DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0606
562
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
'Medal-
lion
Pithoi'
of Royal
Maga-
zines.
Strati-
graphic
Position
of Pithoi.
The Royal Magazines.
It is not surprising, considering the solidity of the great store jars, to find
that some specimens that may probably be referred to the closing phase of
M. M. 111 were found on the floors of the West Magazines, having survived to
the last days of the Palace through all the alterations that these had under-
gone in the interval. The chief repository, however, of the most imposing
of these, the pithoi presenting medallions with white rosettes on the dark
purplish brown ground, were the ■ Royal Magazines ' described above, as
forming an annexe to the first floor of the Domestic Quarter opening to the
North from the second landing of the Grand Staircase. The entrance
to this annexe, as has been shown, was blocked and the ' Royal Magazines '
themselves filled in at the close of the present Period, but the remains
of a series of the ' Medallion pithoi' themselves, several of them capable of
complete restoration, were left in situ on the floor of the inner compartment,
though, owing probably to their nearness to the surface of the denuded
slope of the hill, their upper portions had been a good deal broken. The
section beneath the pavement on which these stood has been given above,1
and clearly brings out the fact that it forms the last of a series of clay and
plaster floors representing the earlier M. M. Ill phases and superposed
on a fine ' Mosaiko ' pavement characteristic of the latest stage of M. M. II.
On the gypsum slabs of this latter pavement, moreover, was the plaster
support of a pithos of the huge early class. From all this it will be seen that
these ' Medallion pithoi' occupy a very definite place in the ceramic series
of the Palace.
These stately jars, only found at Knossos and well worthy of their place
in the Royal Magazines, are in many respects divergent from the Early
Palace Class of ' knobbed pithoi'.2 Had we not even the evidence of the
successive strata that intervene between the floor on which these later pithoi
rested and the latest pavement of M. M. II, we should be compelled to infer
that a very considerable period of time had elapsed between the two classes.
The form is more graceful and elongated and in most typical examples
shows, in place of the ropework pattern, flat strips with a succession of
impressed rings. But the most interesting development with which we
are confronted is the transmutation of the low bosses, which replace the
'knobs' on some of the M. M. II jars, into slightly convex 'medallions'
presenting rosettes, laid on in a chalky white medium on the lilac brown glaze
1 See above, p. 320, Fig. 233 and Fig. 234.
2 See above, p. 232, Figs. 174, 1 75.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
'Medal-
lion
Pithoi'
of Royal
Maga-
zines.
Strati-
graphic
Position
of Pithoi.
The Royal Magazines.
It is not surprising, considering the solidity of the great store jars, to find
that some specimens that may probably be referred to the closing phase of
M. M. 111 were found on the floors of the West Magazines, having survived to
the last days of the Palace through all the alterations that these had under-
gone in the interval. The chief repository, however, of the most imposing
of these, the pithoi presenting medallions with white rosettes on the dark
purplish brown ground, were the ■ Royal Magazines ' described above, as
forming an annexe to the first floor of the Domestic Quarter opening to the
North from the second landing of the Grand Staircase. The entrance
to this annexe, as has been shown, was blocked and the ' Royal Magazines '
themselves filled in at the close of the present Period, but the remains
of a series of the ' Medallion pithoi' themselves, several of them capable of
complete restoration, were left in situ on the floor of the inner compartment,
though, owing probably to their nearness to the surface of the denuded
slope of the hill, their upper portions had been a good deal broken. The
section beneath the pavement on which these stood has been given above,1
and clearly brings out the fact that it forms the last of a series of clay and
plaster floors representing the earlier M. M. Ill phases and superposed
on a fine ' Mosaiko ' pavement characteristic of the latest stage of M. M. II.
On the gypsum slabs of this latter pavement, moreover, was the plaster
support of a pithos of the huge early class. From all this it will be seen that
these ' Medallion pithoi' occupy a very definite place in the ceramic series
of the Palace.
These stately jars, only found at Knossos and well worthy of their place
in the Royal Magazines, are in many respects divergent from the Early
Palace Class of ' knobbed pithoi'.2 Had we not even the evidence of the
successive strata that intervene between the floor on which these later pithoi
rested and the latest pavement of M. M. II, we should be compelled to infer
that a very considerable period of time had elapsed between the two classes.
The form is more graceful and elongated and in most typical examples
shows, in place of the ropework pattern, flat strips with a succession of
impressed rings. But the most interesting development with which we
are confronted is the transmutation of the low bosses, which replace the
'knobs' on some of the M. M. II jars, into slightly convex 'medallions'
presenting rosettes, laid on in a chalky white medium on the lilac brown glaze
1 See above, p. 320, Fig. 233 and Fig. 234.
2 See above, p. 232, Figs. 174, 1 75.