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Stonehenge Sacred Symbolism - Ancient Beliefs in Britain and Northern Europe

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Knossos - Ancient Palace in Greece in Crete

Submitted by Thorgrim on Friday, 12 November 2004  Page Views: 15708

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Knossos Alternative Name: Κνοσσος
Country: Greece Region: Crete Type: Ancient Palace
Nearest Town: Iraklion  Nearest Village: Knossos
Latitude: 35.297953N  Longitude: 25.163373E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : The Minoan Palace of Knossos, Crete. Dating from the Minoan Bronze Age, the first palace was built around 2000BC and subsequently destroyed by earthquake. This later palace from the Neopalatial period had 1,200 rooms on five levels. In 1450 BC, it too was destroyed in a disaster caused by the volcanic eruption on Thera (Santorini) which destroyed that island and the Minoan civilisation. The restor... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Knossos and Minoan Crete

Theseus and the Minotaur - a wonderful tale of heroes, gods and monsters in a fabulous palace built by Daedalus and ruled by King Minos. Doomed Athenian youths sent in annual tribute to Crete as sacrificial victims. There to be hunted by the bull headed Minotaur in the underground maze of the labyrinth from which only Theseus could escape by means of the unwinding thread given to him by Ariadne, the King's daughter. Just a story until the palace, the labyrinth and the bulls were found in 1900 by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos.

The earliest occupation of Crete dates to the Neolithic from about 7000 BC. The transition to the Bronze Age occurred around 3500 BC and there was much contact with Egypt. The palaces, of which Knossos is only one, began around 1900 BC and lasted until about 1500 BC. They were incredibly rich in gold, jewels and the fine arts and crafts. The people were well fed, prosperous and highly sophisticated - yet there were no fortifications of any kind - no defences other than the sea. Was this a golden age of peace and prosperity?

The Minoan landscape was densely populated and dominated by country villas, while urbanisation surrounded the enormous palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia and Zakros. These palaces were centres for craftsmen working in stone, ivory and gold. The gypsum throne of King Minos is still in place and is the oldest throne in Europe. There are superb wall paintings of leaping dolphins and flying fish in a style similar to that which we call Art Nouveau today. Pottery with such bold colourful designs that they would not look out of place in a modern designer gallery. Vast jars of grain and oil to feed the multitude. Young men and women athletes danced with gigantic bulls and somersaulted over their backs by catching the horns of the charging bull. Beautiful women with oiled hair, wearing flounced skirts with tight bodices that left their breasts bare. The cult of the snake and that of the bull. Women seem to have enjoyed high status and the many wall paintings show them chatting and enjoying court life. There are exquisite seals and statuettes that show the Snake Goddess and her attendants in dominant attitudes while men salute them.

So what went wrong? The relationship of Crete to Egypt and to Mycenaean Greece is unclear. Until quite recently it was believed that the end of Minoan Crete was caused by the devastating eruption of a huge volcano in 1500 BC on the island of Thera (Santorini) to the north of Crete. Thera exploded. The eruption was massive and blew half the island away. A great tidal wave must have devastated the northern coastline of Crete and volcanic ash would have blanketed the land and destroyed crops. Then earthquakes struck Crete and palaces were destroyed. But the Minoan civilisation survived although only Knossos was rebuilt. Now life was very different for the Minoans. The old gods were blamed for the disaster - the statues of the Snake Goddess were deliberately smashed and buried beneath the palace floor at Knossos. Oil jars were overturned to feed the blaze when buildings were deliberately set on fire. Male gods replaced female gods, but these too were destroyed and their shrines burnt, perhaps by the followers of the dispossessed Goddess. Strange sea creatures like the octopus came to dominate pottery design and then came total collapse. People fled to the mountains and eked out a wretched existence. They appear to have been terrified to descend to the lowlands and to the seashore. Did the collapse of Crete lead to invasion and dominance by the warriors of Mycenae? Whatever the cause, the most remarkable early civilisation of the ancient world came to an end. Its truly incredible art and architecture was buried and became a fairy tale myth until one day that myth became reality.
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Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : Quick sketch of the bull leaping fresco. The pale skinned figures are female and the darker one is male. There are other depictions of this activity in statuettes of bronze and ivory so it seems that it really did happen. So much more dangerous than the pathetic and cruel Spanish "sport" - the athletes must have been incredibly brave. (5 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : Grand Staircase in the eastern wing of the Knossos Minoan palace (photo taken on April 2018). (Vote or comment on this photo)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by 43559959 : The horns of consecration pointing the way of Ikaros. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : The Dolphin fresco in the Royal Palace. Such lively, animated art is typical of the Minoans. (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by DrewParsons : Photographed during a visit in May 2003

Knossos
Knossos submitted by 43559959 : What Sir Arthur Evans found and recreated.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by 43559959 : King Minos storage jars of olive oil.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : Vast quantities of enormous jars survived the devastation. (1 comment)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : The Palace of Knossos is built on many levels with staircases and light wells. Extending over 10,000 square metres, it is thought that the ruins of countless rooms and corridors gave rise to the legend of the labyrinth. (1 comment)

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : There is something almost modern in the architectural style of the Palace of Knossos. Unsurpassed in the ancient world, this palace had no less than 1,200 rooms!

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : These huge storage jars were too big to be thrown on a wheel so they had to be built up by hand.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : West Bastion of the Knossos palace with reconstructed bull fresco (photo taken on April 2018).

