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Colin F. Macdonald The British School of Archaeology at
Athens
The great "Palace
of Minos" at Knossos is really a succession of palatial structures built
upon the Neolithic "tell" site of Kephala (fig.1) some 7 km south of the
modern harbor town of Herakleion (Venetian Candia). While older, monumental
buildings perhaps dating as early as the EMIII phase may have been precursors
to the later structures, the first clearly recognizable palace, called the
Old Palace, was apparently not established until MMIB. After an earthquake
destroyed this early palace in MMIIIA, a grand New Palace was built over
it in MMIIIB (fig.2). Careful examination of the dating of walls and features
at Knossos, however, reveals that this palace, too, suffered significant
damage by earthquakes and was la rgely rebuilt at the start of the LMIA phase,
when additional structural walls and embellishments formed what I tentatively
call the Frescoed Palace. Finally, this palace, as well, was destroyed, and
remained in much more limited use in the LMIB period, which I thus refer
to as the Ruined Palace. The final incarnation of this structure was the
fully functional Mycenaean Palace of LMII-IIIA, which housed the Linear B
archives.
Fig.1: Knossos, viewed from the east (photo: C. Macdonald).
This paper will focus primarily on evidence that clarifies some of the
construction phases occurring from the mid-17th to mid-15th centuries BC,
from the New Palace to the Ruined Palace. It is only by investigating these
detailed developments in the palace architecture that we can begin to understand
how the function of the palace changed over time.
The Earliest Palaces: The 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, us ually of unbaked mud-brick on stone
foundations, created an artificial mound now surrounded by pine trees and
cypresses (fig.1). It 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, and had expanded to around 11 acres by the time of the transition
to the Bronze Age.
Fig.2: Aerial view of the Palace showing area of MM IIIB Central
Court; planning lines in red (photo: C.Macdonald, with thanks to
HMS Brilliant).
We know little 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 (EMIII), a substantial
structure was erected in the northwest area of the later palace (fig.3, in
red). 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.
The Early Minoan
III "megastructure" was lucky to survive at all, since the construction of
the Second or New Palace in the first half of the 17th century BC appears
to have removed most earlier structures on the west side of the hill down
to Neolithic levels. Even securely dated remains of the First Palace, established
in Middle Minoan IB, are few and far between. It is assumed that the Old
Palace was broadly built on the same lines followed by the New Palace, but
too little is known about it to be sure, and what it looked like is largely
based on projecting back from the New Palace.
However, in 1973 and 1987,
discoveries made by M.S.F. Hood with the present writer gave an interesting
glimpse of the possible form of the first phase of the Old Palace. Tests
in "Early Magazine A" revealed a burnt destruction deposit of the Middle
Minoan IB phase, next to an impressive wall of limestone and gypsum blocks
about 1.5 m thick (fig.3 in blue; fig.4 right). Over 150 cups of the crudest
to the finest quality (fig.5) had fallen to the ground from wooden shelves,
which had burnt during a major destructive episode. Fig.3: sketch plan of the Palace emphasizing the Middle Minoan IIIB
phase (compiled by C. Macdonald). The thick east-west wall,
with the earliest datable mason's mark in the form of a Double Axe carved
on one block, is likely to have been an exterior wall facing south and is
built up against Neolithic deposits on the interior. This, combined with
its alignment with the Late Minoan southern limits of the Central Court and
the fact that only scanty contemporary remains have been found to the south,
indicate to me that the wall is a candidate for the earliest south façade
of the Old Palace.
