DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0130
'CARAVANSERAI' BY ROAD-HEAD 105
From the first it proved to be of an unexampled character. Imme- its novel
diately bordering the foot-washing basin on the East was an elegant Pavilion ter_
with a single-columned portico, stepping up from the Court. Beyond this,
so far as the front part of the building was concerned, what had been pre-
served were basement-rooms and passages. These were traversed, about
5 metres E. of the Pavilion, by a stone-built conduit, the roof slabs of which
appeared on the floor levels and which clearly represented the main channel
of the spring above. In a small side chamber off the room immediately left Base-
incuts
of the Pavilion were carbonized remains of wooden planks, and with them w;tn
burnt corn, apparently barley, showing that it had contained corn-bins. In fl°oygefnd
a basement space beyond (see Plan, Fig. 48) were fragments of pithoi, corn-bins,
some of which presented the particular form of rope ornament that is
characteristic of the early part of L. M. I. A remarkable feature about
these basements was that, in place of the beaten earth or flagging usual in
such places, there were everywhere traces of cobble-paving, which, as our
Cretan workmen observed, was ' good to keep beasts' hoofs hard' and
suggested to them the idea of stabling. The pack-animal chiefly in use at
the beginning of the Late Minoan Age when this building was constructed
was doubtless the ass, and oxen for large wagons.1
It is probable that there was an entrance from the yard giving direct N. angle
access to this basement system, but its frontage East 01 the point where the ;ng de-
stone conduit emerges from the outer wall had been entirely denuded. All nuded-
along this border of the constructions the edge of the declivity that bounds
the terrace level on which they stood has worked backwards, so that the
North-East angle of the building has been completely cut away, and with it,
naturally, the section of the presumed course of the old roadway that would
have passed it at a few paces distance. Farther on, just below the top of
the bank, a receding angle of the outer wall, showing good ashlar blocks,
has been preserved, giving a clue to the point where the front line of the
building originally receded, and a little East of this is another angle
marking a further recession, in this case of 2~ metres. Beyond this, again,
the outer wall-line is still traceable along the upper part of the declivity for
another 2 metres, but how much farther it may have extended East beyond
this point remains uncertain.
In the North-East part of the basement area were masses of fallen Cement
. r floors and
bricks, turned to a golden yellow tint by a conflagration that had destroyed roof of
this quarter of the building, and in these the straw that had given con- "P^
1 See below, p. 157 and Fig. 79.
From the first it proved to be of an unexampled character. Imme- its novel
diately bordering the foot-washing basin on the East was an elegant Pavilion ter_
with a single-columned portico, stepping up from the Court. Beyond this,
so far as the front part of the building was concerned, what had been pre-
served were basement-rooms and passages. These were traversed, about
5 metres E. of the Pavilion, by a stone-built conduit, the roof slabs of which
appeared on the floor levels and which clearly represented the main channel
of the spring above. In a small side chamber off the room immediately left Base-
incuts
of the Pavilion were carbonized remains of wooden planks, and with them w;tn
burnt corn, apparently barley, showing that it had contained corn-bins. In fl°oygefnd
a basement space beyond (see Plan, Fig. 48) were fragments of pithoi, corn-bins,
some of which presented the particular form of rope ornament that is
characteristic of the early part of L. M. I. A remarkable feature about
these basements was that, in place of the beaten earth or flagging usual in
such places, there were everywhere traces of cobble-paving, which, as our
Cretan workmen observed, was ' good to keep beasts' hoofs hard' and
suggested to them the idea of stabling. The pack-animal chiefly in use at
the beginning of the Late Minoan Age when this building was constructed
was doubtless the ass, and oxen for large wagons.1
It is probable that there was an entrance from the yard giving direct N. angle
access to this basement system, but its frontage East 01 the point where the ;ng de-
stone conduit emerges from the outer wall had been entirely denuded. All nuded-
along this border of the constructions the edge of the declivity that bounds
the terrace level on which they stood has worked backwards, so that the
North-East angle of the building has been completely cut away, and with it,
naturally, the section of the presumed course of the old roadway that would
have passed it at a few paces distance. Farther on, just below the top of
the bank, a receding angle of the outer wall, showing good ashlar blocks,
has been preserved, giving a clue to the point where the front line of the
building originally receded, and a little East of this is another angle
marking a further recession, in this case of 2~ metres. Beyond this, again,
the outer wall-line is still traceable along the upper part of the declivity for
another 2 metres, but how much farther it may have extended East beyond
this point remains uncertain.
In the North-East part of the basement area were masses of fallen Cement
. r floors and
bricks, turned to a golden yellow tint by a conflagration that had destroyed roof of
this quarter of the building, and in these the straw that had given con- "P^
1 See below, p. 157 and Fig. 79.