32-37

Some observations on the topography of the palace of Kadmos

Αρχαιολογικά χρονικά

• Σπυρόπουλος, Θεόδωρος Γ.

When the late Professor Keramopoullos discovered, in 1906, the well- known remains of a Mycenaean complex in Thebes, led by his important discovery he claimed to have dug up the kernel of the Palace of Kadmos, «the house of Kadmos», as Pausanias names it. However, he had not found what one would have reasonably expected in such a discovery, i.e. the architectural type of the Mycenaean Palace, so well exemplified in the Peloponnese and described by Homer, as consisting of the aithousa, the pro- domos and the Megaron, with the royal throne. Professor Keramopoullos as well as later excavators and other scholars had thought that Thebes, by planning the Palace with corridors, several floors and many rooms, was influenced by Crete, and that the mainland type was not adopted here. This was a misinterpretation which, in turn, had a bearing on the topography of the Mycenaean Palace of Kadmos the Phoenician, the legendary founder of Thebes. The block, where the Market place of the modern town is located, was believed to be the actual location where the main and almost entire Palace was built and extended.Early in 1970 the present author made a key excavation in the centre of the Kadmeia Acropolis of Thebes, at the place marked as No. 5 in the sketch plan of Kadmeia. Finds of unique importance came to light; among them the most important tablets of Linear B, a group forming part of the Palace Archives ( See Sp. Marinatos, AAA III ( 1970 ), p. 62 ).We have good reasons to believe and prove in a future article, where the whole problem will be discussed in- detail, that this excavation uncovered the western border of the Palace. In plan 1, presented here, is shown the extension of the Palace, the northernborder of which coincides with Vourdoubas Street, i.e. a little bit north of the Keramopoullos’ excavation ( the so-called « Old Kadmeion »). To the east the Palace terminates at the place marked as Nos. 7 and 8 in the present plan, and to the south, parallel to Oedipus Street, it terminates with an ambiguity, due to lack of extensive and decisive excavation there.Thus the whole problem of the Mycenaean Palace of Thebes is now seen in a new perspective. We are justified in expecting to find in Thebes, and as the author personally believes, in the block next to that of the Market place and more precisely a few metres south from the end of the modern Square of the town, the main parts of the Palace, and the Megaron itself.This new localization of the famous Palace, if correct in the main points, as the author believes, will shed new light and solve many problems of Theban topography ( Gates and Monuments on the Kadmeia ).

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Τοπογραφία

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