{"id":3625,"date":"2011-09-04T10:10:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T14:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3625"},"modified":"2018-08-04T20:49:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T00:49:35","slug":"sunday-september-4-2011-the-prince-of-the-lilies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=3625","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, September 4, 2011 \u2014 The Prince of the Lilies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Look\u00ading smug \u2014 final\u00adly at Knos\u00adsos, after a life\u00adtime of longing.<\/p><\/div>\n

We spent the night sleep\u00ading fit\u00adful\u00adly on the deck of the Olympic Cham\u00adpi\u00adon<\/em>, and docked at Irak\u00adlion at dawn. The first bus to Knos\u00adsos would not depart for a while, so we spent the ear\u00adly morn\u00ading walk\u00ading in the cen\u00adter of the city, which still has its Venet\u00adian wall intact. Ottoman rule seems to have left lit\u00adtle archi\u00adtec\u00adtur\u00adal influ\u00adence on the city, but the cen\u00adturies of Ital\u00adian rule clear\u00adly did. There was also a nice ear\u00adly Byzan\u00adtine church. Over the cen\u00adturies, it had been con\u00advert\u00aded to a mosque, then to a Catholic church, then restored to the Ortho\u00addox rite. Very sim\u00adple in plan, it quite nice\u00adly pre\u00adserves the ori\u00adgins of the Chris\u00adt\u00adian church in the Roman munic\u00adi\u00adpal office build\u00ading (basil\u00adi\u00adca).<\/p>\n

Irak\u00adlion shows none of the signs of pover\u00adty we saw in Athens. Every build\u00ading is fresh\u00adly paint\u00aded or plas\u00adtered, there are no des\u00adper\u00adate look\u00ading junkies or shab\u00adby look\u00ading peo\u00adple loung\u00ading around. I did see a few of the South Asian street sell\u00aders ped\u00addling pathet\u00adic toys, like the ones in Athens. I ques\u00adtioned one in bro\u00adken Hin\u00addi, hop\u00ading to get some insight into the sys\u00adtem \u2014 for the toys are every\u00adwhere exact\u00adly the same, and clear\u00adly orga\u00adnized by some cen\u00adtral syn\u00addi\u00adcate that puts these fel\u00adlows on the street and promis\u00ades some small com\u00admis\u00adsion to them. I have nev\u00ader seen any\u00adone actu\u00adal\u00adly buy one of these toys, and the ones I saw in Athens looked were scrawny, hope\u00adless-look\u00ading guys. But this fel\u00adlow looked fair\u00adly cheer\u00adful, and was well enough dressed. He was a Pan\u00adjabi, in his ear\u00adly twen\u00adties. He didn\u2019t des\u00adper\u00adate\u00adly press his wares on me. We could not con\u00adverse on a lev\u00adel that could give me pre\u00adcise infor\u00adma\u00adtion. He was Mus\u00adlim, and bright\u00adened con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably when I gave him a part\u00ading aleykum a\u2011salaam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Our main busi\u00adness was to get to Knos\u00adsos, which for me has been the dream of a life\u00adtime. The bus took us direct\u00adly to the gate of the site, forty minute before open\u00ading time. There were already some French tourists wait\u00ading, and short\u00adly a tour-bus-load of Japan\u00adese turned up. Knos\u00adsos is a major tourist attrac\u00adtion, so I had no illu\u00adsions about see\u00ading a pris\u00adtine archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal site. From the very begin\u00adning of Arthur Evans\u2019 exca\u00adva\u00adtions, the site was manip\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded to pro\u00advide a dis\u00adplay for tourists and an \u201cedu\u00adca\u00adtion\u00adal expe\u00adri\u00adence.\u201d That was the pur\u00adpose of the \u201crestora\u00adtions\u201d using mod\u00adern mate\u00adri\u00adals that would hor\u00adri\u00adfy any archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist today. But the recon\u00adstruc\u00adtions were done with the best knowl\u00adedge and guess\u00ades of the time, and there\u2019s no doubt that they stim\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded inter\u00adest in and appre\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion for Minoan civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion. I wouldn\u2019t be here if I hadn\u2019t seen pic\u00adtures of the recon\u00adstruct\u00aded murals as a child. How many peo\u00adple have a men\u00adtal image of the con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion of the Hit\u00adtites? There was no show\u00adman like Evans exca\u00advat\u00ading Bo\u011fazkale.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

