Bronze Age Architecture of the Minoan Culture

Originally written Spring 1998 for History 80T: Technology and Society in the Ancient World, taught by Prof. Gildas Hamel at University of California, Santa Cruz

Part I. Introduction

The Island

Crete is an island lying at the southern boundary of the Aegean Sea and south-east of the Greek mainland. The island itself has rugged mountains that stretch nearly its entire 160 mile length, but yet is nowhere greater than 36 miles in width. In antiquity, the island was also much more heavily forested than at present, being a well known source for the prized cyprus tree timber. From its location in nearly the center of the Mediterranean Sea, it is an ideal center for trade across the entire region. During different times of the year, the island is blown by hot winds off the Sahara Desert to the South, or by the cold winds from the West and North of Europe. And, finally, Crete has the added bonus of being in a very volcanically active region of the world, consequently there are often numerous earthquakes which shake the island and raise tsunamis to assail its shores. This island was the home of the Minoan Culture of the Bronze Age of the Mediterranean.

Dating the Inhabitants

There have been inhabitants on the island since as early as 6000 BCE according to radio-carbon dating of remains from Neolithic villages. It is unclear what connection these have to the later inhabitants of the island. However, given the long known indigenous Cycladic culture of the Cyclades Islands of the Aegean, it is conceivable that the later culture of the island could at least be based upon these original inhabitants.

The date of the beginning of the Minoan Culture and especially the "Palatial" Period of that culture is a difficult issue, far from lacking in controversy. Depending upon the beliefs of the researcher concerning the pre-history of the whole Mediterranean region, the date shifts around considerably. An easy compromise is to decide that the "Palatial" Period begins roughly around 2000 BCE. From this point, the monumental architecture continues in use until as late as 1200 BCE or maybe slightly later, with this final stage being an occupation of (at least) the site of Knossos by the Mycenaean Greeks. Another couple of centuries would see all of it swept over by the coming of the Dorian Greeks, out of whose dark age would rise the Hellenic Classical Greek Culture, in whose myths the dimly remembered stories of Crete and the Mycenaeans would survive on.

Minoan Contact and Influence

The Minoan people were certainly well traveled in antiquity. During the height of their power, they were described as being a thalassocracy, controlling the entire Eastern Mediterranean with their powerful navy. They had trade with the Cultures of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Mycenae, and even Egypt where their likenesses were recorded in tomb paintings. Artifacts from all of these places have been found in Minoan sites in Crete. The name given to the Minoans by the Egyptians was "Keftiu", and may show a direct correlation with the name "Caphtor" which was given to the Philistine People, by the Semitic Peoples of the region (e.g. as in the Bible), who were described as having been a people who came by ship from the sea. The name "Minoan" was given to the culture at the turn of the Century by their discoverer Sir Arthur Evans, based upon the belief that he had found the Palace of King Minos from Homeric Myth. How fitting the name is or is not, it is the name now used by scholars by tradition.

Monumental Structures

The most notable archaeological remains for which the Minoan Culture is known is the monumental structures generally referred to as "Palatial" Structures. The construction of these structures is what marks the beginning of the "Palatial" Period of the Minoan History. These "Palaces" are monumental multi-storied stone structures of poorly understood function. Even after 100 years of study, it remains to this day a controversial subject, as to just why they were built, and what these buildings were used for. What can be deduced from the extant remains is that there were almost certainly religious functions served in these structures, and that there may have been individuals living in these structures as well. They evidently played a major role in the culture, possibly functioning as a cultural center-piece of Minoan Society. This is evident from the images in frescos showing immense crowds of people gathering at the "Palaces" around the central court and the traffic seen depicted elsewhere. The function of the "Palaces" for the so-called Bull Games may have been what drew such crowds, along with whatever religious purpose either they or the numerous shrine-like rooms represented to the Minoan individual.

The importance that these structures must have played is obvious not just from depictions like those above, but also from the shear amount of labor that needs to be organized in order to construct such a monument. The organizational power is not evidenced just in labor for moving building materials about, but also especially in the sophistication of the techniques and planning used in the construction. These techniques will be discussed further later on. The conclusion which makes itself immediately obvious considering the above points, is that these "Palaces" represent an amazing organizational achievement on the part of the Island's inhabitants, and indicates the existence of some sort of unifying force which could exert the power to bring about this level of organizational achievement.

