DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8755#0146
Knossos Excavations, 1903.
i35
feature of this staircase is the appearance, where the ordinary eighth step
should be, of the jamb and threshold of a small doorway. This doorway
led to an upper corridor (A 2), corresponding with that below (A 1), and
was controlled from it (see Fig. 86).
The ascending branch of the stairs on the West side of the first flight
was, like it, in a practically intact condition, owing to the fact that neither of
these,—as was the case with the Eastern branch,—was laid over sub-
structures, but both rested on the solid ground. There were here 'ten
steps as in the lowermost flight and their dimensions were the same.1
This stairway has to its right the rough back of the fine gypsum wall that
follows the lower stairs ; the rubble plaster and stucco, which once covered
it on this side, having fallen away. The opposite wall on the left or
Western side of this ascending flight is of solid construction, mainly of
gypsum blocks. Seven courses of this are in part preserved, the upper-
most being a kind of flat coping, only 10 centimetres high. In this wall
again are traces of what seems to have been another window opening.2
The top of this flight emerges, like the other to the East of it, on the
end of the Upper Corridor (A 2). The West end of this Corridor also
probably communicated with a terrace passage leading to the North wing
of the house. What is extremely remarkable about this arrangement is
that there seems to be no practical reason for this Upper Corridor to be thus
approached by two flights of steps (which are in fact branches of the same
staircase), emerging on it within a few feet of one another. It is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that this arrangement of a staircase with a double
head was adopted by the architect simply with an eye to symmetry and
grandiose effect.
There is moreover every reason to believe that this arrangement of a
flight of stairs with a double head was again repeated in a storey above this.
To the right of the flight last described, at the point where it reaches
the Upper Corridor (A 2), is one of the usual limestone landing-blocks (x in
Section PI. I). On the opposite or Eastern side of this block is visible a
triangular ledge such as usually occurs on such landing-blocks:1 for the
1 Of these steps, Nos. I, 2, 3 are of gypsum, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of limestone, 9 of gypsum and 10 of
limestone.
- This is Dr. Mackenzie's opinion. The actual interval in the wall here is broader (2'53 metres).
I"lie sill seems to have been about 1 '30 above the landing floor.
3 Compare especially the landing-blocks of the fourth flight of the Quadruple Staircase
(Reports, 1902, p. 103 ; 1903, pp. 32, 33).
i35
feature of this staircase is the appearance, where the ordinary eighth step
should be, of the jamb and threshold of a small doorway. This doorway
led to an upper corridor (A 2), corresponding with that below (A 1), and
was controlled from it (see Fig. 86).
The ascending branch of the stairs on the West side of the first flight
was, like it, in a practically intact condition, owing to the fact that neither of
these,—as was the case with the Eastern branch,—was laid over sub-
structures, but both rested on the solid ground. There were here 'ten
steps as in the lowermost flight and their dimensions were the same.1
This stairway has to its right the rough back of the fine gypsum wall that
follows the lower stairs ; the rubble plaster and stucco, which once covered
it on this side, having fallen away. The opposite wall on the left or
Western side of this ascending flight is of solid construction, mainly of
gypsum blocks. Seven courses of this are in part preserved, the upper-
most being a kind of flat coping, only 10 centimetres high. In this wall
again are traces of what seems to have been another window opening.2
The top of this flight emerges, like the other to the East of it, on the
end of the Upper Corridor (A 2). The West end of this Corridor also
probably communicated with a terrace passage leading to the North wing
of the house. What is extremely remarkable about this arrangement is
that there seems to be no practical reason for this Upper Corridor to be thus
approached by two flights of steps (which are in fact branches of the same
staircase), emerging on it within a few feet of one another. It is difficult to
avoid the conclusion that this arrangement of a staircase with a double
head was adopted by the architect simply with an eye to symmetry and
grandiose effect.
There is moreover every reason to believe that this arrangement of a
flight of stairs with a double head was again repeated in a storey above this.
To the right of the flight last described, at the point where it reaches
the Upper Corridor (A 2), is one of the usual limestone landing-blocks (x in
Section PI. I). On the opposite or Eastern side of this block is visible a
triangular ledge such as usually occurs on such landing-blocks:1 for the
1 Of these steps, Nos. I, 2, 3 are of gypsum, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of limestone, 9 of gypsum and 10 of
limestone.
- This is Dr. Mackenzie's opinion. The actual interval in the wall here is broader (2'53 metres).
I"lie sill seems to have been about 1 '30 above the landing floor.
3 Compare especially the landing-blocks of the fourth flight of the Quadruple Staircase
(Reports, 1902, p. 103 ; 1903, pp. 32, 33).