DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0315
288 GREAT OVERTHROW TOWARDS CLOSE OF M. M. Ill 3
that some recent researches have brought out the clearest information as to
the character of this catastrophe.
The vestiges of ruin that overspread the greater part of the Palace
site of Knossos towards the close of M. M. Ill reveal an agency that was
Earthing undoubtedly of a physical kind. Throughout the exposed area of the build-
under of . , . I ,, " 3 . , & , . \ . . ,
earlier ing there is evidence of a great overthrow, burying with it a long succession
rooms" &c of deposits, often containing objects in an untouched state. On the upper
terrace levels of the East Slope, North and South of the great Cutting, in
a series of magazines and chambers whole stores of clay vessels, great and
small, were brought to light, belonging to this stratum, standing on their
floors, all belonging to the latest phase of the Third Middle Minoan Period,
and earthed under as a consequence of the same catastrophe. Here were the
North-East Magazines with pots methodically stacked in their various com-
partments, the ' Royal Magazines ' with the series of ' Medallion pithoi',—
broken indeed by later disturbances, but still preserving their original arrange-
ment—-the neighbouring groups of culinary vessels, and, to the South, the closet
with the beautiful lily vases packed together in nests. To these may be
added the ' false-mouthed' jars of the adjoining store-room, the elegant terra-
cotta bath, as well as the sanctuary set including the ink-written cups.
Parallel contemporary phenomena presented themselves in the West
Palace region, though in this case the restorers of the fabric cleared away
most of the fallen materials to maintain the ground floors at the same level,
instead of profiting by the accumulations to raise them nearer to the level
of the Central Court, as they did in the case of the East terraces.
Characteristic submergence of a pottery store of kitchen utensils of the
same epoch, including a tall inscribed jar,1 occurred in a basement space
within the S.W. Palace Angle and a fine set of vessels with the typical
M. M. Ill neck rings were found ranged on the floor of a small magazine
beneath the neighbouring Southern Terrace. Elsewhere much of the debris
was swept into 'Kaselles', afterwards paved over, while the great cists
known as the Temple Repositories contained not only an abundance of
contemporary clay vessels, many of them in a perfect state, but the exquisite
reliefs and figurines in the native faience.
A vast What we have to deal with over a large part of the site is in fact a vast
Inter-
ment. interment—an interment indeed from which what human remains it may have
contained had been carefully removed. Its contents in truth were not in any
sense funereal,but rather the everyday chattels of the living—their domestic
1 P. ofM, i, p. 572, Fig. 416, b.
that some recent researches have brought out the clearest information as to
the character of this catastrophe.
The vestiges of ruin that overspread the greater part of the Palace
site of Knossos towards the close of M. M. Ill reveal an agency that was
Earthing undoubtedly of a physical kind. Throughout the exposed area of the build-
under of . , . I ,, " 3 . , & , . \ . . ,
earlier ing there is evidence of a great overthrow, burying with it a long succession
rooms" &c of deposits, often containing objects in an untouched state. On the upper
terrace levels of the East Slope, North and South of the great Cutting, in
a series of magazines and chambers whole stores of clay vessels, great and
small, were brought to light, belonging to this stratum, standing on their
floors, all belonging to the latest phase of the Third Middle Minoan Period,
and earthed under as a consequence of the same catastrophe. Here were the
North-East Magazines with pots methodically stacked in their various com-
partments, the ' Royal Magazines ' with the series of ' Medallion pithoi',—
broken indeed by later disturbances, but still preserving their original arrange-
ment—-the neighbouring groups of culinary vessels, and, to the South, the closet
with the beautiful lily vases packed together in nests. To these may be
added the ' false-mouthed' jars of the adjoining store-room, the elegant terra-
cotta bath, as well as the sanctuary set including the ink-written cups.
Parallel contemporary phenomena presented themselves in the West
Palace region, though in this case the restorers of the fabric cleared away
most of the fallen materials to maintain the ground floors at the same level,
instead of profiting by the accumulations to raise them nearer to the level
of the Central Court, as they did in the case of the East terraces.
Characteristic submergence of a pottery store of kitchen utensils of the
same epoch, including a tall inscribed jar,1 occurred in a basement space
within the S.W. Palace Angle and a fine set of vessels with the typical
M. M. Ill neck rings were found ranged on the floor of a small magazine
beneath the neighbouring Southern Terrace. Elsewhere much of the debris
was swept into 'Kaselles', afterwards paved over, while the great cists
known as the Temple Repositories contained not only an abundance of
contemporary clay vessels, many of them in a perfect state, but the exquisite
reliefs and figurines in the native faience.
A vast What we have to deal with over a large part of the site is in fact a vast
Inter-
ment. interment—an interment indeed from which what human remains it may have
contained had been carefully removed. Its contents in truth were not in any
sense funereal,but rather the everyday chattels of the living—their domestic
1 P. ofM, i, p. 572, Fig. 416, b.