Quartiere Mu

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Quartier (District) M, occupies an area of over 3,000 sq. m., belongs to the Protopalatial period and comprises the largest, best-preserved and most important complex of this period in Crete. It was built around 1800 BC and destroyed by fire around 1700 BC, at the same time as the first palaces and the city's other districts.
Two large buildings and seven smaller around them were investigated in this quartier.
In Buildings A (approx. 840 sq. m.) and B (approx. 540 sq. m.), which are by far larger than common houses, areas comparable to those of the palaces have been identified: residential rooms, religious spaces, pier-and-door partitioned halls, storerooms. The tablets and sealings found here indicate that it was not just a residential complex but another administrative center functioning near and parallel to the palace, with a wider social and political role.
These large buildings were surrounded by seven smaller buildings, five of which have been identified as craftsmen houses, including those of a potter, a metalworker, and a seal stone engraver.