Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 2,1): Fresh lights on origins and external relations (London, 1928)

2Q8

THE 'HOUSE OF THE FALLEN BLOCKS'

Relics

from

House.

was making stone lamps, the remains of eight of these being found on the
floor level of the principal room. One of these, of which the whole was
recovered, broken in two by a falling block, showed a curious bulbous stem
(Fig. 174, a).1 The mouths to hold the wicks for its recipient had not yet
been cut out, the craftsman apparently having been interrupted in the middle

Fig. 174. Stone Lamps from Basement Room of ' House of the Fallen
Blocks ': a, unfinished of White Limestone ; b, Upper Surface of Lamp
with Four Wicks (completed) of Dark Steatite.

of his work. Near this was part of the top of an exceptionally large lamp—
of steatite like most of the others—42 centimetres, or nearly 17 inches, in
diameter, made for four wicks and evidently intended for Palace use (Fig.
174, b). The larger room, in which these relics of the householder's industry
occurred, although a basement, was lit by a broad window on the West side
(see Figs. 172, 173). This was 1-90 metres wide.

Numerous fragments of at least four large pithoi found in the same
basement space also seem to have belonged to the original floor deposit.
These were of a class described below in connexion with the North-East
House2 and well known from the contents of the magazines of the M. M. III-

1 A parallel example has occurred of a lamp
with a bulbous stem.

2 See below, pp. 418, 419 and Figs. 241 a, b.