who modern-twenty-four hours scholars telephone call the "Mycenaeans" occupied Knossos. The final devastation of the palace probably took place sometime before 1300 B.C.
The offset palace
Although the remains of the "outset palace" mostly lie under later palace renovations, archaeologists have been able to put together a rough picture show of what it looked like in artifact.
The first palace was built around a central court and contained numerous storage areas, including magazines to the westward and northeast. On the northwest side of the key court was a room that researchers refer to as the "early on go on" and near that another section referred to as the "initiatory surface area."
The initiatory area contains a "lustral basin," which consists of a square tank, sunk into the footing, with a staircase descending on two sides, writes Arnold Lawrence and Richard Tomlinson in their book "Greek Compages" (Yale University Printing, 1996). They notation that several of these basins were built in the palace. "For lack of any ameliorate explanation, the original apply is causeless to be religious, in connexion with some ritual of anointing, merely there would have been no drawback to using the bowl as a shower-bath provided the water was mopped upwards quickly."
The walls of the commencement palace were bulkier than those built afterward. "On the whole, the structure of the earlier Palace was bulkier, more massive, than that of the later on Palace in general layout and in individual details," writes researcher John McEnroe in his book "Architecture of Minoan Crete" (University of Texas Press, 2010). He notes that the cavalcade bases and pavement were made of stones of unlike colors.
The development of the palace coincided with the advent of the all the same undeciphered Minoan writing system.
Also in this early flow the dissimilar regions of Crete maintained their ain distinct style of pottery and textile culture, an indication that the island was not unified.
Afterwards construction
The "first palace" likely suffered some level of impairment, probably from earthquakes, around 1700 B.C. and underwent a series of renovations that produced what some researchers phone call the "second palace."
"In the second palace, much of the awe-inspiring bulk of the earlier building would exist lightened through structural innovations and intricate details, and the taste for colored stone would be partly replaced by representational wall paintings," writes McEnroe.
Once more, a skillful portion of the palace was used for storage, including a western section defended to weapons. In this menses, the pottery styles and material culture of Knossos would be used beyond the island, indicating that people best-selling the hegemony, or at least influence, of the site.
The palace in this menstruum contained iv entrances, one from each management, and a purple road running to the northward of the palace. McEnroe notes that the entranceway to the south offered a particularly m inflow, leading the visitor through a narrow corridor lined with a fresco depicting a procession. Their final destination would have been the central court, which may take been used for religious ceremonies. "After the narrow confines of the twisting, dark corridor, the wide, vivid Central Courtroom offered sudden expansion and release," writes McEnroe.
Indeed, it's an entranceway not unlike to that of a labyrinth, a key idea in Greek literature (found in stories like "Theseus and the Minotaur") and something that was on Arthur Evans' mind when he interpreted the site. He thought he had uncovered the palace of the mythical Crete King Minos, who in legend kept a Minotaur in a labyrinth, demanding that the city of Athens feed it young men and women.
This key courtyard provided admission to several areas, including a throne room, a central palace sanctuary and a residential quarter, which may take housed imperial apartments. The palace's "throne room," as Evans called it, has gypsum benches on three sides, a basin in the heart and a large chair that Evans interpreted every bit a throne. This "throne" is flanked by a reconstructed fresco of a griffin. Whether an bodily king or queen sat in the throne room is a thing of debate amid archaeologists.
To the s of the throne room is an area that researchers refer to equally the Primal Palace Sanctuary. McEnroe notes that a small tripartite shrine was reconstructed by Evans and behind it is an area that many scholars see "as the religious heart of the Palace," containing the temple repositories. They were "plant filled with pottery and a range of remarkable objects such every bit the famous faience [ceramic] Serpent Goddesses now in the Herakleion Museum."
On the southeast side of the central court is an expanse referred to equally the residential quarter. Entered through what is sometimes chosen the "grand staircase," its rooms may accept served equally imperial apartments, used for living past the palace's rulers.
It contains a "hall of the colonnades" encircling a calorie-free-well. To the southward is an area known equally the "Hall of the Double Axes," which "takes its proper name from the Double Axe Mason's Mark signs carved on the limestone ashlar wall blocks," British School at Athens researchers write on a virtual bout of Knossos which is located on their website. McEnroe notes that this hall received lite from three directions and had partitions, assuasive the palace inhabitants to determine how much light got in at any once.
