Crete’s Inner Circles

n the summit of Papoura Mountain in central Crete, archaeologists are investigating a highly unusual circular structure. It was built by members of the Bronze Age Minoan culture (ca. 3000–1100 b.c.) and is thought to be the earliest monumental complex discovered on the island. Measuring more than 160 feet across, the complex was constructed atop sloping ground and consists of eight concentric stone walls, some preserved to a height of more than six feet. The outer rings form rooms of roughly equal size connected by small doorways. At the center of the structure, a team led by excavation director Danae Kontopodi and Vassiliki Sythiakaki, director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Heraklion, has unearthed a vaulted building divided into four sections whose plaster walls preserve traces of paint. The archaeologists believe the complex was constructed as early as 3000 b.c.—more than a millennium before the rise of the palace-based society that would come to dominate Minoan sociopolitical life—and used until about 1800 b.c. “The monument was clearly a communal undertaking, built to be visible from the settlements of the Pediada Plain below and the surrounding peaks and ridges,” Sythiakaki says. “Its commanding presence would have made it a focal point for communities throughout the region.”

Minoans hailing from small rural sites and larger settlements likely congregated in a stone-paved area of the structure that was spacious enough to hold substantial crowds. The researchers believe that pottery found in the complex suggests that the network of people who gathered there may have included those from the palatial centers of Knossos and Malia on Crete’s north coast, some 20 miles away. “The circular monument served as a communal space for periodic feasting and ritual activities,” Kontopodi says, “but its function seems to have evolved according to geopolitical shifts and the social or spiritual needs of local communities.”