The Palace of Minos at Knossos - Case Study Example

The Palace of Minos at Knossos Table of Contents The Palace of Minos at Knossos 2 Introduction 2 History of the Palace of Minos at Knossos 3 Reasons behind its Construction 5 Design/ Iconography 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 The Palace of Minos at Knossos Introduction The Palace of Minos at Knossos is considered as a major location as a representation of the people of Crete, who were Romans and belonged to the Age of Bronze. The palace shows that the people were enough developed as they designed the palace with various technicalities (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). Some parts of the palace comprised of five storied buildings. The palace contained more than thousand rooms that indicate towards its being an administrative center. It is also regarded as a religious center and also as food storage. The sings of the palace indicate that it was very accommodating and facilitated (Bourbon, 1998). There are indications of proper systems of obtainment of natural light during the day. There are signs of proper systems of drainage and water supply. As far as heat is concerned, the palace gives no signs of proper systems for the control of cool and chilled winds in winter seasons (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). Because of the facilitation of natural light, the constructors of the palace had to provide a lot of openings for the incoming light and these facilitations of light appear to be problematic in winter seasons. In night, there were employment of ceramic lamps and candles with olive oil (Dempsey, 2007). The palace of Minos at Knossos served for many purposes according to the archaeologists. It served as an administrative center for the people of Crete. It also served as a religious center for the people of Crete. It also worked as storage of food so; it also served as a food storage center for the people of Crete (Bourbon, 1998). The palace is not like those palaces that provide residential facilities but as a place that provided working facilities as the archaeologists found no furniture or objects that can be called as beds or other residential features (Dempsey, 2007). History of the Palace of Minos at Knossos The palace of Minos at Knossos is regarded as the major site for the analysis of Bronze Age buildings prevalent till this time. It is archeologically the largest building found related to Bronze Age (Bourbon, 1998). It is located at Crete. It gives a clear overview of Minoan culture and civilization. Tourists from all over the world visit the palace in order to judge the features of Bronze Age still found in the world today. The palace of Minos at Knossos is named after the discoverer, Minos Kalokairinos (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). The discovery can be traced back in 1878. The palace can also be named on the King Minos of Crete for whom; it was constructed according to the mythology. With the discovery of the palace, it was named with the name of the first discoverer. Afterwards, many discoverers and explorers tried to find any signs of Crete civilization and of Bronze Age (Bourbon, 1998). The work of exploration and discovery continued until the site was bought by an archaeologist. The palace of Minos at Knossos is not a palace in the sense in which, a grand abode of a higher authorial person is taken. It has nearly more than one thousand rooms for workers and for food processing. There are also many corridors of diverse sizes (Bourbon, 1998). Some parts of the palace are designed to many stories, which indicate the progress that the people of Bronze Age exercised for their livelihood. It belongs to Roman and classical periods of the world’s civilizations (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). The palace has a length of nearly three hundred and ten meters in terms of one side. It is a sort of labyrinth or it can be called as a mazelike structure because of the construction of many rooms in a sequence that is no easy to deal with (Bourbon, 1998). There are many stories linked to the ruins. Some archaeologists link the palace to the stories written by Homer (Dempsey, 2007). It has been reported that the palace of Minos at Knossos was created nearly fourteen hundred before Christ (Dempsey, 2007). The palace also had a full fledged system for the management and utilization of needed water. There were water supply and water drainage systems, with the help of which, water was brought in and water waste was pushed outside the site (Dempsey, 2007). The palace was located at a hill due to which, there was proper and settled ventilation system. As far as lightning was concerned, Romans were more interested to take help of natural light for their daily chores (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). The palace was designed in a format that facilitated the entrance of natural light. All the rooms and corridors and other working places were designed with proper lighting settings and the light was mostly natural. Rooms also have multiple doors and multiple windows in order to be facilitated with natural light. In the night, there was a system of employment of ceramic lamps and olive oil candles for lightning in the palace (Bourbon, 1998). As far as heating system for winder season is concerned, there was not a proper system (Dempsey, 2007). Because of obtainment of natural light, there were many doors and windows and the palace was constructed in a way to get interaction to natural world. In winter seasons, there must be a problem of cold winds coming inside through window and door entrances left out for natural light (Bourbon, 1998). The openings for light entrances were required to be blocked in order to make the palace warm in winters. The walls of the palace are decorated with paintings of men and women. These men and women are shown to do their tasks such as fishing, hunting, bullfighting and many others. The paintings and the walls are quite colorful and depict the aesthetic sense of the residents and workers of the palace (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). There