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Knossos: the Archaic gap1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

J. N. Coldstream  and
G. L. Huxley
J. N. Coldstream
Affiliation:
University College London
G. L. Huxley
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
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Abstract

This article explores in detail the mysterious lacuna in the record of Knossos during the sixth century BC, between the abandonment of the collective tombs of the Early Iron Age and the revival of the city's fortunes in Classial times. The archaeological evidence, indicating a deep recession, is marshalled in three chronological sections: (i) the full stop in the seventh century, (ii) the Archaic gap, and (iii) recovery in the fifth century. Parallel developments at Amnisos are also discussed. In the light of any relevant clues from the written record, we evaluate the likelihood of various possible causes of the sixth-century recession at Knossos, whether natural or human.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 94 , November 1999 , pp. 289 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1999

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References

2 Demargne, P., La Crète dédalique (Paris. 1947), 348–53Google Scholar; Dunbabin, T. J., Gnomon, 24 (1952), 195–7Google Scholar: J. K. Brock, Fortetsa, 219 n. 2; Boardman, J., The Cretan Collection in Oxford (Oxford, 1961). 148Google Scholar: M. S. F. Hood, KS 2 18–19; Coldstream, J. N. in Musti, D. and Sacconi, A (eds), La transizione del Miceneo all'Alto arcaismo: dal palazzo alla città (CNR: Rome, 1991), 297–9Google Scholar: G. L. Huxley in KLH 128-9. For a recent pan-Cretan treatment of the 6th-c. gap see Prent, M.. Caeculus: Papers on Mediterranean Archaeology, Groningen University, 3 (1996–1997), 35–46Google Scholar. Here we make no attempt to cover the whole island, but concentrate on the state of Knossos and its terntory.

3 KNC 712-23.

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5 Payne, H. G. G.. BSA 29 (1927–1928), 224–31Google Scholar.

6 Brock, Fortetsa. 1–5 fig. 2.

7 E.g. BSA 76 (1981), 141–65Google Scholar = KS 2 nos. 323, 325, 328.

8 Briefly mentioned as ‘Geometric’ by Forsdyke, E. J., BSA 28 (1926–1927), 248, 234, 260, 277Google Scholar. In 1997 JNC examined the ‘Geometric’ pottery from these tombs, now stored in the Stratigraphical Museum, amounting to 21 vessels, all of which are of the 7th e. These will be published in a forthcoming article in BSA 95 (2000Google Scholar).

9 J. H. Musgrave in KNC 681. This detail seems to have escaped the notice of one reviewer of KNC, who classes the notion of the Knossian, family tomb among ‘old ideas maintaining their hold over new facts’ (Whitley, J., AJA 102 1998), 613Google Scholar).

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14 W. G. Cavanagh in KNC 660-2 ill. 10.

15 e.g. in Fortetsa, esp. Tomb P (p. 101): Gypsades, . BSA 76 (1981). 143Google Scholar.

16 KNC 243, on the final burials in tile unplundered tomb 285.

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19 KSD 12.

20 KSD 57–8 nos 1-4: 57–8 nos. 259–65.

21 R. A. Higgins, KSD 182: 89–90 nos. 252–8.

22 KSD 58 nos. 5–10.

23 KSD 117–18 nos. 19–23. 26 9 (beads): 145–8 nos. 115–33 (bronze pins): 153–4 nos 187–91 bronze fibulae: 169 no. 304 bone fibula with birds.

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41 KSD 53, K 5–6 (pottery). 59. no. 1 1 (clay figurine), 156, no. 210 (bronze), 175–6. no. 360 (faience). In Higgins's view, other clay figurines that may fall within our Archaic gap are his no. 6 (post-Daedalic head) and 90–1, 262–5, various animals, ‘seventh or sixth centuries’.

42 Of the ‘fifth-century’ tomb excavated by Payne in Fortetsa village containing ‘Attic pottery and a limestone palmette from a stele’ (KS 2 no. 51) nothing further is known.

43 Tomb V. Fortetsa, 26–7, no. 258, pl. 17. Above Tomb IX four Late Archaic vases appear to have been absorbed into Early Hellenistic pit graves: Fortetsa, 29. nos. 256–9, pl. 21.

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52 M. Jarman in KSD 177–9: Nb also the marble pig, pl. 77 a.

53 KSD 24–5 nos. 8–11 (5th-c. lamps): 186 (open-air nocturnal ritual continuing even into Roman times).

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64 Ibid, 26.

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70 IC i. 36 no. 2 with part of a law (see under KS 2 no. 112): JHS 73 (1933), 126–7Google Scholar ( = KS 2 no. 118), Archaic inscription.

71 For discussion see A. Chaniotis in Amnisos 79–83. In historical times the Knossian harbour is likely to have been at Herakleion. where PG sherds were found near the sea shore: AD 23 (1968), B 429Google Scholar.

72 Amnisos, 288–9, i 1. pl. 114. 1.

73 P. Brize in Amnisos 254–73: cf. Adams, L., Orientalizing Sculpture in Soft Limestone. (BAR supp. vol. 42; Oxford, 1978), 85–91Google Scholar.

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75 Schäfer. loc. cit.

