Labyrinth Construction
John Kraft
In Caerdroia 1991 the Swedish archaeologist Staffan Lundén analysed the construction method of some very old labyrinth pictures. He shows that the labyrinth on the oinochoe of Tragliatella (c.600 BC) and a couple of labyrinth graffiti from Pompeii (before 79 AD) are undoubtedly drawn from a central cross with angle brackets in each quadrant and a dot (or short line) in each corner. The same method is also demonstrated in a medieval church graffito from Hablingo church on the Baltic island of Gotland. It is also recorded in numerous examples from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Nordic countries. This simple method of drawing a complex figure explains why the design has survived unaltered over more than three thousand years. While the history of art is rich in examples of rapid development of style and taste, the classical labyrinths recorded in folk-tradition of this century look identical to those from the Bronze Age. Staffan Lundén has now proved what there was strong reason to suspect. His analysis concludes the debate of how the earliest labyrinths were drawn. I would just like to add a few ideas that will give further support to his conclusions.
Staffan regrets that he has not been able to reveal the construction technique behind the Pylos labyrinth (c.1200 BC) and the labyrinth from the Acropolis in Athens (c.400 BC), both drawn in wet clay. He has not been able to find any traces on the clay tablet from Pylos or on the ceramic tile from the Acropolis that clearly reveals a construction method based on central cross, angle brackets and dots. But in my opinion the whole designs of these two labyrinths reveals beyond any reasonable doubt that they too must have been drawn with the same kind of technique.
The labyrinth from the Acropolis has a very strange design. The understanding of this design contains the key to the whole problem. As a matter of fact the drawing of the Acropolis labyrinth seems to have started in exactly the same manner as the Pylos labyrinth. They are both square and have two angle brackets pointing in one direction while the other two angle brackets are at right angles to the first two. This is an obvious adaption to suit the square form of the design. I think the Acropolis labyrinth has been drawn in exactly the same way as the Pylos labyrinth, to begin with, but when the central cross, the angle brackets and the short lines in the angles were completed, the artist has obviously put the entrance in the wrong direction. The result is a rather strange design, so far unique among all examples which have survived to our time.
This interpretation of the drawing technique strongly indicates that the Pylos and the Acropolis labyrinths have also been constructed in the same manner as the Tragliatella labyrinth and the two Pompeii labyrinths analysed by Staffan Lundén.
John Kraft, Västerås, Sweden.
 The Pylos labyrinth & initial layout
 The Athens labyrinth & initial layout