Final Archaeological Research Paper
Shawnee Langston
Archaeology 2030
Professor Alan Griffiths
April 14th 2015
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For my final presentation I chose to expand on the original topic of Knossos, Greece. I will go
deeper in detail into the fieldwork, interpretations and dating information and how I would personally
go about directing this site if I had the opportunity.
The site of Knossos was originally found in either 1877 or 1878. There are two debated stories
from Minos Kalokairinos digging trial trenches and pithoi being found and Heinrich Schliemann who had
been raised with curiosity behind the myths of the labyrinth and Minotaur who sought to find the lost
city. Schliemann had previously purchased signet stones/rings in Athens with an unrecognized script
engraved on them which he was told was from Crete. He ventured there and soon was able to match
the script with scripts showing on the walls of the ancient site; he then worked to purchase the land to
begin excavations. This was in the midst of wars that were ranging in and around Crete, which
throughout the years of excavations had halted and prolonged many seasons of digging. The first season
of digging began on March 28th 1990. Tablets were soon discovered along with what was later called the
Throne room in the palace area. During the digs a terra cotta tub was found along with a stirrup jar as
well. At the time no stratigraphy was recorded so the timeframes for the tablets found would be lost
forever. Disagreement on the details of the finds led later to controversy on the tablets as well. Flakes of
fresco plaster were unearthed so Schliemann and David George Hogarth, another who helped purchase
the land to excavate, had brought in help to restore the plaster, yet it did end up still being lost too. In
the early twentieth century, they unfortunately didn’t yet have many of the technologies we have today;
this led to poor preservation and documentation techniques. At the time they chose to aim for
restoration and reconstruction instead of analysis and preservation, today we can see how devastating
this was to our understanding of the Knossos culture. They had chosen to restore due to the weather
conditions that were destroying the newly unearthed features. Towards the end of the excavations for
the first season, they began to work towards classifying the pottery. This is the timeframe that they
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began to term finds as “Minoan”, being separate from the Mycenaean, Greek and Roman cultures. The
second season of digs began in February of 1901, at which time a basic stratigraphy was formed. The
earliest phase was termed as “Kamarais Palace” beginning around what they thought to be 1800 BC.
This was viewed to be around the timing of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom based on archaeological
similarities. The next phase, called “Mycenaean Palace” began in 1550 BC, showing declines afterwards
around 1400 BC. After studying the phases, Sir Arthur Evans later coined them as the Early, Middle and
Late Minoan. As they begun the restoration process they chose to attempt preserving in situ hoping to
save everything from the regularly changing weather. The third through sixth seasons; 1902 – 1905,
unearthed much less and eventually came to the close of the early excavations and restoration pursuits.
They had found signs of a sanitation system which boasted flushing toilets along with precious materials
and figurines. They had stopped taking meticulous notes and worked more towards funding the
renovations and working with politics. Unfortunately during this process it was noted that since the
main focus was on Minoan finds, that many Greek and Roman artifacts were swept away and
undocumented. (Knossos (modern history) 2014)
Thinking back towards the methods used can be very upsetting; I can only imagine all of the
things we could have learned if proper notes and preservation was practiced. If we had the technology
and techniques we have today, the wealth of new knowledge could have been ground breaking in terms
of writing history for that time period. I would have loved to be able to be a part of the early digs of
1900, I would have made sure to thoroughly note and document all locations, as we did in class with
triangulation. If funding wasn’t an issue, I would have worked to shelter the sites from the weather to
ensure we were able to continue excavations without threat from Mother Nature. Documentation all
finds including Greek, Mycenaean and Roman would have also been very important to learn how they
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possibly had interacted. Schliemann’s main concern was to uncover the labyrinth so many valuable
other details were lost. Today we have awesome techniques for dating the artifacts and features that
could have proved very useful in setting up an absolute dating guide since the Minoans were thought to
have lived in that area for quite some time.