The Eclipse of Power

Eventually, due to unclear reasons, the Minoan hegemony over the seas of the Mediterranean waned, simultaneously perhaps with the decline of whatever Minoan power structure that had been responsible for the support of these "Palatial" structures. Then, either by force or by acquiescence, the mainland culture of the Mycenaean Greeks, which had since grown to a sophisticated level of organization itself, moved into the island and took up occupation of at least the "Palace" of Knossos, and apparently held control over the island from there. This "occupation" however, was an admixture of Mycenaean style and Minoan cultural form. From all accounts, from that time on the island's population was always a multi-cultural and multi-lingual society. It continued further with the invasion of the Dorians later, and even later by the Romans and then the Venetians and eventually the Turks. In one of Homer's descriptions, a number of different cultures are described as living on the island, including a group referred to as the "Eteo-Cretans", or True-Cretans. Perhaps this could indicate that even later, the Minoan people, if not the Minoan culture, survived on carrying some influence.

Part II. The Style of the Structures

Orientation and Layout

All the largest Minoan "Palace" structures have a common type of general arrangement. This can be seen in the layout of Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia, with the more recent find of Kato Zakro being oriented differently, but also holding to the same style. The design always includes a large central court, about twice as long as it is wide. Arranged around the central court are entrances to various other sections of the building. The "palaces" are very carefully arranged into different sections, apparently by function, and an individual unit of rooms will usually only be reached by one or two entranceways into that quarter.

There are distinct areas or quarters of some common purpose which can be seen to be present in slightly varying form at every site. An example of these clusters of rooms are the so-called residential area, with what appears to be suites of rooms, possibly for living. Another is the storage magazine area, and also the so-called thrown-room. The latter example seems to have been some sort of ritual chamber, with specific rooms which adjoin it that also seem to have had some ritual purpose. And of course, the courts seem to all follow a unified style of design. There are also always specific arrangements of intricate systems of halls with closing partitions, often arranged around "light-wells" (small courts which apparently were roof-less, with the purpose of lighting).

There were without a doubt many other types of sections of rooms which are unknown. This is due to the fact that almost all Minoan buildings were multi-storied, often having a number of stairways leading to no longer existent upper stories. Depictions of buildings in frescos also commonly depict the upper stories of buildings. Unfortunately, a widely used material in Minoan architecture was wood. This was undoubtedly also used extensively in the upper floors of the buildings due to its lighter weight. Unfortunately it does not survive the elements well, and consequently any conceptions of what upper floors were intended for is purely speculative.

The examples of Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia are all carefully oriented along the cardinal directions, with their four faces facing almost exactly north, south, east, and west. Other Minoan structures are sometimes oriented with their corners oriented toward the cardinal directions, rather than their faces. The "palaces" have an entrance from each direction, but the main approach seems to always have been the west entrance. In fact the west façade seems to have always had a certain style associated with its construction. In all cases, there is a paved west court which is the only other large paved court other than the central court of the structure. There was often even a raised causeway of stone slabs which led to the west entrance. The west façade itself also always had a characteristic feature, of being extremely articulated, so that no single expanse of wall ever ran very far in the same plane. The space created by these contortions on the inside of the walls were used for storage rooms of varying length.

The final interesting feature shared by all Minoan Structures was that they had no defensive structures whatsoever. There are no giant walls or guarded portcullises or any other sort of defensive fortification. This has often been interpreted by idealistic scholars as being evidence that they were a peaceful and benevolent, enlightened society. Although, in Homeric sources the descriptions of the Cretan Empire explain that their supremacy on the sea was such that they needed no defensive fortifications on the island.

Courts

The major "palaces" all had courts. There were typically two sorts, the west court, which was the area outside the main entrance, and the central court, which seems to be the center around which the rest of the structure is arranged. These courts were paved with limestone flagging. The central court also often had intricate arrangements of alternating pillars and columns about its perimeter, and often had at least one entrance leading directly into it from the outside.