Another key feature in the residential quarters is an expanse that Evans chosen the "queen's megaron." Information technology features a reconstructed fresco depicting blue dolphins swimming to a higher place a doorway. McEnroe notes that it has two lite wells along with partitions. Its features include a possible bathroom, storage areas and toilet. "My guess is that it served as a bedroom," he writes. While in that location may have been some disruption at Knossos associated with the eruption of Thera around 1600 B.C., an eruption that caused a tsunami that hit parts of Crete, information technology did not bring nigh the finish of the palace — that occurred a few centuries afterward.
The stop of Knossos
Around 1450 B.C., a calamity hitting Crete. Fitton notes that all the palaces on the island, with the exception of Knossos, were destroyed. What exactly happened is a thing of debate. One idea is that a series of natural calamities, such equally earthquakes, hit the island. Some other idea is that Crete was invaded by a people called the Mycenaeans, whom researchers know came to occupy Knossos. The Mycenaeans were a Greek-speaking people who plain moved to Crete from the mainland. They wrote in a language we call "linear B," and thousands of inscribed dirt tablets begetting the script, and baked from burn down, have been found at Knossos.
"Several parts of the Palace, more often than not on the upper story, were involved in administrative record keeping," writes McEnroe, adding that they indicate that Knossos was a centre of economical activity on the island at this fourth dimension.
Contempo inquiry into these tablets provide clues into the lives of women who lived in Mycenaean-controlled Knossos. For instance the tablets bear witness that "Knossian women were attested to every bit owning their own country, and were recorded in ways completely analogous [comparable] with male person land holders," writes Barbara Olsen, a professor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in her book "Women in Mycenaean Greece, the Linear B tablets from Pylos and Knossos" (Routledge, 2014).
"Moreover, land was not the just property held past women in Mycenaean-era Knossos. Various women were as well attested as having massive amounts of food-stuffs, slaves, raw and finished material products, and luxury goods such every bit gilded and statuary vessels," wrote Olsen in her book.
McEnroe too notes that the Mycenaeans embarked on a program to rebuild parts of the palace and create new frescoes. Compared to the before frescoes the range of motifs "is remarkably narrow," he writes. "There are no fanciful nature scenes with exotic animals or scenes of stylish women joyously participating in outdoor ceremonies. Instead the fresco program was stripped down to a few bare essentials. Bulls, tribute-bearing processions, heraldic devices and decorative friezes grade of the bulk [of the decorations]," he writes.
Knossos appears to have been destroyed old before 1300 B.C., plain past fire. The Mycenaeans would see their civilization collapse effectually 1200 B.C. every bit a serial of population migrations, possibly spurred by environmental problems, swept across Europe and the About East. In the period subsequently this collapse the people of Crete took to the hills, living in elevated settlements in hopes of surviving the calamity that had befallen the ancient world.
Controversial restoration
The restoration work that Evans did a century agone was extensive and controversial. Some archaeologists believe that he imagined some details in his restoration work that were not present in aboriginal times. Also some of the techniques he used acquired damage to the palace which conservators are still trying to disengage.
For example "an exceptional feature of the architecture of Minoan palaces of Knossos, Crete, is the unique light reflected from the surfaces. This is attributed to the extensive utilise of mineral gypsum (selenite), originating from a local quarry," writes a team of conservators in a paper published in a supplement to the journal Studies in Conservation.
Evans, however, used cement in his restoration work, roofing the selenite walls with information technology, a restoration technique that removed the low-cal reflection and poses risk of further damage.
"The extensive apply of this unconventional restoration material compromises the appearance of the monuments at Knossos, while information technology endangers the longevity of the selenite surfaces mainly due to the different mechanical properties," wrote the conservators in their paper. Recently, laser cleaning was used to help remove this cement, a technique that scientists hope will restore some of the palace's lost light.
Owen Jarus is a regular contributor to Live Science who writes almost archeology and humans' past. He has also written for The Independent (UK), The Canadian Press (CP) and The Associated Printing (AP), among others. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson Academy.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/27955-knossos-palace-of-the-minoans.html
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