The so-called \u201cthrone room\u201d.<\/p><\/div>\n

I will not bore the ready with details of my tour of the ruins. I spent a long time, exam\u00adin\u00ading and pho\u00adtograph\u00ading every cor\u00adner of the site, most of which would appear to be unin\u00adter\u00adest\u00ading jum\u00adbles of walls and stairs. Only long famil\u00adiar\u00adi\u00adty with the site plan makes them intel\u00adli\u00adgi\u00adble. The crowds, which steadi\u00adly increased over the morn\u00ading, did not both\u00ader me, as they were clus\u00adtered around tour guides, and I was much more inter\u00adest\u00aded in periph\u00ader\u00adal, unre\u00adcon\u00adstruct\u00aded parts of the site, such as the enig\u00admat\u00adic cir\u00adcu\u00adlar pits which puz\u00adzle the Minoanists, but look an awful lot like Native Amer\u00adi\u00adcan kivas<\/em> to me.<\/p>\n

I have my owned pref\u00ader\u00adences about inter\u00adpret\u00ading Knos\u00adsos, but until now they\u2019ve been based on pho\u00adtographs, writ\u00adten descrip\u00adtions, and site plans. These sec\u00adond-hand things give lit\u00adtle feel\u00ading for the three-dimen\u00adsion\u00adal real\u00adi\u00adty. It was only after exam\u00adin\u00ading every cor\u00adner of the real site that I could con\u00adfi\u00adden\u00adtial\u00adly feel con\u00adfirmed in my own inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtions. I am con\u00advinced that the \u201cpalace\u201d of Knos\u00adsos was no palace. The Minoan state of Knos\u00adsos may or may not have had kings, but if they did, this com\u00adplex was not an expres\u00adsion of it. It is noth\u00ading like the roy\u00adal palaces of Mesopotamia.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The most dis\u00adcussed part of the com\u00adplex is the Cen\u00adtral Plaza, which Evans visu\u00adal\u00adized as a palace court\u00adyard, and the venue for the bull-leap\u00ading por\u00adtrayed in Minoan art. The plaza seems sin\u00adgu\u00adlar\u00adly imprac\u00adti\u00adcal for such an activ\u00adi\u00adty, but it is not impos\u00adsi\u00adble. What\u00adev\u00ader cer\u00ade\u00admonies were per\u00adformed there, it seems to me unlike\u00adly that they were pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly for the enter\u00adtain\u00adment of a king, queen and court. Com\u00admu\u00adnal feast\u00ading seems more like\u00adly. Per\u00adhaps the bull-leap\u00ading was done else\u00adwhere, and the bull brought to the plaza for sac\u00adri\u00adfice. Large quan\u00adti\u00adties of cups have been found, to del\u00adi\u00adcate for nor\u00admal use, and there are oth\u00ader signs of large-scale cooking.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Fil\u00adip on the ancient steps of Knossos<\/p><\/div>\n

