DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0123
112
A. J. Evans
ing course of the dancers, as they were led hand in hand by the chief
performers in each set, was curiously appropriate to the ancient traditions
of the spot. Of such a kind, we are told,1 was the geranos dance,
mimicking the mazy turns of the Labyrinth, by Theseus instituted at Delos
before the image of Aphrodite ' that he had received from Ariadne,' and
which was in fact Ariadne herself in her cult aspect.
§ 18.—The North-West Building.
Already in 1901 there had been brought to light part of a building
bordering on the North-East of the West Court, and only about four
metres distant from the Western Palace Wall, where the great foundation
buttress juts out from it. Except, therefore, for the small interval thus
left—through which, as we now know, ran the Causeway leading from the
West Entrance to the Theatral Area—this building lay as a block between
the West Court and the paved area to the North-West of the Palace.
This 1 North-West House,'—as it was called at the time of its first finding,
—revealed in its basement cavities remains of earlier walls, belonging in part
at least to a different system, together with abundant fragments of the finest
polychrome and ' egg-shell ' ware of the Middle Minoan Period. On the
other hand, above what remains of the upper floor-levels, nothing was
found of earlier date than decadent ' Mycenaean' wares belonging to the
Period of Partial Occupation. It therefore appeared probable that during
the intervening period, which would include the whole duration of the Later
Palace, the site had been left bare ; and, so far as the three chambers con-
stituting the ' North-West House ' are concerned, this conclusion may still,
perhaps, be valid.
Trial pits dug at the end of the season of 1902 in the area immediately
to the West of this, followed by methodical excavations during the present
season, have, however, been conclusive in showing that the later construc-
tions known as the ' North-West House ' were built up against the East face
of a building, or possibly a conglomeration of buildings, that must have
1 Plut. Theseus, xxi. (on the authority of Dicaearchus) (Qijaevs) ivaBels t2> 'A<ppo5itrtoi', 6 irapa
tos 'ApiaSyTjs eAa$ev, ix°Vei/(7e fJ-tra. twv t]'idtwv x°P61'aI/> *rL v*>v cTriT€\etv Atj\iovs \eyouot, fxlfj.rjjxa.
Tu>y iv rep AaQjp'ii'O'j} nepioh-jiy «al 8*e£-)8nv tv tivl pv8p.(p irapaWa^is koL dreAi'feis %xovTi yiyvoflty7lV,
The KepaTwv altar ahout which the dance took place has been aptly brought into relation with the
' sacral horns ' of the .Minoan altars by F. Noack (Homerische Paliiste, p. 87).
A. J. Evans
ing course of the dancers, as they were led hand in hand by the chief
performers in each set, was curiously appropriate to the ancient traditions
of the spot. Of such a kind, we are told,1 was the geranos dance,
mimicking the mazy turns of the Labyrinth, by Theseus instituted at Delos
before the image of Aphrodite ' that he had received from Ariadne,' and
which was in fact Ariadne herself in her cult aspect.
§ 18.—The North-West Building.
Already in 1901 there had been brought to light part of a building
bordering on the North-East of the West Court, and only about four
metres distant from the Western Palace Wall, where the great foundation
buttress juts out from it. Except, therefore, for the small interval thus
left—through which, as we now know, ran the Causeway leading from the
West Entrance to the Theatral Area—this building lay as a block between
the West Court and the paved area to the North-West of the Palace.
This 1 North-West House,'—as it was called at the time of its first finding,
—revealed in its basement cavities remains of earlier walls, belonging in part
at least to a different system, together with abundant fragments of the finest
polychrome and ' egg-shell ' ware of the Middle Minoan Period. On the
other hand, above what remains of the upper floor-levels, nothing was
found of earlier date than decadent ' Mycenaean' wares belonging to the
Period of Partial Occupation. It therefore appeared probable that during
the intervening period, which would include the whole duration of the Later
Palace, the site had been left bare ; and, so far as the three chambers con-
stituting the ' North-West House ' are concerned, this conclusion may still,
perhaps, be valid.
Trial pits dug at the end of the season of 1902 in the area immediately
to the West of this, followed by methodical excavations during the present
season, have, however, been conclusive in showing that the later construc-
tions known as the ' North-West House ' were built up against the East face
of a building, or possibly a conglomeration of buildings, that must have
1 Plut. Theseus, xxi. (on the authority of Dicaearchus) (Qijaevs) ivaBels t2> 'A<ppo5itrtoi', 6 irapa
tos 'ApiaSyTjs eAa$ev, ix°Vei/(7e fJ-tra. twv t]'idtwv x°P61'aI/> *rL v*>v cTriT€\etv Atj\iovs \eyouot, fxlfj.rjjxa.
Tu>y iv rep AaQjp'ii'O'j} nepioh-jiy «al 8*e£-)8nv tv tivl pv8p.(p irapaWa^is koL dreAi'feis %xovTi yiyvoflty7lV,
The KepaTwv altar ahout which the dance took place has been aptly brought into relation with the
' sacral horns ' of the .Minoan altars by F. Noack (Homerische Paliiste, p. 87).