DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0189
562 POORER OUTLYING ZONE
nature, fixing the maximum size of their dwellings for different classes of
citizens. We have seen that the ' House of the Frescoes' had an area of
only 130 square metres, and the neighbouring house immediately East of it,
the ground-plan of about half of which was brought out, seems to have
approximated to it in size. It is quite possible that this smaller class of
habitations, which were little more than half the size of the others, may
have been really the more numerous.
Reckoning the mean area of the above two classes of houses as about 175
square metres, and adding, as is necessary, a certain amount for the share
of each individual house in its narrow surrounding space, we may tentatively
reckon the average space occupied by a single house as 200 square metres.
Estimate Taking the area in which, according to existing' indications, good town-
of number , , ., 1 .1 r> 1 11
of'resi- houses were built round the ralace as roughly amounting to 400,000 square
dential metres, this space would have accommodated some 2,000 houses of the
nouses *
and of classes of which examples have been recovered. When it is remembered
popuia- that the normal type of dwelling was of two or more stories, it may not be
uon. over the mark to estimate the number of inhabitants in each as eight persons,
which would give a total of 16,000. Some proportional reduction should be
made, however, for the Palace area itself, and the more spacious arrange-
ments postulated for the ' Quartier St. Germain' on the West Hill. On
the whole, it would be probably safe to reckon the well-to-do burgher
population of this central region of Knossos in the first half of the sixteenth
century B. c. as not less than 12,000 souls.
Poorer Outlying Zone.
Poorer According to the provisional estimate of the total original extension of
quarters t]ie Minoan settlement as shown in the Plan, opp. p. 547, an exterior zone of
compared . . r . ...
with pro- about three times the same area would remain to be accounted for in which ex
aWiome- hypothesi the dwellings were on a humbler scale. It seems reasonable to sup-
rations in pose that in this area the more primitive system of construction, as illustrated
blocks.
by the Late Neolithic house of the Central Court, had in some measure
survived, and that the houses of this outer zone were agglomerated in blocks
separated by narrow streets and lanes, like those of the provincial towns and
villages, the plans of which have been unearthed at Palaikastro and Gournia,
and of which a parallel Cycladic example is afforded at Phylakopi.1
1 In the First and Second Periods of Phyla- A simple 'but and ben ' plan here continually
kopi we see much the same block system with occurs as a unit, the size of separate house
narrow lanes between as at Gournia (see Plan plans of this kind ranging from about 60 to 15
by Mr. T. D. Atkinson in Excavs. at Phyla- square metres. In the Third Period there
kopi in Melos by the British School at Athens). is a similar arrangement in blocks, largely
nature, fixing the maximum size of their dwellings for different classes of
citizens. We have seen that the ' House of the Frescoes' had an area of
only 130 square metres, and the neighbouring house immediately East of it,
the ground-plan of about half of which was brought out, seems to have
approximated to it in size. It is quite possible that this smaller class of
habitations, which were little more than half the size of the others, may
have been really the more numerous.
Reckoning the mean area of the above two classes of houses as about 175
square metres, and adding, as is necessary, a certain amount for the share
of each individual house in its narrow surrounding space, we may tentatively
reckon the average space occupied by a single house as 200 square metres.
Estimate Taking the area in which, according to existing' indications, good town-
of number , , ., 1 .1 r> 1 11
of'resi- houses were built round the ralace as roughly amounting to 400,000 square
dential metres, this space would have accommodated some 2,000 houses of the
nouses *
and of classes of which examples have been recovered. When it is remembered
popuia- that the normal type of dwelling was of two or more stories, it may not be
uon. over the mark to estimate the number of inhabitants in each as eight persons,
which would give a total of 16,000. Some proportional reduction should be
made, however, for the Palace area itself, and the more spacious arrange-
ments postulated for the ' Quartier St. Germain' on the West Hill. On
the whole, it would be probably safe to reckon the well-to-do burgher
population of this central region of Knossos in the first half of the sixteenth
century B. c. as not less than 12,000 souls.
Poorer Outlying Zone.
Poorer According to the provisional estimate of the total original extension of
quarters t]ie Minoan settlement as shown in the Plan, opp. p. 547, an exterior zone of
compared . . r . ...
with pro- about three times the same area would remain to be accounted for in which ex
aWiome- hypothesi the dwellings were on a humbler scale. It seems reasonable to sup-
rations in pose that in this area the more primitive system of construction, as illustrated
blocks.
by the Late Neolithic house of the Central Court, had in some measure
survived, and that the houses of this outer zone were agglomerated in blocks
separated by narrow streets and lanes, like those of the provincial towns and
villages, the plans of which have been unearthed at Palaikastro and Gournia,
and of which a parallel Cycladic example is afforded at Phylakopi.1
1 In the First and Second Periods of Phyla- A simple 'but and ben ' plan here continually
kopi we see much the same block system with occurs as a unit, the size of separate house
narrow lanes between as at Gournia (see Plan plans of this kind ranging from about 60 to 15
by Mr. T. D. Atkinson in Excavs. at Phyla- square metres. In the Third Period there
kopi in Melos by the British School at Athens). is a similar arrangement in blocks, largely