The Old Palace would have grown during the Middle Bronze Age, perhaps covering
much the same area as the later New Palace. This is particularly noticeable
on the east side of the hill, where very deep deposits of Middle Minoan II
and IIIA were sealed beneath paving of the New Palace. The latest pottery
beneath the slab floors of the New Palace on the east side appears to date
the end of the Old Palace at Knossos. Unlike the palace at Phaistos in the
south, where a massive earthquake destroyed the Old Palace at the end of
MMIIB, the Old Palace of Knossos may have suffered a milder shock and continued
to function until Middle Minoan IIIA, around the beginning of the 17th century
BC. Around this time, it was hit by a massive earthquake. The earthquake
is dramatically illustrated by the Houses of the Fallen Blocks and Sacrificed
Oxen outside the southern border of the Palace, and by the tripartite bulding
at Anemospelia a few km away on Mt. Juktas, where large storage jars may
even have fallen on the line of the seismic shock (fig.4).
 This great
earthquake, which affected north-central Crete most, marked the architectural
divide between the Old and New Palaces of Knossos, and ushered in an era
of construction the likes of which the island had never seen. For not only
was the Palace of Minos built with the layout we essentially see today, but
also Knossian architectural features were adopted elsewhere on the island
in other palaces, some still to be discovered, and some non-palatial buildings.
Fig.4: East room at Anemospelia, with fallen pithoi (large storage
jars) (photo by permission of I. and E. Sakellarakis). The New Palaces of Knossos: When Evans excavated the Palace at Knossos,
digging tended to go down as far as the first formal floor to be reached.
More often than not, this would be the original slab flooring of the New
Palace laid down towards the end of the 17th century BC (Middle Minoan IIIB).
However, the pottery and other objects found near these floors rarely belonged
to this first phase, but rather to later phases of occupation, when the original
floors continued in use or new ones were laid, often of earth and plaster,
only a few centimeters above the old. It is, however, possible to find remains
of the first period at specific locations dotted around the Palace. These
deposits give us some clues as to its character and some of the activities
that took place when it was first built. I have called this palace the New
Palace, pure and simple, yet grand and ambitious.
The following phase, LMIA, covering much of the 16th century BC, is subtly
different from that which went before, largely because alterations had to
be made to the original design which seems to have overstretched itself in
terms of roof spans. An earthquake had struck once again and broad architectural
units such as the South Propylaeum and North Entrance Passage had to be modified
so as to be less vulnerable to seismic damage. Walls were erected to reduce
the size of rooms and provide greater support for the upper floors. The North
Entrance Passage was given supporting bastions built of masonry every bit
as fine as in the preceding period. However, the most remarkable changes
were to be seen in the frescoed walls which now greeted the visitor, whether
above the new North Entrance Bastions or along the corridor leading from
the West Court around the southwest to the South Propylaeum and possibly
the Central Court itself. The entrance was given the name "Corridor of the
Procession" by Evans due to the frescoes (fig.5) that adorned its walls in
the later Mycenaean period (LMII-IIIA), but there is evidence that a comparable
composition was in place by LMIA. I have called the  Palace in this phase
the "Frescoed Palace," since monumental frescoes designed for public viewing
were probably one of the most striking new features at this time of rebuilding.
Another destruction
divides this palace phase from the next, which saw the construction of new
walls - sometimes doubled for extra support. We shall discuss this phase
briefly later; for now, our concern is the evidence for differentiating the
New Palace from the Frescoed Palace.
The Evidence for Defining the New and Frescoed Palaces: To characterize
the two Palaces described above is a relatively new idea. The evidence, however,
is suggestive rather than conclusive. I have selected 5 areas where there
is evidence of relevant architectural change.
Fig.5: The Cup-bearer Fresco (after M. Cameron, in D. Evely
1999).
. The South Propylaeum (figs.3:1 and 9): This structure was a monumental
entrance to the upper floors of the West Wing of the Palace. Entrance to
the Palace complex had already been gained through a corridor from the southeast
corner of the West Court, along the "Corridor of the Procession" (fig.3:25).
The corridor ran along the south side of the Palace to both the South Propylaeum
and the Central Court.
