Knossos

We came to Crete for a couple of reasons. It was an easy ferry ride from Athens. The kids were sort of wiped out after a lot of traveling in Italy, and we wanted to hit a resort with some pools so they could unwind a bit. And we wanted to visit at least one pre-Roman site in Europe (other than the couple of standing stones we happened across in Ireland and Scotland).

Yesterday we visited the Palace of Knossos and the museum in Heraklion that contains most of the stuff found in the Knossos excavations. The whole experience is rather impressive, though with a few catches. The Knossos excavation is another pile of rocks, but several of the buildings and a few of the frescoes have been reproduced and re-painted, and may look something like they did originally. But this impression relies a lot on the interpretation of the site by its main excavator in the early 20th century, Arthur Evans.

At the Palace of Knossos.

The Minoan civilization was centered on Crete and lasted from about 3000 BCE until it was conquered by the Mycenean Greeks around 1400 BCE. Surprisingly little is known about this civilization, given the number of dig sites and widespread finds of pottery and artwork. We do not know what they called themselves ("Minoan" comes from Evans associating them with the legendary King Minos of Minotaur fame.) Their writing system is called Linear A and is not yet decipherable to scholars. Much of what we know of them comes from Egyptian sources, who employed Minoans as artists and traded with various Minoan cities. We know that they traded extensively, because we have found lots of metal objects (including bronze axes, figurines, pots, and weapons) despite the relative absence of metal ores on Crete.

Many of the finds from Knossos are in the museum in Heraklion, and it is an impressive trove. Katie was excited to see the "three ladies," a fresco from Knossos that she had studied (and drawn!) in 6th grade last year with Ms. Hund. The Minoans seem to have invented fresco, as far as we know. It is worth noting that the actual wall pieces found only comprise a small portion of the painting--the reproduced heads and hair, for example, are copied in style from another fresco. You can just make out the actual pieces of wall in the photo below.

Katie with the "Three Ladies."

Their pottery is maybe the most impressive, with endless designs and patterns, and sizes from the very small to over two meters tall.

Alex impressed with Minoan pottery.

Our focus on this trip is mostly medieval--Byzantines, Islam, Renaissance, et cetera--but this brief detour into the pre-Roman era was well worth it.