Possible Minoan Throne Room Unearthed in Crete

News September 30, 2019

(Greece's Ministry of Culture and Sports)
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Zominthos Palace Throne
(Greece's Ministry of Culture and Sports)

ATHENS, GREECE—According to the Greek Reporter, recent excavation of the first floor of the so-called Zominthos palace, a large, two-story Minoan structure situated on a plateau near Crete’s Mount Ida, has uncovered a possible storage room and a list of what might have been stored there; a hallway lined with pillars ending in a room where layers of a possible throne were unearthed; and traces of a sophisticated drainage system of clay pipes. Archaeologist Efi Sapouna-Sakellarakis and her team also recovered hundreds of pottery vessels, some of which may have been used in rituals, and evidence of metalworking in the complex. Traces of an earlier structure were found beneath the palace, which was abandoned after an earthquake around 1600 B.C. To read more about Bronze Age Crete, go to "The Minoans of Crete."

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