KNOSSOS - Kephala - 2011

Kephala Hill. P. Tomkins (BSA/Leuven) reports on a season of survey and recording which had two main objectives. First, a representative sample of the visible walls across the Kephala Hill was surveyed using a total station and a differential GPS, in order to address inaccuracies in the present global architectural plan (Hood and Taylor 1981) revealed during the construction of the Knossos Kephala GIS. Reducing these errors was essential both to the correlation of data from the 2009 geophysical survey (GPS located) and the positioning of the many tests and excavations conducted on the hill since 1900, the location of which is typically recorded in relation to adjacent architecture. The second objective was to clarify the nature, extent and phasing of a specific group of masonry styles, characterised by the use of small-sized stones (both rubble and cut), within the Palace complex. Recent integration of excavated deposits and visible architecture by the project had seemed to indicate that such walls consistently pre-date MM I, with some possibly as early as EM II or even EM IB. Since these walls follow the same alignment as, and even in some cases comprise standing elements of, the present Palace, this seems to indicate that the history of the Palace complex stretches back well before the traditional MM I date for the emergence of the First Palace. In order to explore this hypothesis, a survey was made of the visible wall remains in the West Wing and along the South Front. Walls were characterised by architectural style and details of architectural phasing were observed. In addition, in the area south of the Central Court (Area of the Priest-King Fresco) an outcrop of bedrock was identified into which a series of early, rubble walls were terraced (seemingly forming an early entrance up north from the South Front to the Central Court). The identification of this outcrop further clarifies the topography of a natural knoll in this area, the existence of which had already been suggested by a recent GIS-based reconstruction of the natural topography of the Kephala Hill using existing test data assembled by the project.