DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0024
Knossos Excavations, 1903.
13
West, and North walls were composed of small well cut limestone blocks,
of which at the North-West corner as many as nine courses were visible.
These walls were backed by rubble masonry, while their faces towards the
room itself had been covered with gypsum slabs. The neatly finished some-
what small masonry here exhibited is characteristic of some of the latest work
in the Palace, as for instance the outer staircase wall of the East Bastion.
In these cases the blocks are associated with a particular class of finely
incised marks which belong to the latest Palace period. It is therefore
interesting to note that signs of this class, notably the eight rayed stars,
appear on the blocks of the present chamber.
Inner spaces, other than light wells, with good masonry are rare in the
Palace. It seems therefore probable that the room H 1 must have fulfilled
some important function. From its central position it could hardly have
been lighted except through the doorway, and it seems possible that we
have here the bedroom of the master of the household.
A curious feature of this room is the remaining wall, on the East
side, which is simply a thin partition consisting of gypsum slabs. This
partition separates the room from what appears to have been a long narrow
closet which, like room H 1 itself, was also entered by a door opening from
the portico of the Megaron.1 The gypsum partition slabs must naturally
have been supported by some kind of wooden framework inside this closet,
but of this there were no remaining traces. The fact that the door shut from
within makes it probable that the closet too served as a small bedroom.2
South of the Megaron are remains of another section of building,
the Southern limit of which is lost owing to the falling away of the ground.
Its most complete existing member is the room M 1, entered by two doors
with a pillar between, a recurring feature of the facades of small faience
houses in the ' Town Mosaic,'3 exemplified on a larger scale by the Great
Megaron at Phaestos and apparently by that of the Western wing of the
Palace at Knossos.4
1 The existence of a recess in the wall at the North-West corner of Room E I gave rise to
the supposition that there-was actually an aperture into this elongated space E I at that point, and that
it was therefore a passage. But (i) there is no evidence that there was any opening at this point,
though the wall was thinner. (2) There is no trace of door-jambs, such as in that case would
almost certainly have existed. (3) Room E 1 having already a doorway leading into the portico,
such a passage way would have been superfluous.
- This is Dr. Mackenzie's opinion. 3 Knossos, &c, Report, 1902.
4 On this feature of the Cretan House and its architectural consequences, see F. Noack,
Homerische Palaste, p. 17 seqq.
13
West, and North walls were composed of small well cut limestone blocks,
of which at the North-West corner as many as nine courses were visible.
These walls were backed by rubble masonry, while their faces towards the
room itself had been covered with gypsum slabs. The neatly finished some-
what small masonry here exhibited is characteristic of some of the latest work
in the Palace, as for instance the outer staircase wall of the East Bastion.
In these cases the blocks are associated with a particular class of finely
incised marks which belong to the latest Palace period. It is therefore
interesting to note that signs of this class, notably the eight rayed stars,
appear on the blocks of the present chamber.
Inner spaces, other than light wells, with good masonry are rare in the
Palace. It seems therefore probable that the room H 1 must have fulfilled
some important function. From its central position it could hardly have
been lighted except through the doorway, and it seems possible that we
have here the bedroom of the master of the household.
A curious feature of this room is the remaining wall, on the East
side, which is simply a thin partition consisting of gypsum slabs. This
partition separates the room from what appears to have been a long narrow
closet which, like room H 1 itself, was also entered by a door opening from
the portico of the Megaron.1 The gypsum partition slabs must naturally
have been supported by some kind of wooden framework inside this closet,
but of this there were no remaining traces. The fact that the door shut from
within makes it probable that the closet too served as a small bedroom.2
South of the Megaron are remains of another section of building,
the Southern limit of which is lost owing to the falling away of the ground.
Its most complete existing member is the room M 1, entered by two doors
with a pillar between, a recurring feature of the facades of small faience
houses in the ' Town Mosaic,'3 exemplified on a larger scale by the Great
Megaron at Phaestos and apparently by that of the Western wing of the
Palace at Knossos.4
1 The existence of a recess in the wall at the North-West corner of Room E I gave rise to
the supposition that there-was actually an aperture into this elongated space E I at that point, and that
it was therefore a passage. But (i) there is no evidence that there was any opening at this point,
though the wall was thinner. (2) There is no trace of door-jambs, such as in that case would
almost certainly have existed. (3) Room E 1 having already a doorway leading into the portico,
such a passage way would have been superfluous.
- This is Dr. Mackenzie's opinion. 3 Knossos, &c, Report, 1902.
4 On this feature of the Cretan House and its architectural consequences, see F. Noack,
Homerische Palaste, p. 17 seqq.