Knossos is a very confusing site for a number of reasons -- the length of time it was occupied, the complexity of the structure, the unevenness of the destruction of different parts of the site, the difficulty sometimes in interpreting the evidence. This page claims to do no more than present the reader with a very basic introduction to a large and complex site.
Prepalatial Knossos
Knossos has been inhabited longer than any other site in Crete. The first, Neolithic, settlers probably arrived some time before 7000 BCE, making their the first settlement on what was to be the eventual site of the palace. These settlers did not make pottery but grew crops and kept animals. Over the millennia, the site slowly grew in size and pottery began to be used. The transition from Neolithic to Early Minoan (i.e. Early Bronze Age) at Knossos probably took place in the middle of the 4th millennium BCE. The site developed through the EM I, EM II, EM III and Middle Minoan IA periods, and large buildings were constructed on the site that predate the first Palace.
The Old Palace
The old palace was built during the Middle Minoan IB period. Not much of it remains as the New Palace was built on the same site. It is not clear whether or not the Old Palace grew from the building of a collection of buildings. What is clearer is that there were two main phases in its construction. During the second phase, the West Court was laid out on a terrace outside the palace and the kouloures, round pits, were dug into it.
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The West Court would have been used as a public meeting place and would have formed a link between the palace and the town as roads from the town lead towards the palace. It is thought that the west side of the Old Palace was used for administrative purposes, given the hieroglyphic tablets found there, for storage and for cult rituals. This combination is also present in New Palace times. There were other storerooms located in the East Wing of the palace. The east side also yielded over 400 loom weights which suggests that weaving took place there.
It is not clear whether during the Old Palace period Knossos was the capital of Middle Minoan Crete. There may well have been a number of political centres at that time.
The Old Palace was destroyed at the end of Middle Minoan II, possibly by an earthquake, but almost certainly by natural means. The Palace was immediately rebuilt in LM IA.
The New Palace
The West Wing
The west side of the palace at ground level was given over to shrines and
store rooms. The wealth of the society is attested to by the large number
of storerooms and the boxes that were stored beneath the floors. On the West
Side of the Palace is one of the most famous of rooms unearthed by Evans,
the Throne Room.
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Castleden points out that the Throne Room would have had an oppressive quality about it. With its low ceiling and lack of windows it was separated from the Central Court by an anteroom. The throne is placed along a side wall facing across the room. On either side of the throne there are stone benches and in front of the throne a stone adyton.
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There were two exits from the Throne Room. One led to a set of nine rooms and the other to storage rooms. Two of these had vaults in the floor like the room where the Snake Goddess was found. The Throne Room and the the rooms leading off it seem to be a complete, distinct unit within the Palace. The main shrine may have been what is now called the Throne Room, with the throne being used by a priestess rather than a King as Evans imagined. On the upper floor it is thought that large state rooms were built, looking onto the West Court. These rooms may have been used for ceremonial purposes. Also on the west side of the Palace, facing the Central Court are the remains of a tripartite shrine.
The Snake Goddess Sanctuary lies to the south of the Throne Room and it is here that one of the most famous -- and most photographed -- objects of Minoan Crete was found, the Snake Goddess. In fact several snake goddesses were found buried in cists in the ground, named by Evans the Temple Repositories. One of the statuettes had been deliberately broken before being placed in the repository and it has been suggested that this might have been a way of "killing" the cult figurines. Two of the Snake Goddesses have been restored and are among the must-see treasures in the Museum at Heraklion. Further south in the West Wing we come to the Cup Bearer Sanctuary, so named after a life-sized fresco, the remains of which had fallen to the floor. This fresco shows a religious scene of temple attendants holding conical rhytons.
The West Store Rooms are situated to the west of the Lower West Wing Corridor and they consist of a number of long narrow rooms, many with enormous storage jars still in situ. On the storey above the store rooms there were big square chambers One chamber, the Great Sanctuary, was 16 metres across and had a very large window which may have been used for ritual appearances before the people at ceremonies in the West Court. The room was decorated with a bull leaping fresco.