DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0505
464
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
been a small columnar shrine facing the Central Court, in connexion with
which, moreover, a series of seal impressions was discovered showing the
Minoan Goddess on her lion-guarded peak.1
Super- It was in a small chamber immediately behind this later shrine
of laterStS anc^ connected by a short passage-way with the E. Pillar Room that the
Shrine. most remarkable evidence of the Early Palace Cult came to light. The
position of this little room is given in the Plan, Fig. 322 above. Here,
in the Late Minoan floor, had been found, at the time of the first excava-
tion, two superficial cists (Fig. 332), which from their shallow construction
Fig. 332. Late Minoan Superficial Cists in Pavement above the
Temple Repositories.
present an obvious parallel to the ' Vats' constructed above the lower part
of the original ' kaselles' of the Magazines, ex hypothesi in the First Late
Minoan Period. The two small superficial cists in question, however, differed
from the others in one important respect, their upper borders being here cut
out so as better to secure a lid, of which in the case of the 'Vats' of
the Magazines there was no trace. They may, therefore, have followed the
older usage and have acted as receptacles for solid objects, probably of ritual
use. When considered in relation to the discovery of the more important cists
below, it becomes evident, indeed, that they represented a religious survival.
Two years after the first excavation, noticing a slight sagging in the
pavement of the room containing the two superficial cists, I had some slabs
raised, and it was then discovered that the floor here rested, not as elsewhere
in this region, immediately on the Neolithic stratum, but on comparatively
1 See Vol. II, and Knossos, Report, 1901, pp. 28, 29, and Fig. 9.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
been a small columnar shrine facing the Central Court, in connexion with
which, moreover, a series of seal impressions was discovered showing the
Minoan Goddess on her lion-guarded peak.1
Super- It was in a small chamber immediately behind this later shrine
of laterStS anc^ connected by a short passage-way with the E. Pillar Room that the
Shrine. most remarkable evidence of the Early Palace Cult came to light. The
position of this little room is given in the Plan, Fig. 322 above. Here,
in the Late Minoan floor, had been found, at the time of the first excava-
tion, two superficial cists (Fig. 332), which from their shallow construction
Fig. 332. Late Minoan Superficial Cists in Pavement above the
Temple Repositories.
present an obvious parallel to the ' Vats' constructed above the lower part
of the original ' kaselles' of the Magazines, ex hypothesi in the First Late
Minoan Period. The two small superficial cists in question, however, differed
from the others in one important respect, their upper borders being here cut
out so as better to secure a lid, of which in the case of the 'Vats' of
the Magazines there was no trace. They may, therefore, have followed the
older usage and have acted as receptacles for solid objects, probably of ritual
use. When considered in relation to the discovery of the more important cists
below, it becomes evident, indeed, that they represented a religious survival.
Two years after the first excavation, noticing a slight sagging in the
pavement of the room containing the two superficial cists, I had some slabs
raised, and it was then discovered that the floor here rested, not as elsewhere
in this region, immediately on the Neolithic stratum, but on comparatively
1 See Vol. II, and Knossos, Report, 1901, pp. 28, 29, and Fig. 9.