Part 1- The Minoans – Knossos
Before I launch into the first of these “Cretan Adventures”, I think I should first tell you something about the Minoans, who they were, where they were, and where are they now? This series of stories was triggered by our return to Crete, and our planned visits to ancient Minoan archaeological sites and museums.
The Minoans were a very advanced Bronze Age Aegean civilization that thrived for thousands of years on the Greek Island of Crete. Beginning approximately 3500 BC, they developed a complex urban society by 2000 BC, declining around 1450 BC and ending around 1100 BC. It was the first advanced civilization in Europe, with an economy that benefitted from a network of trade around the Mediterranean and beyond, including the Cycladic Islands, Cyprus, Anatolia (Turkey) and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.
They built elaborate administration centres, now referred to as ‘palaces’, up to four stories high with incredible frescoes and ceramic art, advanced writing systems, as well as elaborate plumbing and engineering projects, when the rest of Europe, indeed the world, were running around in loin-cloths. This civilization was rumoured to be the source of the ‘Atlantis’ myth . . . or is it a myth?
So much for my nutshell summary about the Minoans. Now I’d like to tell you a little more about what we can find today.
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Part 1 – Knossos
Anybody that goes to Crete, or anybody that wants to learn about the Minoans, MUST visit Knossos. First, the pronunciation. The Greeks are very fussy about what syllable should be emphasized. In their writing, they mark the emphasized syllable with an accent mark over it, which makes it handy for us students of the Greek language. For instance, Knossós, (K no SOSE) or in Greek Κνωσός.
Not being a native Greek speaker, I have run into trouble at times, even for something simple like “Where is a bank, or an ATM?” On this last trip, I stopped in one village to ask this question, and was greeted with blank stares. I remembered the word for bank, and I asked it correctly, except I forgot about the emphasized syllable. I quickly corrected my mistake, and was understood immediately. For good measure I added the portion about ‘where is an ATM?’, and of course they understood that right away. Go figure!
Back to my story: Knossόs
This trip to Crete was a ’repeat’ performance, as we had visited the island a few years before and realized there was so much more to see, so much more to learn, and so much more to try and taste! We had only touched a few of the main sights briefly, and knew we had to return.
Knossόs is a huge archaeological site, an ancient city, just outside the capital city Heraklion. Heraklion itself is a wonderful place to visit, and an ideal ‘base’ location to stay when visiting the island. I won’t spent a lot of time on Heraklion except to say we usually stay at the Castello City Hotel, a well run place in a good location with very nice accommodation and a great restaurant on the fifth floor.
Our balcony table
The reason I mention this is we received a forewarning of how our trip this time would progress while at this hotel. We had just arrived, dead tired and ready for a meal of good Greek food and wine. We always enjoyed the restaurant on the fifth floor, with many of its tables outside on a balcony, overlooking the city or the harbour. As we sat there, enjoying our meal, I noticed our little table jiggling and rocking back and forth, not too severe, but noticeable as the wine rippled around in the glass. I said to Diana “I think that was an earthquake!”
By that time it has stopped, and I asked the waiter if he noticed it. “Oh yes,” he said “We get them quite often.” We learned later is was a four point something on the Richter scale. Nothing too severe, but definitely a reminder of how vulnerable we are to the whims of Mother Nature.
Knossόs
Back to our Minoan Tales – on the previous trip to Crete, we had taken a brief tour of Knossόs with just ourselves and two others, our relatives from England. It was very brief, a hot day, we had little understanding of what we were seeing as we wandered around massive piles of stones, stairways and mysterious doorways and rooms. We had read that Sir Arthur Evans had done extensive excavation and even rebuilding (Now strictly controlled and forbidden) of the rooms and structures.
Author wandering around
We decided that this time we would be a little smarter, so early one morning, we took a taxi from our hotel to the Knossόs site to meet up with a professional guide who we had booked ahead of time. We went fairly early (about 8 AM) to beat the big tour groups arriving in buses about 10 AM from the cruise ships and other tourist meeting places. This technique also allowed us to bypass any queues waiting to get in, we just walked around the waiting crowds and join our small group. Our guide was a woman, well educated and experienced in archaeology and expert in Minoan history. With this lady to show us around, we had a better chance of understanding what we were seeing. I highly recommend this, as so much of the technology, techniques and culture of the Minoans can be lost if you do not know what you are looking at.
Diana at Knossos
The Minoan culture and society dates back to about 7000 BCE, and Knossόs site has been active for about five thousand years. When you think about what had happened in five thousand years . . . . this was before the Pyramids were built, before the early Greeks, Romans and early Biblical times. And the Minoans were advancing into the Bronze age, building these ‘palaces’, actually administrative centres, some over four stories high, with natural air conditioning and circulation, natural ‘light tunnels’ to illuminate the insides, water and sewage systems over a period of thousands of years. They continued to use various stone material, built huge grain storage rooms, rooms to house vast quantities of ‘pithos’ or large ceramic jars of olive oil and wines.
Large Pithos – Ceramic Wine/Oil jar
Over the ages, these palaces were destroyed by earthquakes, fire, or war. They evolved and were rebuilt over many centuries. At the same time the Minoans were managing this empire on Crete, they were also experts in bronze technology, and controlled massive sailing ships that sailed the world, trading with other countries and empires for their technology. One of their biggest trading partners was Egypt, supplying them with many bronze weapons. They traded with Cyprus for their copper, and were rumoured to travel as far as England and Scandinavia for their tin and other metals. Some stories even mention North America to get more copper from an area near the Great Lakes in Canada.
Giant Mosaic Mural
Some rooms in Knossόs ‘palace’ have large mosaic murals, scenes of day to day life of the Minoan society. Many of these archaeological treasures are in the museum in Heraklion, which contains many examples of their skills in art, designs and manufacture of ceramic, and their leadership in bronze technology, including weapons, tools, and huge double axe-heads, more symbolic that useful. Apparently, these double headed axe-heads, or Labrys, were symbolic more than useable, and always accompanied female goddesses rather than male. Interestingly, Labrys is a Lydian word, as the Greek word for axe is pélekus (ρέλεκυς)
Large labrys or double headed axe in the Heraklion Museum
One of the most important developments made during these millennia, is the invention and use of writing script, beginning with what is known as Linear A and Linear B. Linear B remained a mystery until it was deciphered in 1952. Linear A is still a mystery, but these two scripts eventual evolved Minoan into Mycenaean then into the Greek we recognize today. This took many centuries, well ahead of most societies in the rest of the world.
Linear A tablet
Linear A Script
There are still many mysteries remaining to be solved about ancient civilizations. This ‘Linear A’ is one of them, another other on Crete is the mysterious ‘Phaistos Disk’, which I’ve mentioned in previous travel tales, and will be mentioned again in the next one.
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