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 2,2): Town houses in Knossos of the new era and restored West Palace Section (London, 1928)

Painted
signs on
stucco
frag-
ments.

440 'HOUSE OF FRESCOES': PAINTED INSCRIPTIONS

The preserved corner of the Libation Table (Fig. 256, b) was perforated.
In its stepped shape it resembles a specimen from Petsofa, and a large
fragment of one, finely executed in black steatite, found in the upper part
of the Minoan stratum, about fifteen metres West of the ' House of the
Frescoes'.

In connexion with this inscribed Libation Table it seems best to con-
sider a remarkable discovery made among the fragments from the neigh-

Fig. 257. Painted Inscriptions, Sepia on Rosy Ochre Ground, on Fragments
of Wall Plaster from ' House of Frescoes (J).

bouring fresco stack, to be described below, of pieces of stucco wall-covering
presenting painted signs of a linear class.

These may be arranged, according to the colour of the background and
of the signs themselves, into two groups, A and B. In the first of these
(Fig. 257, 1-6) the characters are of a sepia tint on a rosy ochre ground, and
the pictorial conformation of the script is more strongly marked. The larger
piece displays an upper border with a sepia band followed by slaty blue.
The small piece, 10, the first design on which is possibly decorative, also
shows part of a dark band above.1 The height of the signs of this group
ranges from 7-50 centimetres to about 3.

1 One or two uncertain pieces, perhaps pictorial, are here omitted.