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : Throne Room in the western wing of the Knossos palace (photo taken on April 2018).

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : North lustral basin in Knossos. Evans interpreted this structure as a sacred place for purification ceremonies and reconstructed it (photo taken on April 2018).

Knossos
Knossos submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Der Mensch Aller Zeiten" via archive.org

Knossos
Knossos submitted by 43559959 : Some of what Heinrich Schliemann missed.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by DrewParsons : View into an alcove showing a restored mural. The badly fragmented murals have been controversially restored on reconstructed walls by the artist Piet de Jong.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : Towards the end of Minoan Crete, the octopus and other sea creatures featured heavily in Minoan art.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : The architecture of the Palace of Knossos was extremely sophisticated. Here you can see that the painted column is wider at the top than at the bottom. This compensated for perspective when viewed from below and so the column sides appeared to be parallel.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : South House in the Knossos complex - this structure of the Neo-Palatial period (1700-1450 BC) was reconstructed by Evans (photo taken on April 2018).

Knossos
Knossos submitted by SolarMegalith : East bastion of the Knossos palace - this structure includes eastern entrance to the palace (photo taken on April 2018).

Knossos
Knossos submitted by 43559959 : Knossos revisited.

Knossos
Knossos submitted by durhamnature : Throne Room, old photo from "Life of Ancient East..." via archive.org

Knossos
Knossos submitted by Thorgrim : The Sacred Horns of Minos rise over the Palace of Knossos. Here where the bull was worshipped, Theseus fought the bull-headed Minotaur. (1 comment)

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New evidence suggests that ancient city recovered and flourished following collapse by Andy B on Monday, 25 January 2016
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New evidence suggests that an ancient Aegean city not only recovered but also flourished following the collapse of the Bronze Age.

Recent fieldwork at the ancient city of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete finds that during the early Iron Age (1100 to 600 BC), the city was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than what was believed from earlier excavations.

The Knossos valley, the surrounding villages and the area to the north: on the north coast of Crete, by the Aegean sea, lies the city of Herakleio, which is expanding towards the area of the ancient city.

The discovery suggests that not only did this spectacular site in the Greek Bronze Age (between 3500 and 1100 BC) recover from the collapse of the socio-political system around 1200 BC, but also rapidly grew and thrived as a cosmopolitan hub of the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. Antonis Kotsonas, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of classics, will highlight his field research with the Knossos Urban Landscape Project at the 117th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies. The meeting takes place Jan. 7-10 in San Francisco.

Kotsonas explains that Knossos, “renowned as a glorious site of the Greek Bronze Age, the leader of Crete and the seat of the palace of the mythical King Minos and the home of the enigmatic labyrinth,” was the prosperous epicenter of Minoan culture.

Scholars have studied the city’s Bronze Age remains for more than a century, but more recent research has focused on the urban development of the city after it entered the Iron Age – in the 11th century BC – following the Bronze Age collapse of the Aegean palaces.

The Knossos Urban Landscape Project over the past decade has recovered a large collection of ceramics and artifacts dating back to the Iron Age. The relics were spread over an extensive area that was previously unexplored. Kotsonas says that this exploration revealed considerable growth in the size of the settlement during the early Iron Age and also growth in the quantity and quality of its imports coming from mainland Greece, Cyprus, the Near East, Egypt, Italy, Sardinia and the western Mediterranean.

“No other site in the Aegean period has such a range of imports,” Kotsonas says. The imports include bronze and other metals – jewelry and adornments, as well as pottery. He adds that the majority of the materials, recovered from tombs, provide a glimpse of the wealth in the community, because status symbols were buried with the dead during this period.

The antiquities were collected from fields covering the remains of dwellings and cemeteries. “Distinguishing between domestic and burial contexts is essential for determining the size of the settlement and understanding the demographic, socio-political and economic development of the local community,” explains Kotsonas. “Even at this early stage in detailed analysis, it appears that this was a nucleated, rather densely occupied settlement extending over the core of the Knossos valley, from at least the east slopes of the acropolis hill on the west to the Kairatos River, and from the Vlychia stream on the south until roughly midway between the Minoan palace and the Kephala hill.”

Kotsonas’ Jan. 9 presentation was part of a colloquium themed, “Long-Term Urban Dynamics at Knossos: The Knossos Urban Landscape Project, 2005-2015.” Kotsonas serves as a consultant on the project, which is dedicated to intensively surveying the Knossos valley and documenting the development of the site from 7000 BC, to the early 20th century. The project is a research partnership between the Greek Archaeological Service and the British School at Athens. Kotsonas has served as a collaborator on the project since 2009.

Kotsonas adds that because the site also is a popular tourist attraction, there is a strong interest in development around the site. The Knossos Urban Landscape Project works to inform the

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Re: Knossos Crete by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 27 June 2007
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This is the same as:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=11629
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Re: Knossos Crete by Anonymous on Thursday, 17 May 2007
great info i'm sure it will help me
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Re: Knossos Crete by Anonymous on Friday, 04 November 2005
this is a wonderful page
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Re: Knossos Crete by Andy B on Thursday, 04 November 2004
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Thanks for the good article, which I know too little about. It's staggering how developed they were. Is it generally accepted that they were Goddess worshippers as that's what the 'Civilization One' authors like to suggest?
Andy
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