Minos Kalokairinos

Minos Kalokairinos

Minos Kalokairinos ( Greek Μίνως Καλοκαιρινός ; * 1843 in Heraklion ; † 1907 ibid) was a Greek businessman and hobby archaeologist. He was the first to carry out excavations in Knossos on Crete .

He was the youngest son of the Cythian merchant Andreas Kalokairinos and Margiora Krassaki, who came from a very rich and respected Venetian-Cretan family. Margiora Krassaki's dowry included vast estates, including the entire Knossos area, which he owned after his marriage to Andreas Kalokairinos. Many years later, his son Minos was able to begin the first excavations in Knossos. Minos Kalokairinos had three brothers Lysimachus , Thrasivoulos and Myron, and a sister named Penelope. In 1868 Minos Kalokairinos married Skevo Kyriazi, with whom he had five children.

After completing his school education on the island of Syros , he began to study law at the University of Athens , which he had to drop out after a year due to his father's serious illness. When his father died, he continued to run his business. He later made his living by making soap. He won several awards at world exhibitions with his products. However, he had to file for bankruptcy in 1895, over-indebted. In 1903 he continued his law studies.

Kalokairinos was very interested in history and archeology . So it came about that in 1878, before Arthur Evans , he carried out the first excavations in Knossos. Here he came across large storage vessels and Mycenaean ceramics . He first exhibited his finds at the site. Later he presented the private exhibition in "Kalokairinos House", today's Heraklion Historical Museum . In the last year of the great Cretan uprising against Turkish rule (1895–1898), a son and his brother Lysimachus were killed. Many important archaeological finds were destroyed in their houses, which were burned down by the Turks.

Fonts

• Νομοθεσία του Βασιλέως της Κρήτης Μίνωος περί ακοσμίας εν τω Συντάγματι (Legislation of the Kings of Minoan Crete), Athens 1901 full text

literature

• Arthur John Evans , Scripta Minoa , Volume 1.
• ΠΑΠΥΡΟΣ Larousse (large lexicon), το παπωράκι, ISBN 960-8322-06-5

Web links

• The portrait of Kalokairino (Greek) (Το πορτραίτο του Καλοκαιρινού)
• The family Andreas and Maria Kalokairinos (Greek) (Οικία Ανδρέου και Μαρίας Καλοκαιρινού)