DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0295
268
EARLY PALACE OF MALLIA
Sug-
gestions
of Ana-
tolian
Rela-
tions.
First
appear-
ance of
Cretan
Palaces.
Early
example
at Mallia
E. of
Knossos.
Some contact, direct or indirect, may also at this time be inferred with
the Hittite dominions. An instance, indeed, of such relations is supplied by
the class of' signet' seals that makes its appearance at this epoch and the
specimens of which have been mostly found in Eastern Crete.1 These are
themselves of native fabric and are generally engraved with sign-groups of
the indigenous hieroglyphic class. Their form, however, which suggests
a prototype in metal, presents a decided analogy to a Hittite class,2 and
some of them are of silver—an unique case among Minoan seals but of
common occurrence in the Hittite series. Of great significance, moreover,
in regard to the opening out of these new Anatolian relations is the portrait
head—illustrations of which have been given in the first volume of this
work3—repeated in clay seal-impressions from the Hieroglyphic Deposit at
Knossos, of a personage in whom we may with great probability recognize
a Priest-King, presenting a typically proto-Armenoid physiognomy.
May there have been at this time some actual racial intrusion into
Crete from Southern Anatolia bringing with it, perhaps, a dynastic change
and a new political system ?
It is symptomatic of the new order of things that it is at this time that
the Cretan Palaces first rise into view. The earliest palatial remains at
Knossos are seen to belong to the initial phase of the First Middle Minoan
Period (M. M. I a) and the excavation, already far advanced, of the more
recently discovered Palace at Mallia has brought out the well-preserved
remains of a contemporary building of this class substantially in the form in
which it was originally planned. The Palace of Mallia, indeed, like that
of Phaestos in other directions, completes the tale of Knossos in some
important particulars. It supplies for the first time a clear picture of an
earlier palatial phase, elsewhere almost totally obscured. Not only does it
carry us back farther, but it gives us a glimpse into the inner life of the
scions of the royal and at the same time sacerdotal race, who were the
founders of the first palaces of which we have the record. Their actual
apartments, the loggia where they performed their ceremonial functions, and
even the insignia marking the lay and spiritual side of their dignity are
now before us.
The date of the Palace is itself well ascertained. The vases and
1 There are in my own collection five speci-
mens from the Easternmost district of the
island.
2 Compare the handled seal type with per-
forated knob (D. G. Hogarth, Hittite Seals,
p. 2r, Fig. 18). Seals of this class occur in
haematite and metal.
3 P. 8, and Fig. 2, a, b, and p. 276,
Fig. 206.
EARLY PALACE OF MALLIA
Sug-
gestions
of Ana-
tolian
Rela-
tions.
First
appear-
ance of
Cretan
Palaces.
Early
example
at Mallia
E. of
Knossos.
Some contact, direct or indirect, may also at this time be inferred with
the Hittite dominions. An instance, indeed, of such relations is supplied by
the class of' signet' seals that makes its appearance at this epoch and the
specimens of which have been mostly found in Eastern Crete.1 These are
themselves of native fabric and are generally engraved with sign-groups of
the indigenous hieroglyphic class. Their form, however, which suggests
a prototype in metal, presents a decided analogy to a Hittite class,2 and
some of them are of silver—an unique case among Minoan seals but of
common occurrence in the Hittite series. Of great significance, moreover,
in regard to the opening out of these new Anatolian relations is the portrait
head—illustrations of which have been given in the first volume of this
work3—repeated in clay seal-impressions from the Hieroglyphic Deposit at
Knossos, of a personage in whom we may with great probability recognize
a Priest-King, presenting a typically proto-Armenoid physiognomy.
May there have been at this time some actual racial intrusion into
Crete from Southern Anatolia bringing with it, perhaps, a dynastic change
and a new political system ?
It is symptomatic of the new order of things that it is at this time that
the Cretan Palaces first rise into view. The earliest palatial remains at
Knossos are seen to belong to the initial phase of the First Middle Minoan
Period (M. M. I a) and the excavation, already far advanced, of the more
recently discovered Palace at Mallia has brought out the well-preserved
remains of a contemporary building of this class substantially in the form in
which it was originally planned. The Palace of Mallia, indeed, like that
of Phaestos in other directions, completes the tale of Knossos in some
important particulars. It supplies for the first time a clear picture of an
earlier palatial phase, elsewhere almost totally obscured. Not only does it
carry us back farther, but it gives us a glimpse into the inner life of the
scions of the royal and at the same time sacerdotal race, who were the
founders of the first palaces of which we have the record. Their actual
apartments, the loggia where they performed their ceremonial functions, and
even the insignia marking the lay and spiritual side of their dignity are
now before us.
The date of the Palace is itself well ascertained. The vases and
1 There are in my own collection five speci-
mens from the Easternmost district of the
island.
2 Compare the handled seal type with per-
forated knob (D. G. Hogarth, Hittite Seals,
p. 2r, Fig. 18). Seals of this class occur in
haematite and metal.
3 P. 8, and Fig. 2, a, b, and p. 276,
Fig. 206.