Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2021 - 20

ZAKROS, GREECE
OFF THE GRID BY MARLEY BROWN
Some 3,500 years ago, at the mouth of
a harbor on the far eastern end of Crete,
a community of Minoan traders built a
complex of banquet halls, storage rooms,
kitchens, courtyards, and pools. This hub
at the site of Zakros is known as a palace,
but the term is somewhat of a misnomer
both at Zakros and at other contemporaneous
Minoan settlements. According to
archaeologist D. Matthew Buell of Trent
University, there is no evidence from any
Minoan site to suggest that these palaces
housed rulers or politicians. Instead, Buell
says, they are better understood as multipurpose
centers where all manner of commercial,
political, religious, industrial, and
Mediterranean
Sea
LEVANT
GREECE TURKEY
EGYPT
Heraklion
Sitia
CRETE
Zakros
0 25
50 miles
social activities may have taken place. The
Zakros palace covers just under an acre
of land and featured some 150 rooms arranged
on two levels around a central
court. During excavations that have taken
place intermittently since the 1960s, 13
tablets written in a script known as Linear
A have been discovered there. Linear A
has yet to be deciphered, but these texts
are thought to contain some sort of tabulations,
likely recording taxes or tribute.
Researchers have uncovered little
evidence of how Minoans organized themselves
religiously and politically. However,
architecture at sites including the palace
at Zakros can provide some clues. " Minoans
reserved spaces for elites, " says Buell,
" but they also emphasized community interaction
in large public areas as a means
of social and political organization. " Zakros
palace officials collected olive oil and
other agricultural products in the hinterlands
and stored them within the palace
20
Zakros, Greece
before redistributing them
to the broader community
during ceremonial events
and shipping them out to
trading partners across
em
ity
ts
Bull's head rhyton
ss
e
e
the sea. Buell believes the
Minoan mariners of Zakros
parlayed their eastern
port location-the
only safe refuge along a
notoriously rough coast-
into particularly strong
commercial relationships
with the Near East and
North Africa. Zakros was
k-
a
t-
ng
s
d
as
.C.,
was
reocdestroyed
around 1450 B.C.,
after which the palace was
abandoned and never reoccupied.
Archaeologists have
found luxury goods that were left
behind, including copper ingots
from Cyprus, faience and alabaster
from Egypt, ivory from Syria, and many
Greek rhytons, or pouring vessels made
out of imported materials such as obsidian.
One of these vessels was carved out
s have
were left
per ingots
nd alabaster
d
S i
of the mineral chlorite in the shape of a
bull's head, whose wooden horns were
likely once wrapped in gold foil.
THE SITE
Many of the artifacts recovered from Zakros
are in the Heraklion Archaeological
Museum, which also
provides an exhaustive
introduction to
Minoan civilization.
Just outside Heraklion,
at Knossos, visitors
can take a guided
l
to
tour of perhaps the
most powerful Minoan
settlement, which provides
a framework for
tou
sett
vide
understanding some of
the less well-explained
ruins at Zakros. Rent a
unde
the
ruin
ca
car in Heraklion, and
drive east to
w
m
can hire
fi i d
to drive you the hour or so down
o drive you t
the coast to Zakros. Manual transmission
aficionados who enjoy negotiating
the coast to Zakro
i
h
steep inclines and roads with no shoulder
may prefer to drive themselves.
WHILE YOU'RE THERE
Some 20 miles up the coast from Zakros
you'll find Vai Beach, one of Crete's most
beloved spots to catch the island sun.
The beach also features Europe's largest
natural palm forest.
-MARLEY BROWN
ARCHAEOLOGY * July/August 2021
which boasts its own
museum and excellent
dr
Sitia,
restaurants. There you
can hire a local tour operator
Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2021

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