Knossos, the Little Palace


Book Description

The Little Palace at Knossos, excavated by Evans and Mackenzie from 1905 - 10, remains the largest neo-palatial building within the Minoan town of Knossos, and to a large extent mirrors the history of the Palace itself. The present work effectively constitutes an excavation report of the LP, publishing for the first time entries from the daybooks of Evans and Mackenzie and many original excavation photographs. The volume provides an extremely detailed architectural account, supported by numerous plans and elevations. It incorporates the results of the 1995 restoration programme carried out by the 23rd Ephoreia and publishes sherd material then collected. A lengthy pottery chapter presents the LP sherd material from Evans's excavations, housed in the Stratigraphical Museum, and also complete vases in Herakleion. Clay tablets and sealings are discussed; small finds presented (many for the first time). The final chapter offers a thorough appraisal of the LP's history, and, in particular, deals with the thorny issue of 're-occupation' and the final destruction of the building in LM IIIA2 (i.e. contemporary with the Palace itself).




Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism


Book Description

In the spring of 1900, British archaeologist Arthur Evans began to excavate the palace of Knossos on Crete, bringing ancient Greek legends to life just as a new century dawned amid far-reaching questions about human history, art, and culture. With Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism, Cathy Gere relates the fascinating story of Evans’s excavation and its long-term effects on Western culture. After the World War I left the Enlightenment dream in tatters, the lost paradise that Evans offered in the concrete labyrinth—pacifist and matriarchal, pagan and cosmic—seemed to offer a new way forward for writers, artists, and thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, Giorgio de Chirico, Robert Graves, and Hilda Doolittle. Assembling a brilliant, talented, and eccentric cast at a moment of tremendous intellectual vitality and wrenching change, Cathy Gere paints an unforgettable portrait of the age of concrete and the birth of modernism.




Knossos


Book Description

Introduction; Historical outline; Myth and tradition; History of the excavations;Minoans and Knossos; The archaeological site; Route from Herakleion to Knossos; Tour of the palace; The main features; West court - west façade; West porch - corridor of the procession - central court; South propylaeum - west magazines - piano nobile; Throne room - tripartite shrine - pillar crypts; Grand staircase - hall of the double axes - queen's hall; Upper floor of the domestic quarter - shrine of the double axes; Royal workshops and magazines - east hall; North entrance - north lustral area - theatral area; The dependencies of the palace; Art treasures from Knossos.




The Palace of Minos


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Minoan Architectural Design


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House X at Kommos


Book Description

House X is by far the largest and best appointed of the Minoan houses excavated at Kommos in south-central Crete, a Minoan harbor and settlement that later became the site of a Greek sanctuary. Situated on the seacoast of the western Mesara Plain, Kommos faces west toward the Libyan Sea. House X stands on the southern edge of the Minoan town, separated by a large slab-paved road from the monumental civic buildings built and used between the Protopalatial and Postpalatial periods. The description of the stratigraphic excavation of this elite house is published with numerous architectural plans along with the cataloged small finds and tables of data on the floral and faunal materials. The excavated fresco fragments are also discussed and illustrated. This volume presents the Late Bronze Age pottery from in and around House X, a large Minoan house at Kommos situated not far from the sea in South-Central Crete. This volume is richly illustrated with drawings, photos, and tables of data. Rutter's contribution complements the publication of the architecture, stratigraphy, and small finds in Part 1 (Shaw and Shaw, eds., 2012). Together, this pair of volumes offers a conclusion to a series of monographs (volumes I-V) previously published about the site (Shaw and Shaw, eds., 1995-2006). The Kommos series is now completed by the two-volume publication on House X.













Cultural Identity in Minoan Crete


Book Description

Neopalatial Crete - the 'Golden Age' of the Minoan Civilization - possessed palaces, exquisite artefacts, and iconography with pre-eminent females. While lacking in fortifications, ritual symbolism cloaked the island, an elaborate bureaucracy logged transactions, and massive storage areas enabled the redistribution of goods. We cannot read the Linear A script, but the libation formulae suggest an island-wide koine. Within this cultural identity, there is considerable variation in how the Minoan elites organized themselves and others on an intra-site and regional basis. This book explores and celebrates this rich, diverse and dynamic culture through analyses of important sites, as well as Minoan administration, writing, economy and ritual. Key themes include the role of Knossos in wider Minoan culture and politics, the variable modes of centralization and power relations detectable across the island, and the role of ritual and cult in defining and articulating elite control.