Knossos, Roman Knossos Project - 2025

Knossos, Crete. Professor Rebecca Sweetman (St Andrews / BSA Director) and Dr Daniel Stewart (Leicester) report on a geophysical survery contucted in Knossos at the so-called 'Roman field' at Knossos, as part of the Roman Knossos Project (Fig. 1).

The technique deployed was electrical resistivity, which measures electrical resistance to a current that is fired between 4 probes (2 stationary and 2 on the frame of the machine). The survey was designed around a series of 20 m x 20 m survey squares, which were then placed into a GIS environment for data processing and analysis. Previous surveys within this field used magnetometry and ground penetrating radar (GPR). Magnetometry tends to get ‘washed out’ due to the specific local geology of the valley. It is a lowland area surrounded by limestone ridges, and lacks extensive alluvial deposits. Most of the valley soils are formed through the disintegration of the underlying kouskouras bedrock, resulting in a Pliocene marl over much of the area and only thin sections of terra rossa. While these marls are not exceptionally arable, they are well-suited to vine and olive cultivation, and provide a decent base for both ceramic production and the construction of wall mortars. While both gypsum and limestone were used in wall construction in Knossos, one of the problems facing magnetometry is that there is not a significant magnetic difference between kouskouras, soils formed from disintegrated kouskouras, and mortars formed from kouskouras soils. This results in a general ‘washing out’ of results, which can make their interpretation more difficult. 

Visible within the results are various types of urban infrastructure, which we can reasonably assume relate to the later phases of occupation of Roman Knossos. This infrastructure relates to domestic strictures, public buildings, streets, water and/or waste management, terracing, and potential religious structures. There is a substantial terrace that runs roughly along the same alignment as the lower slopes of the acropolis, and is visible in most of the area surveyed, from the southwest through to the northwest. This terrace probably supports structures above it, and demarcates the likely line of the N-S street below the line of the terrace. To the east of the terrace is a large response which might denote a substantial platform, similar to a levelling course, low podium, or a stylobate. 

The southeast of the survey area shows some evidence of streets, indeterminate structural remains, a courtyard building with rooms arrayed around the courtyard (possibly a house), and a very large masonry structure whose scale suggests a public building. This building is on a similar alignment as the so-called public bath house (Area H) uncovered by the Knossos2000 project, and currently visible within the fenced area of the Villa Dionysus. Northwest, above the Villa Dionysus, there is some standing Roman concrete masonry in the area, and the resistivity detected evidence of a courtyard building (likely a domestic structure), an East-West street, more evidence of the substantial terrace, and other strong results suggestive of architectural remains. This area is adjacent to and above the Villa Dionysus, and on a slightly altered alignment. This is the area where future seasons of excavation will focus, in an attempt to link several domestic structures, streets, and terracing to better understand the lived experience of inhabitants of Roman Knossos.