Diagram of the Palace at Knossos

This diagram of the layout of the Minoan/Mycenaean palace at Knossos provides insight into the early inhabitants of Crete’s robust economic bureaucracy: the redistributive economy. In the Knossos redistributive economy, materials were brought to production centers within the palace, where they would be stored and crafted into usable goods before being distributed back to the general population. The palace at Knossos was well-equipped to support a redistributive economy; most of the western wing of the palace is dedicated space for the production of goods. It is also notable that the central component of the palace is not a throne room (which is just to the west of the palace’s center) but rather a common space, which was likely meant for public use. 


There is a substantial difference between the palace at Knossos on Crete and mainland Mycenaean palaces of the same era. The palace at Knossos is thought to have had little to no defensive mechanisms, and – thanks to the large central court and emphasis on economic infrastructure – was likely a very public building. According to UChicago historian Kostis S. Christakis, when compared to mainland Mycenaean palaces of approximately the same period, the palace at Knossos had substantially greater storage capacities, indicating the existence of a redistributive economy at a scale not seen elsewhere in the Greek world.


Christakis, K. S. (2011). Redistribution in Aegean Palatial societies. Redistribution and Political Economies in Bronze Age Crete. American Journal of Archaeology, 115(2), 197–205. https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.115.2.0197

Halstead, Paul. “The mycenaean palatial economy: making the most of the gaps in the evidence.” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, no. 38, 1992, pp. 57–86, http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/44687105.



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