DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0191
M. M. I: CERAMIC PHASES
165
dences
of local
and, still more, the exquisite work of the jewellers and lapidaries of Mochlos, culture in
lend colour to the view that in the Early Minoan Age the chief seats of the E' Ciete-
indigenous arts and crafts should be largely sought in Eastern Crete. But
already in E. M. Ill the ivory seals of the Central district show a considerable Great
artistic development. At Knossos, moreover, side by side with the some- m Ar^e
what plain light on dark ware, with its simple geometrical patterns, we see ^,nd
V_ 1 c\ 11S (it
ceramic art advancing on quite new lines from the beginning of the present Knossos
Period. This advance is further marked by the appearance of elaborate E.M^ni!
mosaic work, by lapidaries' craft applied to crystalline stones, by the fabric
of vessels of egg-shell fineness, and by the increasing use of ceramic
polychromy, incipient traces of which we have already noted on the latest
class of E. M. Ill vases. To this must be added the first appearance
of the conventionalized hieroglyphic script in its earliest form (Class A).
All these new departures in ceramic and other arts are illustrated by
the remains representing the latest cultural stratum that underlies the early
constructions of the Palace as we know it.
It has been already noted with regard to the spacious hypogaeum or Evi
entrance vault discovered beneath the later Palace enceinte, that it clearly
stands in relation to some earlier building of the kind, which probably pre-
dcccssor
owed its removal to the planing away of the original hill-top in order to supply 0f Palace
the emplacement of palatial constructions on a larger scale. That, already by
the beginning of the Middle Minoan Age, an earlier residence of Minoan Priest-
Kings had crowned the hill of Knossos is made further probable by the dis-
covery of a rich and varied deposit of this date beneath the existing Palace
floor and on the borders of what was in later times the Central Palace shrine.
This discovery was made beneath the pavement at the entrance of the Pre-
early Magazine that opens immediately North of the East Pillar Room (see Deposit
Plan, Fie/-. 121) known as the 1 Room of the Stone Vats', from the cavities, under
r ... .... 'Room
perhaps for wooden receptacles, seen in its side slabs. This slabbing itself of Stone
goes back to the earliest period of the existing Palace, and was laid direct ats '
on the Neolithic clay, an upper stratum of which had been levelled away for
the new constructions throughout this part of the building.
The deposit itself occurred in a small pit going down about a metre
deeper into the Neolithic layer than the pavement level. Limited as it is in
extent, it gives a very comprehensive insight into the culture that existed at
Knossos in the epoch that immediately preceded the laying out of the
existing Palace.1
1 For a detailed account of many of the Report, 1903 (B. S.A., pp 94-8, and cf.
objects found in this Deposit see Knossos, Figs. 65, 66.
165
dences
of local
and, still more, the exquisite work of the jewellers and lapidaries of Mochlos, culture in
lend colour to the view that in the Early Minoan Age the chief seats of the E' Ciete-
indigenous arts and crafts should be largely sought in Eastern Crete. But
already in E. M. Ill the ivory seals of the Central district show a considerable Great
artistic development. At Knossos, moreover, side by side with the some- m Ar^e
what plain light on dark ware, with its simple geometrical patterns, we see ^,nd
V_ 1 c\ 11S (it
ceramic art advancing on quite new lines from the beginning of the present Knossos
Period. This advance is further marked by the appearance of elaborate E.M^ni!
mosaic work, by lapidaries' craft applied to crystalline stones, by the fabric
of vessels of egg-shell fineness, and by the increasing use of ceramic
polychromy, incipient traces of which we have already noted on the latest
class of E. M. Ill vases. To this must be added the first appearance
of the conventionalized hieroglyphic script in its earliest form (Class A).
All these new departures in ceramic and other arts are illustrated by
the remains representing the latest cultural stratum that underlies the early
constructions of the Palace as we know it.
It has been already noted with regard to the spacious hypogaeum or Evi
entrance vault discovered beneath the later Palace enceinte, that it clearly
stands in relation to some earlier building of the kind, which probably pre-
dcccssor
owed its removal to the planing away of the original hill-top in order to supply 0f Palace
the emplacement of palatial constructions on a larger scale. That, already by
the beginning of the Middle Minoan Age, an earlier residence of Minoan Priest-
Kings had crowned the hill of Knossos is made further probable by the dis-
covery of a rich and varied deposit of this date beneath the existing Palace
floor and on the borders of what was in later times the Central Palace shrine.
This discovery was made beneath the pavement at the entrance of the Pre-
early Magazine that opens immediately North of the East Pillar Room (see Deposit
Plan, Fie/-. 121) known as the 1 Room of the Stone Vats', from the cavities, under
r ... .... 'Room
perhaps for wooden receptacles, seen in its side slabs. This slabbing itself of Stone
goes back to the earliest period of the existing Palace, and was laid direct ats '
on the Neolithic clay, an upper stratum of which had been levelled away for
the new constructions throughout this part of the building.
The deposit itself occurred in a small pit going down about a metre
deeper into the Neolithic layer than the pavement level. Limited as it is in
extent, it gives a very comprehensive insight into the culture that existed at
Knossos in the epoch that immediately preceded the laying out of the
existing Palace.1
1 For a detailed account of many of the Report, 1903 (B. S.A., pp 94-8, and cf.
objects found in this Deposit see Knossos, Figs. 65, 66.