DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0081
56 THE BUILDING OF THE PALACES
composed of the thick deposit formed by many stages
of Neolithic culture. The absence of traces of houses
may of course be due to the fact that they were only
wattle and daub huts, which have naturally decomposed
into the pale clay in which the whole deposit is embedded ;
but Mr. R. M. Dawkins's discovery on a high plateau
near Palaikastro 1 of a house of undoubtedly Neolithic
time with the bottom course of undressed limestone
blocks still standing and forming a definite ground plan,2
suggests that further trial pits may unearth something
similar at Knossos. The still more elaborate Stone Age
houses discovered by Professor Tsountas at Dimini
and Sesklo in South Thessaly, with their three-roomed
system and traces of wooden pillars,' are too far away
to be brought into this connection.
From Early Minoan I. onwards, floor levels have been
brought to light at various test points, as is clearly
shown, for instance, by a Strata section representing the
various pavements underlying the Western Court.4
It is not so easy to determine whether the various pits
or basements that contain remains of the Early Minoan
periods were themselves necessarily built before the
time of the earliest pottery fragments that are found in
them. If they are, we must, according to the latest
classification in Mr. Evans's own yearly Reports,6 assign
to Early Minoan III. not only a small pit, 3 feet deep,
under the pavement near the Pillar Rooms in the
west of the Palace,6 but also, what is more important,
a basement with two Monolithic pillars of limestone on
the south-east.' As there is no trace of a doorway to
this chamber, it is probable that access to it was by a
trap-door and ladder through an upper floor supported
1 B.S.A. vi. p. 6. 2 Ibid. xi. pp. 260-8, fig. 2, p. 263.
3 C.R.A.C. 1905, p. 207. See below, pp. 168, 193.
* B.S.A. x. fig. 7, p. 19.
5 Ibid. p. 20. See, however, p. 58, n. i, infra.
* Ibid. ix. pp. 94-8, fig. 66, p. 96. 7 Ibid. fig. 7, p. 18.
composed of the thick deposit formed by many stages
of Neolithic culture. The absence of traces of houses
may of course be due to the fact that they were only
wattle and daub huts, which have naturally decomposed
into the pale clay in which the whole deposit is embedded ;
but Mr. R. M. Dawkins's discovery on a high plateau
near Palaikastro 1 of a house of undoubtedly Neolithic
time with the bottom course of undressed limestone
blocks still standing and forming a definite ground plan,2
suggests that further trial pits may unearth something
similar at Knossos. The still more elaborate Stone Age
houses discovered by Professor Tsountas at Dimini
and Sesklo in South Thessaly, with their three-roomed
system and traces of wooden pillars,' are too far away
to be brought into this connection.
From Early Minoan I. onwards, floor levels have been
brought to light at various test points, as is clearly
shown, for instance, by a Strata section representing the
various pavements underlying the Western Court.4
It is not so easy to determine whether the various pits
or basements that contain remains of the Early Minoan
periods were themselves necessarily built before the
time of the earliest pottery fragments that are found in
them. If they are, we must, according to the latest
classification in Mr. Evans's own yearly Reports,6 assign
to Early Minoan III. not only a small pit, 3 feet deep,
under the pavement near the Pillar Rooms in the
west of the Palace,6 but also, what is more important,
a basement with two Monolithic pillars of limestone on
the south-east.' As there is no trace of a doorway to
this chamber, it is probable that access to it was by a
trap-door and ladder through an upper floor supported
1 B.S.A. vi. p. 6. 2 Ibid. xi. pp. 260-8, fig. 2, p. 263.
3 C.R.A.C. 1905, p. 207. See below, pp. 168, 193.
* B.S.A. x. fig. 7, p. 19.
5 Ibid. p. 20. See, however, p. 58, n. i, infra.
* Ibid. ix. pp. 94-8, fig. 66, p. 96. 7 Ibid. fig. 7, p. 18.