Minos Kalokairinos was a Cretan Greekbusiness person and an amateur archaeologist. He is known to be the first to undertake excavations of the ancient site of Knossos. He was also the first to identify the location of the palace of the ruler of the Minoan period, which is popularly known as the Knossian Labyrinth. His excavations were later continued by Arthur Evans.
Biography
He was the youngest of the sons of Andreas Kalokairinos, a rich landowner, who owned, in particular, the site of the Cnossian palace. He obtained secondary education on the isle of Syros, then enrolled at the law faculty of the University of Athens where he only studied a year. His father's illness forced him to return to Heraklion. After his father passed away, he took over his soap manufacturing business together with his brother Lysimachos Kalokairinos. In 1869 he married Skevo Kyriazi, with whom he had 5 children. In 1895 his enterprise went bankrupt. In 1903 he resumed his legal studies.
Excavations
The initial excavation began as early as 1877 on the Kephala hill, which was followed by full-scale excavations in 1878, but the Turkish authorities who controlled the island back then forced him to stop excavations just 3 weeks later. Nevertheless, he managed to discover parts of the west wing of the palace, namely the storage rooms, as well as a corner part of the throne hall. News of his excavations awoke interest among many archaeologists, such as W.J. Stillman, Heinrich Schlieman and finally Sir Arthur John Evans, who finally managed to excavate the whole palace after the island got independence from the Turks.
Collection
Minos Kalokairinos had a large collection of objects found during his excavations. During the violent events of August 25, 1898, when the Turks tried to suppress the Cretan revolt, his home was pillaged and burnt, and his collection was heavily damaged; only the rarest object survived, which were kept separately: these were mostly amphoras found in the western wing of the palace, which he later donated to museums of Greece, Paris and London in order to promote the public interest for Cnossos.
