An important and rare find came to light during this year’s excavation of the Minoan palace at Archanes, Crete, under the direction of Dr. Efi Sapouna-Sakellaraki. The archaeological research continued successfully in 2024, aiming to complete the image of the three-storey building, which alongside Knossos played an important role in the development of Minoan civilization. It is a Gate-Shrine, a unique element, found for the first time in a Minoan palace, south of the main entrance, at the same spot where four altars have been uncovered, as well as the two arms of the stone platform, which as a whole indicate the religious significance of the site.

In this year’s excavation, apart from a two stone bases of double axes that had been uncovered earlier, another pyramidal base was found on the platform, while the existence of a third is also possible, as it is preserved fragmentarily on the western arm.

Efi Sapouna-Sakellaraki “returned” for the second consecutive year to the Minoan palace of Archanes, which was revealed during the extended archaeological survey of the 1960s by the great archaeologist Yannis Sakellarakis, to be continued by her in the following decades. The aim was to clarify certain building remains, but the excavations have yielded further spectacular results.

More specifically, a section of 96 sq.m. was excavated in a courtyard south of the entrance with the four incurved altars, where the southern part of this year’s research took place. On the east side, the archaeologists initially encountered a huge backfill of fallen blocks. A few finds emerged from this layer (Modern period pottery, together with Classical Greek Antiquity pottery, Mycenaean and some Palaeolithic pottery).

Beneath a disturbed layer, in the southern section of this year’s excavation, the Mycenaean layer that had been destroyed by fire was revealed. (It should be noted that Archanes and other Minoan palaces continued to be used by the Mycenaeans during the Mycenaean period with repairs or reconquests.) In this layer a number of Mycenaean kylikes were recovered in a fragmentary state as the destruction had been extensive and the movable Minoan finds were few, with typical examples a stone relief vase fragment, a rock crystal fragment, etc.

Most interesting of all was the discovery of the architectural complex of a Gate-Shrine at the entrance of the palace with the altars and the arms of the stone structure, which framed the above mentioned platform and two more altars ‒ the large oblong and the stepped one ‒ that had been uncovered in earlier excavation periods.

Also of interest is a stone base, uncovered under the stone blocks to the south of the entrance with the four altars. The base was fallen from an upper floor along with remains of burnt wood and four unusual bronze objects (hooks), a find which leads to the hypothesis that they were clamps for a wooden xoanon which rested on it. This is evidence that the upper floor of a room to the east of the courtyard was sacred.

In the northernmost part of the palace, two- and three-storey rooms have been discovered in a special wing of the palace, with luxurious rooms connected by corridors and doors, at the base of which shining gypsum blocks, schist floors, etc. have been discovered. In situ, the usual in almost all the rooms of the palace, separating or decorative bands of plaster were found, which surrounded the floor slabs.

Fallen bands of plaster with blue and red fragments of wall paintings were also found. Finally, in the westernmost section, part of the facade of a door, which retains the lintel with a pillar base, made of gypsum was uncovered.