Article on Minoan Palaces

[Minimalist]

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/t ... rete/58344

The palace civilisations of Crete in mainland Greece are buildings that illustrate phenomenal architecture and artistic designs that are distinctive when compared to surrounding Asian and Near Eastern structures (Branigan, 2004).

The uniqueness and complexity of these palaces raises a series of questions about their purpose/s as to why substantial amounts of time and effort went into creating them. By assessing the archaeological evidence at each of the main palaces at Knossos, Mallia, Phaistos and Zakros and comparing them to surrounding communities, this question can be examined to understand their roles in society.

[Simon21]

Interesting piece. Apparently Evans damaged a lot of the site by his determined reconstructions.

[Minimalist]

When I was at Knossos our guide never stopped complaining about Evans.

[circumspice]

Meh... It could have been worse... Belzoni could have been the one to 'excavate & restore' Knossos...

[Simon21]

Meh... It could have been worse... Belzoni could have been the one to 'excavate & restore' Knossos...

That is hardly consoling

[Minimalist]

As I recall, and this was 12 years ago, our guide pointed to this reconstruction by Evans



and noted that where Evans had put concrete dividers in the wall the Minoans actually used wooden beams. The hypothesis is that the wooden beams would have been superior at absorbing earthquake tremors than a solid stone wall. Evans was not worried about earthquakes, obviously.

[Simon21]

That's what they used to use in Japan apparently for the same reason

[Minimalist]

There is probably nothing like living in an earthquake prone region to teach one something about them.