Knossos is considered to be one of the oldest cities in Europe dating back to when it was
believed to be first abandoned in 1380–1100 BC. This site is very well known and has been excavated a
few times now by many archaeologists, including: Arthur Evans, David George Hogarth, Duncan
Mackenzie, Theodore Fyfe, Christian Doll and John Davies Evans. I chose this this site because I am very
interested in the Classical Period, namely Ancient Greece and Rome. It is extremely interesting to me to
see just how advanced these civilizations were so long ago, along with how they’ve influenced our
cultures and societies even today. I have seen many documentaries about this area so my research goal
with this is to simply find out more information about this culture and how they’ve progressed and
diminished over time. (Wikipedia 2013)
Site excavations first began in 1878 by Minos Kalokairinos on a large scale. This was while Crete
was still occupied by the Turks. At this time many large store pots, called pithoi were brought to the
surface. More excavations took place in 1900 – 1931 by Sir Arthur Evans. At this time he excavated the
main palace as well as surrounding areas; he managed to restore areas of the palace with concrete,
believed at this time by modern archaeologists as condemning to any site. With the excavations that
took place we are able to date the inhabitants back to 7000 BC, during the Neolithic period. The
Minoans inhabited the area for many centuries. The legendary King Minos had the palace built which
went along with many of the stories and myths that we still know today. The environment of the area
has changed greatly over the last 9000 years as it has been inhabited. (Wikipedia 2013)
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Many of the remains in Knossos have pictures of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur, which help
fuel the great legends that have passed down through centuries. After years of excavations different
types of writing and pictograms were found. Michael Ventris had deciphered and called the different
types of writing Linear A and Linear B, both seeming different and originating from different times in
civilization. Excavations on the site were continued for over 35 years where they worked to unearth the
main palace. Evans was able to develop “de novo” which is an archaeological concept of the civilization
that used it, which he referred to as the Minoans. He figured the palace was the ceremonial and political
center of the Minoan civilization. They found that the palace was abandoned at an unknown time, that
seemed to lie at the end of the Late Bronze Age, 1380 – 1100 BC. Before it was abandoned it is believed
that it was a population of Mycenaean Greeks, which used the Linear B writing forms. The palace and
surrounding areas were built with materials including blocks of limestone, gypsum, wood, mud-brick,
rubble for the fill and plaster. Over many centuries the palace area itself was built upon by new
generations that spanned the Neolithic, Bronze Age up until the Classical era. (Archaeology, Mythology
and History of Crete: Knossos n.d.)
The beginning excavations were quite low tech based on the available technology at the time. It
is said that Evans did though know the importance of controlled excavation and careful recording of
artifacts found. Without much evidence to support his claim, Sir Arthur Evans did give names to certain
rooms in the palace such as the “throne room”. (Ask Dr. Dig n.d.)
The excavations showed that the palace had at least three separate water-management systems
for supply, waste water and drainage runoff. They had built aqueducts that brought fresh water from
springs 10 km away, they branched water all throughout the town. The queen’s room had an example of
one of the first flushing water systems with the sewer that led in a closed system away from the city. It is
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noted that it had porticoes and air shafts for ventilation as well. Structures notably different than Greek,
were the Minoan columns used that still stand today. They were constructed of cypress tree trunks,
were smaller at the bottom then became larger towards the top and were painted red. Pottery found is
very decorated and painted as well. Rock shelters, houses and settlements are prolific with Neolithic
remains. The Neolithic Age was estimated by calculating a multiplier of 1800 years per 2.82 meters from
the start of the early Minoan at 3400 BC to the end of the middle Minoan at 1600 BC. They had found 8
meters of Neolithic which was equivalent to 5100 years, giving 10% for changes in deposition and mud
materials. The first succession of villages was made of wattle and daub. They had found also axe and
mace heads with colored stone of greenstone, serpentine, diorite, obsidian and jadeite. Large numbers
were found in different strata of animal and human figurines, many with exaggerated female features
showing possibly the worship of a mother goddess. Unfortunately carbon dating wasn’t available at the
time, but they did use dating according to dates of things found in Cyprus. Excavations also shown that
they kept animals, grew crops and buried their children under the floors during hard times. (Wikipedia
2013)
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Bibliography
Archaeology, Mythology and History of Crete: Knossos. n.d.
http://www.explorecrete.com/Knossos/knossos.html (accessed February 25, 2015).
Ask Dr. Dig. n.d. http://www.digonsite.com/drdig/greece/79.html (accessed February 25, 2015).
Knossos (modern history). July 24, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knossos_%28modern_history%29
(accessed April 13, 2015).
Wikipedia. Knossos. September 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knossos (accessed February 25,
2015).