The purpose of these courts, and their use, is not very well understood. It seems that they had some kind of intended use as an area which could be seen by spectators, and there are depictions of crowds of spectators at the edges of the court in frescos found in ruins. The common belief is that this is where the so-called "bull games" were held. This is the activity seen depicted on pottery and in frescos of men and women doing some sort of activity that appears to involve leaping over a bull by vaulting off of its horns and over its back, as it charges.

Stairs and Upper Floors

As discussed above, there are numerous sophisticatedly designed stair-wells in almost every Minoan building of any size. This is generally believed to indicate that these buildings were all designed as multi-storied buildings. The evidence for this, also as mentioned briefly above, is found in representations of Minoan buildings in frescos found in various sites, as well as what have been interpreted as terra-cotta model miniatures of buildings. This simply indicates that the upper floors were fully constructed, and that these stair-wells did not just lead up to a flat roof-top. There are many examples from other cultures contemporary with the Minoan culture that did only that, had access to the roofs of their houses and other buildings, which were used for various functions, such as the retting of flax in Egypt. It is possible that the Minoan "palace" structures also had some roof-top areas that could have been used for some functions, other than shelter, as well.

The stair-wells, as already mentioned, were quite well designed, with stone foundations and supports. The stairs themselves were made sometimes out of stone, or as an example from Knossos' "domestic" quarter indicates, also out of wood. The very popular design was to have a system of double flights of stairs, one coming up from the lower floor to a landing, from which the next flight doubled back as it continued up to finish reaching the floor above. This second half of the stairway would by its design leave an empty alcove beside the entrance to the first half (assuming that another stairway did not descend below that floor). These alcoves were very often used as storage space, and examples have been found where pithoi or tablets have been found in these storage spaces. This stair design strategy was perfectly suited to access to any number of stories, with a very economic use of space. It is again difficult to speculate whether the use of multi-story structures was widespread due to the invention of this design of stairwell, or whether it was hit upon and gained widespread use because multi-story structures were very popular.

There are examples of Minoan buildings, Knossos for one, having as many as three stories, with reason to believe that there could have easily been four or five stories! These upper stories, due to whatever construction technique was used, have for the most part not survived. But from the evidence which has been found, and the structural considerations, the upper stories are believed to have been constructed of rubble-masonry with wood framing. This most likely would have been plastered over with stucco or plaster for extra tensile strength. From the thickness of walls in obviously planned points on lower floors, and otherwise inexplicable square widening of walls in some places, the placement of walls and support pillars of these upper floors can be deduced, albeit with some speculation. Generally these floors seemed to have been extremely spacious, most likely in the design of halls with pillars to support the roof, or floors above. There has been a great deal of speculation in the literature as to all kinds of rooms having been present in the upper floors, with any imaginable numbers of uses dreamed of. These often can be used to try to help theorists support their claims of the true function of the "palaces", and conveniently, these upper floors leave almost no traces behind.

One final interesting feature of these multistory designs which also demonstrates the overall planning of a structure before construction is that many Minoan buildings often have rooms on the first floor which were only accessible from the upper floor. These rooms have no doorways or breaks in their walls. It must be assumed that there was some sort of wooden ladder or similar access from a portal in the ceiling. It has been speculated that these were storage rooms or pantries, but there is no real definitive evidence to clearly define them as a unified functional class.

Light Wells and Control of Space

A well recognized common feature of Minoan architecture is the use of light "wells". These are small open courts or sometimes little more than shafts, which were believed to have been open to the sky to allow lighting and airflow. They are often paved with cement or limestone flagstones. This makes sense if it is believed that they would be open to rain and such because these were the most waterproof building materials the Minoans knew of. They also commonly plastered the walls of these light-wells in a way similar to walls that would be exposed to the elements.

