At times it’s difficult to relate to ancient communities because of the vast differences in things like technology, education, and language. But by congregating in groups and sharing activities through culture and religion I find that we are similar than we might expect. We noticed these similarities today as we visited the different ruins and learned about the many spaces and their functions. After another delicious breakfast of countless pies, we drove to the palace of Phaistos, one of the most notable in Crete. We entered the ruins by walking down a grand staircase, and then a second, narrower, staircase that led us to the central court facing Mount Ida to the north. The court, one of the most distinguishing features of a palace, was enormous and was likely used for religious events or a location to distribute food. To the west were magazines, some containing pithoi or small stone containers and to the north was the area of the “royal” residence.

In order to reach the “king’s” hall from the court, we had to walk through a narrow corridor which could easily have been blocked off. Actually, this space reminded me of the Palace of Versailles, where, in order to reach the king’s private chambers, one has to enter a series of increasingly private and ornate rooms and finally walk through the Hall of Mirrors. The Minoan chambers included the familiar pier-and-door partition and light well which added to the luxuriousness of the rooms.

Perhaps one of the most useful aspects of Phaistos is that it includes an old Protopalatial palace and the newer Neopalatial palace. The Protopalatial area includes another central court that was distinct in that it included a raised walkway (probably for a religious procession) and a stone platform in the corner which may have been used for seating or bull leaping.

A few ruin stops later, we visited Ayia Triada (literally “holy trinity”). Unlike Phaistos, Ayia Triada is considered more of an administrative complex than a palace because of the lack of lustral basins, the smaller size of the Minoan Halls, and the many Linear A tablets and sealings found there.

During the New Palace period, Ayia Triada was even more prosperous than Phaistos, which is evident in features such as the wall murals. Since Ayia Triada is located so close to Phaistos, one would think that it would adopt similar features to the palace, but there are slight differences that are interesting such as the light well being located in the middle of a room instead of the end. The specific use of Ayia Triada is something of a mystery: it was thought to hold food for the population because of its many magazines, but in actuality it only has enough storage space to sustain a portion of the population. The mystery of Ayia Triada is the most intriguing to me: that even after excavating a site and digging up various artifacts it’s still impossible to understand the purpose of a building, probably because people constantly use spaces for a variety of purposes; for example, the gym near my house also has a chapel and a game room and I once stayed at a hotel that housed a small museum. Comparing Phaistos with Agia Triada just enforces the idea that culture is multifaceted, regardless of whether it was developed thousands of years ago or within the last decade.