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)

568 PROVINCIAL MINOAN MANSION : PALAIKASTRO

Myce- with four column bases at the corners of a slightly sunken central square

' Mega- °f the pavement. This arrangement, repeated in the case of the house (18)

ron' plan Qf a neighbouring block,1 recalls the Megaron plan of Mycenae and Tiryns,

columns but in this case there was no fixed hearth. The absence of a drain, and the

Fig. 354. Plan of ' House B' at Palaikastro.

round

central

square.

provision of just as much sunken space as might prevent the slight splashing
in of rain-water from inundating the whole floor, point to some kind of clere-
story arrangement, and a movable Minoan hearth may well have been set
below it.

This house, built in the extreme East of the Island, might, so far
as its structural and internal arrangements go, have been excavated
on the site of Knossos. Amongst familiar features we note a closet for
a domestic shrine (20), containing stucco ' horns of Consecration ', a bath-
room (15) on the level, and also a typical example of a ' lustral basin', with
its balustrade and descending steps, approached through a double doorway.

1 See Plan, Palaikastro Excavations (Su/>/>/. Paper of B. S. A., pt. i, 1923), PI. I, Block A.