The Location and Environment of Knossos

Abstract

The site of Knossos was occupied more or less continuously fromc.6000 B.C. (earliest neolithic) until the Arab conquest in A.D. 828, a time-span which represents almost 70 per cent of the Holocene or post-glacial period. It therefore offers a rare opportunity for studying the longterm interaction between man and his environment at a single settlement site. At present there is insufficient data to allow comprehensive analysis of the evolution of settlement, economy, and environment at Knossos, and this paper is intended only as a preliminary step towards such a study. In part I aspects of the physical geography of the Knossos area are described, and in part II they are considered in terms of the site's resource base and location. The geomorphological history of the Kairatos valley is used to illustrate the changing relationships between man and environment during the last two millennia.