DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0430
39Q
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
the left the entrance of a small magazine. The left doorway, on the other
hand, gave entrance to a small square chamber1 divided from the more public
space to the right by a thin gypsum partition such as occurs elsewhere in the
case of the latrine in the Domestic Quarter, described above, as well as
in certain Magazines of this Period.2 Both the closet itself and the adjoin-
ing space were very well preserved, and the gypsum dado slabs that lined the
walls, as well as the combination of the central door-jamb with the thin parti-
tion, together present a characteristic specimen of the late M. M. Ill archi-
tectural style, so similar in its general features to the earlier Late Minoan.
A terminus a quo for this whole group of structures is supplied by the
pottery found in the little store-room behind the adjoining space. This was all
of the same character as that of the adjoining N.E. Pottery stores, ordinary
ware, that is, belonging to the latest M. M. Ill b class.
This little magazine, moreover, contained two objects which threw
a useful light on the furniture of the Hall itself. One was a low portable
seat of hard white-faced stucco with a clay core, resembling the lower
class of stone seats found in the Later Palace, which seem to have been
used by the women. The other was a tripod hearth faced with the same
white stucco resembling those, with the ashes still on them, found in Late
Minoan tombs.3 But the occurrence of this in connexion with this little
Hall with its four-columned light-well, has a special interest in its bearing
on the numerous fragments of similar stucco-hearths found with M. M. Ill
sherds in the circular rubbish pit (' Kouloura ') beneath the later pavement
of the West Court. The borders of some of these, as is pointed out
below,4 are in fact decorated with the same ' notched plume ' motive that
recurs on the fixed hearth of the Megaron at Mycenae.
N.E. In the space outside this store-room were also found two plain pedes-
z^ineT" tailed lamps of grey steatite. Beyond the lobby where these occurred a small
ascending passage gave access to the square building containing the group
of M. M. Ill pottery stores known as the North-East Magazines (Fig. 281).
A key plan of these with reference to the forms of vessels that they contained
will be found below.5 On the West border of these, in the immediately
overlying stratum, were rouleaux of typical L. M. I cups.
1 It was possibly a bath-room, or we may
have here to do with a latrine of a simple
kind, with movable utensils, such as is still
common in parts of Southern Europe. The
dimensions of the closet were 2-50 by 2-70
metres.
2 As for instance in the North Lustral Area,
the S.E. House, and Royal Villa at Knossos.
3 Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos (Arc/iaeo/ogia,
vol. lix), p. 36, Fig. 33.
4 See p. 550,
5 See p. 569, Fig. 414.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
the left the entrance of a small magazine. The left doorway, on the other
hand, gave entrance to a small square chamber1 divided from the more public
space to the right by a thin gypsum partition such as occurs elsewhere in the
case of the latrine in the Domestic Quarter, described above, as well as
in certain Magazines of this Period.2 Both the closet itself and the adjoin-
ing space were very well preserved, and the gypsum dado slabs that lined the
walls, as well as the combination of the central door-jamb with the thin parti-
tion, together present a characteristic specimen of the late M. M. Ill archi-
tectural style, so similar in its general features to the earlier Late Minoan.
A terminus a quo for this whole group of structures is supplied by the
pottery found in the little store-room behind the adjoining space. This was all
of the same character as that of the adjoining N.E. Pottery stores, ordinary
ware, that is, belonging to the latest M. M. Ill b class.
This little magazine, moreover, contained two objects which threw
a useful light on the furniture of the Hall itself. One was a low portable
seat of hard white-faced stucco with a clay core, resembling the lower
class of stone seats found in the Later Palace, which seem to have been
used by the women. The other was a tripod hearth faced with the same
white stucco resembling those, with the ashes still on them, found in Late
Minoan tombs.3 But the occurrence of this in connexion with this little
Hall with its four-columned light-well, has a special interest in its bearing
on the numerous fragments of similar stucco-hearths found with M. M. Ill
sherds in the circular rubbish pit (' Kouloura ') beneath the later pavement
of the West Court. The borders of some of these, as is pointed out
below,4 are in fact decorated with the same ' notched plume ' motive that
recurs on the fixed hearth of the Megaron at Mycenae.
N.E. In the space outside this store-room were also found two plain pedes-
z^ineT" tailed lamps of grey steatite. Beyond the lobby where these occurred a small
ascending passage gave access to the square building containing the group
of M. M. Ill pottery stores known as the North-East Magazines (Fig. 281).
A key plan of these with reference to the forms of vessels that they contained
will be found below.5 On the West border of these, in the immediately
overlying stratum, were rouleaux of typical L. M. I cups.
1 It was possibly a bath-room, or we may
have here to do with a latrine of a simple
kind, with movable utensils, such as is still
common in parts of Southern Europe. The
dimensions of the closet were 2-50 by 2-70
metres.
2 As for instance in the North Lustral Area,
the S.E. House, and Royal Villa at Knossos.
3 Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos (Arc/iaeo/ogia,
vol. lix), p. 36, Fig. 33.
4 See p. 550,
5 See p. 569, Fig. 414.