DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0240
M. M. II: CONSOLIDATION OF KNOSSIAN PALACE 21
hard stone column bases were completely discarded in favour of the easily
worked limestone and gypsum.
In connexion with the partial survival of such variegated column bases Con-
glomerate
into M. M. Ill, it is of interest to note that at Mycenae, the original Minoan column
elements of which seem to go back to the penultimate epoch of M. M. Ill, ;°ases
the fashion of breccia column bases was still in vogue. The nearest approach Early
E1 c iyi cuts
to this material, the local conglomerate, was used for the great bases still 0fMy-
visible, some in the foundations of the Greek Temple on the Acropolis renae-
height, and others on the slope below.1 But at Mycenae the fashion, thus
begun, was persistent both for bases and threshold slabs to the latest clays
of the Palace.
On the borders 01 the same Palace region at Knossos that contained
the breccia column bases of the form shown in Fig. 150 there occurred two
specimens of the variant type, Fig. 157, with a somewhat irregular ledge
below. They were finely executed in a softer black material with white
veins, and the upper part of their circumference above the ledge is brilliantly
polished. That sketched in the figure, the larger of the two, occurred in
a stratum underlying a M. M. Ill b floor.2 We have here, perhaps, a some-
what later type that had come into vogue by the beginning of M. M. III.
It is possible, indeed, to trace its later evolution in the fine gypsum examples
with their lower ledge found in the ' Room of the Column Bases', and which
had clearly belonged to the upper Columnar Hall of the Central Palace
Sanctuary on that side. These are referred below 3 to M. M. III.
The high column bases, above described, formed polychrome feet for Survival
the wooden shafts above, and it is interesting to note that, as is shown by chrome"
the Knossian frescoes depicting columnar shrines of the Third Middle Fcet of
Columns
Minoan Period 4 and the early part of the Late Minoan Age, this feature in Wall
was reproduced in the painted stucco decoration of the wooden shafts, which Pamtinss-
appear with a dark zone at their base.
1 The dimensions of these, as ascertained
for me by Dr. Mackenzie, are about i m. in
their upper diameter and 1-20 m. below. Their
height is c. 42 cm. The great Mycenae bases
are slightly ' cushioned' out round their
circumference. The large column-base at
the entrance of the Propylaeum at Phaestos
(which is slightly oval) has an upper diameter
of 1 -45 x 1-35 m. Another, of black material
shot with quartzite veins, in the Columnar Hall
N.E. of the Magazines at Phaestos, is 1-16 m.
in its upper diameter and rises c. 23 cm, above
the pavement.
2 It was found just East of the ' North-East
Portico' referred to above, 30 cm. beneath
a floor with M. M. Ill b tripod pots, and almost
directly above a filled-in well, containing
M. M. I a pottery. A smaller column base of
the same type and material came to light N. of
the area of the ' Stone Drain-heads '.
3 See p. 442, Fig. 318.
4 See below, p. 443, Fig. 319.
hard stone column bases were completely discarded in favour of the easily
worked limestone and gypsum.
In connexion with the partial survival of such variegated column bases Con-
glomerate
into M. M. Ill, it is of interest to note that at Mycenae, the original Minoan column
elements of which seem to go back to the penultimate epoch of M. M. Ill, ;°ases
the fashion of breccia column bases was still in vogue. The nearest approach Early
E1 c iyi cuts
to this material, the local conglomerate, was used for the great bases still 0fMy-
visible, some in the foundations of the Greek Temple on the Acropolis renae-
height, and others on the slope below.1 But at Mycenae the fashion, thus
begun, was persistent both for bases and threshold slabs to the latest clays
of the Palace.
On the borders 01 the same Palace region at Knossos that contained
the breccia column bases of the form shown in Fig. 150 there occurred two
specimens of the variant type, Fig. 157, with a somewhat irregular ledge
below. They were finely executed in a softer black material with white
veins, and the upper part of their circumference above the ledge is brilliantly
polished. That sketched in the figure, the larger of the two, occurred in
a stratum underlying a M. M. Ill b floor.2 We have here, perhaps, a some-
what later type that had come into vogue by the beginning of M. M. III.
It is possible, indeed, to trace its later evolution in the fine gypsum examples
with their lower ledge found in the ' Room of the Column Bases', and which
had clearly belonged to the upper Columnar Hall of the Central Palace
Sanctuary on that side. These are referred below 3 to M. M. III.
The high column bases, above described, formed polychrome feet for Survival
the wooden shafts above, and it is interesting to note that, as is shown by chrome"
the Knossian frescoes depicting columnar shrines of the Third Middle Fcet of
Columns
Minoan Period 4 and the early part of the Late Minoan Age, this feature in Wall
was reproduced in the painted stucco decoration of the wooden shafts, which Pamtinss-
appear with a dark zone at their base.
1 The dimensions of these, as ascertained
for me by Dr. Mackenzie, are about i m. in
their upper diameter and 1-20 m. below. Their
height is c. 42 cm. The great Mycenae bases
are slightly ' cushioned' out round their
circumference. The large column-base at
the entrance of the Propylaeum at Phaestos
(which is slightly oval) has an upper diameter
of 1 -45 x 1-35 m. Another, of black material
shot with quartzite veins, in the Columnar Hall
N.E. of the Magazines at Phaestos, is 1-16 m.
in its upper diameter and rises c. 23 cm, above
the pavement.
2 It was found just East of the ' North-East
Portico' referred to above, 30 cm. beneath
a floor with M. M. Ill b tripod pots, and almost
directly above a filled-in well, containing
M. M. I a pottery. A smaller column base of
the same type and material came to light N. of
the area of the ' Stone Drain-heads '.
3 See p. 442, Fig. 318.
4 See below, p. 443, Fig. 319.