A gate sanctuary, a rare find in archaeological excavations, was revealed during the 2024 summer season at the Minoan palace in Archanes, Crete by archaeologist Efi Sapouna-Sakellaraki, the Ministry of Culture said on Wednesday.

The excavation season's aim was to complete the excavation of the three-story palace that played a significant role in the development of the Minoan culture along with the palace complex at Knossos.

It is the first time that a gate sanctuary is found at a Minoan palace, and it was located outside its main gate where four altars and two buttresses of a stone platform were found, hinting at the area's religious significance.

Besides a base for a double axe that had been found in the past, another pyramid-shaped base was found on the platform, while a third base is not excluded. Sapouna-Sakellaraki continues the excavation her late husband, archaeologist Yiannis Sakellarakis, began in the '60s, to clarify some building remains.

As the ministry said, a section 96 sq m at the courtyard south of the entrance with the four altars was excavated. Few findings came out of a large backfill. Under this disturbed layer, in the southernmost section of this year's excavation, a Mycenaean layer was found with evidence of the fire that had destroyed part of the palace. (Archanes and other Minoan palaces continued to be used in the Mycenaean period, with repairs and reclaims by Mycenaeans.) The layer of destruction included many Mycenaean kylixes - wide and shallow wine-drinking cups with two handles - that were found in fragments, as the destruction was great and the movable Minoan-era findings very few.

An indication of the sanctity of the area south of the gate was given by a stone base that had fallen from an upper floor along with remains of burnt wood and four special bronze hook-like objects that could have held a wooden statue of a divinity.

Besides a special wing with luxurious rooms connected through corridors and doors, also found were remains of wall paintings, some fragments of which preserve blue and red colors.

The 2024 season in Archanes was carried out by the Athens Archaeological Society under Sapouna-Sakellaraki's direction, with archaeologists Polina Sapouna-Ellis, Dimitris Kokkinakos, and Persefoni Xylouri.
 

(Photo: Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, excavators)