Knossos

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For the modern history of Knossos, see Knossos (modern history).

Knossos

Κνωσός
Restored North Entrance with charging bull fresco
Crete, showing Heraklion, location of ancient Knōsos
Alternate name	Cnossus
Location	Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Region	North central coast, 5 km (3.1 mi) southeast of Heraklion
Coordinates	35°17′53″N 25°9′47″ECoordinates: 35°17′53″N 25°9′47″E
Type	Palace complex, administrative center, capital of Crete and regions within its jurisdiction
Length	North-south length of inhabited area is 5 km (3.1 mi)[1]
Width	East-west width of inhabited area is 3 km (1.9 mi) max.
Area	Total inhabited area is 10 km2(3.9 sq mi). The palace building itself is 14,000 m2(150,000 sq ft)[2]
Height	Unknown
History
Builder	Unknown
Material	Ashlar blocks of limestone or gypsum, wood, mud-brick, rubble for fill, plaster
Founded	The first settlement dates to about 7000 BC. The first palace dates to 1900 BC.
Abandoned	At some time in Late Minoan IIIC, 1380–1100 BC
Periods	Neolithic to Late Bronze Age. The first palace was built in the Middle Minoan IA period.
Cultures	Minoan, Mycenaean
Associated with	In the Middle Minoan, people of unknown ethnicity termed Minoans; in the Late Minoan, by Mycenaean Greeks
Site notes
Excavation dates	1900–1931 1957–1960 1969–1970
Archaeologists	For the initial teams' work discovering the palace: Arthur Evans; David George Hogarth, Director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens; Duncan Mackenzie, superintendent of excavation; Theodore Fyfe, Architect; Christian Doll, Architect For the additional work on the Neolithic starting in 1957: John Davies Evans
Condition	Restored and maintained for visitation. Evans used mainly concrete. Modern interventions include open roofing of fragile areas, stabilized soil, paved walkways, non-slip wooden ramps, trash receptacles, perimeter barbed wire fence, security lighting, retail store and dining room[3]
Ownership	Originally owned by Cretans, then by Arthur Evans, followed by the British School at Athens, and finally by the current owner, theRepublic of Greece.
Management	23rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
Public access	Yes
Website	"Knossos". British School at Athens. "Knossos". Odysseus. Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 2007.
Current activity is preservational. Restoration is extensive. Painted concrete was used for wood in the pillars. The frecoes often were recreated from a few flakes of painted plaster.

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Knossos or Cnossos (/ˈnɒsɒs/; also Knossus or Cnossus /ˈnɒsəs/; Greek: Κνωσός, pronounced [knoˈsos]), is the largestBronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered Europe's oldest city.^[4]

The name Knossos survives from ancient Greek references to the major city of Crete. The identification of Knossos with the Bronze Age site is supported by tradition and by the Roman coins that were scattered over the fields surrounding the pre-excavation site, then a large mound named Kephala Hill, elevation 85 m (279 ft) from current sea level. Many of them were inscribed with Knosion or Knos on the obverse and an image of a Minotaur or Labyrinth on the reverse, both symbols deriving from the myth of King Minos, supposed to have reigned from Knossos.^[5] The coins came from the Roman settlement ofColonia Julia Nobilis Cnossus, a Roman colony placed just to the north of, and politically including, Kephala. The Romans believed they had colonized Knossos.^[6] After excavation, the discovery of the Linear B tablets, and the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris, the identification was confirmed by the reference to an administrative center, 𐀒𐀜𐀰, ko-no-so, Mycenaean Greek Knosos in Linear B, undoubtedly the palace complex. The palace was built over a Neolithic town. During the Bronze Age, the town surrounded the hill on which the palace was built.

The site was discovered in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos (Μίνως Καλοκαιρινός). The excavations in Knossos began in AD 1900 by the English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941) and his team, and they continued for 35 years. The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the earliest years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeded his original expectations, as did the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he termed Linear A and Linear B, to distinguish their writing from the pictographs also present. From the layering of the palace Evans developed de novo an archaeological concept of the civilization that used it, which he called Minoan, following the pre-existing custom of labelling all objects from the location Minoan.

The palace of Knossos was undoubtedly the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. It appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and storerooms close to a central square. An approximate graphic view of some aspects of Cretan life in the Bronze Age is provided by restorations of the palace's indoor and outdoor murals, as it is also by the decorative motifs of the pottery and the insignia on the seals and sealings.

The palace was abandoned at some unknown time at the end of the Late Bronze Age, c. 1380–1100 BC.^[7] The occasion is not known for certain, but one of the many disasters that befell the palace is generally put forward. The abandoning population were probably Mycenaean Greeks, who had earlier occupied the city-state, and were using Linear B as its administrative script, as opposed to Linear A, the previous administrative script. The hill was never again a settlement or civic site, although squatters may have used it for a time.

However, fieldwork in 2015 revealed that during the early Iron Age, Knossos was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than indicated by earlier excavations. Whilst archaeologists had previously believed that the city had declined in the wake of a socio-political collapse around 1200 BC, the work of the Knossos Urban Landscape Project found that the city had prospered instead.^[8]

Except for periods of abandonment, other cities were founded in the immediate vicinity, such as the Roman colony, and a Hellenistic Greek precedent. The population shifted to the new town of Chandax (modern Heraklion) during the 9th century AD. By the 13th century, it was called Makruteikhos 'Long Wall'; the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century.^[9] Today, the name is used only for the archaeological site now situated in the expanding suburbs of Heraklion.

In the first palace period around 2000 BC the urban area reached a size of up to 18,000 people.^[10] In its peak the Palace and the surrounding city boasted a population of 100,000 people shortly after 1700 BC.^[11][12][13]