Talk:Knossos

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:42, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Matthew McDaniel.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 01:50, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

The destruction by explosion of Thera

"The city of Knossos remained important through the classical and Roman periods, but in 1450 BC the volcano Santorini, a hundred kilometres away, blew its top in one of the biggest eruptions in recorded history. A tidal wave swept over Knossos, which was then right on the Cretan Coast, and the death blow to the Minoans was compounded by a devastating fire, scorch marks from which can still be seen on alabaster and gypsum blocks throughout the ruins."

I removed this. Too little. Marinatos had a great theory there. Now, however, the micro-evidence points to a date somewhat earlier than 1450. You can strain it down to the middle of the 16th at absolute latest but that still gives you gap. That there was a terrible destruction carrying away most of the settlements, which were coastal, with their fleets and probably the majority of their population, is fairly certain. When is another matter. Whether it is represented by any of the destructions at Knossos is still another matter. Knossos is not on the shore, you know. It is up on a height away from the shore. It is possible the destruction opened the region to being overrun by Mycenaean Greeks. Whether the Minoans recovered, how long it took, how, are all open questions. Since this article is about mainly Knossos rather than the destiny and details of the civilization as a whole, I am removing it from here. Perhaps revised it could go under Minoan civilization. I would suggest some ideas from different people need to be presented. Right now it is unreferenced, although I am sure you could pull up something by Marinatos. It would not be current, however. Ciao.Dave (talk) 15:36, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

last I heard, dendrochronology put the eruption at 1628 BC, but some think they can get closer by a year or two. It seems to have taken a few centuries for life at Cnossos to disappear completely. Fuficius Fango (talk) 12:43, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Minoan name of Knossos

I saw that an edit of mine was undone, twice. I tried to add the name a source. The source indicated that KU-NI-SU, doubtedly, meant "Knossos". But it was put as a possible translation, with a question mark. If you search "Linear A#Theories regarding language", the source is mentioned at the entry. Thus, it is a reliable source and the name can be written, as well, with a question mark, next to it.

http://www.people.ku.edu/~jyounger/LinearA/#10c. Here, is the source, for anyone wanting to check it out. 89.210.41.248 (talk) 00:01, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

As I said on your talk page, "I agree with the removal by user:IdreamofJeanie Per the source the proposed correlation is very doubtful. We don't need to include it, even with your question mark." Meters (talk) 00:04, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

The source says that the link is "very doubtful". The best you can say is that Knossos was "probably not" known as Ku-Ni-Su. We don't need to add things that are "probably not" true. IdreamofJeanie (talk) 15:26, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

"Very doubtful" correlation means that it does not merit inclusion. --Omnipaedista (talk) 11:20, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

82.78.123.145 has been re-adding this to the lede so I wanted to point them to this older discussion. But in addition to the problems noted above, the Palaeolexicon link they're using as a source is broken and I wasn't able to find any mention of "ku-ni-su" anywhere on the site. (Maybe it's been updated since the user last checked it?) Given the significant doubt that the term refers to Knossos, I think it would be extremely misleading to include it in the lede, even with a question mark.

That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm actually open to mentioning this toponym in body of the article, if it is properly contextualized and properly sourced. Proper contextualization would mean explaining why scholars think it could refer to Knossos, and also why they are skeptical. Proper sourcing would mean recent-ish published articles that are detailed enough to support that level of discussion. Botterweg14 (talk) 16:03, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

I agree. We also don't say where "Knossos" comes from - presumably it was just the local name by the 19th century. Johnbod (talk) 17:59, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

Concur with the other commentators that this shouldn't be added given its lack of verifiability and the bad WP:TSI of asserting it without qualification; reverting the recent addition. Ifly6 (talk) 20:49, 18 September 2023 (UTC)

Early Minoan and Pre Minoan Bronze Age

We move from the Neolithic period to the Minoan palatial period. The period from 3.200 BC up to 2.000 BC is forgotten. We should include "Early Bronze Age". Historyandsciencelearn (talk) 15:41, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: ARCN 101 The Human Story

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 January 2026 and 16 March 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Hmp12, Adventuremice (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Sal5566, Treesandrocks.

— Assignment last updated by Sak201 (talk) 19:05, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Late Neolithic Population

I can't find a source for this fact and am considering removing it:

"In the Late or Final Neolithic (two different but overlapping classification systems, around 4000–3000 BC), the population increased dramatically."

Does anyone have a reference?

Thanks,

Adventuremice (talk) 16:34, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

This has been claimed, but it has also been disputed. Probably best to remove it unless you wanted to report the debate, in which case see Tomkins 2008 ("Time, space and the re-invention of the Cretan Neolithic"), J.D. Evans 1994 ("The early millennia: continuity and change in a farming settlement") and references therein/thereto. Botterweg (talk) 22:26, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Similar Wikipedia article - consider combining?

There is another Wikipedia article that is very similar called "The Modern History of Knossos." I think we should consider if these two articles should be combined in the future. At the very least, they should be linked and referenced to each other. Sak201 (talk) 18:08, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

No. One article is 3714 and the other 7721 words of a total approximately 11400 words. If we merge then we violate the WP:SIZERULE which dictates that anything about 8,000 words needs trimming, meaning loss of material. Their topics are quite distinc, i.e., Knossos, describes the ancient information, and the Modern history of Knossos talks about the excavation history in modern era. I do not see a reason to merge. A.Cython(talk) 18:16, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Definitely not, both for the reasons A Cython mentioned as well as serious quality issues with the "Modern History" article. I do think that the scope of this article is too narrow, and that in the future we might want a "Knossos" article that gives an overview of the town as a whole, with a more detailed "Palace of Knossos" or "Knossos (archaeological site)" article split off. But the current text doesn't warrant that yet. Botterweg (talk) 19:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

If I were to way in on this it would be to say that the archaeology stuff from the modern Knossos article should be moved to this article because that was what I thought all along. As for combing in total I would say definitely no because you never want actual living people on an archaeological site article as it always gets messy sooner or later. Better to keep them separate. MHO Ploversegg (talk)

They are interlinked, at least once - there's a "main" at the excavation section here. I agree they should be kept apart. Johnbod (talk) 22:14, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

I do think there should be a bit more here on the excavation history. The other article badly needs more inline refs for long stretches. Johnbod (talk) 05:04, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Modern history of Knossos, honestly, needs rewriting: it doesn't meet WP:SUMMARYSTYLE at the moment and is frankly far too long, to say nothing of the referencing issues. Once the dust clears, there may still be enough for an independent article, in which case an abridged summary here with a {{main article}} template would be the way to go; if not, the two can simply be merged. But I don't think we're in a position to know which is the better approach given the article's current state. UndercoverClassicist ^T·C 07:30, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Early Iron Age Sentences in Classical and Roman Period Section

Hello,

The top of the Classical and Roman Period section reads "After the Bronze Age, the town of Knossos continued to be occupied. By 1000 BC, it had reemerged as one of the most important centres of Crete. The city had two ports, one at Amnisos and another at Heraklion."

I went ahead and added a section on the EIA, which covers the first two sentences. Can I remove these sentences from the Classical and Roman Period section and add the port info to the EIA section? If so, does anyone know what the original citation for this information about the ports was?

Much Thanks! Hmp12 (talk) 04:29, 15 March 2026 (UTC)