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Virtue & Power

Museum

Archaeological Museum of Heraklion

The principal Minoan collection, and the institution at the centre of the argument about how much of Knossos is Arthur Evans's.

Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Scope

Cretan antiquities from the Neolithic to the Roman period.

History of the collection

Formed from the finds of excavation on Crete from the late nineteenth century, above all Evans's at Knossos from 1900.

Collection notes

The Minoan frescoes were heavily restored by Émile Gilliéron and his son under Evans's direction, and the extent of modern painting in what is displayed is substantial. This is one of the clearest cases in Aegean archaeology where a reconstruction has shaped how a civilisation is imagined.

The Phaistos Disc remains undeciphered, and the numerous published decipherments are not accepted.

Objects in this catalogue