Crete 5: Knossos

Tourism labyrinth just outside the site.

Knossos was the main city of Crete in the Minoan Bronze Age (roughly 4,000 years ago).  According to mythology it is where King Minos had Daedalus build a labyrinth to contain the Minotaur. 

Sir Arthur Evans bought the site around the turn of the century and excavated there for decades.  He gave the name to the Minoan civilization (after Minos, of course).  Regrettably he decided he knew what the place had looked like and "rebuilt" it. This is not approved of nowadays.  It also leaves those in charge of the site with a unique situation: they have to preserve the ancient ruins and also Evans' modern rebuilding, since they are now part of the place's history.

Main plaza.

Evans (not Ellis; sorry about the typo in the caption) found these all over the site.  He called them Horns of Consecration, and suspected they had to do with bull horns.  Another theory is that they are astronomical, references to mountains where people viewed stars and planets.

The mural on the left below is an Evans reproduction which you can see on Knossos. The original (on the right) hangs in the Heraklion Museum.  Pictures like this led Evans and others to believe bull-leaping was conducted at Knossos and other Minoan centers.  One problem with that is: where? The central plazas have no obvious way to store and transport the bulls.

Another theory which I like a lot is that they illustrate a myth or a constellation.  You can't assume that the activities in a mural tell you what happened in that place.  They didn't crucify people in Renaissance churches...

On the left below you see the so-called throne room at Knossos.  On the right is an illustration at the Heraklion Museum of what it may have looked like at its prime.

 Each of these Labryses (two-headed axes) from Knossos, now in the Heraklion Museum is taller than a man.  "Labyrinth" means "house of the two-headed axe."

Two more pictures from Knossos now at the Heraklion Museum.

 

Minoan centers were generally in the vicinity of mountain peaks and near the peak you will find a peak shrine, populated with small figurines of people in what appear to be an attitude of prayer.  You will see some of them when we get to the Heraklion Museum.  This is the peak within sight of Knossos.

Next Stop: Thalori.