Reconstructing the First Palace at Malia (1900-1700 BC). Report for the Michael Ventris Award (2016)

The architectural study of the Minoan Palace at Malia led in May 2016 with the support of the Michael Ventris Memorial Fund focussed on the eastern part of the West Wing and the western part of the South Wing. The materials and building techniques that compose each wall were thoroughly examined and described in order to reconstruct the architectural sequence of the edifice. Previous study campaigns had identified the remains of the Protopalatial Western Magazines and façade on the West Court. The 2016 campaign focussed on the articulation of these Protopalatial walls and features with the Neopalatial program of reconstruction of the Palace, i.e. the sandstone walls of Area VII, the mudbrick walls in Areas II, IV, V and VI, and the sandstone and limestone walls of the western part of the South Wing or Areas XVII to XX. The study of Area VII shows the strong architectural coherence of the Pillar Crypt (room VII 4) and adjoining rooms. The masonry (building materials, position of the wall components and structural connections) and the configuration of the plan both demonstrate that the rooms of Area VII formed one single architectural unit. The construction of these rooms caused the partial destruction of the Protopalatial Magazines, thus showing that the sandstone walls of Area VII were erected after the MM IIB destruction of the Palace. These walls were built against, and therefore after, the mudbrick walls of Area VI immediately to the North, and they incorporated the remains of early walls to the east, in rooms VII 3, 10 and 11. The study of Area VII thus shows that the Pillar Crypt and the adjoining rooms were erected after MM IIB, during the Neopalatial period. The study of Areas XVII-XX to the south of the West Wing and in the western half of the South Wing shed light on the extent of the Neopalatial building program. The structural connections and traits of the masonry indeed indicate that the Neopalatial sandstone façade on the West court is associated with the walls that form the south-western part of the Palace down to the silos and southern façade. The Neopalatial date of this ensemble is further confirmed by the fact that one of the walls of Area XVII is built against the initial southern limit of the Protopalatial Western Magazines, thus postdating the MM IIB destruction of the Palace. Although the western and southern façade of the Neopalatial extension of the Palace towards the South were given special care, the inner walls rather suggest that most rooms in Areas XVII-XX functioned as substructures. The narrow spaces and the thick walls, most of which are erected perpendicularly to the slope of the plateau upon which the Palace is built, indicate that the south-western rooms of the building supported significant rooms on the upper floor. In contrast, the walls are built in mudbrick in Areas II, IV, V and VI. The fabric and dimensions of the bricks, as well as the building techniques of the mudbrick walls, suggest there again the coherence of the ensemble. Additional data are needed from the soundings led under these rooms in order to obtain a definitive date. Nevertheless, the lack of structural connection with Area VII to the South and other indications, such as similarities with the masonries of walls situated to the east of Area VII, suggest that Area II, IV, V and VI might be as early as Protopalatial in date