The plan of the Propylaeum as we see it today belongs to our second phase,
the Frescoed Palace of LMIA. Before that, when first built, it was of
substantially larger proportions - a more impressive and architecturally
challenging structure. Its original side walls can be seen today, some two
and a half meters to the west and east, indicating that the entrance was
monumental. A sunken stone-built cist (fig.3:1a) lay in the northeast corner
of the south section. It is this cist which provides the secure dating evidence
for a change in the entrance, for the east wall of the later Propylaeum runs
over the top of it.
For the Propylaeum rebuilt after the earthquake at the end of this phase, we can quote the words of Evans: "If the M.M. III walls were already …
compounded of the ruins of earlier structures, the rubble material of this
later (Late Minoan IA) fabric represents the ruin of a ruin." It seems likely
that these later rubble walls were decorated with monumental frescoes, which
wo uld have been the precursors of the well-known "Cup-Bearer" fresco (fig.5)
usually dated to Late Minoan IB-II.
The Central Palace Sanctuary (fig.3:4): As preserved today, the Central
Palace Sanctuary is a series of rather small rooms surrounding a paved public
room, known
as the Lobby of the Stone Seat after the carved stone bench that was installed
after the MMIIIB earthquake. The area includes some of the most famous rooms
of the palace: the East and West Pillar Crypts, the Vat Room, and the Temple
Repositories Room containing the enormous cists or repositories in which
were found the faience goddesses (fig.6), and a wealth of other ritual objects,
carefully deposited beneath numerous clay vases.
Fig.6: Faience goddess from the temple repositories (after A.
Vasilakis).
The eponymous stone seat in the Lobby is the first obvious sign that the
arrangement of the rooms when first built was somewhat different, since it
blocks a multiple doorway, known as a polythyron. The Lobby was surrounded
by polythyra on three sides, all of which were blocked or modified after
their original construction. The two great stone-built Repositories lay in
a room about twice its present size, as it would have included the neighboring
Room of the Tall Pithos. The Pillar Crypts may also have been a single room
with 6 pillars, in my opinion, but this is by no means certain. At any rate,
when this West Wing of the Palace was built in MMIIIB, it appears to have
been the central Sanctuary area, perhaps supporting religious activities
occurring in the Central Court. A large number of storage vessels used for
liquids, some from the Cyclaid island of Meolos decorated with bulbous birds
(fig.7), were found inside and may originally have been kept in the room
for serving wine or other beverages.
After the MMIIIB earthquake, the layout was drastically changed, with several
of the spacious square rooms being divided into two rectangles. The blocking
of the polythyra belongs to this stage. The absence of the great Repositories
may indicate that ceremonies in the Central Court underwent a change in the
second phase of the New Palace, perhaps with less emphasis on mass participation
than before. LMIA may also have been a period during which access to the
Central Court was more restricted, as we shall see in connection with the
North Entrance Passage.
 North Entrance
Passage and North-West Lustral Area (figs.3:7 and 9): Essentially,
the entrance is composed of two massive walls running north-south, onto which
have been imposed "Bastions," as Evans called them, liberally incised with
the "Trident" mason's marks. The tighter control of access to the Central
Court created by the construction of the Bastions may well be contemporary
with the monumental bull fresco, a very public display of power associated
with the Palace. This may further justify naming the Late Minoan IA Palace
as "the Frescoed Palace."
Fig.7: Cycladic Bird Jug from Temple Repositories (after M.
Panagiotaki 1999, fig.38).
To the west of the North Entrance Passage lies the North-West Portico, probably
constructed at the same time as the Bastions, for they have a shared or
party-wall. Evans placed the North-West Lustral Basin in an earlier period,
MMIIIA, which was, for him, the start of the New Palace period. It lies to
the north of a hefty wall of a construction style that I associate with the
New Palace of MMIIIB (a cist was recently found inside this wall and dated
to MMIIIB). The area is, perhaps, best known for the discovery of the white
alabaster lid bearing the cartouche of the Egyptian Hyksos king, Khyan (fig.8).
