Abstract :
BETWEEN 1954 and i960 Nikolaos Platon, then Ephor of Crete and Director of Heraklion
Museum, conducted an extensive restoration programme at the palace of Knossos and
surrounding houses originally excavated by Sir Arthur Evans. In the course of this work, which
included the repair and consolidation of reconstructions/restorations made years earlier by
Evans, Platon carried out new excavation of in situ deposits. This was especially the case in
those areas of the site where the erosion of existing remains and the exposure of unexcavated
deposits necessitated the new construction of retaining walls both within and outside the
palace.2 Only very brief mention in print was made of this work at the time (Platon 1954-9;
Platon and Davaras i960; Hood 1957). In 1961, just a year after the completion of his
fieldwork at Knossos, Platon discovered the palace at Zakros, and his work there over many
years necessarily superseded his final study and publication of the Knossos material.
