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Knossos on the hill of Kephala
Knossos, viewed from the east (photo: C. Macdonald).
The Palace of Minos at Knossos represents a succession of palatial structures built upon the Neolithic "tell" site of Kephala, 7 km south of the modern harbor town of Herakleion. This site, on which the series of later palaces was built, preserves the oldest human habitation remains yet known on Crete. The earliest occupation, lacking pottery and known as the Aceramic Neolithic, happened around 7000 BC. Successive settlements were laid down one on top of the other. As houses collapsed or burnt down, new ones were built upon the levelled remains. The ruins of these structures, usually of unbaked mud-brick on stone foundations, created an artificial mound now surrounded by pine trees and cypresses, shown in the figure above.
Kephala is the only true "tell" site in the south Aegean area and, by the 6th millenium BC, it covered almost the same area as the later palace, which had expanded to about 11acres by the time of the transition to the Bronze Age. Little is known of the Early Bronze Age buildings at Knossos, apart from the so-called Early Houses on the southern border of the later palace and the West Court House.
Towards the end of the Early Bronze Age (Early Minoan III), a substantial structure was erected in the northwest area of the later palace. The northwest and west façades of the later palace appear to have followed the lines of a massive wall up to 2.5 m thick, ending against the Neolithic deposit just south of Magazine XI. At least the orientation followed by the Palace of Minos was established towards the end of the 3rd millennium.
[Source: McDonald, Colin F. "The Palaces of Minos at Knossos" Athena Review, v3 no.3]
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