The light-well was also often part of an arrangement of halls, consisting of typically three open spaces, separated by rows of support pillars, or a unique Minoan system of doors. This door system, often described as a "pier and door partition", is worth mention. It seems to have been a way of controlling the size of a hall, and also the flow of air and light within the rooms. The system consisted of a series of portals with piers along the base and lowered lintels. The series of piers was separated by a number of column-type partitions which had indentations which could receive the door when opened. In the Piers and lintels were small post-holes at the edge, beside the separating partitions. These post-holes would hold pegs of sets of swinging, wooden double doors, which could stand either open, to effectively increase the space of a hall, or closed, as shutters to keep out the wind or light. This design again shows that the Minoan sophistication of construction planning allowed for considerable flexibility of use, once completed. Halls could be effectively increased in size as needed, likewise or made smaller.

Columns and Shrines

The design of Minoan "palatial" structures often employs a great number of pillars and columns in combination. Along the borders of the central court, as well as other large colonnades or halls, this alternation of pillar and column is almost a hallmark of their designs. It perhaps came about due to the use of the columns as support bases for pillars on thee upper level, but again this cannot be proven. The columns were constructed generally of stone, but sometimes they were made in wood, which would then have been plastered over. The Minoan pillar was always wood covered in plaster and then painted.

There are a great number rooms in the "palaces" of unusual and sometimes downright perplexing purpose. It is often assumed (perhaps too often in some cases) that many of these were shrines of some sort, and thus associated with some sort of cult practice. It is in these rooms that one finds "religious" objects well known as Minoan. This includes the terra-cotta statuettes depicting women and snakes and other abstract images. Also found here are the so-called "horns of consecration" (stylized bull horns), and the symbol of the double axe. Many other objects such as these abound, along with various vessels for apparent consecration purposes. One of the more unusual is the so-called "pillar shrines".

The Pillar Shrine is generally a small room which has a single massive column of stone in the center, rising from the floor up to the ceiling. The purpose is not clear, but given the lack of any other obvious function, it has generally been assumed to have some religious purpose. This assessment is strengthened by the commonly accompanying depression in the floor around the column, which appears to be a collection area for liquid libations, along with deep cement lined cysts which were apparently for catching up this liquid.

Water Control and Storage

The Minoan "palaces" had very impressive developments in drainage technology. There were extensive drainage tunnels which underlies the foundation of the building. These were constructed of limestone and then lined with waterproof plaster and cement. They were made in dimensions which would allow access by a man, so they could have been serviced and maintained. There are drains which come from shafts which seem to have been drains from the ceilings, perhaps to allow the drainage of rain water. There are also drains leading away from what is believed to be an indoor toilet. There is in the "domestic" quarter, a room off of which lies a small cubicle which is lined in fine gypsum and has a drain into the main drain system. This cubicle is the right size for there to have been some sort of wooden seat for this "toilet".

Another feature which was obviously a major purpose of these structures was the immense storage capacities. Thousands of giant 'pithoi' are found all over the area. Many are found in what are believed to be storage magazines. These complexes of rooms are found in all the major "palatial" sites, and were apparently part of the important functioning of the buildings. The 'pithoi' are in many cases as tall as a person, and wide enough to allow an immense volume of storage of liquid or grains. In these storage magazines, sunk into the floors, are also found covered cysts, which were lined with lime cement and plaster, rendering them water proof. This were also believed to have been used as storage vessels. The substances which are believed to have been stored here, and for which these liquid tight coverable cysts and ceramic 'pithoi' would have been well suited, are olive oil, grains of wheat and barley, olives, aromatic liquids, and so on.

Knossos was a site which, later in its life, was occupied by the Mycenaeans. While there, they authored a great many tablets which were written in the Mycenaean dialect of Greek using the "Linear B" script. The contents of the tablets were, after the death of their original discoverer Arthur Evans, finally deciphered by a fellow named Michael Ventris, in the early fifties. What was found in these tablets, of which many were concerned with the cataloging of various goods, was that they give evidence to support the view of these pithoi and covered cysts as being for exactly those substances described. These seemed to have been, from Knossos, doled out to areas under the control of Knossos, with the tablets being records keeping track of such allotments. This is therefore evidence which can be interpreted as shedding some light on at least part of the function of these sites: central storage and distribution.

Artwork

There is a great deal of evidence of various forms of artistic expression in Minoan culture. The types found in the "palatial" sites include frescoes, sculpture, pottery, and pottery painting. The nature of the imagery present is not of a precisely understood purpose. That is to say that the purpose of the decorations are not all known. However, the imagery is all of a very sophisticated nature, in form and design.

