crossbowman
September 14th, 2006, 08:27 PM
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/55/01kp3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
**Wikipedia**
The Palace of Knossos was built sometime between 1700 and 1300 BCE. It covers an area of 20000 square metres. 1300 rooms are connected with corridors of varying sizes and direction. The six acres of the palace included a theatre, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms. The storerooms contained pithoi (large clay vases)that contained oil, grains, dried fish, beans, and olives. Many of the items were created at the palace itself, which had grain mills, oil presses, and wine presses. Beneath the pithoi were stone holes used to store more valuable objects, such as gold. The palace also had many modern structures - the palace was built up to 5 stories high in some place. The rooms had running water and the bathrooms had a notably effective plumbing and sewage system, constructed of terra-cotta. The palace also had extremely effective ventilation that took advantage of its placement, which allowed it to receive breezes from the sea during the summer. It had porticoes and airshafts, and also had long vertical shafts that sent sunlight to lower levels of the palace (thus both saving money and allowing the palace to stay cooler).
The palace also includes the Minoan Column, a structure notably different from other Greek columns. The Minoan Column was constructed of wood, and then painted red (unlike the stone Greek column.) They were also 'inverted' - most Greek columns are smaller at the top and wider at the bottom to create the illusion of greater height, but the Minoan columns are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top. The columns at the Palace of Minos were mounted on stone bases and had round, pillow-like capitals (tops).
The palace is about 130 meters on a side and since the Roman period has been suggested as the source of the myth of the Labyrinth, an elaborate mazelike structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Labyrinth originally meant "double axe" referring to the symbol of the Minoan Palace. Possibly because of the confusing layout of the Palace, it began to mean "maze" - the source of the word in both the myth and in modern English.
A long-standing debate between archaeologists is whether the Palace acted primarily as an administrative or religious center (or, more likely, was a combination of both in a theocratic manner). Other important debates consider the role of Knossos in the administration of Bronze Age Crete, and whether Knossos acted as the primary center, or was on equal footing with the several other contemporary palaces that have been discovered on Crete. Many of these palaces on Crete were destroyed and abandoned in the early part of the 15th century BCE, possibly by the Mycenaeans, although Knossos remained in use until destroyed by fire about one-hundred years later.
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/9461/11ix0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2473/12du6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2428/13uh0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5563/knossoshornsua9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/7767/knosfo2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/415/2fi6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1108/5nk8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9029/6cm6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9140/7ey6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4840/8wr5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/9574/10ds6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1395/11mq4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1034/13bm7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7783/14bw1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/527/15nf9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3975/17by8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/189/18bp8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/127/19if1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/579/21je6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
**Wikipedia**
The Palace of Knossos was built sometime between 1700 and 1300 BCE. It covers an area of 20000 square metres. 1300 rooms are connected with corridors of varying sizes and direction. The six acres of the palace included a theatre, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms. The storerooms contained pithoi (large clay vases)that contained oil, grains, dried fish, beans, and olives. Many of the items were created at the palace itself, which had grain mills, oil presses, and wine presses. Beneath the pithoi were stone holes used to store more valuable objects, such as gold. The palace also had many modern structures - the palace was built up to 5 stories high in some place. The rooms had running water and the bathrooms had a notably effective plumbing and sewage system, constructed of terra-cotta. The palace also had extremely effective ventilation that took advantage of its placement, which allowed it to receive breezes from the sea during the summer. It had porticoes and airshafts, and also had long vertical shafts that sent sunlight to lower levels of the palace (thus both saving money and allowing the palace to stay cooler).
The palace also includes the Minoan Column, a structure notably different from other Greek columns. The Minoan Column was constructed of wood, and then painted red (unlike the stone Greek column.) They were also 'inverted' - most Greek columns are smaller at the top and wider at the bottom to create the illusion of greater height, but the Minoan columns are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top. The columns at the Palace of Minos were mounted on stone bases and had round, pillow-like capitals (tops).
The palace is about 130 meters on a side and since the Roman period has been suggested as the source of the myth of the Labyrinth, an elaborate mazelike structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Labyrinth originally meant "double axe" referring to the symbol of the Minoan Palace. Possibly because of the confusing layout of the Palace, it began to mean "maze" - the source of the word in both the myth and in modern English.
A long-standing debate between archaeologists is whether the Palace acted primarily as an administrative or religious center (or, more likely, was a combination of both in a theocratic manner). Other important debates consider the role of Knossos in the administration of Bronze Age Crete, and whether Knossos acted as the primary center, or was on equal footing with the several other contemporary palaces that have been discovered on Crete. Many of these palaces on Crete were destroyed and abandoned in the early part of the 15th century BCE, possibly by the Mycenaeans, although Knossos remained in use until destroyed by fire about one-hundred years later.
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/9461/11ix0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2473/12du6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2428/13uh0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5563/knossoshornsua9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/7767/knosfo2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/415/2fi6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1108/5nk8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9029/6cm6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9140/7ey6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4840/8wr5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/9574/10ds6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1395/11mq4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1034/13bm7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7783/14bw1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/527/15nf9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3975/17by8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/189/18bp8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/127/19if1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/579/21je6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)