DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0040
Knossos Excavations, 1903.
29
pottery in the advanced Palace style, show that they were in use during the
latest Period of the building. In the Eighth Magazine alone even the
uppermost of the two receptacles was entirely closed in by a pavement
which showed no superficial cists.
The closed lower section of several of these receptacles contained in
certain cases pottery with white spiraliform designs on a dark ground, of a
type which we now know to be characteristic of the close of the first period
of the Later Palace. A broken fragment of masonry found with pottery of
this character in the lower part of a cist in the Fourth Magazine was
incised with a Double Axe sign 1 of the same calibre as those seen on
various blocks of this and other Palace regions ; an indication that the
masonry thus marked also belongs to the First Period of the Later Palace.
This latter piece of evidence has a special value in relation to a
discovery of the present season. In Magazines \Tos. 7 and 9, projecting
respectively from their North and South walls, are two square buttresses
constructed of rather small blocks of good limestone masonry. It was
now made clear that both of these buttress-like blocks of masonry, which
seem to have been made in order to support the pillars of an upper hall,
were additions to the original plan of this part of the building, dating from
a comparatively late period in its history. Both of these piers were built
into and over Kaselles belonging to the original structure, the lower
part of which had been filled in with compact masses of foundation blocks.
In Magazine 7, above these foundations, in the earth-filling between the
walls of one of these cists and the lower part of the pier, was found part of
a vase in the late ' Palace Style.' The pier of Magazine 9 showed on one
of its blocks a small and finely cut asterisk or eight-rayed star sign, of a
character strongly contrasting with the larger and more deeply incised
signs of the earlier period, such as the Double Axe mentioned above. We
have here another interesting indication of the chronological value of the
different classes of signs found on the Knossian Palace blocks.2 As
doubtless is the case with most of these signs, the asterisk was not intended
to be visible, for there were traces of painted stucco adhering to the surface
of the stone pier.
The contents of the closed lower section of several Kaselles in the
Western Magazines opened this season supplemented the evidence already
obtained from the same source. Here, together with the usual filling
1 See Report, etc, 1901, p. 47. 2 See above, p. 13.
29
pottery in the advanced Palace style, show that they were in use during the
latest Period of the building. In the Eighth Magazine alone even the
uppermost of the two receptacles was entirely closed in by a pavement
which showed no superficial cists.
The closed lower section of several of these receptacles contained in
certain cases pottery with white spiraliform designs on a dark ground, of a
type which we now know to be characteristic of the close of the first period
of the Later Palace. A broken fragment of masonry found with pottery of
this character in the lower part of a cist in the Fourth Magazine was
incised with a Double Axe sign 1 of the same calibre as those seen on
various blocks of this and other Palace regions ; an indication that the
masonry thus marked also belongs to the First Period of the Later Palace.
This latter piece of evidence has a special value in relation to a
discovery of the present season. In Magazines \Tos. 7 and 9, projecting
respectively from their North and South walls, are two square buttresses
constructed of rather small blocks of good limestone masonry. It was
now made clear that both of these buttress-like blocks of masonry, which
seem to have been made in order to support the pillars of an upper hall,
were additions to the original plan of this part of the building, dating from
a comparatively late period in its history. Both of these piers were built
into and over Kaselles belonging to the original structure, the lower
part of which had been filled in with compact masses of foundation blocks.
In Magazine 7, above these foundations, in the earth-filling between the
walls of one of these cists and the lower part of the pier, was found part of
a vase in the late ' Palace Style.' The pier of Magazine 9 showed on one
of its blocks a small and finely cut asterisk or eight-rayed star sign, of a
character strongly contrasting with the larger and more deeply incised
signs of the earlier period, such as the Double Axe mentioned above. We
have here another interesting indication of the chronological value of the
different classes of signs found on the Knossian Palace blocks.2 As
doubtless is the case with most of these signs, the asterisk was not intended
to be visible, for there were traces of painted stucco adhering to the surface
of the stone pier.
The contents of the closed lower section of several Kaselles in the
Western Magazines opened this season supplemented the evidence already
obtained from the same source. Here, together with the usual filling
1 See Report, etc, 1901, p. 47. 2 See above, p. 13.