Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries, Brian Haughton [books you need to read .TXT] 📗

jars, known as pithoi. The elaborately decorated Throne Room complex was also located in this section of the complex, and had a stone seat built into the wall facing a row of benches. This seat was interpreted by Arthur Evans as a royal throne, and the name has stuck. In the far west of the complex was the great paved West Court, the formal approach to the palace. The east wing of the structure once had four levels, three of which remain today. Located in this part of the complex were what have been interpreted as residential quarters for the Minoan ruling elite, workshops, a shrine, and one of the most impressive achievements of Minoan architecture: the Grand Staircase. Other parts of the Palace include large apartments with running water in terracotta pipes, and perhaps the first example of flush toilets.

The throne room in the palace of Knossos.

Some of the most extraordinary discoveries at Knossos have been the richly colored frescoes that adorned the plastered walls, and sometimes even the floors and ceilings. These murals show princes, courtly ladies, fish, flowers, and strange games involving young people leaping over charging bulls. When originally found, these wall paintings were fragmentary, often with significant parts missing, and were subsequently reconstructed and

replaced by Evans and artist Piet de Jong. Consequently, there has been much controversy over the accuracy of the reconstructions, though there seems to be no doubt that many of the frescoes are of a religious or ritual nature.

Between 1700 B.C. and 1450 B.C., Minoan civilization was at its peak, with the city of Knossos and the surrounding settlement having a population of perhaps as many as 100,000. During this period the Minoan centers survived two major earthquakes, the most serious of which probably occurred in the mid-17th century B.C. (though some researchers date it to as late as 1450 B.C.), and was caused by a massive volcanic eruption on the Cycladic island of Thera (modern Santorini) 62 miles away from Crete. The explosion from this eruption was even greater than the atomic blast at Hiroshima, and blasted the island of Thera into three separate parts. Finally, in the mid-15th century B.C., due to a combination of the accumulative effects of earthquake damage, periodic invasions from the Greek mainland, and the collapse of their trade networks, the Minoan civilization began to decline.

Perhaps its layout is quite complex -resembling a labyrinth-the Palace of Minos is thought by some to be the source of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth. The main part of the myth begins when Theseus is in Athens and hears about a blood payment demanded by King Minos of Crete, for the murder of his son by the Athenians. This payment involves sending seven young Athenian men and seven young virgin girls to Crete every year, where they are given to the terrible half-bull, half-man Minotaur. This beast is kept shut up in a labyrinth designed by the famous architect Daedalus. Appalled at this situation, Theseus volunteers to be part of the yearly sacrifice and kill the Minotaur. As he is about to set off for Crete with the intended victims on a black-sailed ship, his father King Aegeus makes Theseus promise that if he is successful in slaying the Minotaur, he will, on his return, change the ship's black sail to white, as an indication that he is alive and well. When the group arrives at Knossos, King Minos' daughter Ariadne immediately falls in love with Theseus and agrees to help him kill the Minotaur. Ariadne gives Theseus a silk thread, which the hero uses to help him find his way out of the labyrinth after he has killed the monster. The couple subsequently set sail for Athens, but on the way Theseus deserts Ariadne on the island of Naxos, where she is rescued by the god Dionysus. Unfortunately, on his approach to Athens, Theseus forgets his promise to his father and leaves the

black sail on the ship. King Aegeus, thinking his son has been killed, leaps to his death from a cliff.

There is evidence that Knossos's link with Theseus and the Minotaur was kept alive long after the Minoans ceased to exist. This comes mainly in the form of coinage, and examples include a silver coin from Knossos dated c. 500 to 413 B.C., which depicts a running Minotaur on one side and a maze or labyrinth on the reverse. Another coin shows the head of Ariadne surrounded by a labyrinth. The Minotaur and labyrinth were also extremely popular in the Roman period, and numerous mosaics illustrate the Knossos labyrinth. The most spectacular of these is probably that from a Roman villa near Salzburg, in western Austria, dating to the fifth century A.D. However, some researchers do not believe the Minotaur originates with the architecture of the Palace at Knossos. They point out the difference between a labyrinth, which has only one path to the center, and a maze, which can have many. Indeed it is tempting to see the labyrinth as relating to the maze as a symbol of the mysteries of life and death: An abstract concept connected with religious ritual, where the Minotaur waiting at the center of the labyrinth represents something concealed in the heart of all of us.

The story of the 14 youths brought from Athens to Knossos as a sacrifice to the Minotaur has always been thought of as simple myth. But there is archaeological evidence that perhaps gives some support to this horrific tale. In 1979, in the basement of the North House within the Knossos complex, excavators discovered 337 human bones. Analysis of these bones showed that they represented at least four individuals, all children. Further examination of the bones revealed the grisly detail that 79 of them showed traces of cut marks made by a fine blade, which bone specialist Loius Binford interpreted as being made to remove the flesh. Ruling out the possibilty that the defleshing of the bones was part of a burial rite (only