The most impor\u00adtant alter\u00adna\u00adtive expla\u00adna\u00adtion of the pri\u00adma\u00adry pur\u00adpose of the com\u00adplex has been that it might have been a monas\u00adtic com\u00adplex. There are strik\u00ading analo\u00adgies in its lay\u00adout to monas\u00adtic com\u00adplex\u00ades in Tibet (which also focus on a rec\u00adtan\u00adgu\u00adlar plaza), or the medieval Euro\u00adpean monas\u00adter\u00adies (which also had exten\u00adsive stor\u00adage and work\u00adshop facil\u00adi\u00adties). I think this is clos\u00ader to the truth, but I would take the argu\u00adment a step fur\u00adther. At one point, I turned to Fil\u00adip and said: \u201cThis is an Ago\u00adra<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every\u00adthing about the place says \u201cAgo\u00adra<\/em>\u201d to me. In my mind\u2019s eye, I can see a mar\u00adket place (gr. ago\u00adra<\/em>), spring\u00ading up between two or small sacred places that have turned into sanc\u00adtu\u00adar\u00adies and places of pil\u00adgrim\u00adage. These grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly evolved into shrines served by priest\u00adesses, and even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly into a com\u00adplex o monas\u00adtic insti\u00adtu\u00adtions, but always main\u00adtain\u00ading the cen\u00adtral open space for a mix\u00adture of com\u00admer\u00adcial, rit\u00adu\u00adal, judi\u00adcial, and polit\u00adi\u00adcal use. There is no sin\u00adgle over\u00adwhelm\u00ading sacred place, as with a Cathe\u00addral or a Mesopotami\u00adan tem\u00adple. There is no sin\u00adgle cen\u00adtral audi\u00adence hall where a king could over\u00adawe his sub\u00adjects. The struc\u00adture which Evans imag\u00adined to be a roy\u00adal throne room is com\u00adplete\u00adly inap\u00adpro\u00adpri\u00adate for such use. It\u2019s a small room, with a small chair set against the longest wall, at floor lev\u00adel. The \u201cthrone\u201d faces a nar\u00adrow space part\u00adly filled with some kind of offer\u00ading bowl. Nobody ever built throne rooms like that. The aes\u00adthet\u00adic is over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly inti\u00admate and reli\u00adgious, not monar\u00adchi\u00adcal. No king who could com\u00admand the impres\u00adsive resources of so wealthy a state would be con\u00adtent with such a dinky lit\u00adtle room, in which he could impress no one. All over the com\u00adplex, there are no murals con\u00advey\u00ading king\u00adly pow\u00ader and author\u00adi\u00adty, noth\u00ading say\u00ading \u201clook on this, ye mighty, and despair.\u201d There are only pic\u00adtures of flow\u00aders, chil\u00addren play\u00ading games, dol\u00adphins leap\u00ading in the sea, farm\u00aders har\u00advest\u00ading their crops, ath\u00adletes, ele\u00adgant ladies, pets, and so on. The archi\u00adtec\u00adtur\u00adal fea\u00adtures are every\u00adwhere con\u00adsis\u00adtent with domes\u00adtic, com\u00admer\u00adcial, and small-scale reli\u00adgions uses.<\/p>\n

At some points in time, the whole com\u00adplex seems to have been con\u00adsol\u00adi\u00addat\u00aded or rebuilt by a uni\u00adform plan, but that is quite pos\u00adsi\u00adble in a non-monar\u00adchi\u00adcal con\u00adtext. The Ago\u00adra of Athens under\u00adwent such a process under demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic rule.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Which brings us to the intrigu\u00ading pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty that Knos\u00adsos, and the oth\u00ader Minoan cities such as Malia, Phaestos, and Gortyn might have been republics of some kind, or had rep\u00adre\u00adsen\u00adta\u00adtive insti\u00adtu\u00adtions coex\u00adist\u00ading with aris\u00adtoc\u00adra\u00adcy or monar\u00adchy. Of course, no proof exists for such a hypoth\u00ade\u00adsis, but no proof exists for Evan\u2019s roy\u00adal\u00adist inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion, or sub\u00adse\u00adquent priest\u00adly the\u00ado\u00adries. The lev\u00adel of evi\u00addence sim\u00adply does not per\u00admit any cer\u00adtain\u00adties. Only the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of deci\u00adpher\u00ading the Lin\u00adear A or the hiero\u00adglyph\u00adic texts holds any hope for that. But I think that a repub\u00adli\u00adcan inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion has been resist\u00aded by archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists and his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans under the influ\u00adence of dubi\u00adous assump\u00adtions about lin\u00adear social evolution.<\/p>\n

The emer\u00adgence of repub\u00adli\u00adcan state insti\u00adtu\u00adtions in the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> cen\u00adturies was part\u00adly inspired and harked back to Medieval and Renais\u00adsance republics, though the con\u00adti\u00adnu\u00adity between them was slim stuff, and large\u00adly depen\u00addent on folk\u00adloric insti\u00adtu\u00adtions below the state lev\u00adel. The Medieval republics sim\u00adi\u00adlar\u00adly harked back to the Clas\u00adsi\u00adcal republics of Greece and Rome, though again the con\u00adti\u00adnu\u00adity was ephemer\u00adal. It may be that the Democ\u00adra\u00adcy that emerged in the Greek polis<\/em> of the fourth cen\u00adtu\u00adry BC<\/span> was itself hark\u00ading back to remote prece\u00addents in the Bronze Age.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

