DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0503
462
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Three here, therefore, a doorway capable of being- secured, but giving when open
Mafa- ° a wide passage. In the next Period, answering to that of the 'kaselles',
with more valuable contents, it was thought advisable to narrow the opening-
trance. «=> r &>
and a new doorway was made inside the earlier one on the new plan of
merely providing a gypsum footing for the wooden doorposts. This was the
Period when the adjoining section of the Long Gallery was isolated from
the rest as described above, and the whole enclave thus formed became
a Palace Treasury. The narrower doorways constructed at this epoch were
at the same time of sufficient breadth to admit the passage of the new class
of pithoi with less bulky proportions that at this time makes its appearance.
Finally, in the third stage, answering to the First Late Minoan, the
narrower doorways were removed, the low gypsum jambs paved over,
and the whole width of the original structure opened out so as to admit
the freer use of the interior of the Magazines for the purposes of oil
storage. These successive changes are well illustrated by the entrance of
the Eighth Magazine (Fig. 331).
Clearly, the main source of the wealth of the Priest Kings of Knossos
consisted, from the earliest days of the Palace, in the oil for which Egypt
seems to have supplied the principal market. In the closing phase of the
Middle Period we may trace the results of this commerce in the accumulated
treasure for which new receptacles were devised in the shape of the
' kaselles '. But after the great catastrophe and consequent plundering
that befell the West Wing at the close of that Period the storage of the oil
itself became again the chief end in view.
0
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Three here, therefore, a doorway capable of being- secured, but giving when open
Mafa- ° a wide passage. In the next Period, answering to that of the 'kaselles',
with more valuable contents, it was thought advisable to narrow the opening-
trance. «=> r &>
and a new doorway was made inside the earlier one on the new plan of
merely providing a gypsum footing for the wooden doorposts. This was the
Period when the adjoining section of the Long Gallery was isolated from
the rest as described above, and the whole enclave thus formed became
a Palace Treasury. The narrower doorways constructed at this epoch were
at the same time of sufficient breadth to admit the passage of the new class
of pithoi with less bulky proportions that at this time makes its appearance.
Finally, in the third stage, answering to the First Late Minoan, the
narrower doorways were removed, the low gypsum jambs paved over,
and the whole width of the original structure opened out so as to admit
the freer use of the interior of the Magazines for the purposes of oil
storage. These successive changes are well illustrated by the entrance of
the Eighth Magazine (Fig. 331).
Clearly, the main source of the wealth of the Priest Kings of Knossos
consisted, from the earliest days of the Palace, in the oil for which Egypt
seems to have supplied the principal market. In the closing phase of the
Middle Period we may trace the results of this commerce in the accumulated
treasure for which new receptacles were devised in the shape of the
' kaselles '. But after the great catastrophe and consequent plundering
that befell the West Wing at the close of that Period the storage of the oil
itself became again the chief end in view.
0