Fifty-two young men were chosen and made their way to the shore of the barren sea. When they had reached the ship and come down to the beach, they dragged the black vessel into deeper water, put the mast and sails on board, fixed the oars in their leather loops, all ship-shape, and hauled up the white sail. They moved her well out in the water and went to the great house of their wise king, where the galleries, courts and apartments were thronged with people.
(Homer, Odyssey, Book 8)
From the very beginning, the Minoans were in contact with people of other cultures, and the only way that contact could happen was by sea. Even in the neolithic period, a skein of east-west trade routes was established across the Aegean. Andel and Runnels (1988) have identified three early trade routes: a northern route from Anatolia to Attica by way of Samos, Ikaria, Mikonos, Tinos and Kea, a central route running from Anatolia by way of the cyclades to Argolis, and a southern route which went by way of Crete. This southern route followed the arc-shaped line of islands which forms the outer limit of the Aegean world, an island-hopping route connecting Anatolia, Rhodes, Karpathos, Kasos, Andikithera and Lakonia, taking in the neolithic settlements of the eastern and northern coasts of crete on the way.
It was natural that these coastal settlements would later become important trading centres in their own right, especially when cretan influence stretched out across the whole Aegean world and beyond. It was also natural, given that crete was on the southern edge of that world, that most, though not all, of the ports were on the north coast. In the west there was Kydonia, a port and temple-centre in its own right. Further to the east, there was a Minoan settlement at Rethymnon which may have been a port. Not far from Heraklion, at Agia Pelagia, the remains of a Minoan settlement were discovered in the 1970s on the edge of a low cliff on the west side of the bay. In the hills close by is the site of the later Greek city of Kyteon. It seems likely, therefore, that the newly discovered Minoan harbour town at Agia Pelagia was the ‘Kytaiton’ mentioned in the archive tablets at Knossos.
To the east were Katsamba and Amnisos, the two harbour towns serving Knossos. Katsamba harbour coincides with the eastern part of Heraklion harbour, and the ancient site is obliterated by modern port development and the unattractive suburb of Poros. Amnisos (Plate 5) appears to have had two harbours separated by a rocky promontory which was probably the heart of the town. The western harbour, now silted up, was evidently a substantial bay in Minoan times. The foundations of Minoan houses are still visible on the beach and under the water at Amnisos, showing that this section of coast has subsided since Minoan times. The ‘House of the Lilies’ is the most complete Minoan building to have survived there: its footings are well preserved on the eastern flank of the rocky promontory (Plate 14). On the western side, the impressive remains of the much later temple of Zeus Thanatos stand on foundation courses of large blocks of stone which look like Minoan masonry: certainly many of them have the distinctive Minoan ‘mason’s marks’, the branch, the star and the trident, which supports this view.
Twelve kilometres to the north is the embayed island of Dia, which had its own port; with a southerly aspect, it may have been used in emergencies when persistent north winds would have prevented ships intending to dock at Amnisos, Katsamba, or Agii Theodhori from leaving port. Under these circumstances, it would have been possible for a ship sailing south from Thera to dock at Dia, unload and set sail again for destinations to the east or west. Ships docking at Amnisos could well have found themselves trapped there by a north wind, just as Odysseus claimed he was.
Further east along the coast was the port of Agii Theodhori, at the western end of Vathianos Kambos, about 1 kilometre to the west of the betterknown ‘villa’ of Niru Khani. There is a tombolo at Agii Theodhori where the ruins of a harbour settlement can be seen on the beach and extending out under the water (Plate 15). On a small rocky islet is ‘Kolymba’, a rectangular cavity 40 metres long by 12 metres wide, carefully sawn out of the limestone to a depth of almost 2 metres (Plate 16). Kolymba is believed to be a Minoan dock basin, and it may be that Minoan ships were built and repaired here. The Agii Theodhori shipyard and port may have served Knossos or Mallia, or it may have had its own hinterland on the boundary of the two major territories. The size of the Agii Theodhori harbour town is unknown, but it seems unlikely to have extended all the way to the temple at Niru Khani. Modern excavations are revealing that Mallia was a substantial city, extending all the way to the shore (Figure 24). Remains of its quays have survived, as at Agii Theodhori and Mochlos (Faure 1973).
Further east still, and clustered round the Gulf of Mirabello, were the ports of Priniatiko Pyrgos, Pseira and Mochlos. Mochlos had the advantage of possessing two harbours, one facing east, one west: if strong winds put one harbour out of commission, the other could be used instead.
On the east coast itself were the ports of Palaikastro and Zakro, which were well situated for trade with Anatolia, Cyprus, the Levant and Egypt. The discovery of copper ingots from Cyprus and the tusks of Syrian elephants at Zakro confirms the reality of these eastern trading links. The south coast of Crete can boast only three proven ports: Koufonisis, on a small island off the south-east corner of Crete, and Kommos and Agia Triadha, which both served the prosperous Plain of Mesara.