is also a throne room in the palace in which, there is a so called throne for the king to settle. This room also contains many doors, a “lustral basin” and many other things. According to some critics, this place could be used as a religious place because of the presence of “lustral basin” (Bourbon, 1998). This room is the central place of the palace. Reasons behind its Construction It is reported that the palace of Minos at Knossos is created with a purpose of storage and working as it had vast rooms for storing food items along with other items. As far as its decoration and designing is concerned, they are the prediction of the development of the Bronze Age and Roman people of Crete (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). It is also considered as a religious center as there are certain objects that can be seen as used religiously. Some paintings also reveal the association of the building with religion of the Romans of Bronze Age (Dempsey, 2007). The palace has huge rooms for storage that indicate towards the need of the palace for storage requirements of the place and people. The rooms that are designed for working such as artisan working are also found in the palace (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). Its structure also resembles to labyrinth or maze structure, which indicates that the palace could have been employed for the purposes of seeking refuge. It has been suggested by some of the archaeologists that the palace may be used in the Bronze Age as an administrative center for the people of Crete (Bourbon, 1998). Some regard it as a religious center. It is noticeable that the palace of Minos at Knossos shows no signs of its being a place of fighting as there is no presence of any armaments and weaponry (Dempsey, 2007). The stores that are present in the building indicate only towards the storage of food such as beans, fish, meat, pulses and many other eatable items but there is no depiction of any weaponry found at the palace. There are no precursors of its being military (Bourbon, 1998). The reasons behind its development must be administrative and religious. Design/ Iconography The palace’s design was designed like well-established and developed designs as there are signs of presence of five storey buildings as part of the palace. The palace contained more than one thousand rooms, which is clear indication of its well-structuring and its being an administrative center (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). There were proper systems of natural lights, there were proper systems of drainage and water supply but there were not enough presence of heating facilities for the winter seasons. For a place to be an administration, the place should be accommodating and should be widely spread so that a large number of people can gather there for administrative purposes (Bourbon, 1998). The palace of Minos at Knossos served the purpose of being an administrative centre as it was quite accommodating with major facilitations such as light, water and food. There was also a throne located in the palace that facilitated the king of Minos to control administration by being settled there (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). He must have this throne to listen to different problems of the state in terms of administration and management. As far as its relation to being a religious center, again the whole palace was quite accommodating and kept a capacity of many thousand people (Dempsey, 2007). People were able to come and perform their religious rituals in so large a place. It contained a large amount of paintings that were colorful indicating the aesthetic sense of the people (Bourbon, 1998). The palace of Minos at Knossos is a clear indication of the art and architecture that was exercised in the Bronze Age by the people of Crete. The palace also served as food storage as it had huge rooms that were employed as storerooms for food items such as beans, meat, fish and other eatables (Dempsey, 2007). There were also the marks of presence of wine pressers and food pressers that were employed for storage purposes of wine and food items (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). There was proper system for light and water for the betterment of the food kept in storage. There was also the presence of proper washing systems as there were drainage systems and water supply systems (Dempsey, 2007). Conclusion After description of all the details concerning the palace of Minos at Knossos, it is quite clear that the palace is a representation of Bronze Age of people of Crete that were Romans. The building appeared to many archaeologists as different. Many categorized it as an administrative center. Many regarded it as a religious center while others considered it as a food center and working point. The buildings contain the features that are necessary for all the centers. The building is quite accommodating and provides many facilitates as is evident from the remaining marks found in the remains. There are more than one thousand rooms that can be employed for different purposes. There are proper drainage, water supply, light supply and ventilation systems but the heating system appears somewhat weaker as compared to other systems. After describing the palace of Minos at Knossos, it is evident that the people of Crete were skilled at making different constructions. They were well-equipped with technicalities needed for designing many storied buildings. They were also well-versed in the skill of art and architecture. The palace that they designed indicates the appreciative features of their buildings and their skills at construction. References Benton, Janetta Rebold and DiYanni, Robert. (1998). Arts and Culture: An introduction to the Humanities, Volume 1. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 64 – 70. Bourbon, F. (1998). Lost Civilizations. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc. pp. 28 – 38. Dempsey, Jack Dr. (2007). Calendar House: Secrets of Time, Life & Power in Ancient Crete's Great Year. New York: HRP. Read More