Ancient Greece 01-3. Palace of Knossos

(The main text is 2628 words, it takes about 9 minutes to read)

Net: The Palace of Knossos

Did the Minoan Kingdom really exist?

With a yearning for the Minoan labyrinth, Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-07-08-1941-07-11) worked to solve this age-old mystery. From 1900 he began digging in Knossos, Crete. His later discovery of The Palace of Minos at Knossos has been hailed as one of the greatest achievements of archaeology of the 20th century.

This major archaeological discovery has made the face of the Minoan civilization gradually clear, and a series of excavated cultural relics prove that the Minoan culture is the source of ancient Greek history and Aegean civilization.

Evans excavated a large number of written pottery tablets and clay tablets in Knossos, Crete. There are two types of text on it, simply named Linear A and Linear B. The emergence of the writing system is a sign that a cultural relic has developed to the level of civilization. Linear A appeared earlier, around 2000 BC, linear B appeared after about 1400 BC, according to the chronology can be judged, linear A belongs to the Minoan I culture. However, line A has been unearthed less, and what we have seen is likely to be only a list of some items, with insufficient references and no reference text, which has not yet been deciphered. Linear B has also been found in remnants such as Mycenae on the Greek peninsula. In 1952, linear B was successfully interpreted by Michael Ventris (1922-1956) and others, a syllable script that mainstream scholars believe belongs to the Mycenaean cultural period. Ancient Greek, Latin, and various other ancient scripts in Europe are related to it.

These two scripts are probably the earliest ancient Greeks. It is generally believed that Line A is related to the early pictorial script of Egypt. Linear B may have come from Phoenician script. There is ample archaeological evidence that most scholars believe that the Phoenician script is the source of the Western alphabet. However, some scholars believe that perhaps the Cretan script came first, and that the Phoenicians learned how to use the alphabet from Greece.

Linetype

The ruins of the palace of Knossos are located in the eastern south of the city of Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete, and should have been built after 1700 BC. Evans first excavated, examined and restored this layer of ruins. Later archaeological excavations revealed that there was an even older layer of remains beneath the palace, which should have dated to 1700 BC. The Heraklion Museum preserves many precious artifacts of the Minoan culture, which also makes this museum famous.

According to the ruins, it has been speculated that the palace of Knossos has about 1,000 rooms. Judging from the remaining buildings, the royal palace of Knossos is magnificent and the frescoes are exquisite. Archaeological excavations have shown that the palace is built on a hill and is a complex complex of multi-storey buildings around the central courtyard, with 5 floors at the top. The palace complex was divided into various functional areas, such as residences, halls, kitchens, warehouses, workshops, offices and archives, amphitheaters, etc., but no temple was found. Winding corridors and intricate staircases connect the houses, which are exquisitely conceived, the halls are bright, and the houses are scattered and beautiful.

Unfortunately, the early restoration work used modern materials such as cement, and the archaeological work at that time was relatively crude, destroying much of the chronological and cultural evidence.

Of course, archaeological excavations have not found the Minoan labyrinth, but the space separation of the palace of Knossos is very complex and built like a labyrinth.

Net: Mural of the Palace of Knossos Greek young men and women fighting bulls (restored)

So far, no archaeological findings of realistic evidence of the existence of gods such as Zeus (of course, the gods do not need this proof, they live in people's hearts is enough). Archaeologists generally do not look for such illusory things as white cows and Minoan cattle. Of course, from the archaeological evidence, the existence of the Minoan kingdom should be reliable, although we do not know what people called this kingdom at that time. From the murals and documentary materials, it can be determined that the youth playing with cows at the Games was also one of the favorite sports activities of the Greeks at that time.

At present, according to archaeological findings, there are a large number of Neolithic remains in Crete, and no ancient human fossils and stone tools have been found, which shows that its civilization was established by mainland immigrants. Moreover, the early remains of frescoes, pottery, etc. have the shadow of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The inhabitants of Crete, probably from Western Asia, were much shorter and darker in skin than the Greeks of classical antiquity, and should have resembled the Semites, or a branch of the Semites (Phoenicians). Around 3500 BC, the islanders had entered a period of combined copper and stone. The beginning of the Minoan culture dates back to around 3200 BC, a period during which a bronze culture with its own characteristics emerged in Crete. These bronze cultures should have spread from the Black Sea area, perhaps with Hittite influences in them. The Minoan culture is the earliest representative of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece. It is dated from about 2850 BC to about 1450 BC, and its heyday is around 2000 BC. Some believe that for some time after 1700 BC, Minos unified the region of Knossos as a kingdom. The palace complex hints at the majesty of the king.

Since no religious frescoes and documents have been found, and no temples have been found on the island, it is speculated that the inhabitants of Crete do not have a clear unified belief, and they are more willing to accept secular life than to pay attention to the divine revelation, the worship of goddesses and the worship of fertility exist, and their religion, if it exists, is relatively primitive. If the frescoes are depictions of their own image, then this group is different from the Caucasian race, who have shorter skin and darker colors, and are closer to The West Asians and Egyptians such as Phoenicia.

Scholars speculate that the inhabitants of Crete should have been a close-knit military tribal organization, supplemented by farming, predominantly trading, and possibly engaged in piracy, because of their strong seafaring capabilities and armed forces, so that houses, palaces, and cities had few military facilities such as walls, arrow towers, and watchtowers.

The Minoan culture lasted less than 1500 years, and the Minoan kingdom lasted about 500 years. Minos may be a king's name, or a royal family name, so there should be many Minos kings, just like the Chinese Han Dynasty had many emperors with the surname Liu. We do not know which Minoans conquered the Greek peninsula. According to archaeological findings, there should have been more than one settlement or city-state on the island at that time, they were once united under a royal banner, of course, they were all lost, and finally in 1450 BC, the Mycenaeans (Mycenaean) designated it as the site of Knossos.

During this time, in Mesopotamia, there were about three phases of unified prosperity and periods of war and chaos in the Kingdom of Akkadian (2371 BC to 2193 BC), the Third Dynasty of Your (2111 BC to 2003 BC), and the Ancient Babylon (1894 BC to 1595 BC).

The Old Kingdom of Egypt, from about 2686 BC to about 2181 BC. At this time, a large number of magnificent pyramids appeared. In the 21st century BC, when the Aegean civilization was at its peak, Egypt had entered the Middle Kingdom stage (about 2040 BC ~ about 1782 BC).

Lotus ears

2021-01-26In the residence of Jinhuiyuan