The social use of space in Minoan Palaces: A comparative GIS analysis

The Minoan Palaces of Bronze Age Crete have puzzled scholars for more than a century, since the early excavations on sites like Knossos during the early 20th century. Debates over the social use and meaning of the buildings have lasted for decades, with the initial labelling of the buildings as “palaces” by early scholars such as Arthur Evans painting a picture of the buildings as royal residences and administrative centres in a hierarchical society, challenged by the more novel and theoretically nuanced view of the Palaces as forming more communal, ceremonial buildings in a society formed around more non-hierarchical, heterarchical principles.

This study seeks to understand in greater depth the social use of space in the Palaces – how they were used in conditioning social interaction, the formation of identities, and how they were experienced as ceremonial buildings –from an heterarchical view on Minoan society.

The study focuses on the Neopalatial (ca. 1750-1490 BCE) Palaces of Crete – Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros and Galatas. The study utilises GIS (Geographical Information System) methods – accessibility and visibility analyses – to analytically assess spatial phenomena within the buildings that would have affected their social use and perception. Minoan Palaces arguably manipulated social behaviour and experience of space in order to create a socially and cosmologically meaningful experience of the buildings, as well as working as active agents in the formation of Neopalatial society.