Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
professor of prehistoric archaeology
at Oxford in 1909. He had a long-standing
interest in sealstones and ancient coins, one of the reasons he had sought out
Schliemann.
Knossos
Meanwhile, Schliemann was seeking out further diggings signalled by the
Homeric writings, this time on Crete. There was Idomeneus, leader of the
Cretan contingent at the siege of Troy, and many other Cretan stories to in-
spire him. Schliemann applied to the Turkish government, who then ruled
Crete, in 1883 to dig at the site of Knossos. When he had finished his
latest diggings three years later, at Tiryns, Schliemann arrived on Crete.
He had sought to buy the site on which Knossos
sits, but got involved with a shady owner who was
trying to cheat him, so he broke off the negotia-
tions and never again considered it. In 1890, a year
after he had an operation on his ear, which had
been giving him great pain in the last few years,
Schliemann was travelling home to Athens across
Europe for Christmas. At Naples, his ear trou-
bles returned, so he consulted a doctor. Feeling
somewhat better, he visited the ruins of Pompeii,
mentioned to him by his father in his youth, but
the pain returned with a vengeance. The next day,
Christmas day, on his way to see the doctor whom
he had visited earlier, he collapsed on the street in a
state of paralysis. Eventually, he received medical
attention, but it was too late. The inflammation
had spread from his ear to his brain and he died
the day after Christmas.
However, Evans, who respected his predeces-
sor, and who had been so enchanted eight years
earlier when he and his wife visited Schliemann,
and viewed the Mycenaean treasures, would in-
deed carry the torch to unlock many theretofore
unsolved mysteries. However, whereas Schliemann
had been driven by a belief in the Homeric tales
as literal truth, Evans was guided by scientific cu-
riosity. He was drawn, in part, to Crete by the
milkstones
, which are Minoan sealstones, engraved
with hieroglyphic symbols. According to folklore,
the Minoan women wore these after giving birth
with the expectation that this would increase their milk production for nursing.
Evans believed that they might be the key to unlocking the language of the
Minoan civilization.
In March of 1900, Evans began his excavations at Knossos. The site
of Knossos is slightly to the south of Iraklion.
Figure 1.14: An
artist's rendition of life
at Knossos.
This was photographed
by Bridget Mollin at
the Iraklion Archeolog-
ical museum, as were
Figures 1.15-1.19; see
Section 1.1.
It is a quadrangular
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