DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7382#0046
VIII. KNOSSOS
The connection of Knossos with Egypt goes back to the Neolithic Age and extends
right down through every period to the end of Minoan times. The Neolithic Era is
the richest in evidence, for more and more fragments of stone vases are turning up
every day. The finds from this stratum seem to be mainly Predynastic, but one at
least (No. 26) belongs to the Early Dynastic Period, Dynasties I—II. In a pure Early
Minoan stratum we find nothing. That is owing to the fact that nearly all the Early
Minoan deposit was swept off the top of the site to make room for the earliest Palace.
The resulting debris was dumped chiefly in the north-western area; but it is probably
from this Early Minoan stratum that the porphyry bowls Nos. 22, 23 and 25 originally
came. In late Middle Minoan times two very important finds appear, Nos. 29 and 30.
The diorite statue of the Egyptian official User is interesting when we remember that at
the same time as the First Palace or Labyrinth was being constructed at Knossos,
King Amenemhat III, Ne-maat-Ra, or as the Greeks called him, Lamaris, was building
his labyrinth in the Fayum.1 The alabastron lid of Khyan is important as confirming
the view that this King was well known outside Egypt; a lion with his name was
found at Baghdad. Alone of the Hyksos usurpers has he left any trace of himself or
his period except in Egypt.
The Late Minoan contacts are confined to the tombs at Isopata and Zafer Papoura.
The Egyptian objects all date from the XVIIIth Dynasty with one exception, and are
all found in suitable contexts, as indeed is usually the case with all but stone vases,
though these in Crete do not seem to have passed as heirlooms in the same way as on
the mainland, perhaps because the Cretans were themselves fine workers in stone.
1 Seejf.H.S. xxv. p. 320 ff.
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The connection of Knossos with Egypt goes back to the Neolithic Age and extends
right down through every period to the end of Minoan times. The Neolithic Era is
the richest in evidence, for more and more fragments of stone vases are turning up
every day. The finds from this stratum seem to be mainly Predynastic, but one at
least (No. 26) belongs to the Early Dynastic Period, Dynasties I—II. In a pure Early
Minoan stratum we find nothing. That is owing to the fact that nearly all the Early
Minoan deposit was swept off the top of the site to make room for the earliest Palace.
The resulting debris was dumped chiefly in the north-western area; but it is probably
from this Early Minoan stratum that the porphyry bowls Nos. 22, 23 and 25 originally
came. In late Middle Minoan times two very important finds appear, Nos. 29 and 30.
The diorite statue of the Egyptian official User is interesting when we remember that at
the same time as the First Palace or Labyrinth was being constructed at Knossos,
King Amenemhat III, Ne-maat-Ra, or as the Greeks called him, Lamaris, was building
his labyrinth in the Fayum.1 The alabastron lid of Khyan is important as confirming
the view that this King was well known outside Egypt; a lion with his name was
found at Baghdad. Alone of the Hyksos usurpers has he left any trace of himself or
his period except in Egypt.
The Late Minoan contacts are confined to the tombs at Isopata and Zafer Papoura.
The Egyptian objects all date from the XVIIIth Dynasty with one exception, and are
all found in suitable contexts, as indeed is usually the case with all but stone vases,
though these in Crete do not seem to have passed as heirlooms in the same way as on
the mainland, perhaps because the Cretans were themselves fine workers in stone.
1 Seejf.H.S. xxv. p. 320 ff.
20