The Minoan road to Knossos<\/p><\/div>\n

Before com\u00ading here, I had no clear notion of the broad\u00ader phys\u00adi\u00adcal set\u00adting of Knos\u00adsos. The \u201cpalace\u201d was sur\u00adround\u00aded by a large (by Bronze Age stan\u00addards) city, of which we know very lit\u00adtle. There were some large out\u00adly\u00ading struc\u00adture, and prob\u00ada\u00adbly a net\u00adwork of vil\u00adlages sub\u00adservient to, or inte\u00adgrat\u00aded with the city. There were roads which led direct\u00adly to the cen\u00adtral plaza \u2014 anoth\u00ader fea\u00adture that sug\u00adgests an Ago\u00adra. It\u2019s only when you stand in them that you grasp that they were as tech\u00adni\u00adcal\u00adly advanced as any\u00adthing the Romans built. The plaza is aligned with the region\u2019s most dra\u00admat\u00adic look\u00ading moun\u00adtain peak. It is in a val\u00adley of fab\u00adu\u00adlous agri\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal poten\u00adtial. The sur\u00adround\u00ading hills are ter\u00adraced, and from what I gath\u00ader the ter\u00adraces, con\u00adstant\u00adly rebuilt, were there in Minoan times. This val\u00adley in turn was part of a sys\u00adtem of broad, fer\u00adtile val\u00adleys and plains that dis\u00adsects the island of Crete, with oth\u00ader major Minoan sites scat\u00adtered in it. This area is extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnar\u00adi\u00adly beau\u00adti\u00adful. The Neolith\u00adic agri\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal \u201cpack\u00adage\u201d of domes\u00adtic ani\u00admals and crops would have sup\u00adport\u00aded a very high stan\u00addard of liv\u00ading, and com\u00adbined with fish\u00ading and sea trade would have made life very sweet by ancient stan\u00addards. The murals don\u2019t seem to lie.<\/p>\n

We returned to Irak\u00adlion and vis\u00adit\u00aded its Archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal Muse\u00adum. This was almost as great a plea\u00adsure as Knos\u00adsos itself. It con\u00adtains most of the famous arti\u00adfacts unearthed at Knos\u00adsos. It\u2019s only when you see them in real life that you can ful\u00adly appre\u00adci\u00adate them. Some are of great beau\u00adty. Some are just delight\u00adful, like the toy or mod\u00adel house, which is so detailed and obvi\u00adous\u00adly intend\u00aded to be real\u00adis\u00adtic that we can con\u00adfi\u00addent\u00adly pic\u00adture what Minoan hous\u00ades actu\u00adal\u00adly looked like. The famous murals are there. You can imag\u00adine my delight at being pho\u00adtographed in front of the \u201cPrince of the Lilies\u201d mur\u00adal that adorned my web\u00adsite for years.<\/p>\n

Now we were ready for the more phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly demand\u00ading part of the jour\u00adney. It\u2019s impor\u00adtant to me to vis\u00adit a minor, unex\u00adploit\u00aded Minoan site to make sure that my opin\u00adions are not dis\u00adtort\u00aded by the atyp\u00adi\u00adcal sta\u00adtus of Knos\u00adsos. I select\u00aded a small site in East\u00adern Crete, which has the advan\u00adtage of being near anoth\u00ader archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal site dat\u00aded from the tur\u00adbu\u00adlent Post-Minoan times. This involves moun\u00adtains and cross\u00ading rough coun\u00adtry on foot. The loss of Filip\u2019s papers means we can\u2019t do any dri\u00adving. So, it\u2019s bus\u00ades and feet, and night under the open sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spent the night sleep\u00ading fit\u00adful\u00adly on the deck of the Olympic Cham\u00adpi\u00adon, and docked at Irak\u00adlion at dawn. The first bus to Knos\u00adsos would not depart for a while, so we spent the ear\u00adly morn\u00ading walk\u00ading in the cen\u00adter of \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,927],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ap-blog-2011"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3625"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7669,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3625\/revisions\/7669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}