Building of the First Palace at Knossos
- Date
- c. 1900 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Crete (Greece)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
At the start of the Middle Minoan period, the inhabitants of Knossos in north-central Crete raised the first monumental palace complex on a hill that had been occupied since the Neolithic.
The 'First Palace' organised storerooms, workshops, cult areas and residential quarters around a large central court, a layout repeated at Phaistos, Malia and Zakros. These complexes functioned as redistributive economic hubs, collecting agricultural surplus and craft goods and managing them through an early administration. The palace economy marks the emergence of the Minoan civilisation, often described as Europe's first advanced (literate, urban, state-level) society. The original structure was severely damaged around 1700 BCE, probably by earthquake, and rebuilt on a grander scale as the celebrated 'Second Palace', which dominated Minoan Crete until the Late Bronze Age. Knossos became the largest Bronze-Age site in the Aegean and the legendary home of King Minos and the Labyrinth.
One piece of history in your inbox, weekly
New empires, events and features as they land — one good email a week. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Empires active in c. 1900 BCE
- Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (Oxus Civilization)2250 BCE – 1700 BCE
- Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization2600 BCE – 1900 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
- Xia Dynasty2070 BCE – 1600 BCE
Related politics & governance events
- Mycenaean Takeover of Knossos and the Linear B Archivesc. 1450 BCE
- Senusret III's Nubian campaigns and administrative centralisationc. 1850 BCE
- Code of Hammurabi inscribed on the basalt stelec. 1755 BCE
- Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest surviving law codec. 2100 BCE
- Mentuhotep II reunifies Egypt and founds the Middle Kingdomc. 2040 BCE
- Sargon of Akkad founds the world's first empirec. 2334 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
Vivid narrative of the Greek and Roman worlds that shaped Europe.
Get it on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.