Ancient civilizations-2

A new social order

The fact that palaces and country houses, centres of landed estates, were not rebuilt suggests a total overthrow of the existing social order. A number of magnificent stone ritual vases and bronze tools have been recovered from the ruins of the palace at Zákros in excavations since 1962, but virtually no gold or silver objects were found. Indeed, it looks as if the palaces and houses everywhere in Crete had been ransacked before they were destroyed. Of the four great palaces, only that at Knossos may have escaped serious damage at this time, but parts of the city there were wasted by fire. In the early days of Cretan exploration, it was taken for granted that such destruction was the result of war. Since the 1930s, however, it has been suggested that it was in some way caused by the eruption of Thera. The eruption, however, began and ended a generation or more before this horizon of destruction, while evidence of conquerors in Crete immediately after it has been found. The destruction appears to have been their work.

The conquerors evidently came from the mainland and made their capital at Knossos, but they seem to have established another centre of power at Phaistos, and legend hints at a third centre at Kydonia (modern Khaniá) in western Crete. Vases of shapes already popular on the mainland, such as drinking cups with tall stems, became fashionable at Knossos after the conquest and eventually spread to other parts of the island. A rather stiff, formal “Palace Style” of vase decoration, using motifs derived from the earlier plant and marine styles, may reflect an adaptation of Cretan fashions to mainland tastes. The old clan tombs went out of use in the Knossos region and were replaced by rock-cut tombs. Some of these contain the burials of warriors and their families, accompanied by rich assortments of weapons and jewelry, resembling the military equipment of the Mycenae Shaft Graves and the mainland tholos tombs. There was a cemetery of similar rock-cut tombs, with richly furnished burials (the Tombe dei Nobili), at Phaistos. Tholos tombs sunk in the ground and covered by mounds appear to have been introduced to Crete from the mainland now. One, on the Kefála ridge north of the palace at Knossos, may have been built soon after the conquest. It has masons’ marks like the one at Peristéria in Messenia.