The Knossos Frescoes: A Revised Chronology

Abstract

The special nature of the material makes peculiar difficulties for any attempt to place the Knossos frescoes in a chronological series. In theory, a lower bracket is set by the stratigraphic associations with which the work is found; an upper bracket is determined by the date at which the building or room which the frescoes decorated was constructed; within the brackets refinements are made where they are suggested by stylistic comparisons with other material. For a large number of our examples, however, including most of the fragments from the Palace at Knossos, the stratigraphie evidence is indecisive, the structural phases are conjectural, and the stylistic considerations open to doubt.