The archaeological excavations carried out in the Minoan palace of Archanes On the island of Crete, objects and information continue to be brought to light that provide invaluable information about life in this palace complex built in the year 1900 BC Reactivated after two decades paralyzed, a new three-year campaign began last year, which aims to find out everything possible about its construction and use in Minoan times, as well as its occupation in later times.
During the last campaign, archaeologists have found, for the first time in a Minoan palace and far from the main entrance, a door-sanctuary ο sacred door in a room where four altars and two parts of a stone platform had been documented. The discovery within this religious context makes Efi Sapuná-Sakelarakis, director of the excavation, think that the sacred door is framed in a ritual context.
On the other hand, in the northernmost part of the site, spaces have been found that belong to a separate wing of the palace and where researchers have been able to document several luxurious rooms ornate, – with floors decorated with pebbles, ceramic slabs and richly decorated mortar joints – connected by common corridors, windows and doors, as well as fallen stucco fragments; many of which still retained traces of blue and red, suggesting the presence of fresh on the walls of these luxurious rooms.
Finally, on an embankment located in the eastern part, archaeologists have documented a collapse of the upper floors and ceramic remains from before and after the construction of the palace have been recovered.
religious rituals
During last year’s excavation work in the northern area of the site, archaeologists discovered that a plaster was used for the construction of the palace, also present in the palaces of Phaistos and Knossos, but its widespread use in that of Archanes would have resulted in that the entire complex was covered by a shiny layer.
In addition, they identified the sanctuary with four altars and were able to recover remains of ceramic and obsidian objects that were used for religious rituals. In the southernmost part of the excavation, archaeologists identified the source of the fire documented during the 1999 excavations that would have destroyed part of the palace in the Mycenaean era.
Minoan epicenter
Archanes, along with Knossos and Phaistos, were the three main administrative centers of the Minoan civilization. It was discovered in the 1920s by British archaeologist Arthur John Evans. Located just 15 kilometers from Knossos, with its architectural and construction similarities made Evans think that it was the place of summer residence of its inhabitants. However, recent research suggests that both palace centers were part of the same administrative unit, that they complemented each other but that neither depended on the other.
In the 1960s, Greek archaeologist Yanis Sakellarakis directed archaeological work that uncovered several rooms of the three-story building and documented five vaulted tombs and several mausoleums from the Mycenaean period. The archive area and the theater were also identified, as well as splendid architectural elements and objects such as ivory statuettes, stone reliefs and lamps, among other pieces.
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