KNOSSOS
Temenos, Crete.
Graeco-Roman
city some 5 km S of Herakleion. The site is best known
for its great Minoan palace and deep Neolithic deposits,
but it was a flourishing city in the Geometric and archaic
periods and during the Classical and Hellenistic eras it
was again the principal city of the island. In the 4th and
3d c. it was frequently at war with Lyttos, and after
the destruction of Lyttos in the late 3d c. B.C., it was
intermittently at war with Gortyn. The Roman invasion, which Knossos resisted, resulted in the elevation
of Gortyn to be capital of the island, but Knossos was
made a colony (Colonia Julia Nobilis) in 36 B.C., and
was occupied as a prosperous city continuously up to the
early Byzantine period. There is some evidence for a
temporary decline in the early 3d c. A.D.
The Geometric and archaic cities were situated N of
the Minoan palace and settlement, and the Classical,
Hellenistic, and Roman cities remained in this same
area, eventually covering a little less than a square km.
Little is known of the Classical and Hellenistic towns,
although temples on the old palace site, on Lower Gypsades, and on or near the foot of the acropolis hill all
seem to belong to the 5th or 4th c. That by the acropolis
hill is known mainly from a fine metope relief showing
Herakles and Eurystheus. The agora too, lying at the
center of the city, was probably already sited by the
Classical period.
In the Roman period the agora was flanked on the W
by a large basilica, while to the S stood another public
building often identified as a temple but possibly the
public baths. The basilica, like much else at Knossos,
may not have been built until the 2d c. A.D. Northwest of
it, the remains of a small amphitheater are known, now
partially overlain by the modern road. To the W of this
road, and S of the amphitheater is the so-called Villa
Dionysus. This is the best-known and -preserved example
of the wealthier Roman town houses at Knossos, most
of which are known only from fragmentary remains of
walls and ill-recorded mosaics. The villa is built around
a peristyle courtyard, to the W of which is a large
square room with a mosaic showing the heads of Dionysus and maenads in medallions. In the SW quarter of
the building is a small household shrine. Recent excavations suggest that the main period of occupation was
in the 2d c. A.D. Contemporary houses of a lower quality
have recently been excavated immediately N of the
Minoan “Little Palace.” Earlier Roman houses, built in
the Neronian period, were found beneath them, and
around them were stretches of the narrow paved streets
which served them.
On the N edge of the city a Christian church with an
E apse, nave, and two aisles was built in the late 5th
or early 6th c. It was erected over an earlier cemetery
which included tombs of the 2d to 4th c. A.D. Other
cemeteries were situated to the W and S of the city, and
both dug and built tombs have been discovered. In the
S and SE slopes at the foot of the acropolis hill, rock-cut
Roman chamber tombs can still be entered.
Water was supplied to the city by an aqueduct coming
from the S. Finds from the site are found in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum and the Stratigraphical
Museum, Knossos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. G. Payne, “Archaeology in Greece,
1934-35,”
JHS 55 (1935) 164-67
I; S. Benton, “Herakles
and Eurystheus at Knossos,”
JHS 57 (1937) 38-43;
M.S.F. Hood & J. Boardman, “A Hellenic Fortification
Tower on the Kefala Ridge at Knossos,”
BSA 52 (1957)
224-320
I; M.S.F. Hood,
Archaeological Survey of the
Knossos Area (1958)
M; W. C. Frend & D. E. Johnston,
“The Byzantine Basilica Church at Knossos,”
BSA 57
(1962) 186-238
PI; J. Boardman, “Archaic Finds at
Knossos,”
BSA 57 (1962) 28-35; J.V.S. Megaw, “Archaeology in Greece, 1967,”
Archaeological Reports
1967-68 (1968) 21-22
I.
K. BRANIGAN
