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)

HOUSE OF FRESCOES': PAINTED PLASTER STACK 445

plaster had been laid directly on a clay surface. A few fragments were no more

than 3 mm. thick. The mean width of the pieces as squared was, so far as

could be calculated, about 23 cm. (c. 9 in.). Had they been simply flung down,

such delicate slips

would have been

pulverized. It is

therefore evident

that the pieces must

have been carefully

removed, and piled

in layers on the

heap, with the face

upwards or down-
wards, indifferently.

A regular stack was

thus formed, about

3-65 metres long

(N. to S.) and 1 -50

metres broad, slop-
ing up towards the

North, in which at

one place I counted

thirty-four distinct
layers. Some of
the fragments ex-
tended over the
stump of the wall
to the South, but
this was probably
due to the falling
forward of the heap
piled against it on
that side, when the upper part of the rubble masonry had fallen away.

The removal of this mass of painted fragments was a long and arduous Removal
work, the separate pieces, often cracked into many smaller bits, being in ments.
each case first covered over by damp paper, on which a coating of plaster of
Paris was then spread. The support afforded by this hard backing made it
then possible to lift the pieces, whether the painted face lay upwards or
downwards. Eighty-four trays (2x2 ft.) were finally filled with the frag-

Fig. 261.

Stack of Painted Plaster Fragments :
Frescoes '.

House of