Egyptian finds in stratified or datable contexts are important for the absolute
chronology of the Aegean Bronze Age, and the "Khyan Lid" has long formed
an important marker for the Middle Minoan IIIA period, to which Evans assigned
both the lid and the destruction of the Lustral Basin. It may also be an
indication of personal links between the Hyksos ruler and Knossos. Arguments
have raged over both the Minoan date of the lid and the date of the Hyksos
king. On the Egyptian side, Khyan is now placed around 1600 BC by K.A. Kitchen,
whose Egyptian chronology is that most usually accepted as being close to
the truth. On the Minoan side, no pottery now exists that could confirm or
contradict Evans' MMIIIA date. However, of some relevance may be yet another
cist discovered in 1929, a few meters to the north of the lid's findspot.
It was filled with pottery and set in black earth, perhaps an indication
that this was clearance of destruction debris. The latest pottery from here
appears to me to belong to the end of the Middle Bronze Age (MMIIIB) and
to be contemporary with that in the South Propylaeum.
Court of the Stone Spout (figs. 3:14; 23): Moving around to the northeast
section of the Palace - a little way from the North-East Magazines (fig.3:12),
which were
probably overwhelmed and buried in the MMIIIB earthquake - is an open area
bordered on the west by a massive wall similar to the Bastions of the North
Entrance, not least due to its "Trident" mason's mark s. By contrast, this
wall, which has the eponymous stone spout in its fourth course, appears to
go back to the beginning of the New Palace and to have been part of the original
design. Pottery from beneath it can be assigned to the preceding MMIIIA phase,
whilst vases from the fill of the court's well belong to the next MMIIIB
phase, probably representing unbroken debris deposited while clearing up
after the earthquake.
Fig.8: Egyptian alabaster lid of Hyksos King Khyan, ca. 1600 BC
(from A. Karetsou).
Other important areas were definitely laid out at the start of Middle Minoan
IIIB, notably the Throne Room Complex (fig.3:5) and, perhaps, the Domestic
or Residential Quarter (fig.3:18-20). The West Magazines (fig.3:27) may have
had a long history, but their present form and the West Façade of
the Palace most probably date to the start of the New Palace.
The function of the Palace appears to change over time, some changes being
subtle and others more radical. The level of change can only be properly
assessed once we understand the architectural changes that took place, as
far as this is possible from the recorded and remaining evidence.
The MMIIIB New Palace: A Single Conception?: Despite the absence of
a detailed phase plan of the Palace, we can make certain observations relating
to the original MMIIIB form of the New Palace. First and perhaps most important
are the borders of the MMIIIB Central Court (the light rectangular area in
fig.2 shows an approximation of the MMIIIB court). It has long been known
that the line of the east wall of the Temple Repositories marked the west
side of the court in MMIIIB. The steps down to the Lobby of the Stone Seat
and those of the Antechamber of the Throne Room were additions of the next
phase. This in itself is interesting, since the north-south dividing line
of the Central Court would then have fallen midway between the original walls
of the North Entrance Passage before the Bastions were built. The southern
limit of the Central Court is more difficult to define. Today it is marked
by the paving in the southwest of the court, which forms  a corner. In MMIIIB,
the court probably went as far as a much-destroyed wall, constructed of massive
blocks some meters to the south. I recently planned
this wall in detail and it is clearly a major terrace wall, ideally suited
to support the southern end of the Central Court. Indeed, this wall marks
the southern border on one of the early plans of the palace reproduced here
(fig.9). Fig.9: Plan of Palace as it was in 1902 (after T. Fyfe,
BSA 8, 1901-1902, pl.1). . Assuming that this was the original south end of the MMIIIB Central
Court, the midway east-west line of the court runs through the center of
the Lobby of the Stone Seat, making the Central Palace Sanctuary the precise
architectural center of the west side of the Court. The line continues along
the major dividing wall between West Magazines V and VI ending at an indentation
of the West Façade. This axis can also be extended to the east, running
along the north side of the colonnades of the Grand Staircase, the north
side of the north wall of the Hall of the Double Axes, and on down the hill.
