Istituto di Archeologia, Università di Catania, Italy

The seismic destruction of the first Minoan palace at Phaistos is preliminarily confirmed. The hypothesis is then proposed that a change in the relationships a~nongth e powers in the Messarh plain was also produced by the different capacity of the Phaistos centre to react to the 1700 B.C. seismic effects, as compared to that of Knossos. This trend is thought to have continued after the second earthquake of the middle(?) of the XVII century B.C., indirectly confirming Knossian leadership in the island's entire central region during the age of the second palaces.