DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0361
J 17. M. M. Ill : (B) The Domestic Quarter.
Dramatic development of the Excavation—discovery of Grand Staircase
and Residential Quarter in great East Cutting; The 'Domestic Quarter';
Preservation of Upper Slo7-ies; Work of Restoration ; Halls of Colonnades
and Double Axes; 'Queens Megaron'; Court of Distaffs; Alteration of
Drainage System; Service Quarter and Staircase; Room of Stone Bench
and Upper Hall of Double Axes ; System above Queens Megaron—Bedrooms,
Bath-rooms, and Latrines ; Treasury of Shrine ; The Grand Staircase of five
flights,—approached from Central Court; Tapering wooden columns—their
origin in primitive stone pillars; Lozv column bases; Use of Cypress wood;
Evidence of fluted columns; M. M. Ill Construction ; Timber framework
of walls and windows; Important architectural equations supplied by area
of Spiral Fresco ; Chronological data—structural core of Domestic Quarter
M. M. Ilia.; Existing superficial features mainly M.M.IIIh and Late
Minoan ; Passage East of Domestic Quarter—'Marbled' and 'Labyrinth'
frescoes ; Egyptian Meander as House Plan ; The Labyrinth and Minotaur
at Knossos.
It was in working South from the last section of the Corridor of the Bays, Dramatic
and thus through a blocked doorway to a threshold beyond, that the course ment of
of excavation on the Palace site of Knossos took its most dramatic turn.1 {he Lxca-
vation :
Immediately in front of the doorway appeared the ascending steps of a flight Discovery
of stairs, flanked by a stone parapet with the socketed bases of carbonized stair-
wooden columns. A couple of paces to the right, on the other hand, the Case-
paved surface—hitherto regarded as the ground-level of this part of the
building—suddenly began to step down, and turned out to be the landing of
a descending flight of twelve steps. This led to another landing, stepping
down to a third, from which, at right angles to the left, the head of a lower
flight came into view.
A sketch of the first results of this exploratory work by Mr. Theodore
Fyfe is given in Fig. 237, showing the void caused by the crumbling away
of a carbonized wooden column that had supported the landing block between
two upper flights. Another landing block for a fifth flight of stairs, grooved
for the great beam ends, is seen in situ at the further end of the middle wall.
This part of the excavation proved to be altogether miner's work owing
1 See Knossos, Report, 1901, p. 102 seqq.
Dramatic development of the Excavation—discovery of Grand Staircase
and Residential Quarter in great East Cutting; The 'Domestic Quarter';
Preservation of Upper Slo7-ies; Work of Restoration ; Halls of Colonnades
and Double Axes; 'Queens Megaron'; Court of Distaffs; Alteration of
Drainage System; Service Quarter and Staircase; Room of Stone Bench
and Upper Hall of Double Axes ; System above Queens Megaron—Bedrooms,
Bath-rooms, and Latrines ; Treasury of Shrine ; The Grand Staircase of five
flights,—approached from Central Court; Tapering wooden columns—their
origin in primitive stone pillars; Lozv column bases; Use of Cypress wood;
Evidence of fluted columns; M. M. Ill Construction ; Timber framework
of walls and windows; Important architectural equations supplied by area
of Spiral Fresco ; Chronological data—structural core of Domestic Quarter
M. M. Ilia.; Existing superficial features mainly M.M.IIIh and Late
Minoan ; Passage East of Domestic Quarter—'Marbled' and 'Labyrinth'
frescoes ; Egyptian Meander as House Plan ; The Labyrinth and Minotaur
at Knossos.
It was in working South from the last section of the Corridor of the Bays, Dramatic
and thus through a blocked doorway to a threshold beyond, that the course ment of
of excavation on the Palace site of Knossos took its most dramatic turn.1 {he Lxca-
vation :
Immediately in front of the doorway appeared the ascending steps of a flight Discovery
of stairs, flanked by a stone parapet with the socketed bases of carbonized stair-
wooden columns. A couple of paces to the right, on the other hand, the Case-
paved surface—hitherto regarded as the ground-level of this part of the
building—suddenly began to step down, and turned out to be the landing of
a descending flight of twelve steps. This led to another landing, stepping
down to a third, from which, at right angles to the left, the head of a lower
flight came into view.
A sketch of the first results of this exploratory work by Mr. Theodore
Fyfe is given in Fig. 237, showing the void caused by the crumbling away
of a carbonized wooden column that had supported the landing block between
two upper flights. Another landing block for a fifth flight of stairs, grooved
for the great beam ends, is seen in situ at the further end of the middle wall.
This part of the excavation proved to be altogether miner's work owing
1 See Knossos, Report, 1901, p. 102 seqq.