Southwest Houses, Knossos

Colin MacDonald

The Southwest Houses of Knossos were excavated variously by D.G. Hogarth (1900–S.VI), Sir Arthur Evans (1907-08, 1923–S.V), N. Platon (1957) and the applicant (1992-93). The most recent excavations clarified the architectural sequences of existing remains, excavated parts of an unexplored house to the west (S.VII) and uncovered a full stratigraphy stretching from Neolithic and Early Minoan II to Late Minoan IIIB, and Early Protogeometric to Early Classical. EPG-EC deposits were published in 1997 , and four large Protopalatial (MM IB and IIA) assemblages were published in 2007 , alongside another from the palace itself. They have provided the first full publication of material of these crucial phases at the start of the palatial periods of Knossos.

The Southwest Houses are a group of structures on terraces of the southwest slope of the palace hill. Some EBA remains have been recovered, but the architecture is chiefly of the New Palace period with important, yet modest, Protopalatial remains below including some complete rooms, plastered floors and walls, and assemblages that include clay sealings. Having once been considered physically part of the palace in the earliest phases, it is now clear that they were always distinct from the palace even if dependant upon it in other ways. In the Protopalatial period, evidence of involvement in workshop activities (horn-working and seal-making) is abundant in one house.

Study of the remaining assemblages and of the architecture is about three-quarters complete; all the pottery to be published from the two original houses — Southwest House (S.V) and House Northwest of the South House (S.VI) – has been catalogued, and a substantial amount from the third house has been studied and catalogued. Work also remains to be done on the osteological and other environmental remains.

A Supplementary Volume of the British School at Athens will be a companion to the first, Protopalatial volume, and will cover the rest of the Bronze Age assemblages and architecture (including the smaller but widespread Protopalatial deposits), detail the stratigraphy and place the area of the Southwest Houses in their appropriate historical, Knossian and Aegean settings.

Work will be carried out at Knossos and in Athens. In order to complete this project, begun under the auspices of the British Academy and INSTAP, three years of support are necessary in order to submit a manuscript to the British School in the winter of 2011-12.