Geometry of Ancient Mazes, Part I: ‘Cretan’ Mazes

Abstract

The aim of the present survey is to investigate the processes implemented for conceiving and setting up two major types of mazes which have come down to us on various media (stone, mosaic, painting, ceramic, coins…) from Prehistoric times to Roman Empire (and, for some, even later). Based on a corpus of 83 mazes, the two sets usually known as ‘Cretan’ and ‘Roman’ could be characterized and differentiated. Most of them show the walls of the Labyrinth and the path exists only in negative. And, at variance with the original myth (Theseus and the Minotaur) there is only one possible path, which shows no dead ends or crossings. This first part of the study is devoted to Cretan mazes, the apparently complex structure of which is usually composed of two pairs of imbricated laces, although extensions and variants exist. This structure can be modeled by a square pattern to which several sets of concentric equidistant arcs of circles are connected. Based on this model, a set up process can be proposed, enabling to memorize the design and reproduce it by heart. This is doubtless why Cretan mazes could persist along centuries and be found as far as America and India