Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

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THE PALACE OE MINOS, ETC.

of Phalasarna on the extreme West has been left high and dry,1 at Cherso-
nesos, to the East of Candia, I observed the walls and floors of the ancient
harbour town beneath the sea at depths which pointed to a subsidence
of quite two metres since Roman times,2 a measurement which, assuming
the rate of subsidence to have been approximately even, must be multiplied
at least two and a half times for Middle Minoan remains. That the seaport
of the ancient Knossos is in part represented by the small Venetian port of
Candia is highly probable. The Venetian wharves are themselves super-
posed on earlier moles, and whether actually in position or replaced, many
Minoan blocks are visible in the harbour itself. But the point on which the
Castle stands was anciently prolonged by a reef which runs for some distance
East at a few fathoms' depth. It is the basis of existing plans for the
extension of the port, and that this supported the foundations of a Minoan
breakwater is highly probable, though the terrific storms caused by the pre-
vailing N.W. gales in this windy gap of Crete can have left few remaining
traces. That the Minoan harbour town extended along the opposite coast
is at any rate clear from the existing remains of houses which are traceable
for some distance East of the walls of Candia,3 and a fair proportion of the
pottery here found is of Middle Minoan and earlier date. The existence of
similar traces show, moreover, that the settlement extended to the mouth of
the little river Kaeratos, which was doubtless also utilized for the ancient
shipping. Seawards, again, about six miles to the North, the desert island of
Standia, the ancient Dia, traditionally connected with the Minoan Goddess
under the name of Ariadne, offered secure protection to vessels against the
prevailing wind. Her cult may indeed be said to have been perpetuated by
the little shrine of the Panagia in the largest creek. In the bay of Hagios
Georgios a little to the West of thrs are visible blocks of an early wall, close to
the sea, and above this are some levelled areas and early cultivation terraces,
where on different occasions I collected fragments of Minoan pottery of more
than one Period.4 Dia, or Standia, has in a certain sense served the same

1 Spratt, Travels and Researches in Crete,
ii, p. 232 seqq.

- The remains of a basilica on the headland
above show that Roman Chersonesos was still
flourishing in the fifth and sixth centuries.

3 As I have pointed out elsewhere, Prek.
Tombs of Knossos (Arc/iaeo/ogia, lix, p. 171),
the important Late Minoan cemetery of Isopata,
including the ' Royal Tomb', stands in con-
nexion with the harbour town of ancient

Knossos rather than with that about the Palace
site.

4 I was detained three days in this bay in
1902 owing to a fierce N.W. gale which pre-
vented my Greek steamer approaching Candia,
and had an occasion to re-explore this and the
neighbouring bays to the E. in 1907. In the
Panagia valley is a torrent bed with a well, that
of H. Georgios, which is rather brackish. The
island is at present a limestone wilderness, the