DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0152
UNDERGROUND SPRING-CHAMBER
127
Stone
candle-
sticks.
light beneath the petrified superficial layer proved to be of the most elegant
construction. Down to the level of the damper earth, near the basin, it had
to be hewn out inch by inch, as a fossil shell is cut out of the rock. The Niche
niche in the back wall, which had a square-cut double cornice above its lintel, or amp'
was probably designed to contain a lamp, and on either side, at a somewhat
lower level, were seats or ledges with a similar double coping that may have
been also used to set
down stone lamps such
as those found heaped
together just outside the
entrance. One of these
is set on the ledge in
Fig. 61.
From a find that
seems to stand in relation
to this corner of the
building it is probable,
moreover, that candle-
sticks were also used
here. A somewhat
fractured specimen of
fine veined limestone
(Fig. 62, a), showing a
fluted stand, was in fact found in association with L. M. la sherds, below the
slope, a little to the N.W., near the abutment of the East end of the Viaduct,
in a position to which it may well have drifted from the Spring-Chamber itself.
This is of interest as representing a more advanced type of candlestick than the
Early Minoan and M. M. Ill examples already illustrated in this.work.1
The earlier type with its expanding receptacle round the socket, recalling an
old-fashioned bedroom candlestick, is, as already shown, a derivation of
a proto-dynastic Egyptian form,2 and is evidently designed for guttering wicks
Fig. 62. Stone Candlesticks : a, Knossos ; b, Nauplia.
1 P. ofM., i, pp. 578, 579, and Fig. 422.
2 lb., p. 578, Fig. 423, a, b. Two other
examples of Fourth Dynasty clay candlesticks
(from El Kab) have now been identified by
Mr. James P. T. Burchell in Man, March 1924,
PP- 33-6. He also shows that candlesticks with
lighted candles are depicted in a sepulchral
record of Teta first King of the Sixth Dynasty,
the conventional design of which is in four
sections—the bowl, the candle, the flame, and
the smoke. The candlesticks found in Tutan-
khamen's tomb show a bronze socket on a
wooden block. Inside the socket was a rod
1 to which the candle itself was tied at several
points'. Candlesticks made entirely of bronze
or copper may well have existed.
127
Stone
candle-
sticks.
light beneath the petrified superficial layer proved to be of the most elegant
construction. Down to the level of the damper earth, near the basin, it had
to be hewn out inch by inch, as a fossil shell is cut out of the rock. The Niche
niche in the back wall, which had a square-cut double cornice above its lintel, or amp'
was probably designed to contain a lamp, and on either side, at a somewhat
lower level, were seats or ledges with a similar double coping that may have
been also used to set
down stone lamps such
as those found heaped
together just outside the
entrance. One of these
is set on the ledge in
Fig. 61.
From a find that
seems to stand in relation
to this corner of the
building it is probable,
moreover, that candle-
sticks were also used
here. A somewhat
fractured specimen of
fine veined limestone
(Fig. 62, a), showing a
fluted stand, was in fact found in association with L. M. la sherds, below the
slope, a little to the N.W., near the abutment of the East end of the Viaduct,
in a position to which it may well have drifted from the Spring-Chamber itself.
This is of interest as representing a more advanced type of candlestick than the
Early Minoan and M. M. Ill examples already illustrated in this.work.1
The earlier type with its expanding receptacle round the socket, recalling an
old-fashioned bedroom candlestick, is, as already shown, a derivation of
a proto-dynastic Egyptian form,2 and is evidently designed for guttering wicks
Fig. 62. Stone Candlesticks : a, Knossos ; b, Nauplia.
1 P. ofM., i, pp. 578, 579, and Fig. 422.
2 lb., p. 578, Fig. 423, a, b. Two other
examples of Fourth Dynasty clay candlesticks
(from El Kab) have now been identified by
Mr. James P. T. Burchell in Man, March 1924,
PP- 33-6. He also shows that candlesticks with
lighted candles are depicted in a sepulchral
record of Teta first King of the Sixth Dynasty,
the conventional design of which is in four
sections—the bowl, the candle, the flame, and
the smoke. The candlesticks found in Tutan-
khamen's tomb show a bronze socket on a
wooden block. Inside the socket was a rod
1 to which the candle itself was tied at several
points'. Candlesticks made entirely of bronze
or copper may well have existed.