DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0040
'THE NORTH-EAST HOUSE' 417
Magazines corresponded with those found in the Magazines South of it
and repeat the same history.
The position, built into a slight cutting of the East slope of the hill, like
the South-East House and others, is itself very characteristic of Minoan
planning, since it secured, as in the other cases, the maximum protection from
the heat of the sun and the fury of the prevailing winds. It was built on
two terraces, and supplementary excavations undertaken in 1922 brought
out a flight, apparently of twelve limestone steps, leading from the higher to
the lower terrace and abutting below on a paved path with a slight incline
to the East.
From this latter feature and the fact that the steps were of limestone, Upper
it appears that this passage was open and represents an avenue of approach entrances,
from the Kairatos valley below to the narrow corridor above, which forms
a more or less central division of the part of the house that lay on the upper
terrace. It ended, doubtless, in a staircase leading up to the living-rooms.
It looks as if there had been an entrance near the landing of the outer
steps, opening into this central corridor. From this point a section of the
facade on that side of the West wing of the building running North along
the upper terrace level is better preserved. Its stylobate is of ashlar
masonry with a good face. This upper facade is traceable, beyond a point
where it slightly recedes, for another 10 metres.
Apart from the central passage, the interior spaces, of which we have Series of
evidence on both sides of it, were clearly magazines, and the whole existing z"nlegs'*~
plan must be regarded as referring to basements. A small flight of stairs
would, as suggested above, have led up from these to the upper floor or
living-rooms, but it is probable that the main entrance to the piano nobile
was from the terrace-level behind, which, previous to the long denudation
of the slope, of which there are many evidences, may well have risen to
a considerably higher level.
It is clear, as already noted, that, like a series of other private
residences now built alone the Palace borders, the 'North-East House'
belongs to the same epoch of intensive building activity that followed on
the great seismic destruction suffered on the site towards the close of the
Third Middle Minoan Period. Its contents, moreover, have a special value, m.m.
as corroborating the conclusion, already substantiated in the case of a series pufutaa
of other private houses and of the restored Palace itself, that the new floors-
structures come well within the limits of the M. M. Ill Period, as ceramically
defined, and cannot properly—as was first supposed—be ascribed to L. M. I.
The evidence here, indeed, is quite as clear as in the case of the ' House
11. F f
Magazines corresponded with those found in the Magazines South of it
and repeat the same history.
The position, built into a slight cutting of the East slope of the hill, like
the South-East House and others, is itself very characteristic of Minoan
planning, since it secured, as in the other cases, the maximum protection from
the heat of the sun and the fury of the prevailing winds. It was built on
two terraces, and supplementary excavations undertaken in 1922 brought
out a flight, apparently of twelve limestone steps, leading from the higher to
the lower terrace and abutting below on a paved path with a slight incline
to the East.
From this latter feature and the fact that the steps were of limestone, Upper
it appears that this passage was open and represents an avenue of approach entrances,
from the Kairatos valley below to the narrow corridor above, which forms
a more or less central division of the part of the house that lay on the upper
terrace. It ended, doubtless, in a staircase leading up to the living-rooms.
It looks as if there had been an entrance near the landing of the outer
steps, opening into this central corridor. From this point a section of the
facade on that side of the West wing of the building running North along
the upper terrace level is better preserved. Its stylobate is of ashlar
masonry with a good face. This upper facade is traceable, beyond a point
where it slightly recedes, for another 10 metres.
Apart from the central passage, the interior spaces, of which we have Series of
evidence on both sides of it, were clearly magazines, and the whole existing z"nlegs'*~
plan must be regarded as referring to basements. A small flight of stairs
would, as suggested above, have led up from these to the upper floor or
living-rooms, but it is probable that the main entrance to the piano nobile
was from the terrace-level behind, which, previous to the long denudation
of the slope, of which there are many evidences, may well have risen to
a considerably higher level.
It is clear, as already noted, that, like a series of other private
residences now built alone the Palace borders, the 'North-East House'
belongs to the same epoch of intensive building activity that followed on
the great seismic destruction suffered on the site towards the close of the
Third Middle Minoan Period. Its contents, moreover, have a special value, m.m.
as corroborating the conclusion, already substantiated in the case of a series pufutaa
of other private houses and of the restored Palace itself, that the new floors-
structures come well within the limits of the M. M. Ill Period, as ceramically
defined, and cannot properly—as was first supposed—be ascribed to L. M. I.
The evidence here, indeed, is quite as clear as in the case of the ' House
11. F f