There have been a great number of fragmentary frescoes which have been excavated from many sites all over Crete. They appear to depict a great range of scenes and subjects, including abstract designs (of which a well known popular Minoan design was a sort of connecting spiraling pattern), plants, animals, people, and various types of culturally significant (presumably) events. All of these forms of imagery appear in places all about the "palaces", some seem to be specifically important to the location, while others appear to serve simply as decoration. It is dangerous to speculate too freely about the significance of images depicted based simply upon their appearance to us today. Often the symbolism which is intended to be conveyed within some image will only be recognized and understood by someone of the same cultural background as the artist. Symbolism is a very culturally specific device for communication. During the early stages of excavation of Minoan sites, a great deal of "interpretation" was given by the excavators of the many images depicted. At the time, many Europeans were very impressed by the similarity of the style of Minoan art to the very modern style of Art Nouveau popular at the time. The consequence was that a great deal of the "interpretation" of the imagery and the culture it depicted had an underlying assumption made that the Minoans were extremely "modern" in temperament and behavior. This is utterly without any basis in the reality. The fundamental problem is that, just as in a Rorschach ink-blot test, the observer will see what they want to in an image that has not been pre-defined for them in some sort of framework or background. Further, people have a strong tendency to want to identify with imagery that they find compelling, which ancient art work is generally felt to be, and in so doing want to believe that the culture that produced those works is similar in beliefs and values to their own. So, with that cautionary analysis, let us examine some of the imagery produced by the Minoan culture.

In the frescoes, as mentioned earlier, there is a great variety. Many walls in the "palaces" and elsewhere in smaller buildings were covered in frescoes. There are scenes with many varieties of animals, including cats, birds, gazelle, flying fish, dolphins, and others. There are also some fantastic animals depicted, one of which is the gryphon; a creature with an eagle's head and a lion's body. Other frescoes include images of people engaged in a variety of activities. One of the most well known is the image of the "bull-games", which in addition to the people, also depicts a bull.

There are three figures depicted, two women and one man, in various positions about the bull. The common interpretation of this scene is that it depicts a dangerous, likely ritualistic, athletic event involving making acrobatic flips over a charging bull. This puts this kind of event into a similar framework as modern bull-fighting events. However, the pictures are somewhat ambiguous, and other interpretations have indeed been suggested. One of these was that perhaps this was not so much a game as perhaps a sort of human sacrifice to the bull deity which was prominent among the Minoans. As mentioned above, the central court is believed to have been a place where this sort of event may have been held. There is evidence that the space about these courts were designs to facilitate large spectator crowds, which is also apparently what is depicted in the "grand-stand" frescoes mentioned already.

Minoan artistic depictions of people have made a striking impression on all who have seen them, since the earliest excavations. Some defining characteristics of Minoan styles are worth mentioning. First, the people are often drawn in a very delicately abstracted way, which do in fact bear a striking resemblance to the popular styles of the 1900's and 1910's. Another is that males and females are painted in different colors, males a deep ruddy color, and females a pale whitish color. This is a style similar to practices in Egypt, where male and female human subjects were painted in similar colors: reddish and whitish. The last which is well noted is the design of the womens' clothing. These are shown as long, full, multi-layered skirts, and bodices which cover the shoulders and arms, but are made in such a way as the leave the breasts prominently exposed. The difficult analysis then is whether this was the common popular style of dress, or whether it was a costume restricted to some order of priestess, and so have a certain cult affiliation. In fact, the "Snake-Priestess" statuette wears just such a garment.

All sorts of plant and animal depictions are found also on pottery from all about the "palace" structures. Sea life, plants found on Crete and elsewhere, birds, monkeys, and more are all seen on pottery, and frescoes. But, as explained above, what meaning was associated with all these images is really not easily discernable. It is not even always readily apparent whether they were simply for decoration of had important ritualistic symbolism, within the context of the culture or for the cult present in the structure. But, indeed their beauty still conveys the power and technical ability of their creators, even if the original intended meaning is not.

