Knowledge of Minoan civilization in the Palace Periods (the Old Palace Period through New Palace Period, or Middle Minoan IB through Late Minoan IIIA1, 1925 – 1380 BCE) comes down to the modern age through excavations of the great palace complexes left on Crete by the Minoans. These grand structures were built entirely with post-and-lintel construction. In the archaeological record, it is possible to see where a first level of posts would have stood, and the placement of lintels atop them is easily deduced. From this point, making guesses about the construction of a building becomes more difficult. The higher levels of a building leave no trace in the archaeological record, so the presence of a second or additional stories can only ever by hypothesized.