Oldest farmhouses found in Knossos

A few metres above the ancient site of Knossos, on Kefala Hill, archaeologists have unearthed the oldest farmhouses in Greece and perhaps of all Europe. The houses that stand over the Minoan town of Knossos, 5 km from Heraklion Crete, date from the 8th century BC and reveal small houses with additional rooms that were probably used for storage or as stables. These houses were discovered by the British Archaeological School, who has been conducting excavations in the area since last May and it was announced by Mrs Catherine Morgan, the director of the School in Athens, at the end of February. It has been many decades since 1878, when the archaeologist Minos Kalokairinos started the first excavations in the area around Knossos and yet apparently many findings are to be revealed.