Amnisos

Amnisos, also Amnissos and Amnisus (Greek: Ἀμνισός or Ἀμνισσός; Linear B: 𐀀𐀖𐀛𐀰 A-mi-ni-so),[1] is the current but unattested name given to a Bronze Age settlement on the north shore of Crete that was used as a port to the palace city of Knossos.

Amnisos is 7 km east of Heraklion (Iraklio) on a beach used for recreation by the citizens of the modern city.

Currently called the Karteros, from the iron-aged name of Caeratus, the river was the Amnisos during the Bronze Age.

The river begins on Mount Ida in central Crete and runs through Karteros Ravine.

Amnisos was first excavated in 1932 by Spyridon Marinatos, who discovered the villa and "The House of Lilies", which was named for the only restorable fresco.

The two-storeyed villa had ten rooms and included a paved court, a hall with a polythyra, a kitchen area, a shrine, and a bathroom.

He then made the crucial educated guess that a particular word referred to Amnisos, the port of Knossos.

Amnisos is mentioned on the itinerary published on the statue base of Amenophis III at Kom el-Heitan, as an ambassadorial stop to Keftiu (Crete), dated ca.

In the thumbnail historical sketch given by John Chadwick in The Mycenaean World, Chapter 1, Chadwick writes: Crete was occupied down to the fifteenth century by people who did not speak Greek...Instead, they spoke the language that was written in the yet undeciphered script called Linear A.

It possessed a sanctuary of Eileithyia, and the nymphs of the river, called Amnisabes (Ἀμνισιάβες) and Amnisides (Ἀμνισίδες), were sacred to this goddess.