DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0086
62
TRANSIT ROAD FROM KNOSSOS
Trunk
line at
Knossos.
Southern
and
Eastern
routes.
Pedeada
track:
'The
Great
Palace'
of Seraia.
Mesara plain and atone point were seen to abut, beyond it, on the Acropolis
height of an important Minoan port.1 (See Diagrammatic Map, opp. p. 71.)
The massive remains of the Viaduct and the greater breadth of the
road here—over five metres, as compared with four in the interior tracks—
tend to the conclusion that this terminal section was of the nature of a
trunk line. It in fact represented the junction of the direct South Road
with an important route formed by the convergence of lines leading from
Pedeada—the ancient Omphalian Plain—and the regions to the East
and the South-East. A common line of highway must in all ages
have ascended the valley immediately above the Palace site of Knossos,
where the old Kairatos stream is known as the Speliopotamos from the
Greco-Roman rock-tombs, locally called a-w/jXia, that honeycomb the cliffs.
The Minoan Way, indeed, heads in much the same direction as that
followed by the modern road. About a mile above, however, the stream
turns to the South-West through a rocky chasm spanned by the stately
arches of the Venetian aqueduct that supplies Candia with water, and at
this point it would appear that the two main lines of Minoan roadway
into the interior must have diverged (see Diagrammatic Map, opp. p. 71).
The Southern road with which we are mainly concerned would have
followed the bend of the stream to the right, making for the lowest pass
over the saddle of Mt. Juktas, and immediately passing, near the village
of Hagia Irini, the entrance to the underground quarries that provided
Knossos with its best materials.
On the other hand, the South-Eastern route if, as seems probable,
its main line approximately followed the medieval track through the
neighbouring village of Skalani, would at that place have brought the great
Palace into direct connexion with a sister foundation of some importance.
On the Western outskirts of this village, which overlooks the descending
course of the old main track to Pedeada, considerable remains of a Minoan
building have been demolished for the sake of theirr-maierialsrwithin the
last few years. The mischief had been already done when I visited the
site in 1923, but it was possible, by means of the trenches out of which
the peasants had grubbed the better blocks, to trace the foundations of
Minoan wall-lines for a distance of about 100 metres of the N.W. front
1 Preliminary notices of these discoveries have
appeared in The Times, August 28, 1923, and
June 11, October 16, 17,1924, and the Morning
Post, July 23, 1924. On my journeys under-
taken in 1923 and 1924 to explore the Transit
Route I had the valued assistance of Dr. D.
Mackenzie and Mr. Piet de Jong, architect of
the British School at Athens, as well as of my
foreman Manolis Akumianakis (' Manplaki')
whose lynx-eyes nothing Minoan escapes.
TRANSIT ROAD FROM KNOSSOS
Trunk
line at
Knossos.
Southern
and
Eastern
routes.
Pedeada
track:
'The
Great
Palace'
of Seraia.
Mesara plain and atone point were seen to abut, beyond it, on the Acropolis
height of an important Minoan port.1 (See Diagrammatic Map, opp. p. 71.)
The massive remains of the Viaduct and the greater breadth of the
road here—over five metres, as compared with four in the interior tracks—
tend to the conclusion that this terminal section was of the nature of a
trunk line. It in fact represented the junction of the direct South Road
with an important route formed by the convergence of lines leading from
Pedeada—the ancient Omphalian Plain—and the regions to the East
and the South-East. A common line of highway must in all ages
have ascended the valley immediately above the Palace site of Knossos,
where the old Kairatos stream is known as the Speliopotamos from the
Greco-Roman rock-tombs, locally called a-w/jXia, that honeycomb the cliffs.
The Minoan Way, indeed, heads in much the same direction as that
followed by the modern road. About a mile above, however, the stream
turns to the South-West through a rocky chasm spanned by the stately
arches of the Venetian aqueduct that supplies Candia with water, and at
this point it would appear that the two main lines of Minoan roadway
into the interior must have diverged (see Diagrammatic Map, opp. p. 71).
The Southern road with which we are mainly concerned would have
followed the bend of the stream to the right, making for the lowest pass
over the saddle of Mt. Juktas, and immediately passing, near the village
of Hagia Irini, the entrance to the underground quarries that provided
Knossos with its best materials.
On the other hand, the South-Eastern route if, as seems probable,
its main line approximately followed the medieval track through the
neighbouring village of Skalani, would at that place have brought the great
Palace into direct connexion with a sister foundation of some importance.
On the Western outskirts of this village, which overlooks the descending
course of the old main track to Pedeada, considerable remains of a Minoan
building have been demolished for the sake of theirr-maierialsrwithin the
last few years. The mischief had been already done when I visited the
site in 1923, but it was possible, by means of the trenches out of which
the peasants had grubbed the better blocks, to trace the foundations of
Minoan wall-lines for a distance of about 100 metres of the N.W. front
1 Preliminary notices of these discoveries have
appeared in The Times, August 28, 1923, and
June 11, October 16, 17,1924, and the Morning
Post, July 23, 1924. On my journeys under-
taken in 1923 and 1924 to explore the Transit
Route I had the valued assistance of Dr. D.
Mackenzie and Mr. Piet de Jong, architect of
the British School at Athens, as well as of my
foreman Manolis Akumianakis (' Manplaki')
whose lynx-eyes nothing Minoan escapes.