Purpose

So, we have now touched upon some of the impressionistic features of the "palatial" buildings, and so can try to venture some speculation as to their purpose. The functions we have seen are that there are obviously major ritual and cult affiliations with these buildings, as is evidenced by the presence of the various rooms interpreted as shrines, and the votive images and apparently symbolic imagery found in them, and elsewhere about the palace. This ritualistic or religious aspect may also be extended to encompass the images of the "bull-games" and the gathering of large crowds of people shown in the frescoes. Then, there is the huge volume of storage space and vessels which are present in all the "palaces". This would seem to demonstrate that another major function of these places was for mass storage, and at least in the time of the occupation by the Mycenaeans, also for distribution of the stored goods. There is in fact more evidence present in the as yet undeciphered "Linear A" tablets which may support the claim that they to were showing a similar redistribution of the materials in storage at the "palace". This is possible to make out from the use of symbols similar to those used in "Linear B" for the depiction of quantities of grains, oils, and other things. Lastly, the shear amount of labor that must have been organized to construct these structures indicates that they held a major place for the community of the area as a whole.

So, based upon this evidence, these were central organizational strong-holds for the community, where religious functions were facilitated, and where food and other necessities were stored communally, and then redistributed. In this way, it seems like there is a good possibility that they were thus more similar to mediaeval monastic abbeys in their relationship with and function within the community. That is, centralized organization of religion and food overall, rather than the older interpretation as the seat of power for some ruling "king". It is possible that the religious leaders also held some sort of ruling office, perhaps similar to that found in Sumerian society, but there is no real evidence for these "palaces" being made for a "monarch" in any sense similar to a modern conception of a king or a royal court. Just as the interpretation of symbolism must be carefully balanced with the knowledge that we lack any background in their personal belief system, one must also be very careful when deciding upon the words to use to describe a culture's societal structures when there very likely is no accurate term which would not run the risk of carrying with it completely inappropriate pragmatic implications from our own culture. The use of terms such as "palace", "kings", "nobles", and "royal courts" are all misleading for this reason because of the implications they bring up unintentionally in the mind of a listener of images of renaissance or mediaeval European rulers and their societies, all of which are no more closer to the Minoan society for which we have evidence than the society of its European excavators of the 1900's. "High priest" or similar terms may be more appropriate, but they may also be misleading for the same reason. In the end, the fact that one must be aware of is that the real organization of the Minoan culture is just not clearly understood, and may never be. Therefore, one must always be aware that any term used to describe any such office of Minoan society, or the buildings which they used, are purely speculative and not definitive descriptions.

Part III. Design and Construction

The following section will give a description what the techniques and materials were that were used in the construction of the "palace" sites.

Materials Employed

The materials used in the construction of the "palaces" were in many respects based upon the limitation of the natural resources of the island. Obviously they were going to be greatly influenced by the natural resources of the islands, but by limited I mean to say that the materials that they had available to them required some special preparations. The main material used to in the construction of the walls of the "palaces" was white gypsum, a hydrous sulphate of calcium. It is a very soft stone and is easy to work with, so soft that one can scratch a groove in it with a fingernail right out of the quarry. The other drawback is that this type of stone dissolves when exposed to water or rain. Consequently there must be preparations made in order to prevent it from being exposed to the elements. To this end, there was extensive use of stucco and plaster to cover any faces that were otherwise open to the elements. Gypsum is generally a snowy white color when very pure, but it often is veined through by various other elements, such as carbon or iron.

In addition to gypsum, hard limestone was used extensively for building foundations, or other uses where the stone was going to be exposed to weather. This included flagging stones for the open courts, as well as outside stairwells. There was also a fine grained variety of gypsum that had a marble-like appearance. This was cut into thin sheets which were used as a veneer for walls and floors in important rooms. Sand stone also had a limited use in places, although it was used extensively in Mallia in place of gypsum. Cores of walls and less visible walls would often be constructed out of rubble and plaster.

