DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0049
38
A. J. Evans
simplified form the temple of the miniature wall-painting. I was even led
to suggest that this discovery gave a clue to the actual position of the
temple facade shown in the painting, since the basement blocks seen below it
and the crowds in an open space in front made it probable that the original
of the shrine thus depicted was reared on the side of a Court.1 A further
circumstance brought out by the last season's explorations has considerably
enhanced the probability that there was here at least part of the
facade of the most important of the Palace sanctuaries. For, in the middle
of the Central Court immediately opposite this recess, there have now been
brought to light parts of an altar-base apparently of larger dimensions
than any yet found within the Palace Courts.
The rectangular West Central Section of the Palace, of which the
Pillar Rooms form the centre and which is taken as including the Magazines
with the Double Axe sign, is thus found to have an altar-base in front of it
on each of its three open sides, see Plan, Fig. 18.
The accumulated evidences above referred to seemed to point to the
fact that this whole section of the Palace represented according to the
original plan an extensive sanctuary and its dependances. The existence
of minor shrines such as that of the Double Axes in the North-East
Quarter, the religious symbols found in the North-West Building,2 and the
constant reference to religious themes traceable in the seal-types, miniature
paintings, 'and terracotta models, as well as the votive double axes and
other objects found within the Palace, make it more and more probable
that there was a sacerdotal as well as a royal side to the Minoan dynasts
of Knossos.:i It would seem that there were here, as in early Anatolia,
Priest-Kings ; and old tradition, that made Minos son and ' Companion ' of
Zeus and a Cretan Moses, is once more seen to have a basis in fact.
§ 9.—The Great Stone Repositories of the Central Palace
Sanctuarv.
The presumed existence in this quarter of the Palace of a considerable
Palace sanctuary with its dependencies made it desirable to subject the
1 Report., Sr'c, 1901, p. 30. - See below § 18.
3 i observe that this conclusion, which i have already insisted on elsewhere, has been advanced
independently by Mr. Cook in his interesting monograph on 'Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak' (Classical
Review, Nov. 1903, pp. 409, 410). Mr. Cook rightly points out the religious importance of the Lily
Crown as seen in the painted relief found in the South w ing of the Palace.
A. J. Evans
simplified form the temple of the miniature wall-painting. I was even led
to suggest that this discovery gave a clue to the actual position of the
temple facade shown in the painting, since the basement blocks seen below it
and the crowds in an open space in front made it probable that the original
of the shrine thus depicted was reared on the side of a Court.1 A further
circumstance brought out by the last season's explorations has considerably
enhanced the probability that there was here at least part of the
facade of the most important of the Palace sanctuaries. For, in the middle
of the Central Court immediately opposite this recess, there have now been
brought to light parts of an altar-base apparently of larger dimensions
than any yet found within the Palace Courts.
The rectangular West Central Section of the Palace, of which the
Pillar Rooms form the centre and which is taken as including the Magazines
with the Double Axe sign, is thus found to have an altar-base in front of it
on each of its three open sides, see Plan, Fig. 18.
The accumulated evidences above referred to seemed to point to the
fact that this whole section of the Palace represented according to the
original plan an extensive sanctuary and its dependances. The existence
of minor shrines such as that of the Double Axes in the North-East
Quarter, the religious symbols found in the North-West Building,2 and the
constant reference to religious themes traceable in the seal-types, miniature
paintings, 'and terracotta models, as well as the votive double axes and
other objects found within the Palace, make it more and more probable
that there was a sacerdotal as well as a royal side to the Minoan dynasts
of Knossos.:i It would seem that there were here, as in early Anatolia,
Priest-Kings ; and old tradition, that made Minos son and ' Companion ' of
Zeus and a Cretan Moses, is once more seen to have a basis in fact.
§ 9.—The Great Stone Repositories of the Central Palace
Sanctuarv.
The presumed existence in this quarter of the Palace of a considerable
Palace sanctuary with its dependencies made it desirable to subject the
1 Report., Sr'c, 1901, p. 30. - See below § 18.
3 i observe that this conclusion, which i have already insisted on elsewhere, has been advanced
independently by Mr. Cook in his interesting monograph on 'Zeus, Jupiter, and the Oak' (Classical
Review, Nov. 1903, pp. 409, 410). Mr. Cook rightly points out the religious importance of the Lily
Crown as seen in the painted relief found in the South w ing of the Palace.