Athena Review Image Archive ™
Knossos: aerial view of Central Court
Knossos Central Court and associated MMIIIb structures (photo: C. Macdonald).
A great
earthquake in the mid-17th century BC marked the architectural divide
between the Old and New Palaces of Knossos. At this point the Palace of
Minos was rebuilt with the layout essentially seen today, as shown in this aerial view.
When
Knossos was excavated by Evans, the New Palace represented the
first formal floor to be reached. The original slab flooring of the New
Palace was 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.
[Source: McDonald, Colin F."The Palaces of Minos at Knossos" Athena Review, v3 no.3]
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