DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0233
206
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
discovered. This block formed part of a separate enclosure, the ' E. Central
Enclave' of the Plan. It was of massive build, and eventually supplied the
substructure for the East end of what seems to have been a great Palace
hall above.
The flat strip bordering this Enclave on the East was occupied during
the greater part of this Period by a series of Magazines containing large pithoi
of the knobbed class and standing in connexion with the still existing group
a little North. Early, apparently, in the succeeding Period, however, this
arrangement gave way to a finer system. A Northern branch of the Lower
East-West Corridor that now comes into existence was made to follow the
outer wall-line of the Enclave above described, to a fine rectangular chamber,
opening on the ' Court of the Stone Spout'. Both this chamber and the
Court overlie M. M. II pithoi.
Both at Knossos and at Phaestos certain main features in the arrange-
ments at once strike the eye.1
Careful In both Palaces we see a more or less rectangular structure of vast extent
onenta- -that of Knossos covering, with its Courts, over six acres—the whole grouped
tion of . . .
Palace round an oblong paved area. The lines in both cases are at right angles to
one another, and the whole design divides itself into zones and rectangular
units. Both buildings, moreover, were carefully oriented, the major axis in
either case running from North to South. With this, too, in the better preserved
Roman plan of Knossos, corresponded the main lines of access by which the Central
Italic^^ Court was approached through the Sea Gate and Northern Entrance Passage
Com" in one direction, and bv the South Porch in the other 2—an arrangement
pansons. J <=>
anticipating the cardo of the Roman Castrum. To a certain extent, more-
over, we have the equivalent of the decumanus maior. About the middle of
the Central Court, both on its Western and its Eastern side, opened two main
gangways. That to the West takes indeed a tortuous passage to the Western
Entrance. But that to the East, by which access was obtained to the Grand
Staircase, led through it, by the East-West Corridor beyond, to what seems
to have been the Water-Gate of the Palace,3 above the Kaeratos stream.
1 See too my observations, Bird's-Eye View on the West. Pernier, Rendiconti'deiLihcet, xvi
of the Palace of Knossos, Journ. R.I.B.A., 1902, (1907), p. 261 and Fig. A; cf. Noack, Ovalhaus,
pp. 104, 105. &c, p. 8, and see below p. 214, Fig. 160 and
2 Pernier, Rapporto preliminare, &c., Mon. note 2.
Ant., xii, 1902, p. 59, suggested that the prin- 3 Remains of structures seen on the slope
cipal entrance to the Phaestos Palace was on here South-East of the Light-Area of the Hall of
the South Side. This part of the area, how- the Double Axes, seem to have belonged to
ever, had been denuded away. A later dis- a bastion with stepped descent resembling the
covery showed an entrance on a lower level to ' East Bastion' farther North on this side.
S.W., with a columnar portico analogous to that
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
discovered. This block formed part of a separate enclosure, the ' E. Central
Enclave' of the Plan. It was of massive build, and eventually supplied the
substructure for the East end of what seems to have been a great Palace
hall above.
The flat strip bordering this Enclave on the East was occupied during
the greater part of this Period by a series of Magazines containing large pithoi
of the knobbed class and standing in connexion with the still existing group
a little North. Early, apparently, in the succeeding Period, however, this
arrangement gave way to a finer system. A Northern branch of the Lower
East-West Corridor that now comes into existence was made to follow the
outer wall-line of the Enclave above described, to a fine rectangular chamber,
opening on the ' Court of the Stone Spout'. Both this chamber and the
Court overlie M. M. II pithoi.
Both at Knossos and at Phaestos certain main features in the arrange-
ments at once strike the eye.1
Careful In both Palaces we see a more or less rectangular structure of vast extent
onenta- -that of Knossos covering, with its Courts, over six acres—the whole grouped
tion of . . .
Palace round an oblong paved area. The lines in both cases are at right angles to
one another, and the whole design divides itself into zones and rectangular
units. Both buildings, moreover, were carefully oriented, the major axis in
either case running from North to South. With this, too, in the better preserved
Roman plan of Knossos, corresponded the main lines of access by which the Central
Italic^^ Court was approached through the Sea Gate and Northern Entrance Passage
Com" in one direction, and bv the South Porch in the other 2—an arrangement
pansons. J <=>
anticipating the cardo of the Roman Castrum. To a certain extent, more-
over, we have the equivalent of the decumanus maior. About the middle of
the Central Court, both on its Western and its Eastern side, opened two main
gangways. That to the West takes indeed a tortuous passage to the Western
Entrance. But that to the East, by which access was obtained to the Grand
Staircase, led through it, by the East-West Corridor beyond, to what seems
to have been the Water-Gate of the Palace,3 above the Kaeratos stream.
1 See too my observations, Bird's-Eye View on the West. Pernier, Rendiconti'deiLihcet, xvi
of the Palace of Knossos, Journ. R.I.B.A., 1902, (1907), p. 261 and Fig. A; cf. Noack, Ovalhaus,
pp. 104, 105. &c, p. 8, and see below p. 214, Fig. 160 and
2 Pernier, Rapporto preliminare, &c., Mon. note 2.
Ant., xii, 1902, p. 59, suggested that the prin- 3 Remains of structures seen on the slope
cipal entrance to the Phaestos Palace was on here South-East of the Light-Area of the Hall of
the South Side. This part of the area, how- the Double Axes, seem to have belonged to
ever, had been denuded away. A later dis- a bastion with stepped descent resembling the
covery showed an entrance on a lower level to ' East Bastion' farther North on this side.
S.W., with a columnar portico analogous to that