DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0113
102
A. j. Evans
lower corner of the bastion, by the sixth step, the runnel takes a turn
South and is joined by a smaller tributary channel of the same kind which
runs beside the West face of the bastion, following the descent of the
Southern flight of steps.
A remarkable feature of the present structure is the manner in which
the lower steps of the East flight overlap the lower corner of the bastion
and are keyed into those going up South. Something analogous to this is
visible in the Palace at Phaestos, where the two lowermost steps of the
broad flight leading up to the great upper Megaron are brought forward
beyond the angle of the side wall and intrude on the line of the flight of
steps leading up North.1 In the present case it looks as if the architect
had been fumbling about for the idea of seats carried round in a con-
tinuous semi-circle but had not hit upon it. In this respect there is no
approach to the later theatral plan.
Of the broad Eastern flight of steps only the lowermost—a good
deal warped at its North end—has been preserved to what appears
to have been its original breadth of 10 metres. The second and
third reach nearly to the same extent. But from this point,—forming a
roughly diagonal line,—the steps throughout the whole of the North-East
.section were either hopelessly disintegrated or had been entirely denuded
away. Thus as the steps ascend their extent was found to be a continually
diminishing quantity till of the topmost only a small piece was left at its
Southern end.
Nor was the cause of this destruction far to seek. It obviously lay in
the fact that originally, as it does now, the ground here sloped away in a
Northerly direction. The result of this was that, while a part of the
Southern section of the steps practically rested on the solid ground, an
artificial bed, held up by a supporting wall on the North, had to be made
for the construction of the remaining section. In process of time this
made earth sank, the supporting wall gave way, and the stone slabs of
which the steps were composed were either carried away or disintegrated
by the natural process of denudation, while others sank below their original
level. It was found that the present surface level at the point where the
uppermost tier had originally rested at its Northern extremity was a metre
and a half below the level of the remaining fragment of its Southern end.
Happily the evidence as to the original extension Northwards of the
1 This is not adequately brought out in the plan, Mon. Ant. xii. Tav. II.
A. j. Evans
lower corner of the bastion, by the sixth step, the runnel takes a turn
South and is joined by a smaller tributary channel of the same kind which
runs beside the West face of the bastion, following the descent of the
Southern flight of steps.
A remarkable feature of the present structure is the manner in which
the lower steps of the East flight overlap the lower corner of the bastion
and are keyed into those going up South. Something analogous to this is
visible in the Palace at Phaestos, where the two lowermost steps of the
broad flight leading up to the great upper Megaron are brought forward
beyond the angle of the side wall and intrude on the line of the flight of
steps leading up North.1 In the present case it looks as if the architect
had been fumbling about for the idea of seats carried round in a con-
tinuous semi-circle but had not hit upon it. In this respect there is no
approach to the later theatral plan.
Of the broad Eastern flight of steps only the lowermost—a good
deal warped at its North end—has been preserved to what appears
to have been its original breadth of 10 metres. The second and
third reach nearly to the same extent. But from this point,—forming a
roughly diagonal line,—the steps throughout the whole of the North-East
.section were either hopelessly disintegrated or had been entirely denuded
away. Thus as the steps ascend their extent was found to be a continually
diminishing quantity till of the topmost only a small piece was left at its
Southern end.
Nor was the cause of this destruction far to seek. It obviously lay in
the fact that originally, as it does now, the ground here sloped away in a
Northerly direction. The result of this was that, while a part of the
Southern section of the steps practically rested on the solid ground, an
artificial bed, held up by a supporting wall on the North, had to be made
for the construction of the remaining section. In process of time this
made earth sank, the supporting wall gave way, and the stone slabs of
which the steps were composed were either carried away or disintegrated
by the natural process of denudation, while others sank below their original
level. It was found that the present surface level at the point where the
uppermost tier had originally rested at its Northern extremity was a metre
and a half below the level of the remaining fragment of its Southern end.
Happily the evidence as to the original extension Northwards of the
1 This is not adequately brought out in the plan, Mon. Ant. xii. Tav. II.