This then places the Grand Staircase precisely in the middle of the east
side of the Central Court. These north-south and east-west axis lines of
the Palace are marked in red in fig.3. They are the first clear indicators
of a unified design for the MMIIIB New Palace.
All of these observations concerning alignments and wall spacings indicate
that the New Palace of MMIIIB was designed as a single coherent structure
by one architect, or a group working together.The hill was surveyed; account
would have been taken of existing walls, particularly for structural purposes
and terracing; the plan was then drawn up and executed using a massive amount
of manpower both on and off site, as the discussion of the use of architectural
embellishments for the MMIIIB palace has emphasized.
A strong earthquake then severely damaged this New Palace of somewhat
over-ambitious proportions. A program of repair and rebuilding was put into
effect, although it seems to have succeeded in excluding sections of the
community that had lent its support to the original project. Architectural
embellishment was replaced at certain points by wall-painted decoration and
routes of access were restricted, notably at the North Entrance. Further
research is needed to ascertain just how different this Late Minoan IA Frescoed
Palace was from its MMIIIB predecessor. Indeed, the uncertainty surrounding
the precise date of many frescoes remains an impediment to unambiguous
interpretation.
The Ruined Palace of LMIB: As for the successor to the LMIA Palace,
there is no concrete evidence for occupation during LMIB. Some walls and
stairs may be dated to LMIB by the LMIA material beneath them. However, general
rebuilding must have taken place at this time. In addition, I think work
was interrupted in LMIB by yet another catastrophic earthquake, before the
Palace could become fully functional. It is interesting that outside the
palace, although LMIB destructions have been discovered, four excavations
have produced an archaeological sequence where LMIA is followed by LMII,
indicating a gap in occupation at those sites. We should, therefore, at least
be open to the suggestion that even the palace was not fully occupied during
LMIB, perhaps due to reconstruction works.
Through all this, of course, at least the West and Central Courts would have
remained intact. If they were the focuses of ceremonial and religious activity
in MMIIIB and LMIA, they could have continued as such even when the Palace
was ruined or under reconstruction. Hence the name I have nominally attached
to this third Neopalatial phase, the Ruined Palace. The succeeding Mycenaean
Palace of LMII-IIIA was fully functional, not least on the bureaucratic level
since it is to these periods that the Linear B archives belong. The Ruined
Palace may merely be an intermediate phase that gave birth to the last true
palatial buildings at Knossos.
It is unlikely that the descriptive names given to successive new palaces
will remain in perpetuity. The New Palace presents no problems as a name
already in use, but many scholars will take issue with the name Frescoed
Palace. A more appropriate name may be supplied when we understand this
substantially modified building better. The definition of rooms and architectural
features is one key to the interpretation of its functions. That access was
considerably restricted in this phase implies a changed relationship between
the palace and Minoan town. Indeed, the palace may have become more elitist.
So too, the Ruined Palace should gain greater form with more detailed work
into the construction dates of walls and other architectural features. While
I have suggested that the palace could have continued to exist in a ruinous
state on a certain ceremonial level, it is hard to imagine its bureaucracy
or storage facilities at a fully functional level. This, in turn, would have
affected the role of Knossos on the broader Minoan political and economic
stage unless a Knossian subsidiary such as Arkhanes could have filled the
temporary vacuum. The picture will only become clearer by consolidating the
work of the last 100 years in a period plan of the palace and with more detailed
work on contexts and the changing character of the monument. A start has
been made by a number of scholars and there is now a much greater awareness
that there were many changes within the New Palace period at Knossos and
beyond. What began as a single monumental undertaking in the mid-17th century
BC was adapted to changing circumstances, both physical and social, until
the Mycenaean-style administration emerged some two hundred years later.
Piecing together the precise attributes and mechanisms of those changes remains
an important challenge for the near future.
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This is an abridged version of the article appearing on page 36-43 in Vol.3 No.3 of Athena
Review.
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