The Palace of Minos at Knossos

by Chris Scarre, Rebecca Stefoff

On March 23, 1900, Arthur John Evans and his staff began to excavate on Crete, looking for the fabled site of Knossos, where an extraordinary civilization, a precursor to classical Greece, was rumored to have existed. Almost from the first shovel stroke, artifacts began to emerge. Evans
realized that here was "an extraordinary phenomenon, nothing Greek, nothing Roman. A wholly unexplored world." The Palace of Minos at Knossos recounts the exciting story of uncovering a remarkable society lost to the world for 3,500 years, from its initial discovery through its excavation to the
structure we see today. Sidebars on archaeological techniques, illustrations of the sites, tables, and diagrams throughout provide a wealth of information on the Palace. The use of artifacts and other "documents" recovered from the Palace bring out the voices of the people of the past, offering
clues to who they were and how they lived. The Palace of Minos at Knossos concludes with an interview with archaeologist Chris Scarre who talks about the misperceptions about Knossos and what we really know about its culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Archaeology

47 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2003

Reviews

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story (49 pages) of the archeological discoveries at Knossos that Arthur Evans claimed were the ruins of King Minos' palace. Evans had some of his suppositions wrong, new things have been discovered that have redefined some of his conclusions. There is an error in the story of translation of Linear B, but there is only a brief mention of it, which doesn't really tell what the translation reveals (mostly records of livestock, etc.).
There are interesting pictures of what was revealed and explanations of Evans' reconstruction of the palace and the work that has been done on it since. A nice, interesting short introduction to some interesting ruins.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ebook was a very short overview of the Palace of Minos on the Greek island of Crete, a site that I visited in 1997. It mentioned the archeological work of both Heinrich Schliemann and Robert Evans. When I give 3 stars, it seems that something must be wrong with the book, but no. It was a perfectly fine little read with photos of the ruins, the partial reconstructions, and the Linear A and B tablets. When Evans reconstructed the colorful wall frescoes, he made many assumptions that were later deemed to be inaccurate.

Recommended to anyone interested in the Minoans.

[milo · Rating 3 out of 5]

this short and ok but the 2 pages interview at the end are more interesting than the rest of the book.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our youngest is fascinated by anything to do with Greek Mythology, and I recently read a book, called The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code, about the people who helped to decipher the Linear B script that was discovered on tablets here, Plus, I visited these ruins many years ago (in the summer of 2001), and I enjoyed reminiscing about my experiences on Crete. So it seemed like a worthwhile book for us to borrow from the library.

The narrative is a bit dry, but the overall, the history of the ruins, the process of reconstructing them, and the information about Linear A and Linear B are fascinating. I am a little surprised that Linear A hasn't been deciphered yet.

I loved that the book explains how much of the reconstruction was guesswork and that the reconstruction itself was a mixed blessing to the artifacts. It helped to recreate the atmosphere of the ancient architecture and artwork, but was often influenced more by the imagination of the archeaologists than it was a true replication. In addition, the modern materials used in the construction were often damaging to other parts of the ruins. It just goes to show how difficult it is to recreate and preserve history.

Overall, it was an informative and interesting read, even if it took us a month to get through it.

[Agnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good illustrations & maps