DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0012
THE PALACE OF KNOSSOS
Provisional Report for the Year 1903.
(Plates I.—in.j
§ 1.—The Campaign of 1903.
when operations opened at Knossos, on February 23, 1903, it seemed
to me at first sight probable that a comparatively short Campaign would
exhaust the resources of the Palace Site, although the work entailed by the
search for the tombs might itself be of gradual execution and uncertain
quantity. But the site itself proved still inexhaustible, especially in its
lower strata. The region of which the exploration had still to be com-
pleted on the South-East was supplemented by an unexpected extension
of the site on the North-West, including the Theatral Area. Annexes,
like a neighbouring building in the same quarter, proved of interminable
extent and rich in contents, including a hoard of magnificent bronze
vessels. What is practically an important dependance of the Palace,
described in this Report as the ' Royal Villa,' opened out to the North-
East, and in addition to this, lower floor-levels, comprising deposits of extra-
ordinary interest, were struck at a great number of points within the already
excavated area of the Later Palace. Deep basement rooms were unearthed
and a whole additional system of walled pits belonging to an earlier build-
ing. The Kaselles, already partially explored in the West Magazines, were
traced beneath the later pavement of the Long Gallery, while the discovery
of the Temple Repositories in the neighbouring region about the Pillar
Rooms, made towards the close of the season's work, represents in many
respects the culminating point of interest in the whole four years' excava-
tion of the Palace Site. The great variety of objects contained by these
b
Provisional Report for the Year 1903.
(Plates I.—in.j
§ 1.—The Campaign of 1903.
when operations opened at Knossos, on February 23, 1903, it seemed
to me at first sight probable that a comparatively short Campaign would
exhaust the resources of the Palace Site, although the work entailed by the
search for the tombs might itself be of gradual execution and uncertain
quantity. But the site itself proved still inexhaustible, especially in its
lower strata. The region of which the exploration had still to be com-
pleted on the South-East was supplemented by an unexpected extension
of the site on the North-West, including the Theatral Area. Annexes,
like a neighbouring building in the same quarter, proved of interminable
extent and rich in contents, including a hoard of magnificent bronze
vessels. What is practically an important dependance of the Palace,
described in this Report as the ' Royal Villa,' opened out to the North-
East, and in addition to this, lower floor-levels, comprising deposits of extra-
ordinary interest, were struck at a great number of points within the already
excavated area of the Later Palace. Deep basement rooms were unearthed
and a whole additional system of walled pits belonging to an earlier build-
ing. The Kaselles, already partially explored in the West Magazines, were
traced beneath the later pavement of the Long Gallery, while the discovery
of the Temple Repositories in the neighbouring region about the Pillar
Rooms, made towards the close of the season's work, represents in many
respects the culminating point of interest in the whole four years' excava-
tion of the Palace Site. The great variety of objects contained by these
b