DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0351
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Appear-
ance of
Novel
Features
The Lin-
earized
Script.
New
Architec-
tural
Fashions.
Probable
Dynastic
Change
but
Essential
Con-
tinuity.
Partial
Disloca-
tions in
Palace
Area at
Knossos.
Certain changes indeed of great significance are visible in the new
order, such as the cessation of the traditional hieroglyphic form of script
and its replacement by a more advanced and linearized type, which cannot
be said to be its direct outgrowth. Side by side with this, too, is the
appearance of new types of signet and new methods with regard to sealing.
Novel architectural features also emerge, such as the compact masonry,
the fondness for floor-cists or ' kaselles', and, towards the close of this
Period, other new-fashioned constructive methods. As the art of M. M. Ill
moreover grows to maturity we witness a remarkable manifestation of the
naturalistic spirit.
That the overthrow at the close of M. M. II was accompanied by
a dynastic change is extremely probable. The possibility can by no means
be excluded that new ethnic ingredients had introduced themselves. Yet,
with all this, the survival and evolution of the older elements of the earlier
Cretan civilization is still so intensive in its quality that we cannot speak of
any such break in the continuity of Minoan culture as would, we may
suppose, have resulted from subjection to a foreign yoke. It is clear, for
instance, that in the earlier M. M. Ill stage, a, much of the architectural
traditions of the M. M. II b phase still survived.
Some discontinuity, however, in the architectural traditions of the
Knossian Palace there undoubtedly was at this epoch. Many features
indeed in the Palace plan as it at present exists go back no further than the
Third Middle Minoan Period. This, it will be seen, is especially true of the
interior of the ' Domestic Quarter', throughout a large part of which some-
thing like a clean sweep was made in order to carry out the new arrange-
ments. In this case there seems to have been a good deal of deliberate
demolition. Even here, however, the bases ot several important walls sur-
vived, while in the neighbouring area of the Loom-Weights, the lower
courses of the M. M. II walls were largely used as foundations for their
M. M. Ill successors. A certain amount of dislocation, however, is in this
case, too, visible in the plan.
This Loom-Weight area, as is demonstrated below,1 proved as impor-
tant for the history of the present Period as for the preceding. As will
be seen from the section given in Fig. 187 b above, there were here two
M. M. Ill floor-levels with characteristic contents, overlying that which
mark ed the latest. M. M. II phase.
The importance of the earlier M. M. Ill stratum here brought to light,
illustrating the mature stage of what may be called M. M. \\\a, in its
1 See p. 369 seqq.
Appear-
ance of
Novel
Features
The Lin-
earized
Script.
New
Architec-
tural
Fashions.
Probable
Dynastic
Change
but
Essential
Con-
tinuity.
Partial
Disloca-
tions in
Palace
Area at
Knossos.
Certain changes indeed of great significance are visible in the new
order, such as the cessation of the traditional hieroglyphic form of script
and its replacement by a more advanced and linearized type, which cannot
be said to be its direct outgrowth. Side by side with this, too, is the
appearance of new types of signet and new methods with regard to sealing.
Novel architectural features also emerge, such as the compact masonry,
the fondness for floor-cists or ' kaselles', and, towards the close of this
Period, other new-fashioned constructive methods. As the art of M. M. Ill
moreover grows to maturity we witness a remarkable manifestation of the
naturalistic spirit.
That the overthrow at the close of M. M. II was accompanied by
a dynastic change is extremely probable. The possibility can by no means
be excluded that new ethnic ingredients had introduced themselves. Yet,
with all this, the survival and evolution of the older elements of the earlier
Cretan civilization is still so intensive in its quality that we cannot speak of
any such break in the continuity of Minoan culture as would, we may
suppose, have resulted from subjection to a foreign yoke. It is clear, for
instance, that in the earlier M. M. Ill stage, a, much of the architectural
traditions of the M. M. II b phase still survived.
Some discontinuity, however, in the architectural traditions of the
Knossian Palace there undoubtedly was at this epoch. Many features
indeed in the Palace plan as it at present exists go back no further than the
Third Middle Minoan Period. This, it will be seen, is especially true of the
interior of the ' Domestic Quarter', throughout a large part of which some-
thing like a clean sweep was made in order to carry out the new arrange-
ments. In this case there seems to have been a good deal of deliberate
demolition. Even here, however, the bases ot several important walls sur-
vived, while in the neighbouring area of the Loom-Weights, the lower
courses of the M. M. II walls were largely used as foundations for their
M. M. Ill successors. A certain amount of dislocation, however, is in this
case, too, visible in the plan.
This Loom-Weight area, as is demonstrated below,1 proved as impor-
tant for the history of the present Period as for the preceding. As will
be seen from the section given in Fig. 187 b above, there were here two
M. M. Ill floor-levels with characteristic contents, overlying that which
mark ed the latest. M. M. II phase.
The importance of the earlier M. M. Ill stratum here brought to light,
illustrating the mature stage of what may be called M. M. \\\a, in its
1 See p. 369 seqq.