DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0106
8o
EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY
the landing in question is not a Megaron at all, of either
a Knossian or Tirynthian type, but only an elaborate
state entrance to the Later Palace. In it a covered porch
and vestibule were backed by a vertical shaft or " light-
well," which served as a great window both to the
vestibule itself, and to the corridors, staircases, and
landings that connected it with the upper stories.
Dr. Dorpfeld, however, has not only been peculiarly
unfortunate in writing in pre-Mackenzian days about
the Phaestos " Megaron." He has also been the victim
of a gross piece of carelessness on the part of the Editor
of the Comptes Rcndus of the Archaeological Congress.1
The official summary of the paper in which Mr. Evans
outlined his system of Minoan dating completely perverts
it, and in particular applies the term Late Minoan III.
with a light-hearted promiscuity for which it is hard to
find a parallel in the history of learning. It is to this,
if we are to judge from certain phrases in Dr. Dorpfeld's
article,2 that we are to attribute the fact that he has
misunderstood the English excavators in regard to the
stratification of Knossos. He has wrongly imagined that
the West Court of Knossos and a great part of the
whole west wing belonged to an earlier building, con-
temporary with the West Court of Phaestos, and that
they were superseded and partly covered over by a
later structure, contemporary with the supposed mainland
Achaean type of Megaron at Phasstos that is now proved
to be no Megaron at all. It is unnecessary for us to go into
1 C.R.A.C. 1905, p. 209. Mr. Evans has since sent out a
corrected version, which is quoted in this book as E.C.
2 Ath. Mitt. xxx. 1905, p. 295, where views are attributed to
Mr. Evans that are grotesquely different from the real ones ;
e.g. he is made to place the " younger Palaces " of Knossos and
Phaestos in " Late Minoan III., or the Period of Partial Re-
occupation " ! J. L. Myrcs's brief but severe criticism in Y.W.C.S.
1907, p. 19, does not allow for the corrupting influence of the
C.R.A.C. nor for the fact that Dorpfeld was after all only following
in others' steps in talking of a " Megaron."
EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY
the landing in question is not a Megaron at all, of either
a Knossian or Tirynthian type, but only an elaborate
state entrance to the Later Palace. In it a covered porch
and vestibule were backed by a vertical shaft or " light-
well," which served as a great window both to the
vestibule itself, and to the corridors, staircases, and
landings that connected it with the upper stories.
Dr. Dorpfeld, however, has not only been peculiarly
unfortunate in writing in pre-Mackenzian days about
the Phaestos " Megaron." He has also been the victim
of a gross piece of carelessness on the part of the Editor
of the Comptes Rcndus of the Archaeological Congress.1
The official summary of the paper in which Mr. Evans
outlined his system of Minoan dating completely perverts
it, and in particular applies the term Late Minoan III.
with a light-hearted promiscuity for which it is hard to
find a parallel in the history of learning. It is to this,
if we are to judge from certain phrases in Dr. Dorpfeld's
article,2 that we are to attribute the fact that he has
misunderstood the English excavators in regard to the
stratification of Knossos. He has wrongly imagined that
the West Court of Knossos and a great part of the
whole west wing belonged to an earlier building, con-
temporary with the West Court of Phaestos, and that
they were superseded and partly covered over by a
later structure, contemporary with the supposed mainland
Achaean type of Megaron at Phasstos that is now proved
to be no Megaron at all. It is unnecessary for us to go into
1 C.R.A.C. 1905, p. 209. Mr. Evans has since sent out a
corrected version, which is quoted in this book as E.C.
2 Ath. Mitt. xxx. 1905, p. 295, where views are attributed to
Mr. Evans that are grotesquely different from the real ones ;
e.g. he is made to place the " younger Palaces " of Knossos and
Phaestos in " Late Minoan III., or the Period of Partial Re-
occupation " ! J. L. Myrcs's brief but severe criticism in Y.W.C.S.
1907, p. 19, does not allow for the corrupting influence of the
C.R.A.C. nor for the fact that Dorpfeld was after all only following
in others' steps in talking of a " Megaron."