The Museum of Mirtos
Mirtos has a small Museum, next to the old Church in the centre of the village. The centerpiece is the scale model of the Minoan House at Fournou Korifi.The Museum of Mirtos
George Dimitrianakis
The scale Model of Fournou Korifi
By the beginning of May 2004 the late Professor John Atkinson, Curator of the Museum of Mirtos, started to assemble a scale model of the Fournou Korifi site, about 1 km from Mirtos. The model was built solely based on the extant evidence that had been found, without conscious reference to excisting conceptions and scholarly tradition of what Minoan buildings would look like.
The pottery in the model is real pottery, John Atkinson was a potter. Tiny figures are added, to give us an idea of the scale. The scale is one inch to one metre. Every aspect, every detail and every dimension of the model has been carefully reconstructed to match the report of the original excavator Peter Warren. John visited the site for six months every day in 2002, and then again for six months every day in 2003 before even making an attempt to build it.
More details about the construction of the model can be found in a scientific paper, that can be downloaded here. John Atkinson’s contribution starts at page 27, of which we’ve added some of the images below.