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. III. FLOOR-CISTS OF W. PALACE REGION 455

neighbouring Repositories, which afford the best evidence for the style
in vogue at the very close of M, M. III. Here again, as in the other case,
was a clay layer above the cists, intended as a bedding for a gypsum
pavement, belonging to a later system. In connexion with this pavement
were upright gypsum slabs along its border, forming a narrow corridor deter-
containing remains of L. M. I Pithoi.1 But the evidence did not end here. ra'ned by

o _ _ later

This Corridor was in turn cut short in the last Palace Period (L. M. II) by stratifica-
a wall belonging to the Ante-Room of the Throne Room system, while the tlon'
remaining' section of it—that above the cists—was at the same time filled in
to support the threshold of the Stepped Porch erected on that side at the
same epoch. (See Diagrammatic Section, Fig. 326.) We have here, there-
fore, a well-defined quadruple stratification2, of great value as a clear
indication that the cists violated at the close of M.M. Ill were covered
over successively by a clay flooring and a gypsum pavement between
that date and the concluding phase of L. M. II to which the Room of the
Throne and its antechamber belong.

The size and arrangement of the ' kaselles' in the Magazines
bordering the section of the Long Gallery that contained the floor-cists
of types a and b varied a good deal, as can be seen from the Plan,
Fig-. 322.

The original method of construction seems here to have conformed
with that of series a of the cists of the Long Gallery. But in nearly all
cases there is evidence of a change in the original system, in virtue of *[ja"» f
which the receptacles were rendered more shallow by the insertion of Magazine
a new bottom slab, about half a metre above that with which they were
at first provided.

The best example of this dual arrangement is supplied by the
Eighth Magazine, though the middle compartments had unfortunately been
much destroyed by treasure seekers. The Plan and longitudinal Section
of this is given in Fig. 325, e, f,3 and a view of it in Fig. 327, which,
owing to the above-mentioned destruction, shows a good deal of its
anatomy. The cists are included in larger compartments of solid ashlar
masonry, piers of which separate them into six sections. The original

1 See K/iossos, Report, 1904, p. 30 seqq. ; intermediate floor levels, perhaps belonging to
Figs. 9, 10, and PL I. small cistdike compartments. (See Knossos,

2 Attaching to a block underlying the N.E. Report, 1904, p. 33.) The bearing of these is
corner of the vestibule of the Stepped Porch obscure, however, and they are omitted in the
were fragments of painted wall stucco and diagrammatic Section, Fig. 326

plaster pavements pointing to the existence of 3 By Mr. Theodore Fyfe.