Crete: Part I

I. LOVE. IT. HERE.

Crete feels like a smaller version of Athens. You still have all the great shops, tavernas, specialty stores, farmers' and flea markets, but the streets are much smaller, narrower, and everything feels much more quaint and secure.

The 9 hour ferry ride was actually not so bad. I took something to help me fall asleep and I actually passed out. Unlike everyone else who didn't get much sleep, I actually got a full 7 hours before docking at 6 a.m. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and had a quick breakfast before heading back out to Knossos, arguably the most well-known Bronze Age archaeological site in the Mediterranean.

"Knossos Palace," as Sir Arthur Evans called it after purchasing the site and conducting a massive archaeological excavation there in 1900, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and was the first of several palaces to be excavated. The Minoans are the believed to be the earliest, organized civilization in Europe, appearing c. 2000 BC. The Minoans were a "palace-centered" civilization; there are palaces all over Crete from the Minoan period but none are as large and elaborate as Knossos.

They were believed to be a very peaceful society, adopting nature and animal motifs from Egypt as you'll see in some of the frescos. All of their wall paintings and pottery have a common marine and nature theme. You'll also see the bull-leaping again. But you never see any depictions of hunting nor war, leading us to believe that the Minoans were either non-militaristic or just simply chose not to display military themes in their artwork (unlike most other ancient cultures that succeed them). But most archaeologists believe the former.

All the palaces on Crete have these huge open courtyards in the center of the palace. In its time, Knossos Palace was multiple stories high with a total of 1,300 rooms. When looking at the plan of the palace from an aerial view, the palace looks very much like a labyrinth. The 6 acres of the palace included a theatre, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, extensive storerooms (archaeologists call them "magazines"), workshops, and of course the large central courtyard.

There is a myth that goes with Knossos Palace and its labyrinth-like appearance. Legend says that the maze-like structure, home to King Minos of Crete, was designed as such to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half-man and half-bull. According to legend, King Minos was a very powerful and ruthless ruler. Each year, he ordered men and women from Athens to be fed to the Minotaur, until the creature was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus (whom you may have already heard of).

Nevertheless, many of these palaces were destroyed and abandoned multiple times in the 15th century BC. Archaeologists believe that a volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (also known as Santorini) may have caused earthquakes on Crete which in effect destroyed the palaces and devastated cities, including Knossos, and were never rebuilt. The Minoan civilization disappeared after 1570 BC, perhaps due to this devastation.

The Mycenaean civilzation took over Crete during the decline of the Minoan civilization after the earthquakes and they reoccupied Knossos. Though we're not sure where the Mycenaean people originally came from (probably somewhere North of Crete), archaeologists believe they had previous contact with the Minoans because it is clear in their artwork, architecture and religious practices that Minoan culture had a heavy influence on Mycenaeans.

The Mycenaeans, on the other hand, were war-like people. Though they copied Minoan nature motifs, they also depicted war and hunting, and an abundance of armor and weaponry has been found in Mycenaean grave shafts. At their peak in 1400-1200 BC, the Mycenaeans were an extremely powerful civilization. They adopted the Minoan trade routes- importing ivory, copper, gold, tin, amber and exporting pottery, jewelry, weaponry and mercenaries.

As I said, they reoccupied Knossos Palace, rebuilt and heavily fortified it (suggesting that they were indeed concerned with warfare). Mysteriously, and for reasons archaeologists still have yet to determine, the Mycenaean civilization was wiped out after 1200 BC. There are many theories circulating the fall of the Mycenaean empire, including invasion from the Dorians (a barbaric Greek tribe from the North), internal arrest, or (my personal favorite) the "sea peoples."

According to ancient Egyptian scriptures, there was a gradual migration of people from the North just before 1200 whom they called the "sea peoples." The Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II recorded having gone to war with the "sea peoples" and there is evidence of widespread devastation across the Near East in 1200 from war.

Nevertheless, there was a huge decrease in population and the Greeks thus plunged into what we call the Dark Ages.


Take THAT Professor Sidebotham! :P