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Rooms
in the Palace at Knossos
The
Throne Room
Hall
of Double Axes
The
Dolphin Sanctuary
The
Royal Villa
The
Grand Staircase
The
Caravanserai
The
Bull Chamber
The
Temple Tomb
The
Storerooms |
the
palace at Knossos as it is today
artist's rendering of the palace reconstructed
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On
March 23, 1900 Arthur Evans began
his excavation of Knossos on the island of Crete. He was not
the first to dig there, but he uncovered the Knossos Palace
and discovered what he called the Minoan civilization, after
the legendary King Minos of Crete. He
spent the rest of his life working on it. He was an amateur
archeologist and by today's standards, it was a very sloppy
excavation. But he was able to preserve the remains of the
Minoans, which might have been lost.
The
Palace at Knossos has the same architectural design found
at other Minoan palaces. There is a central courtyard, with
living rooms and storage rooms off the courtyard. The palaces
were the economic, social, religious and political centers
for the Minoan civilization. This palace dates to
2000-1350 B.C.E.
Four
wings were arranged around a central courtyard, containing
the royal quarters, workshops, shrines, storerooms, repositories,
the throne room and banquet halls. Artifacts discovered have given valuable information about Minoan social structure, religion, clothing, everyday life and diet. The palace had hypocaust heating and plumbing which brought in hot and cold water and flushing toilets.
Although
important economically, the Minoans were apparently not a
military power. The cities had only minimal defensive walls,
unlike other Bronze Age civilizations.
Their extensive fleet probably provided all the protection that they needed.
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