DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0187
MEANING OF THE SACK OF KNOSSOS 161
and religion still survive may prove that no considerable
body of foreigners settled at Knossos itself after the sack.
But the sudden lowering of the standard in art and in
wealth, and the recrudescence of more primitive and
popular religious beliefs, are much more naturally ac-
counted for by a sudden and fatal blow from the outside
to the sea power of the ruling race than by any democratic
movement such as Mr. Evans suggests. Indeed, for such
a movement bringing national decadence it would be hard
to find a parallel in the whole of ancient history, and its
existence at this period is from every point of view im-
probable.
There are indications, too, apart from Knossos, that
there were changes in the ^Egean world at about this
epoch. In the later third city of Phylakopi in Melos,
the older type of palace, which resembles that of Knossos,
is replaced by another mainland type, resembling that of
Tiryns, with a central hearth in its Megaron, and no light-
well at the back of it.1 It is also at least a curious co-
incidence that the word Keftian, which is used in the early
XVIIIth Dynasty for the narrow-waisted Cretans who
carry vases of the Palace style, falls after this period com-
pletely out of use, and is superseded by various other
tribal names belonging to " the peoples of the sea." !
We have here, perhaps, if we may use the names sym-
bolically, the sea power of Minos succeeded by the sea
power of Agamemnon ; and in the latter we may see a
mainland form of the old civilisation, either forced to
expand over-seas by pressure from the north, or itself
ahead}' hardened and transformed by contact with its
invaders, and holding a transitional position between the
old culture and the new. If we may indulge in a further
piece of symbolism that is perhaps as old as the event
1 D. Mackenzie in Phylakopi, pp. 269-71, and fig. 49, p. 56.
Contrast D.S.A. viii. figs. 29, 30, pp. 56-7 ; sec above, pp. 79, 80.
2 Hall in B.S.A. viii. p. 175. Sec above, p. 123 ; below, p. 202.
II
and religion still survive may prove that no considerable
body of foreigners settled at Knossos itself after the sack.
But the sudden lowering of the standard in art and in
wealth, and the recrudescence of more primitive and
popular religious beliefs, are much more naturally ac-
counted for by a sudden and fatal blow from the outside
to the sea power of the ruling race than by any democratic
movement such as Mr. Evans suggests. Indeed, for such
a movement bringing national decadence it would be hard
to find a parallel in the whole of ancient history, and its
existence at this period is from every point of view im-
probable.
There are indications, too, apart from Knossos, that
there were changes in the ^Egean world at about this
epoch. In the later third city of Phylakopi in Melos,
the older type of palace, which resembles that of Knossos,
is replaced by another mainland type, resembling that of
Tiryns, with a central hearth in its Megaron, and no light-
well at the back of it.1 It is also at least a curious co-
incidence that the word Keftian, which is used in the early
XVIIIth Dynasty for the narrow-waisted Cretans who
carry vases of the Palace style, falls after this period com-
pletely out of use, and is superseded by various other
tribal names belonging to " the peoples of the sea." !
We have here, perhaps, if we may use the names sym-
bolically, the sea power of Minos succeeded by the sea
power of Agamemnon ; and in the latter we may see a
mainland form of the old civilisation, either forced to
expand over-seas by pressure from the north, or itself
ahead}' hardened and transformed by contact with its
invaders, and holding a transitional position between the
old culture and the new. If we may indulge in a further
piece of symbolism that is perhaps as old as the event
1 D. Mackenzie in Phylakopi, pp. 269-71, and fig. 49, p. 56.
Contrast D.S.A. viii. figs. 29, 30, pp. 56-7 ; sec above, pp. 79, 80.
2 Hall in B.S.A. viii. p. 175. Sec above, p. 123 ; below, p. 202.
II