There was extensive use of wood in Minoan construction, due to the once plentiful resources of cypress which were once available. The wood was used for the ceilings, bracings, pillars, and other functions where light materials were very useful. When exposed to the weather, there is evidence that they would be painted over, as a preservative measure, presumably. Wood was also evidently used for functions such as stairs of staircases as in the case of the 'grand stair-case' of Knossos, and also for the doors which would have been used in the pier-and-door partitions described already. There is also reason to believe that wood was a prime ingredient in the construction of the upper stories of Minoan buildings, also mentioned earlier.

Lime plaster was the substance used to make plaster and stucco for covering walls both inside and out. This was also the substance used to adhere the sheets of alabaster veneer to a surface. The lime plaster was made out of "slaked" lime which was then mixed with sand and aggregate of pebbles and potsherds and whatever else. Evidently, even though they had extensive amounts of gypsum, they never used it for making the gypsum mortar like that which was used extensively in Egypt. Also, along with the lime plaster which was used to water-proof the floors of light-wells and the linings of drainage channels and the storage magazine cysts, the Minoans had the ability to make a "true" cement, by adding volcanic sand which could be found on the island of Thera (modern Santorini). This resembled the volcanic "pozzolana" used to make Roman cement.

Acquiring the Materials and the Tools Used

There have been many quarries found which were associated with the various sites of construction. The techniques used for quarrying the stone blocks cannot be precisely known. However, they can for the most part be fairly accurately reconstructed based upon the remaining evidence.

As close as can be determined, the stone blocks first had a series of holes bored about them in the dimensions of the desired block. further shallow fracture-lines would be etched in the line of the bored holes. Once this was done, wooden spikes would bee placed in these holes and water would be poured over them. The force of the expanding wood would crack the blocks out from the surrounding stone along the fracture-lines, and then the block would be removed. It is difficult to determine where the blocks were dressed, at the construction site or at the quarry. However there are a great number of etched symbols which have been found on blocks at many sites which seem to be masons' marks. This could be the mark of the masons who fit them at the site, or made by the group which quarried the blocks. The alabaster veneer sheets were cut from large blocks of alabaster by the use of extremely long and thin bronze saws. Saws of this kind have been found, and were often on the order of five feet in length.

There were extensive forests of cypress trees and other kinds on Crete in antiquity. Today the island has very little in the way of forest, or any extensive foliage. It was written by Pliny that in its time Crete was one of the main sources of cypress wood for the whole Mediterranean region. The evidence from the excavations of Minoan sites would seem to support this description. The Minoans would have therefore apparently simply milled lumber from local forests for use in their buildings. In fact, the round painted pillars which are a well known item of Minoan design were made not of stone, but of wood, set in a stone base, and then painted over to preserve it from decomposition.

Design and Measurements

The methods used in the design of the layout of Minoan structures can at first glance seem rather haphazard and disorderly. There are huge sprawling expanses of corridors which wind about and many complex arrangements of rooms and halls. This aspect is undoubtedly what inspired the description of these places as labyrinthine. The word "labrys" means 'double-axe', which was a well known symbol in the Minoan culture. It is theorized that the association of the term "labrys" with a huge construction of lots of twisting passageways and confusing design work was what lead to the term "labyrinthine" meaning just that.

The genius of the design technique of the Minoans was in fact that it was all actually planned out very carefully. The most authoritative author on this subject is Donald Preziosi. his extensive comparative research demonstrated the order which was present in the planning of these buildings. The Minoan architects had a set system of measurements, a Minoan "foot". Along with this, there was evidently an extensive system of room units. That is to say that there is evidence that there were sorts of specific predefined associations of "suites" of rooms which always appear together. There also were worked out, within these "suite" units specific ratios of the size of the rooms and their possible layouts within the whole unit's area, with only very specific variations or deviations from these systems left up to the architect making the layout.

The variations possible were generally within the internal orientation of the rooms, and one of a set pattern of whole-unit measurement ratios of wall lengths and widths and door widths. An example of this sort of arrangement is the hall system seen in many "palaces". There would always be a set of three sections, separated by rows of columns and or pillars, or pier-and-door partitions. One of the flanking ones would be made a light well, and the other two would be covered. The whole system would be measured out from corner to corner of each one of the sections of the hall unit. An example of this can be seen in the hall system of Knossos in the "Domestic Quarter". Evidently the proportions of the walls in these units would determine what the upper story's layout would have been, which may also have been an aspect taken into account in the designing.

