DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0296
ITS ANATOLIAN FEATURES 269
fragments found here on the old floor of the building in fact exclusively M. M. I a
dcitc of
belonged to the earlier phase (a) of the First Middle Minoan Period and Mailia
were therefore coeval with what have been called above the ' proto-palatial' Palace-
elements at Knossos. Where, moreover, as in the Magazines East of the
Central Court, later floor levels occur, the superposed pottery belonged to
the closing Middle Minoan phase representing, per saltum, a date quite
four centuries later. The hieroglyphic tablets, of which a deposit came to
light in the North-West Quarter, must also represent this early epoch and
tend to show that those from the analogous deposit at Knossos that exhibit
similar forms and characters 1 must be referred to the same cultural phase.
The four-square outline of the Palace round a Central Court and its
main details such as its pillar-room and magazines represent features which
other Cretan Palaces preserved to the last. We see, in fact, the more or
less simultaneous introduction into the Island at various points of an already
stereotyped model.
That this model was derived from an Eastern source is a reasonable
conclusion, but it cannot be said that it has any close resemblance to such
early palace plans as we see at Lagash (Tello) or other Mesopotamian
sites. On the Anatolian side, on the other hand, we meet with some real Anatolian
architectural parallels, notably in the form of the propylon, well illustrated by
the earlier and later examples of which fresh evidence is now forthcoming at
Knossos.2 The section of the Court of the much later Palace at Sendjirli
(Fig. 159),8 with its raised two-columned exedra on one side, and a columnar
portico at one end, shows an obvious analogy with the loggia West of the
Central Court of Mailia (Fig. 160), and the porticoes or verandahs on its North
and East flanks (Suppl. PI. j&Vflij.4 A feature common to all the Cretan/;
Palaces, but of which no explanation has been hitherto forthcoming, acquires
great significance. This is the bays and projections at regular intervals in the
outer walls, already so well known in a shallower form at Knossos and
1 P.ofM.,\,V-196,Fig. 144; p. 278,Fig.209. of animals, leafy sprays, perhaps of olive, as
The Mailia tablets are mostly clay ' labels' well as the double axe and' palace' sign. The
similar in type to the earlier class of those at heads or upper parts of human figures also
Knossos. Perforated bars, square and triangu- appear, as on the Knossian series,
lar, were also found as well as flatter rectangular 2 See below, Fig. 495, p. 693.
specimens. Except for one or two new signs, 3 From Ausgrabungen von Sendschirli, ii,
the script itself was the same and some identi- Tafel xxvi-xxvii.
cal sign-groups occurred. The tablets refer * The photographs from which Fig. 160 and
to various properties, the numbers being Suppl. PI. xvii are taken were due to the kind-
sometimes given. Among the subjects were ness of Monsieur Fernand Chapouthier of the
ships, the heads of oxen and goats, skins French School at Athens.
fragments found here on the old floor of the building in fact exclusively M. M. I a
dcitc of
belonged to the earlier phase (a) of the First Middle Minoan Period and Mailia
were therefore coeval with what have been called above the ' proto-palatial' Palace-
elements at Knossos. Where, moreover, as in the Magazines East of the
Central Court, later floor levels occur, the superposed pottery belonged to
the closing Middle Minoan phase representing, per saltum, a date quite
four centuries later. The hieroglyphic tablets, of which a deposit came to
light in the North-West Quarter, must also represent this early epoch and
tend to show that those from the analogous deposit at Knossos that exhibit
similar forms and characters 1 must be referred to the same cultural phase.
The four-square outline of the Palace round a Central Court and its
main details such as its pillar-room and magazines represent features which
other Cretan Palaces preserved to the last. We see, in fact, the more or
less simultaneous introduction into the Island at various points of an already
stereotyped model.
That this model was derived from an Eastern source is a reasonable
conclusion, but it cannot be said that it has any close resemblance to such
early palace plans as we see at Lagash (Tello) or other Mesopotamian
sites. On the Anatolian side, on the other hand, we meet with some real Anatolian
architectural parallels, notably in the form of the propylon, well illustrated by
the earlier and later examples of which fresh evidence is now forthcoming at
Knossos.2 The section of the Court of the much later Palace at Sendjirli
(Fig. 159),8 with its raised two-columned exedra on one side, and a columnar
portico at one end, shows an obvious analogy with the loggia West of the
Central Court of Mailia (Fig. 160), and the porticoes or verandahs on its North
and East flanks (Suppl. PI. j&Vflij.4 A feature common to all the Cretan/;
Palaces, but of which no explanation has been hitherto forthcoming, acquires
great significance. This is the bays and projections at regular intervals in the
outer walls, already so well known in a shallower form at Knossos and
1 P.ofM.,\,V-196,Fig. 144; p. 278,Fig.209. of animals, leafy sprays, perhaps of olive, as
The Mailia tablets are mostly clay ' labels' well as the double axe and' palace' sign. The
similar in type to the earlier class of those at heads or upper parts of human figures also
Knossos. Perforated bars, square and triangu- appear, as on the Knossian series,
lar, were also found as well as flatter rectangular 2 See below, Fig. 495, p. 693.
specimens. Except for one or two new signs, 3 From Ausgrabungen von Sendschirli, ii,
the script itself was the same and some identi- Tafel xxvi-xxvii.
cal sign-groups occurred. The tablets refer * The photographs from which Fig. 160 and
to various properties, the numbers being Suppl. PI. xvii are taken were due to the kind-
sometimes given. Among the subjects were ness of Monsieur Fernand Chapouthier of the
ships, the heads of oxen and goats, skins French School at Athens.