76 For the Early Iron Age pottery sequence presented in Amnisos (V. Stürmer, pp. 226–48) some additional comparisons with Knossos may help to date the earliest and latest pieces. Earliest: D, 2. a14. p. 236, pl. 70. 3, body fr. of hydria with bracket motifs on shoulder and belly. SM–PG: cf. BSA 67 (1972). 68Google Scholar. A 1. fig. 1. pl. 14; also D, 2. a15, p. 236, pl. 70. 4, shoulder fr., either from a similar hydria or from a SM PG amphora bearing an elongated S ornament, as KNC 302, 331–2, fig. 128 (e.g.). Latest: D, 2. a24, p. 236, pl. 96. 9, krater rim with white-on-dark circles; the overhanging rim seems to be a LO characteristic, cf. BSA 73 (1978), 56 no. 39Google Scholar, fig. 9, pl. 13, and also UM ii. 84, GG 6, pl. 67.

77 Rod tripods: Fortetsa, 22 no. 188, pl. 13 (with cauldron), and KNC 568–9. Cauldron with lotus handle: KNC 561.

78 e.g. Amnisos 239, D, 3. a7, pls. 71.8 and 98. 8, with close counterparts in the Knossian well deposit RR/H (pp. 245–6 n. 74). The ‘gap’ of c. 480–400 BC suspected by Schäfer (pp. 181. 183) may be more apparent than real: the cup D, 2. 323. pl. 99.1 (p. 237, ‘beginning of 4th-c.’) has a close counterpart among the series from the Glaukos sanctuary, dated by Callaghan to the mid 5th-c. (BSA 73 (1978), 6–8 no. 12, fig. 5); and the lekanis rim D, 3. a5, pl. 98. 6 (p. 239, ‘Archaic’) is of a type that continues though the fifth century: cf. BSA 92 (1996), 241Google Scholar, e.g. fig. 19, N 6, 9: BSA 45 (1950), 173Google Scholar, fig. 9 a, trom a context of c. 400 BC.

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82 It is not clear why Plato (Laws 642D) dated the visit of Epimenides to Athens ten years before τὰ Περσικά (the emendation of δέκα to ρκα by Meursins is to be rejected). Possibly oracles attributed to Epimenides were circulating c. 500 BC at Athens.

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86 See n. 40.

87 See n. 80.

88 The well, Stopford, BSA 55 (1960), 159–71Google Scholar, abandoned in EO: the Villa well, BSA 68 (1973), 37–42Google Scholar, EO; Royal Road Well LA, BSA 68 (1973), 42–5Google Scholar, LO; UM well 12 (above, n. 36), abandoned c. 600 BC.

89 As envisaged in KNC 722.

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96 New Kingdom: J. S. Murray, Historical Studies, (1911), pl. 25. no. 75 = BM no. 17060. Also unpublished examples in the Louvre and the British Museum (Camirus).

97 Cf. British Museum 64, 10 7.777–8, 847–8 from the Oamirus Acropolis, probably the Well, unpublished.

98 Comparative material from Camirus, BM 64.10 7.815, 843, 780, 781, 782, all with suspension loop at back of lion's neck. From Cyprus cf. Leclant, J.. Kïtion. ii (Nicosia, 1976), 149–50Google Scholar no. 1013, pl. 7, but this has an inscription on the back pillar.

99 Cf. British Museum 64.10–7.836, 801, 870. Camirus Acropolis unpublished; Ialysus. Clara Rhodos 3, fig. 40, gr. 23, p. 50, with sub-Geometric chest, glass bead, and other finds suggestive of a mid seventh century date. Related finds from Cyprus, , Kïtion, ii. nos. 443, 1068Google Scholar, pls. 6–7. A widespread and popular type.

100 Bes. with distinctive representation of the open mouth and teeth. Megiddo, Loud, G., Megiddo, ii (1948), pl. 205Google Scholar (18). Similar Bes amulets were found in the Inatos cave deposits, nos. 317, 318, 319 (Egyptian Blue); see n. 104.

101 Cf. Petrie, Amulets, passim. for a selection of amulets, including Saite types.

102 For related figurines (though not amulets) produced by the East Greek/Naucratite production, see AGF 81ff., nos. 277–433.

103 See extremely detailed bibliography given by Leclant, J., in Kïtion. ii. 127–30Google Scholar n. 9 for the range of depiction of Bes found in the Near East, the Levant, and the Phoenician West: add KNC, 604–6, pls. 297–8 for related material, especially T. 78. f20, Ptah-Sekar-Osiris, LG–EO.

104 Idaean Cave: Halbherr, and Orsi, . Museo. Italiano. ii. 70 no. 1Google Scholar. Nefertum with good inscription: add a new example from the excavations of J. Sakellarakis. Inatos, Cave of Eilithyia, from excavations bv C. Davaras, exhibited in the Herakleion Museum no. 312, unpublished: cf. also the head, no. 314, Kition, an exact replica from Bothros I. dated by convention to c. 600 450 BC: Karageorghis, , BCH 91 (1967), 321–3 fig. 119 and p. 324Google Scholar: Leclant, , Kïtion. ii. 139Google Scholar, no. 439, pls. 12, 13. Camirus: BM unpublished, 64, 10–7, 926, 850.

105 From Kition. in the Louvre. Antiquités orientales. MNB 99, unpublished.

106 E. Riefstahl, ‘Doll, queen or goddess’. Brooklyn Museum Bulletin. (1943–5), 7–23; Jantzen, U., Samos viii. B 1517, B 1216, B 243, pls. 14, 15, 16Google Scholar; Camirus, BM 64.10 7.528. Bronze Inventory, no. 138. unpublished.

107 Camirus Well, See discussion in AGF 137, and R. Higgins. BM Cat. Terracottas. 21–4. where he dates the Well Deposit to between 700 and 650 BC.