This sort of exact measurement can be seen even in the proportions of the great central courts and the façades which faced these areas. A fine example of this is the design of the varying depressions and the corridor placement of the north façade facing the central court at Phaistos. Another commonly emphasized design feature is that of the west façades of the palaces. These very often have a series of surfaces all set in different planes, with the varying depressions and projections of the wall also always tending to be very consistent.

Construction Method

The design technique seems to have been to first set out the properly arranged layout of the whole foundation with ropes and pegs. The first tall pegs would be placed in the early day so that the long shadows they would cast could be used to evenly align the walls so that they could either be oriented with a flat face toward a cardinal direction, as is seen at Knossos, Phaistos, and Mallia, or with a corner being oriented in these directions, which is seen in some other Minoan buildings. The next step would then be to layout the ratio associations of the walls and other internal structures.

After the design was laid out, a flat and even "eutheria" or foundation of dressed limestone blocks would be set down. One this even surface was then constructed the ashlar wall of gypsum blocks that formed the "orthostates". Wall of this kind would then often be reinforced with wooden tie beams that would be place in dovetails cut horizontally in the blocks for stability. In one example from the west façade wall of Knossos, the wall is about six feet thick, consisting of two separate courses of gypsum blocks, an inner and an outer, with the core between these two facings filled with rubble rock. Then in horizontal dove-tailed slots were placed wooden beams to strengthen the wall, and then in vertical slots below the horizontal beams were additional support beams. There was no use of mortar or other kinds of adhesive substance used for setting the blocks. The only type of strengthening of this kind would come the form of the stucco finish that was often placed over a wall.

It is not known how the Minoans lifted the blocks of stone into place, but there have been claims that some blocks show shallow indentations in their sides which could have been used to grip the block by some sort of crane. This crane could have been used for lifting the heavy blocks then, but there has been no evidence I am aware of for the actual existence of such a crane.

After the walls had been set, then flag stones could be laid out in pleasant patterns in the halls and rooms, and also in the courts. Additionally, there were often sorts of raised causeways which lead to the main entrances across the western court of the building. The western courts lay outside the outer walls of the "palace". All of this construction was done in limestone, since it was known that the very delicate gypsum would have quickly become etched deeply by the weather.

The upper stories would have been built upon the wooden roofing of the lower floor, with walls and support columns sitting one the walls of the lower level which were constructed with a sufficient thickness in anticipation of the load from the upper floor which they would bear. The walls of these upper floors are believed to have been constructed out of rubble masonry and plaster, within a framing of wood. The depictions of the upper stories seen in frescoes are consistent with this conception. This type of light weight construction also resulted the quick disappearance of this construction over time, so that today, none of this has really been found intact except for fragmentary pieced of masonry which sit in an appropriate location.

Finally, the roofs which covered over the buildings were again made of wooden beams, and based upon traditional water proofing techniques still used by natives of the island, it is believed that this would have then been covered with several layers of reed matting and then plaster and stucco. This means flat roofs, possibly with a slant to drain off rain water. Once the structure was completed, then the artistic design of the interior could be completed as well, and one would be left with an very large well made monumental building.

Bibliographical References

Castleden, R. (1990) Minoans: Life in the Bronze Age Crete, Routledge, London
Chadwick, J. (1967) The Decipherment of Linear B, Cambridge
Graham, J. Walter (1987) The Palaces of Crete, Princeton University Press, New Jersey
Higgins, R. (1973) The Archaeology of Minoan Crete, Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York
Marinatos, N. (1984) Art and Religion in Thera: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Society, Mathioulakis, Athens
Palmer, R.L. (1969) A New Guide to the Palace of Knossos, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., New York
Palmer, R.L. (1961) Mycenaeans and Minoans, Faber & Faber, London
Platon, N. (1971) Zakros: The Discovery of a Lost Palace of Ancient Crete, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
Preziosi, Donald (1983) Minoan Architectural Design, Mouton Publishers, Berlin
Wunderlich, H.G. (1975) The Secret of Crete, Souvenir Press, London