DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0477
M. M. HI : WEST PALACE REGION ; DOUBLE AXE CULT 437
Of the importance of the Double Axe cult in the neighbourhood of
Knossos new and very important evidence has been recently brought out by
the Ephor, Dr. Stephanos Xanthudides in the course of his excavation of a large
Minoan building at a spot Discovery
of Sane-
called Nirou Khani,1 a little tuaryat
East of the promontory of Jlirou.
1 J Khani.
Kakon Oros that dominates
the old harbour town of
Knossos on that side. The
building itself, which occupies
about 1,000 square metres and
contains some forty rooms,
seems from the character of
the potter)- found within it to
date from the beginning: of the
Lnte Minoan Age.2 Its prin- Colossal
111 1 Double
cipal chamber was entirely Axe
devoted to cult purposes. It heads-
contained a number of tripods
faced with painted plaster like
the usual Minoan hearths,3but
in this case probably altars
of offering, closely stacked
together in piles of five. Be-
„ 4,, c T1 „ sides these there were stone
Fig. 314. Stepped Pyramidal Socket for
Double Axe; Long Corridor of Palace. lamps, some with high pedes-
tals, and clay chafing pans or
censers. But the most remarkable objects were four huge bronze Double
Axes of the sacral kind, with flat blades rivetted to their sockets. The dimen-
sions of these far exceeded any known examples. One of them measured
i-20 metre—45 inches—in width, and 60 cm. in height (Eig. 313).
The analogy oi the early column bases and the tradition preserved in Bases of
the veined decoration of the plaster as seen on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus Axes?in
makes it probable that the original bases of the sacred symbol in the Pillar Palace.
Crypts of the Knossian Palace were of variegated stone. A good example
of a stepped base of gypsum, doubtless originally coated with painted
1 KprjTLKyj 'E^r/^uepis, Aug. 5, 1919. been kindly supplied me by Dr. Xanthudides.
2 Photographs of the objects found in this The pottery is L.M. I.
chamber, including the Double Axes, have 3 See above, p. 390.
Of the importance of the Double Axe cult in the neighbourhood of
Knossos new and very important evidence has been recently brought out by
the Ephor, Dr. Stephanos Xanthudides in the course of his excavation of a large
Minoan building at a spot Discovery
of Sane-
called Nirou Khani,1 a little tuaryat
East of the promontory of Jlirou.
1 J Khani.
Kakon Oros that dominates
the old harbour town of
Knossos on that side. The
building itself, which occupies
about 1,000 square metres and
contains some forty rooms,
seems from the character of
the potter)- found within it to
date from the beginning: of the
Lnte Minoan Age.2 Its prin- Colossal
111 1 Double
cipal chamber was entirely Axe
devoted to cult purposes. It heads-
contained a number of tripods
faced with painted plaster like
the usual Minoan hearths,3but
in this case probably altars
of offering, closely stacked
together in piles of five. Be-
„ 4,, c T1 „ sides these there were stone
Fig. 314. Stepped Pyramidal Socket for
Double Axe; Long Corridor of Palace. lamps, some with high pedes-
tals, and clay chafing pans or
censers. But the most remarkable objects were four huge bronze Double
Axes of the sacral kind, with flat blades rivetted to their sockets. The dimen-
sions of these far exceeded any known examples. One of them measured
i-20 metre—45 inches—in width, and 60 cm. in height (Eig. 313).
The analogy oi the early column bases and the tradition preserved in Bases of
the veined decoration of the plaster as seen on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus Axes?in
makes it probable that the original bases of the sacred symbol in the Pillar Palace.
Crypts of the Knossian Palace were of variegated stone. A good example
of a stepped base of gypsum, doubtless originally coated with painted
1 KprjTLKyj 'E^r/^uepis, Aug. 5, 1919. been kindly supplied me by Dr. Xanthudides.
2 Photographs of the objects found in this The pottery is L.M. I.
chamber, including the Double Axes, have 3 See above, p. 390.