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)

610 WALLED REFUSE PIT (KOULOURA') OF W. COURT

tary function. In all cases they were found to contain quantities of sherds,

Cleared bones, and other waste products. They certainly date from the earliest days

intervals, of the Cretan Palaces, and there are good grounds for believing that they

were cleared out at intervals. The ' Kouloura ' of the West Court was

found to contain throughout almost its whole depth sherds belonging to the

Fig. 382. ' Kouloura ' or Walled Pit for Refuse and Rubbish, in West Court.

Paved
over in
M. M.
III*.

M. M. Ill phase ; in the lowest stratum, however, there appeared—per
saltiim—a fair number belonging to M. M. II a. It would appear, then,
that in this case the rubbish pit had been cleared out at the end of the latter
Period, and again, apparently, at some intermediate time, probably at the
close of M. M. 11 b. The walled pit under the ' Theatral Area ' had, as
we have seen, been finally covered over at the close of M. M. II a, and that
of the Phaestos Court at the end of M. M. 11 ^. In the present case, the
ceramic remains belonged to the same stage as those from the Temple
Repositories and other parallel deposits, and we may fairly conclude that the
paving over of this ' Kouloura ' was part of the extensive scheme of re-
modelling that set in at the beginning of the New Era, in the last, 'post-
seismic' phase of M. M. III.

The West Court seems originally to have stretched in a some-