DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0174
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
551
columns in which are inserted the blales of double axes,3 while on the painted sar-
cophagus found by the Italian mission at Hagia Triada the trunk-like shafts of the axes
rise from bases with similar checker work.
It is worth noting that a complete parallel to these ceramic adaptations of features
of Minoan religious architecture is supplied by a vase from a Cypro-Mycenaean tomb at
Enkomi. The design on this vase (as was pointed out in my Mycen&an Tree and Pillar
Cult)b shows a two-storeyed building in which "female votaries are seen with their hands
raised in the act of adoration on either side of what appear to be square columns."
The above parallel, which enables us to connect the principal designs of the present vase
with details taken from religious architecture, supplies at the same time the true origin of
later versions of similar motives that occur in the more decadent Minoan Age, and survive
on the pottery of the Geometrical class. Checker-work panels are seen on vases of the
ensuing Third Late-Minoan Period,0 and the same design occupies the central field of
the painted larnax from the Cymbal-player's tomb at Muliana. In describing this latter
example indeed ('E<£. 'A/rj^, 1904, p. 40), Dr. Xanthoudides had already expressed the
opinion that the checker-work ornament was copied from Minoan masonry. The same motive
is very characteristic of Cretan Geometrical ware.
The other architectural feature of the present vase with its medial bar and elongated
oval wings, which as we have seen is simply taken over from the reliefs of Minoan friezes,
survives in a similar way in later ceramic decoration. It is found on late sherds at
Mycenae (Furtw. u. Loeschke, Myh. Vasen, taf. xxiii. 322, 327), and similar degenerations
of the Double Axe are also seen on either side of the middle upright, but without the
surrounding half ovals (loc. cit. No. 325).
§ 3. Architectural Details of the Isopata Tomb. By D. Theodore Ftpe.
Regarding details of construction, it is of greatest interest to determine, as far as
possible, the exact form of roof in the inner chamber. The ends of the chamber at east and
west were vertical, from the evidence of the nine existing courses of the east wall The
sides, at north and south, sloped inwards, judging from the five existing courses of each.
The facework of the south wall shows a concave surface, that of the north wall a straight
surface, but the lines governing the two slopes have the same inclination from the vertical.
The complete vault may easily have been formed by a series of straight faces approximating
a A. J. E. Report; Knossos, 1904, B. 8. A. x. p. 41 seqq. and fig. 14.
» P. 13 and p. 14, fig. 6.
0 Cf. Hogarth, B. S. A. vi. 103, fig. 31, from the Dictaean Cave. Savigaoni, Necropoli di Phaestos,
tav. 1. 2. Purtwangler u. Loeschke, Myk. Vasen, Taf. xxiv. 341.
vol. lix. 4 n
551
columns in which are inserted the blales of double axes,3 while on the painted sar-
cophagus found by the Italian mission at Hagia Triada the trunk-like shafts of the axes
rise from bases with similar checker work.
It is worth noting that a complete parallel to these ceramic adaptations of features
of Minoan religious architecture is supplied by a vase from a Cypro-Mycenaean tomb at
Enkomi. The design on this vase (as was pointed out in my Mycen&an Tree and Pillar
Cult)b shows a two-storeyed building in which "female votaries are seen with their hands
raised in the act of adoration on either side of what appear to be square columns."
The above parallel, which enables us to connect the principal designs of the present vase
with details taken from religious architecture, supplies at the same time the true origin of
later versions of similar motives that occur in the more decadent Minoan Age, and survive
on the pottery of the Geometrical class. Checker-work panels are seen on vases of the
ensuing Third Late-Minoan Period,0 and the same design occupies the central field of
the painted larnax from the Cymbal-player's tomb at Muliana. In describing this latter
example indeed ('E<£. 'A/rj^, 1904, p. 40), Dr. Xanthoudides had already expressed the
opinion that the checker-work ornament was copied from Minoan masonry. The same motive
is very characteristic of Cretan Geometrical ware.
The other architectural feature of the present vase with its medial bar and elongated
oval wings, which as we have seen is simply taken over from the reliefs of Minoan friezes,
survives in a similar way in later ceramic decoration. It is found on late sherds at
Mycenae (Furtw. u. Loeschke, Myh. Vasen, taf. xxiii. 322, 327), and similar degenerations
of the Double Axe are also seen on either side of the middle upright, but without the
surrounding half ovals (loc. cit. No. 325).
§ 3. Architectural Details of the Isopata Tomb. By D. Theodore Ftpe.
Regarding details of construction, it is of greatest interest to determine, as far as
possible, the exact form of roof in the inner chamber. The ends of the chamber at east and
west were vertical, from the evidence of the nine existing courses of the east wall The
sides, at north and south, sloped inwards, judging from the five existing courses of each.
The facework of the south wall shows a concave surface, that of the north wall a straight
surface, but the lines governing the two slopes have the same inclination from the vertical.
The complete vault may easily have been formed by a series of straight faces approximating
a A. J. E. Report; Knossos, 1904, B. 8. A. x. p. 41 seqq. and fig. 14.
» P. 13 and p. 14, fig. 6.
0 Cf. Hogarth, B. S. A. vi. 103, fig. 31, from the Dictaean Cave. Savigaoni, Necropoli di Phaestos,
tav. 1. 2. Purtwangler u. Loeschke, Myk. Vasen, Taf. xxiv. 341.
vol. lix. 4 n