DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8757#0079
AND ASSOCIATED GROUP AT KNOSSOS
53
vases the upper margin expands into a kind of bowl, surrounding a convex pro-
tuberance with a central hole 1—the whole upper surface being at times covered
with a coloured design showing petals radiating from the low dotted boss in
such a way as to resemble a sunflower. These sunflower vases differed from the
present example in being handleless, and in having a hole in the bottom of the
recipient for the percolation of fluid contents.
Other analogies are supplied by an allied class of painted vessels found with
a mass of L. M. I pottery in a Minoan well on the hill of Gypsades, south of
the Palace at Knossos, excavated by me in 1913, though in this case, too, the
characteristic handles were wanting.
It seems probable that the vessel shown in fig. 69 was used for holding
libations, carefully poured by means of a Minoan ' rhyton' into the small round
opening at the top. A ritual function of this class was indeed directly indicated
by the fact that not far from the remains of this vessel were found parts of
a steatite rhyton of a well-known class, in form of a bull's head (fig. 70). The
only perfect portions of this were the ears and the inlays for the .cheeks and
forehead in the form of quatrefoil plaques of a kind of hard schist. The fine
bulls-head rhyton of inlaid steatite from a shrine of the Little Palace at Knossos,
to be described below," though on a slightly larger scale than this, makes it
possible to complete the restoration of the present example as seen in fig. 70.
' Rhytons' of this class show a large round aperture on the top of the head, into
which the libation fluid was poured, while it found egress through a small hole
in the lips. There is every reason for believing that the rhyton before us had
served as an intermediary for pouring libations into the pedestal vase described
above.
The religious character of these vessels received a striking corroboration
Irom a further discovery made in close association with their remains. Together
with these, on the right-hand inner angle of the floor area, there came to light two
bronze double axes of the votive kind (2g,g,Hg. 71). One of these axes was
fragmentary, but the dimensions of what remained of it answered to those of the
perfect specimen, which was of bronze plate, 18-8 cm. in breadth, and with remains
of its wooden shaft still preserved in its central socket.
We have here therefore to do with one of the usual pairs of votive double
axes which formed the cult objects in Cretan sanctuaries. The shafts of these
were either socketed into the sacral horns of stucco or other materials, of such
constant recurrence in the Minoan holy places,or were set into stepped pyramidal
pedestals. Of the first practice we have a certain example in the late Palace
1 C. C. Edgar, Phylakopi, pp. 137, 138, and fig. no.
2 See p. 79 seqq., below.
53
vases the upper margin expands into a kind of bowl, surrounding a convex pro-
tuberance with a central hole 1—the whole upper surface being at times covered
with a coloured design showing petals radiating from the low dotted boss in
such a way as to resemble a sunflower. These sunflower vases differed from the
present example in being handleless, and in having a hole in the bottom of the
recipient for the percolation of fluid contents.
Other analogies are supplied by an allied class of painted vessels found with
a mass of L. M. I pottery in a Minoan well on the hill of Gypsades, south of
the Palace at Knossos, excavated by me in 1913, though in this case, too, the
characteristic handles were wanting.
It seems probable that the vessel shown in fig. 69 was used for holding
libations, carefully poured by means of a Minoan ' rhyton' into the small round
opening at the top. A ritual function of this class was indeed directly indicated
by the fact that not far from the remains of this vessel were found parts of
a steatite rhyton of a well-known class, in form of a bull's head (fig. 70). The
only perfect portions of this were the ears and the inlays for the .cheeks and
forehead in the form of quatrefoil plaques of a kind of hard schist. The fine
bulls-head rhyton of inlaid steatite from a shrine of the Little Palace at Knossos,
to be described below," though on a slightly larger scale than this, makes it
possible to complete the restoration of the present example as seen in fig. 70.
' Rhytons' of this class show a large round aperture on the top of the head, into
which the libation fluid was poured, while it found egress through a small hole
in the lips. There is every reason for believing that the rhyton before us had
served as an intermediary for pouring libations into the pedestal vase described
above.
The religious character of these vessels received a striking corroboration
Irom a further discovery made in close association with their remains. Together
with these, on the right-hand inner angle of the floor area, there came to light two
bronze double axes of the votive kind (2g,g,Hg. 71). One of these axes was
fragmentary, but the dimensions of what remained of it answered to those of the
perfect specimen, which was of bronze plate, 18-8 cm. in breadth, and with remains
of its wooden shaft still preserved in its central socket.
We have here therefore to do with one of the usual pairs of votive double
axes which formed the cult objects in Cretan sanctuaries. The shafts of these
were either socketed into the sacral horns of stucco or other materials, of such
constant recurrence in the Minoan holy places,or were set into stepped pyramidal
pedestals. Of the first practice we have a certain example in the late Palace
1 C. C. Edgar, Phylakopi, pp. 137, 138, and fig. no.
2 See p. 79 seqq., below.