When I dealt with the Knossos labyrinth it has struck me that the seed pattern can be simplified very easily. It can be reduced to three lines and two dots. To draw the labyrinth they are connected just as we do it for the classical labyrinth. For more information please see the Related Posts below.
Now this seed pattern with the two turning points can be extended in a very simple way, just by adding more lines in pairs.
The bigger labyrinths have more circuits, however, maintain her basic structure. And, nevertheless, these are own types, because they have another path sequence than the 7-, 9-, 11-, 15- etc. circuit classical labyrinths. But they are not known, neither among the historical, nor among the contemporary labyrinths. Because they are too easy? Besides, the lines have quite a special rhythm. A closer look can be worthwhile.
The 3 circuit labyrinth of this type first appeared about 400 B.C. on the silver coins of Knossos:
The Labyrinth type Knossos
The circuits are numbered from the outside inwards from 1 to 3. The center is marked with 4. The blue digits labels the circuits inside out. The path sequence is 3-2-1-4, no matter which direction you take. Through that a special quality of this labyrinth is also indicated: It is self-dual.
What now shall be the special rhythm? To explain this, we look at a 5 circuit labyrinth of this type:
The 5 circuit labyrinth in classical style
The path sequence is: 5-2-3-4-1-6. At first I circle around the center (6) on taking circuit 5. Then I go outwardly to round 2, from there via the circuits 3 and 4 again in direction to the center, at last make a jump completely outwards to circuit 1, from which I finally reach the center in 6.
Here a 7 circuit labyrinth in Knidos style:
7 circuit Labyrinth in Knidos style
The path sequence is: 7-2-5-4-3-6-1-8. It is also self-dual. The typical rhythm is maintained, the “steps” are wider: From 0 to 7, from 7 to 2, and finally from 1 to 8 (the center).
Here a 9 circuit labyrinth in concentric style:
9 circuit labyrinth in concentric style
The path sequence is: 9-2-7-4-5-6-3-8-1-10. The step size is anew growing. This labyrinth is self-dual again.
This example exists as a real labyrinth since the year 2010 on a meadow at Ostheim vor der Rhön (Germany):
9 circuit labyrinth in concentric style at Ostheim vor der Rhön (Germany)
To finish we look at a 11 circuit labyrinth in square style:
11 circuit Labyrinth in square style
The path sequence is: 11-2-9-4-7-6-5-8-3-10-1-12. And again self-dual.
I think, the method is clear: We add two more lines more and we will get two circuits more. So we could continue infinitely.
The shape of the labyrinth can be quite different, this makes up the style. The path sequence shows the type. And for that kind of labyrinth we always have only two turning points.
Related Posts
I like to think of these circuit sequences as being composed of two interleaved sequences of i) decreasing odd numbers and ii) increasing even numbers.
e.g. 11-2-9-4-7-6-5-8-3-10-1-12
is composed of 11-9-7-5-3-1 interleaved with 2-4-6-8-10-12.
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Yes you are right. You can look at it that way too. Thanks for that.
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