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 : N.E. BORDERS AND BASEMENTS OF E. HALL 375

culture. The lower stratum in the section referred to, above the M. M. II b
' mosaiko' pavement, may be taken to represent the close of that Period
and the ensuing epoch in which the site was perhaps temporarily left in
its ruinous state. This layer is practically equal in thickness to the
three M. M. Ill floors, two of them plaster and the topmost gypsum, seen
above it. The stratum of the spiral frescoes overlies the middle of these
and maybe taken to represent the mature stage of the earlier M. M. Ill
phase, a. It is with this stage that we have to do in the case of the present
deposit.

Of great importance in relation to this mature M. M. Ill stage are the
remains of painted stucco low reliefs brought to light with those of the

Fig. 272. Fresco Frieze with Spiraliform Design from North-West Quarter of

Palace, Knossos M. M. Ill a. (i c.)

Spiral Fresco, and which point already to considerable progress in an art
that had reached its acme by the beginning of the Late Minoan Age.1
These from their very nature must have formed part of the decoration of
a spacious chamber. The most numerous were fragments of figures of bulls
in somewhat lower relief than those discovered in the Northern Entrance
Passage. They were mostly about life size, and among these were a left fore-
shoulder, two hoofs, and several fragments of legs, including the knee of

1 The proof here afforded of the existence a female figure in comparatively low relief,
at this time of painted stucco reliefs already in Already in 1901 fragments belonging to the
a highly developed stage received a further relief figure of a bull were found underneath
illustration from a discovery made during the Service stair S. of the Hall of the Colon-
the investigations of 1913, beneath the later nades. It looks therefore as if these painted
floor of the S. light area of the Hall of the reliefs had formed part of the original decora-
Double Axes. A fragment was here found, tion of the Domestic Quarter,
representing part of the thigh and robe of

Frag-
ments of
Painted
Stucco
Reliefs :
Bull-
grappling
Scenes.