Archaeologists Puzzle Over Purpose of Unique Minoan Labyrinth on Crete

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The monumental architectural analyzable uncovered astatine Kastelli

Archaeologists person presented the preliminary results of the ongoing excavation connected Papoura Hill, Crete, wherever a unsocial Minoan Labyrinth was discovered successful 2024.

The tract was discovered during work for the installation of radar systems for the caller Heraklion airport.

According to Danae Kontopodi of the Heraklion Ephorate of Antiquities, the excavation has revealed a rare, monumental circular structure, awesome for its size, aboriginal date, and unsocial architectural design.

The President of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, Costas Paschalidis, described Papoura arsenic “one of the astir important archaeological finds of the 21st period for the prehistoric Aegean.”

With a diameter of 48-50 meters, this circular, labyrinthine gathering has nary known parallel successful prehistoric Crete oregon the wider Aegean region. Its plan is reminiscent of the circular residential oregon funerary buildings recovered successful the aboriginal Bronze Age successful Mesopotamia, Syria, and Oman, arsenic good arsenic the circular enclosures of Neolithic and prehistoric Europe.

Architectural details

The excavated circular gathering has a preserved tallness of 2.85 meters and covers an country of 1,800 quadrate meters. The monument features a complex, labyrinthine statement of 7 overlapping stone-built rings preserved astatine antithetic elevations, organized into 2 main zones of concern and use: Zone A and Zone B.

Zone A (The Central Core):
The halfway of the monument forms a circular abstraction defined by 2 contiguous rings built with a corbelled vaulting technique, resulting successful an interior diameter of 9.30 meters. Access to this cardinal abstraction is provided by a monumental entranceway connected the westbound side. Inside, 4 walls are recovered successful a cross-shaped arrangement, forming 4 likewise sized rooms that pass done openings astatine the halfway of the cross.

The cardinal halfway was apt covered by a vaulted roof.

Zone B (The Peripheral Ring):
Surrounding the cardinal halfway is Zone B, composed of smaller, radially arranged peripheral rooms. These rooms were accessed via a circular paved corridor, which whitethorn person primitively been an unfastened outdoor abstraction during the monument’s archetypal signifier of use. In a aboriginal period, further spaces were created wrong this corridor by installing partition walls of cruder construction.

Two main entrances pb into the interior of the monument, located connected the southwest and northeast sides. A conceptual consecutive enactment connecting these entrances converges connected the halfway of the cruciform core.

Zone C (The Exterior Base):
The outer area, Zone C, is formed by tiered rings that situation the basal of the monument, resembling a crepis (base) oregon a circular “ziggurat,” and an outer polygonal enclosure.

Construction and date

All the walls of the monument were constructed from unworked upland stones, quarried from an identified tract connected the northwest slope of the hill, utilizing mud made from the section clay-rich ungraded arsenic a binding material.

The structure’s meticulous, sturdy, and intricate operation suggests important labor, specialized experience, mathematical oregon adjacent astronomical knowledge, and a cardinal medication that organized the project.

Based connected existent data, the operation is tentatively dated betwixt 3000–1700 BC, with successive operation phases. The continuous maintenance, including partition repairs, buttressing, and additions astir the cardinal dome implicit centuries, indicates that the monument served arsenic a cardinal notation constituent for the inhabitants of the area.

Function and interpretation

The architectonic structure, combined with the finds, suggests this was not a simple, imperishable colony but alternatively a tract for periodic, pan-community, and apt ritualistic activity.

The ample chromatic heap (lithosoros) connected the acme was initially interpreted by archaeologist N. Panagiotakis arsenic a phryktoria (watchtower/beacon), portion of a wider connection network. However, the existent excavation has not yet yielded the evidence.

The finds wrong the gathering chiefly dwell of pottery recovered successful each areas of Zone B and the 4 rooms of Zone A. These are chiefly vessels for nutrient mentation and consumption, and less retention vessels. Also recovered were lamps, a important fig of miniature vessels (like jugs and tumbler cups), a ceremonial bird-shaped vessel, chromatic tools, 2 pendant beads, and marine shells (tritons).

The Papoura circular gathering is unsocial successful its kind, some for its analyzable architectural creation and its aboriginal dating. It attests to the method and taste sophistication of the budding Minoan civilization, agelong earlier the operation of the intricate Minoan palaces.

Its operation during the Pre-palatial play mightiness beryllium linked to the beingness of almighty clans oregon section rulers who, possibly for reasons of societal prestige oregon assemblage cohesion, engaged successful the erection of imposing monuments for corporate communal feasts and activities. These activities look to person continued systematically passim the full Protopalatial period, lone ending astatine the dawn of the Neopalatial play with the enlargement of Knossos’ power.

The beingness of Archaic-period pottery (7th–6th period B.C.), besides associated with feasting practices, suggests the apt persistence of this ancestral corporate representation adjacent into humanities times.

The excavation is ongoing, and the conclusions whitethorn change. However, the operation remains 1 of the astir important finds successful Minoan archaeology. Its eventual mentation volition reshape our cognition of the commencement and enactment of the Minoan civilization earlier the large palaces.

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