Greece and Turkey 2015: Day 19- Knossos and Minoan Museum

Here are some views of the Cretan coast!

The Minoan Civiliazation existed on the island of Crete between 3000-1150 BC, before likely falling to the Myceneans from the mainland. We visited one of the royal palaces known as Knossos, which possibly acted as the capital of the island empire. This complex shed quite a bit of light on this culture and the way these people lived thousands of years ago.

The civilization is broken down into four time periods:

This male peacock was roaming around Knossos when we walked through the gates this morning. You can tell he is male because of the vibrant blue color of his head and in his tail feathers (evolution at its finest!).

These large open pits on the west side of the palace was once thought to be a sort of landfill, but further examination has concluded they were likely used to store grain during the Palatial Period.

The Knossos theater was not just used for entertainment purposes like in the later Greek or Roman cities. Instead, local meetings were likely held here as well. We can see that this stone structure build off of the west side of the central courtyard was not as grand as their later brethren.

This is the Grand Walkway leading up to the center of the palace to an reception room, very similar to a great hall or foyer. Here, the royal family would entertain local dignitaries and friends in this area.

Here is the Grand Staircase leading into this same reception room. Minoan cities all had four main features critical to the daily life of the people living there. First was the main central courtyard where some of the most important religious ceremonies (most likely sacrifices to the female snake goddess according to figurines found across the property) and sporting event (more on this later) were held. Also, these cities had a lustoral basin, a deep, open shaft with a stone bottom most likely used for washing. Finally, small rooms stone foundations, mudbrick walls, and wooden decoration and supports were constructed to store food, press oil and grapes, and house the king and queen's throne. We'll see all of these features as we go.

This is the king's throne room, known as the megaron, located below the main reception area. This room originally contained beautiful frescos and these restored red wall paints, all of which are absolutely gorgeous (we'll see some of those too, don't worry). The bowl in front of the stone throne is called a libation bowl where offerings to the king were made, most likely in the form of water, wine, or food.

This beautiful mountain is called Mount Ida and it does have importance to Greek mythology. Supposedly, Zeus, the father of the Greek Pantheon, was born here. And yes, there is snow on top of those mountains...

Since these people lived long before electricity, they needed some way to light the rooms in their homes while still allowing ventilation and circulation of air. They did this using these pier and door systems, basically with multiple gaps in the walls about three feet wide, allowing the natural sunlight and fresh air to come in and out. They also had skylights in the tops of their two or three story homes to allow natural light in, which could be opened to ventilate the area when needed.

This is a photo of one of several lustoral basins in the palace. Since vessels that appeared to be bathtubs were found in the bottom, archeologists believed these areas were used for washing.

Here are some of those storerooms I was talking about earlier. Some of these rooms are actually partially dug out of the ground because they remain the same temperature year round (cool in the summer and warm in the winter). This way, fresh food and wine could be stores for longer periods of time without spoiling.

There are several places in the palace where archeologists have reconstructed parts of the palace so visitors can get an idea of what it may have looked like long ago. Here we notice these pillars supporting the partially underground room. These pillars are actually made of wood (though these reconstructions are stone made to look like the real thing) and painted giving these dark black or red color.

These two photos are of the queen's megaron, likely where she lived. Though these are obviously reconstructions, we can get a good glimpse of how lavish these rooms may have been and how much space the royal family has to live with.

These pithos, or stone pots, were one of the vessels used by the Minoans to store their food, wine, and religious sacrifices. The interesting part about these vessels was the fact that they were made of stone long before the more efficient potter's wheel was invented, showing how far ahead of their time these people were.

Here is more evidence of that with the remnants of a water drainage/sewage system that ran below the level of palace (Heidi says the system was better than in Crete that it is now...).

Last but not least is a horn of consecration, which originally were placed on the roofs of buildings, making a sort of fence along the roof. This is a symbol of the bull, one of the most sacred animals to the Minoan culture. You'll see in the frescoes below that they used bulls in religious ceremonies and in sport, where men and women completed in bull leaping competitions, something quite unique to these people.

We also made a stop to the Herikleon Archeological Museum, almost solely dedicated to Minoan culture on Crete. Here are five of the coolest pieces here.

These clay teapots amd jugs were dated back to somewhere between 2400-2200 BC, during the Prepalatial Minoan period. They were found in the city of Vasiliki mostly in tombs carved into the bedrock with a small rectangular or circular stone structure placed on top of it (the first of its kind in the region). These pots were decorated with rather abstract shapes and painted with natural colors like red, black, and brown. It is believed these pots had belonged to the dead person and were sent with them to whichever world they found themselves in (though some, more ornate jugs were found that indicate they were made specifically for the funeral).

These pieces are all made of relatively soft materials to carve into, including soft stone, bone, or boar tusk. These pieces had to be easy to carve as they likely were used by the Minoans to sign legal documents or indicated what items in a storeroom belonged to whom. Each piece has a unique carving for this purpose and each has a small hole drilled through the top, likely meaning they used these pieces as jewelry or amulets when they were not used to sign things. The symbols on these pieces also signify the status in society of the person to whom used it. They very in terms of date between 2400-1200 BC.

This game board set, called the Draughtboard, was found in the Palace of Knossos and is dated between 1700-1450 BC (the Neopalatial period). The board itself is beautifully made of ivory, blue glass and rock crystals, and is plated with gold and silver. The game pieces (the cone shaped pieces on the right) are also made of ivory. Though it is unknown how this game was originally played, it does tell us that the families that lived in Minoan palaces probably lived a life of luxury, unlike some of the other peoples from this time period we have studied so far.

This is a fresco (a portrait painted on top of a layer of moist plaster with straw embedded in it, hense the irregular painting surface) of one of the most important sports and public events in Minoan life, bull leaping. As you can see, the athlete would grab on to the animal's horns, do a sort of flip or somersault over the bull's back, then land on their feet again. In Minoan culture, the bull was likely the most sacred animal, as we saw the bull horns sitting atop a majority of the buildings in Knossos. This fresco is dated between 1600-1400 BC (Neopalatial Period) and interestingly enough shows both men and women performing this stunt, unlike the later Greeks who barred women from competing in athletic events.

This circular clay tablet is known as the Phaistos Disk, and is dated from the 1600s BC (the Neopalatial period). The disk contains the repetition of 45 pictures arranged in about 60 groups, separated by lines running parallel to the outside of the circle (the reverse side also contains writing etched in this same way). Since many of the pictures repeat, the piece is likely a song or another piece of religious text used in ceremonies, though language experts have yet to determine what the inscription says for certain.

To close, how about some views of the Cretan mountains and valleys. Pretty breathtaking huh?