Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

M. M. Ill: THE DOMESTIC QUARTER

from Menidi.1 On the other hand the columns of the early terra-cotta
sanctuary show no taper, and the same holds of certain Late Minoan examples,

including, at Knossos, the column in low relief of the ' Tomb of the Double Tapered

Axes '.2 It is also clear that both the column of the Lions' Gate at Mycenae 3 0f°Knos-

and the half columns of the facade of the ' Treasury of Atreus' must be re- 5.1,an.

* J t hnnnes

moved from the category of those which dwindle gradually towards their base, and H. of

But the consistent evidence of the contemporary copies in wall-painting, Axes. 6
supported by later survivals in sculpture and intaglio, is surely sufficient
to demonstrate that this downward taper was a characteristic feature of
shafts in the M. M. Ill Palace. So far as could be judged by the carbonized
remains themselves, a column of the Hall of the Double Axes, of which 2-60
metres out of a total length of about 3 metres was preserved, showed a decided
taper.4 Its lower end was 45 cm. in diameter, that of its gypsum base
65 cm., but, judging by Minoan practice, it is extremely probable that the
wooden surface was covered by a coloured plaster coating. The vivid hues
of the columns and capitals of the shrines of the fresco paintings could hardly
have been otherwise achieved.

In the earlier M. M. Ill stage seen in the Spiral Fresco Deposit the Low
tradition survives of comparatively high column bases of variegated materials, Bases""
but, by the close of this Period, they are regularly of lower formation and replace

v t\t- . . . . Earlier

of gypsum or limestone, as in Late Minoan times.5 An interesting survival Class,
of the earlier practice is even traceable in the ' stockinged ' appearance of
the columns in the contemporary frescoes, the lower part of the shaft being
there marked off in a darker colour.0

1 Das Kuppelgrab, PI. VIII, Fig. 10. 4 See Knossos, Report, 1901,. p. 114. This

2 Archaeologia, vol. Ixv, p. 37, Fig. 49. was the Northern of the two columns in the
See also Vol. II of this work. In the Lustral W. light court. The other was also well pre-
Area of the Little Palace the impressed flirtings served. Both showed a slight South-Easterly
of the columns present indeed the appearance inclination. It was found impossible to pre-
of their dwindling below ; and Mr. Fyfe s serve the carbonized shafts of these columns,
original measurements bear this out Mr. Doll's The charred mass published by Dr. Durm,
observations, however, have led him to the op. tit., p. 58, Fig. 16, as part of one of these,
conclusion that the diameter was the same at is in reality part of a massive beam from the
top and bottom. N.E. corner of the Hall of the Colonnades.

3 Contrary to the received idea, based on Dr. Durm's objection that this very shapeless
photographs of the Berlin cast, the column of mass shows no evidence of having belonged to
the tympanum of the Lions' Gate has been a tapered column therefore falls to the ground,
shown by Professor Durm to be of the same Neither does he seem to have been aware of
diameter throughout (Jahreshefte d. Oester- the analogy supplied by the primitive stone
reichischen Arch. Inst, x, p. 53 seqq.). For the pillars of the class referred to.

half column from the 'Treasury of Atreus' see 5 See below, p. 370.

op. at., p. 47 seqq. 6 See below, p. 443, Fig. 319.