Excavations in the Neolithic Settlement of Knossos, 1957–60. Part I

Abstract

The excavations described here were undertaken for the purpose of obtaining a fuller knowledge of the nature of the Neolithic settlement site which lies below the Minoan palace of Knossos.The presence of this settlement site was originally recognized by Sir Arthur Evans very soon after he began work at Knossos at the beginning of the century. His numerous soundings established that it was of considerable size, covering the whole of the hill of Kephala below the palace and the surrounding houses (an area of at least 11 acres), and that it must have endured for a long period, since the depth of deposit attained to nearly 10 metres in places. A pottery sequence was worked out by Mackenzie on the basis of the soundings carried out up to 1904, and this was subsequently adopted in essentials by Evans in the final publication. It has subsequently been refined and modified by Dr. A. Furness (Mrs. Ozanne), using Evans's material in the Stratigraphical Museum, in a paper which she published in this journal in 1953.